I'm writing a novel and was planning on self-publishing. My question is "why is there such a price difference with some printers?" For instance, one printer wants to charge me 13.53 for each book i have printed, another printer only wants 3.81 for the same job. I've actually shopped around quite a bit and it looks like 80% or more of printers want a 13 to 15 dollar price. Is there something I am missing or are the expensive ones just out to rip people off and take advantage of new authors?

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Forget about printed books self-publishing. These guys are just ripping you off. They are mostly interested in making money, not in getting you paid! EDIT: An average fiction pocket book sells for 6-10 USD, and as a new author 4-6 USD is the price you can aim for when selling your book. If you self-publish your book for 13 USD, you are loosing out big time. /EDIT I recommend that you publish the bloody thing as a pdf-file online via amazon. Costs you almost nothing, so if you sell it you actually make a profit. Or use a simple printer and a copy-shop, if you are writing in a certain genre. If you do Fantasy, Science-Fiction or Crime, you could sell it on conventions or similar. Have a volunteer copy-editor (so called beta-reader) go over it. Alternatively put it up online for free on the net. (Get a good volunteer beta-reader to have a look at it beforehand.) There are a multitude of free original fiction archives out there where you can find an audience. This way you get it published, people can comment on it and if you got any talent they will be willing to buy your books in the future. I often read books published online over at livejournal and one of my favourite authors has just signed a contract with a publisher. After 3 finished novellas over at her lj her newest book will appear on the shelves in bookstores in 2008. She'll finally be getting paid for her work and she truly deserves it. I'm definitely going to buy her book. I've already read excerpts and I can't wait to get my hands on the whole thing! BTW, the trick with online books is to publish everything piecemeal. One chapter per month if the chapters are long, one chapter every (two) week(s) if they are shorter. You need people to come back for your book and give them time to recommend you to their friends. Ideally you publish your book over a period of a year or more.

The printer will charge for a variety of things and price differs accordingly. Charges for editing, design, etc are added on at full service printers. Price also varies if the job is in-house or shipped overseas. Hong-Kong and India are currently very competitive in their pricing and quality. Quality of paper, binding, art, color, etc will also vary cost significantly. Keep cost of production per book very low; do-able if you are providing all the services yourself. Spend your dollars on distribution/marketing instead. Some manufacturer's services include distribution.