Self-publishing alternatives — beyond Amazon

July 24, 2024 — For our upcoming book, Into the Thicket, the illustrator and I decided that we’d like to print in hardcover. Our book’s page count isn’t high enough to qualify us for hardcover printing through Amazon so I started to Google research (these two words are synonymous nowadays, right?) other alternatives. 

A highly-rated service that got my attention and would allow for hardcover printing is called BookBaby. They offer a wide range of services from editing and design (interior and cover) to printing and marketing. 

Once John’s illustrations (note our teaser illustration sketches in this post), which are absolutely stunning, are ready, we’ll send them the text and illustrations and with our input, they’ll design the interior and the cover. We’ll be able to view a press proof and provide feedback, prior to publication. 

Once the book is in its final print-ready format, we will set a release date that includes (at least) six weeks for presales. During this time, people can order the book in advance and will be the first to receive it once released. This helps booksellers gauge demand so they know how many books to have printed and ready to ship.

When I had my initial consultation phone call with a BookBaby representative (easy to set up online), she described working with BookBaby as in-between self-publishing, with Amazon, for example, and working with a traditional publisher. This is because BookBaby can do much of the work for the author (for a fee) whereas with Amazon, authors are basically on their own. There are Amazon support people for questions, of course, but you’re really on your own in terms of getting your book into other stores and wholesalers. BookBaby and Amazon have a special arrangement, whereby they work together. You can read more about it on the BookBaby website. 

Some of the BookBaby services that I’m really looking forward to are:

• Interior design
• Book cover design
• Print on demand distribution to a wide network of retail book stores and distributors including Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s City of Books, Bam!, bookshop.org and over 50 others, including major wholesale distributors. [July 31, 2024 update since my last phone call with BookBaby: they don’t get your book physically into bookstores, but online for ordering. Authors still have to get their books into brick and mortar stores themselves.]

They offer ebooks, editing and marketing, as well. For my first book, I hired an independent book designer, so having the same company do the design and the printing streamlines the process and eliminates the need for me to be sure the files are set up correctly for printing. 

Some good news from the past couple of weeks is that How Happy Is a Lark? is now carried by the Milan Public Library and I’m excited that Coreander’s Children’s Bookshoppe, Grosse Pointe Park, will be carrying Lark. The owner and I are working out an upcoming date for me to do a book reading and signing at the shop, possibly as soon as August. I’ll be sure to shout it out. 

Images: Early sketches from Into the Thicket, illustrations by John Megahan