Fun with Print on Demand

by Tom Von Deck
(Prescott, AZ, USA)

I'm not sure how it happened, but I suddenly began writing a complete "deeper meditation" training course one day. The writing lasted three intensely inspired weeks. Activities such as eating, showering, etc just did not happen very often during that period. The final product was a 194 page paperback book containing information that simply does not exist in meditation and Yoga literature. In other words, it is in a new category of its own.

How many people knew that this is a unique training course when it was written? Almost none. Now, a few hundred people have at least glanced at the book online (it's free to read online). A few locals have even purchased a copy as well as a guy on Ebay.

Anyway, I've been learning a little bit about ISBN's and bureacracies. Print on Demand publishers often "assign" you an ISBN number if you haven't purchased one from either them or Mr. R. R. Bowker himself. Some companies will offer to purchase one for you, such as lightningsource. Others don't, such as CreateSpace.

If you don't own the ISBN, you cannot get your book in the Books in Print Catalog. It is also a lot harder to get into the Ingram's Catalog (the one that all bookstores order from).

I'm using CreateSpace because it is free. It costs you $3.00 plus Priority Mail shipping for the proof. My author's copies cost $3.00 apiece for a 194 page book.

It can take up to a couple of weeks to get copies, however. They will also list you on Amazon.

Lightningsource.com is reserved for the 2nd edition of my book. They sell you a cheap ISBN and get you set up for a Library of Congress catalog number. Lightningsource is also owned by Ingram, which means that anyone anywhere can walk into any bookstore and special order a copy of your book. They do not have to go to you or your online store. Setup for Lightningsource is typically less than $400.00.

As for promotion, I have been using the wonderful resources at Bauu Institute. They will show you ways to quickly boost your website search ranking so that you come up sooner in keyword search results.

Webmaster's note: This site is proud to be listed!

Bauu also has a list of library wholesalers who work with the underdogs as well as a list of independent bookstores.

Well, that's my two cents. On top of that: Read my book! (I forgot to include that part the last time around). Visit Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course.

Good Luck!

Tom Von Deck

p.s. I hope this post is ok for all of you. There's no time to proofread and edit at the moment.