Features

They say everyone has at least one book inside them. As most first-time writers will tell you, though, it is virtually impossible to find a publisher who is willing to give you a chance.

So what if you truly believe your novel is worth publishing and you're convinced that there is an audience for your work out there? Until now, your only option was a costly one. You would have to spend your own money having your book privately printed, which would leave you out of pocket. Furthermore, few bookshops would be willing to stock self-published books, and publishers turn their noses up at them.

Two things have changed this: the internet, and more flexible printing technology. These two factors have resulted in a new publishing revolution: print on demand (POD). Thanks to these online services, you can have copies of your book printed only as and when orders are placed, in the same amount of time it takes to receive a book from Amazon, and your book may even have its own ISBN number. POD is also a risk-free way for publishers to see if there is a market for a writer's work.

For Northumbrian author Slim Palmer, even finding someone to approach publishers on his behalf proved fruitless. He explained: "I have tried in the last year to secure an agent who can do all that running around for me. So far, no luck. [I was told by one of them that] the entry level for a new novelist in the UK is special, not good." Despite that setback, Palmer decided to persevere through online publishing. This proved more successful. His third

Novel approaches

POD is straightforward. You write and format the manuscript for your book, open an account at a POD website and upload your work. You then make your work publicly available on the site, via a customisable storefront. Visitors to the site can browse the titles on offer and search by category or keyword. For the first-time author, there is no financial risk, no rejection to deal with and no expensive stock to buy.

When someone orders your book, the POD site handles the purchase, takes a small cut of the proceeds to cover its costs, prints and binds a copy of the book, and sends it directly to the buyer. Lulu.com takes a straight 20 per cent of the price you set for the book. CaféPress.com charges a base price, which depends on the binding and number of pages used. For instance, a book that is perfect bound (the type normally used for paperbacks) costs a flat $7 (around £3.50) to bind, plus three cents per page used. This works out to $10 (around £5) for a 100-page book. Your profit is whatever you charge above this base price, and the site will calculate this. Neither site charges any upfront fees, although some smaller publishers do.

The POD site prints and binds books on professional, automated machines, so they always look and feel like professional products. The printing equipment sees a long queue of jobs and instantly reconfigures itself to reflect desired size and binding options. This ease of use has opened publishing to a wide variety of people who are keen to get into print.

Not everyone wants fame and fortune; just seeing their name in print is enough. For these authors, POD is ideal. Susannah McLean had wanted to be a writer ever since she was a young girl. However, in trying to get published, the paradoxical nature of the publishing world soon became apparent to her. "Not a single publishing company would have me," admitted McLean. "They said it was because I was a first-time author." McLean then turned to POD. "It was perfect," she enthused.