Dollars and Deadlines' 7 Biggest Mistakes POD Authors Make: and How to Avoid Them

Want to write a book? Join the club. According to one well-publicized survey, 81 percent of Americans say they should write a book.
In the past, however, most would-be authors would never cross over from dreaming about writing a book to actually publishing one. That’s because there were only two routes to publication—traditional publishers and “vanity” publishers. If you couldn’t sell your book to a traditional publisher, you had only one option. You shelled out thousands of dollars to a vanity publisher to get your book in print (and usually wound up with boxes of unsold books in your garage or basement).
POD, or print-on-demand, publishers have changed the publishing model forever. Now you don’t have to sell your book to a traditional publisher—you can publish it yourself, for less money than you might expect. The doors have been thrown wide open, and today, you can become a published author in a matter of weeks, if not days.
It’s all good, right? Wrong.
I’ve been a fulltime freelancer, author, ghostwriter and speaker since 1997. I started out writing for magazines but segued into book writing about four years into my career. Since then, I’ve worked with traditional publishers (both big and small) as well as POD companies, and have published 13 books under my own name. I also ghostwrite and coauthor books for clients who have published their books with traditional publishers, book packagers, and POD companies. And I’ve discovered that most would-be authors don’t understand how POD publishing works—which hurts them in both the short- and long-term.
If you just want to get your book into print, and don’t mind spending hundreds, or thousands, of dollars to make that happen, then this book isn’t for you. Carry on, and good luck.
This book is for the author who wants to be an informed consumer when it comes to POD and understanding how the POD publishing process works. I’m not a POD publisher and have no financial stake in what route you choose—I’m talking to you as author to soon-to-be author.
I promise that after reading this e-book, you’ll know what to ask, what to consider, and be able to make a smarter, better informed choice, regardless of how you choose to publish your book.