In part one I discussed how we determined one-time costs to publish our gluten-free cookbook called Gluten-Free with Love using Lightning Source. In this part I would like to go into more detail about how much it will cost to print each book. Lightning makes a distinction between:
- Print to Order – your book is ordered by a customer from one of Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or one of Lightning Sources’ other Ingram partner booksellers. They in turn request that Lightning Source print your book and Lightning Source directly ships to the customer address provided by the bookseller. Lightning Source charges the cost for printing the book to you and credit you with the sale. Your compensation is paid out according to Lightning Sources’ Publisher Compensation (your profits) Terms described below.
- Print to Publisher (you) – your book is either ordered and sent to you or ordered by one of your customers and drop shipped by Lightning Source directly to the customer that ordered your book. In other words, you take responsibility for order fulfillment when the order does not involve one of the booksellers previously mentioned.
The nice feature about each method is that you do not have to physically ship your book to your customer (if you don’t want to), although you might be able to make a bit more on each book sale with the Print to Publisher model if you ship yourself since you save money on shipping costs if you buy books in bulk. Keep reading to find out more about shipping costs.
Here are the ongoing costs for printing each small paperback book (prices as of 2009):
Print to Order:
48 to 104 pages: $2.30 per book
108+ pages: $0.90 per book+ $0.013 per page
Print to Publisher:
48 – 104 pages: $2.52 per book
108+ pages: $0.90 per book + $0.015 per page
So, for example, our cookbook is a small paperback that has 152 pages. Here is what it costs to print each book:
Print to Order:
108+ pages: $0.90 + (0.013 x 152) = $2.88/book
Print to Publisher:
108+ pages: $0.90 + (0.015 x 152) = $3.18/book
Shipping Costs
With Print to Order there are no additional shipping costs. With Print to Publisher, your shipping costs vary depending on how many books you order. Our shipping cost per book has varied from $0.48/book (when ordering 25 books) to $5.33/book (when only one book was ordered).
Lightning Sources’ Compensation (Your Profits) Terms
Publisher Compensation (your profit) is paid within ninety (90) days from report end date following their month end close schedule. They also have a minimum check writing balance of $25.00, therefore sales payments are not sent until sales accumulate to the minimum $25.00.
Returns can affect payment amount and will be noted on your sales reports. For example, sales in July are not paid out until November and only if a $25 minimum in sales has been met. The $25 fee is waived if you set up direct deposit with Lightning Source.
In Part Three I will discuss how to price your book to ensure you make a profit on each book.
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Lee,
Thanks for the comprehensive breakdown. One quick question: with respect to the drop shipping (print to publisher), I assume Lightning Source does not include an invoice of what the publisher paid (print cost + s/h) in the shipment to clients/authors direct? Obviously, the publisher wouldn’t want the client to see the true cost per book. Is any insert included at all with each shipment, and if so, what information is on it? Thanks for your help/clarification.
-David
David,
I wasn’t sure of an answer to your question since I don’t normally what the client gets when they order our book, so I asked my Lightning Source representative and here is her answer:
We include a packing slip that does not include pricing information in each package. The ISBN, Title, quantity, ship to and return address are all included on the packing slip.
Hope that helps! Thanks for reading my Learn4Me.com!