D2D vs IS: Author Copies
Comparing print editions as an indie author on a budget
I originally posted this on my old blog last summer, while I was working on publishing print editions of the Pomegranate Café Romance series. I’m in the midst of updating all my Alchemical Tales print editions now, and this is more relevant than ever!
When I wrote a blog post about cover creation in Draft2Digital compared to IngramSpark, I hardly realized it’d become a series! But as you may have heard, I have a book out this week–so ordering author copies is a timely topic here. And in a way, it forms a natural successor to the cover creation post!
When indie authors chose a service—especially a POD or Print-On-Demand service, like the one D2D and IS offer—they’re faced with many comparisons. This one costs this much up front, this one gives you this much in royalties, this one has a wider distribution, and on and on. The quality of the printed book is often a factor, too. But the author’s actual experience is sometimes overlooked. And that’s especially true for ordering author copies, which is usually the very last step.
Now, if you’ve read my posts before, you know I feel strongly about author experience—especially with IngramSpark. (TL:DR for those catching up: IS’s quality is good but the customer service is awful, the interface difficult.) So it may come as no surprise that my first time ordering author copies from D2D was a revelation!
But let’s focus, shall we? Ordering author copies, while an often invisible part of the publishing process, is an important one. After you’ve uploaded your files and crossed your Ts and dotted your Is and your book is ready, “author copies” are the books you order at cost to then resell yourself. In my case, I sell most of mine in person at bookish events. I also use them to stock my online store. And of course, author copies end up as gifts, giveaway prizes, and contest entries, too. (This is different from proof copies, which are “test” books you can order before you’ve approved your paperback production, in order to see the product before it’s released into the wild.)
Now. In IngramSpark, ordering author copies is characteristically figure-out-able. Their interface is a little clunky, and geared toward retailers who will order hundreds of books at a time. (For comparison, on my shoe-string budget I’ll often order only 20-50 books, depending on what events are coming up and what my recent release is.) But, the system does work; in perhaps a dozen transactions with them, I’ve only seen one small error on their part. You pay a printing fee, and shipping is expensive (these are books, after all, and IS doesn’t seem to believe in “Media Mail”) but on time. That said, IS does offer coupons—usually seasonally—for things like free shipping (often dependent upon how many books you buy). Price-wise, I’ve found that my 60-75k word paperback novels end up costing around $5 apiece.
Future Elle here, to add: Ingram has made a few key efforts to increase their functionality and streamline their interface in the past year, with fairly good results. But for my money, they still could learn from others in the field . . .
So, on to Draft2Digital! You may know, or recall from my earlier post, that D2D actually uses IS for their print service. This means you’re getting IS quality and distribution, but D2D acts as your “middle man.” Quite honestly, I had no expectations when it came to ordering author copies from D2D. If anything, I worried that the additional company would complicate matters . . .
I was pleasantly surprised. After your book is processed, you can order author copies straight from the book’s print homepage (in IS’s system, ordering books is a separate tab–easily found, just a little finicky). The system is more tuned to an author buying a handful of copies, and it acts like any online store. For example, I wanted to buy copies of three different books, and found that I could add one book to my “cart” (literally shows up in the right corner, as we’ve been trained to expect!) and then navigate to another book’s page and add copies as I pleased. When it came to shipping, D2D was very upfront with options, timelines, and prices. They offered a wider range of shipping services including UPS Ground and USPS Media Mail. And most intriguing of all, my 40-45k novellas were only about $3 apiece. Naturally, because they’re shorter than the novels I usually order through IS, they’re bound to be cheaper—but I had not expected them to be that cheap, especially considering the additional party involved. (As a businessperson, I’ve become rather distrustful, I fear!)
Overall, both IS and D2D offer the same functionality: you can order any number of copies of multiple books either way. But I really appreciated the varied shipping options D2D offered. And it seems I’ll be praising D2D’s interface forever, at this rate! If you’re looking to choose between the two services, I think it comes down to your books and your vision. D2D still does not offer a hardcover option, for example, but its ebook service is much better than IS. Whichever route you take, making it to the end of the process to order author copies and hold them in your hands is undeniably rewarding!
Thank you for sharing this since I am in the process of making this decision now.