This is the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for March 2015. We were a little late in presenting the January index and so we are bringing this index fully up to date to reflect all data collected over the past seven weeks. DellArte Press and Authors Online have been dropped from the index due to their closures in recent months. This month, and for the first time in five years since the index was launched, we have a new company in the number one slot. IngramSpark becomes only the fourth company ever to occupy the top slot outside of CreateSpace, Lightning Source and Kindle Direct Publishing.
There is little major change in the other top positions for March, though A. H. Stockwell and Cold River Studio took the biggest leaps forward on the index. Any new providers reviewed before the publication of the April index will be floated in and included for the first time and we should have two new companies added by then, including Pressbooks. We interviewed its founder Hugh McGuire in this post today.
TIPM continues to receive regular feedback on services through comments under our reviews, via our TIPM Facebook page, and directly to us. Your comments are always welcome and every comment and experience of a publishing service — positive or negative — is always reflected in every new index published through TIPM.
MAR POS | JAN POS | COMPANY/SERVICE PROVIDER | PRIMARY COMPANY BASEMARKET | SERVICE CLASS | MAR INDEX VALUE | INDEX POS MOVE |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | IngramSpark | GLOBAL | PRT/FUL | 641.47 | UP |
2 | 1 | CreateSpace | USA | DIY/FSP | 640.21 | DOWN |
3 | 3 | Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) | GLOBAL | DIY | 610.65 | SAME |
4 | 5 | Lightning Source (Direct) | GLOBAL | PRT/FUL | 529 | UP |
5 | 4 | Smashwords | USA | DIY | 519.63 | DOWN |
6 | 6 | Matador | UK | FSP | 479.2 | SAME |
7 | 7 | Mill City Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 436.97 | SAME |
8 | 8 | Lulu | GLOBAL | DIY/FSP | 419.16 | SAME |
9 | 9 | Blurb | GLOBAL | DIY | 407.29 | SAME |
10 | 10 | SilverWood Books | USA | FSP | 401.89 | SAME |
11 | 11 | BookLocker | USA | FSP | 373.28 | SAME |
12 | 12 | Bookbaby | USA | DIY/FSP | 365.3 | SAME |
13 | 13 | Kobo Writing Life | GLOBAL | DIY | 350.9 | SAME |
14 | 15 | Selfpublishing.com | USA | PRT/FUL | 336.2 | UP |
15 | 14 | Publish Green | GLOBAL | FSP | 335.2 | DOWN |
16 | 16 | Dog Ear Publishing | USA | FSP | 331.42 | SAME |
17 | 18 | Draft2Digital | UK/USA | DIY | 318.41 | UP |
18 | 17 | York Publishing Services | UK | PRT/FULL | 321.68 | DOWN |
19 | 19 | Unbound | UK | PUB/CRW | 318.33 | SAME |
20 | 20 | John Hunt Publishing | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 307.26 | SAME |
21 | 21 | Thomson-Shore | USA | PRT/FSP | 306.14 | SAME |
22 | 22 | Wingspan | USA | FSP | 303.99 | SAME |
23 | 23 | CPI UK Antony Rowe | EUROPE | PRT | 303.73 | SAME |
24 | 26 | Aventine | USA | FSP | 298 | UP |
25 | 25 | Mijn Bestseller | EUROPE | DIY | 298.15 | SAME |
26 | 27 | VirtualBookVorm | USA | FSP | 294.91 | UP |
27 | 24 | eBookIT | DIY/FSP | 295.49 | DOWN | |
28 | 28 | Book Country | GLOBAL | FSP | 292.78 | SAME |
29 | 29 | Checkpoint Press | IRELAND | PUB/FSP | 291.34 | SAME |
30 | 31 | Infinity Publishing | USA | FSP | 289.12 | UP |
31 | 30 | SelfPublishBooks/Lettertec | IRELAND | FSP | 287.43 | DOWN |
32 | 32 | Wheatmark Publishing | USA | FSP | 284.88 | SAME |
33 | 33 | Apex Publishing | UK | PUB/FSP | 284.37 | SAME |
34 | 34 | Acorn Independent Press | UK | FSP | 283.72 | SAME |
35 | 36 | Wasteland Press | USA | FSP | 283.22 | UP |
36 | 40 | Cold River Studio | USA | FSP | 282.63 | UP |
37 | 35 | iUniverse | USA | FSP | 282.59 | DOWN |
38 | 37 | Outskirts Press | USA | FSP | 282.02 | DOWN |
39 | 38 | Grosvenor House Publishing | UK | FSP | 281.24 | DOWN |
40 | 39 | The Choir Press | UK/USA | FSP | 281.23 | DOWN |
41 | 42 | Authoright | UK/USA | FSP | 276.22 | UP |
42 | 43 | Americas Press | USA | PRT | 276.03 | UP |
43 | 44 | Pumbo | EUROPE | DIY | 274.72 | UP |
44 | 41 | Tate Publishing | USA | PUB/ASP | 274.66 | DOWN |
45 | 45 | Xulon Press | USA | FSP | 274 | SAME |
46 | 49 | Janus Publishing | UK | FSP | 271.32 | UP |
47 | 48 | Telemachus Press | USA | FSP | 270.4 | UP |
48 | 46 | PubliBook | EUROPE | DIY | 269.32 | DOWN |
49 | 47 | FastPencil | USA | DIY | 269.22 | DOWN |
50 | 50 | Diadem Books | UK/USA | FSP | 267.94 | SAME |
51 | 51 | Llumina Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 266.63 | SAME |
52 | 58 | A.H. Stockwell | UK | FSP | 266.03 | UP |
53 | 53 | Open Book Editions | USA | FSP | 265.9 | SAME |
54 | 54 | Direct POD | UK | PRT | 265.56 | SAME |
55 | 52 | Kbuuk | USA | DIY | 265.27 | DOWN |
56 | 56 | Eprint Ireland | IRELAND | PRT | 265.24 | SAME |
57 | 57 | Pyjama Press | UK/EUROPE | FSP | 265.03 | SAME |
58 | 55 | Abbott Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 263.42 | DOWN |
59 | 60 | Book Guild Publishing | UK | FSP | 263.21 | UP |
60 | 62 | Original Writing | IRELAND | FSP | 261.58 | UP |
61 | 63 | True Directions | USA | PUB/FSP | 261.23 | UP |
62 | 64 | The Book Producers | IRELAND | FSP | 260.4 | UP |
63 | 61 | Pomegranate Press | UK/USA | FSP | 260.28 | DOWN |
64 | 59 | AuthorHouse | GLOBAL | FSP | 260.19 | DOWN |
65 | 65 | Austin MacAuley | UK | FSP | 258.7 | SAME |
66 | 66 | Better Book Company | UK | FSP | 256.15 | SAME |
67 | 67 | Turning Stone Press | USA | FSP | 255.68 | SAME |
68 | 69 | Archway Publishing | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 253.62 | UP |
69 | 68 | UKUnpublished | UK | FSP | 252.58 | DOWN |
70 | 71 | Arima | UK | FSP | 248.41 | UP |
71 | 70 | Xlibris | GLOBAL | FSP | 247.95 | DOWN |
72 | 73 | Trafford Publishing | USA | FSP | 247.18 | UP |
73 | 72 | Balboa Press | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 246.84 | DOWN |
74 | 74 | Gemini International | IRELAND | PRT | 246.22 | SAME |
75 | 76 | Epic Press | UK | FSP | 242.21 | UP |
76 | 75 | WestBow Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 242.19 | DOWN |
77 | 77 | Chandler Book Design | UK | PRT | 241.87 | SAME |
78 | 78 | Choice Publishing | IRELAND | FSP | 240.74 | SAME |
79 | 79 | Dolman Scott/Oak Press | UK | FSP | 238.66 | SAME |
80 | 81 | Dorrance Press | USA | FSP | 232.86 | UP |
81 | 82 | Spire Publishing | UK/USA | FSP | 228.45 | UP |
82 | 83 | ShopMyBook (Unibook) | GLOBAL | PRT | 228.1 | UP |
83 | 84 | Spiderwize | UK | FSP | 223.36 | UP |
84 | 85 | PublishAmerica/America Star Books | USA | FSP | 214.2 | UP |
85 | 86 | Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie | UK | PUB/FSP | 209.99 | UP |
86 | 87 | Dom Tom Publishing | UK/USA | FSP | 208.02 | UP |
87 | 88 | Melrose Books | UK | FSP | 206.69 | UP |
88 | 89 | Olympia Publishers | UK | PUB/FSP | 192.96 | UP |
89 | 90 | Raider International Pub./Green Shore | GLOBAL | FSP | 103.67 | UP |
(KEY)
- DIY – Do-it-yourself bespoke services and basic conversion and formatting services
- FSP – Full Service Provider (Packages & Bespoke) – May also include Partnership publishing programs
- PUB – Also offers Mainstream Contracts or is a service imprint of a traditional publishing house
- PRT – Printer (primarily a printer with some additional but limited services)
- FULL – Fulfilment Services provided for distribution logistics, warehousing of stock (including supply to wholesaler and retailers)
- CRW – Crowdsource
There is a much more detailed explanation of what the Publishing Service Index is and how authors can best use it in this post.
The most asked question we get at The Independent Publishing Magazine is often along the lines of; ‘What self-publishing service should I go with?‘; ‘Is so and so a good service to go with?‘; or ‘Is so and so a scam?‘
In some cases, that is an easy question to answer, cut and dry, but in other circumstances, the answer is entirely arbitrary. We are not here to review and run down a company’s name, nor are we here to endorse a company’s services. If we were only to review companies according to every point on an ideal dream list of what an author wants/should get, we would have very few reviews to share with you. In truth, no company has ever attained a 10/10, and only a few have recorded more than 08/10.
The reality is that some companies offering publishing services begin in a blaze of glory and we might rate them favourably at the time; others, frankly, are just poor, and they improve (sometimes in response to our reviews) to offer reasonable or better services. We are constantly updating our reviews, but this takes considerable time, and so do the initial reviews.
We get a vast amount of information from authors and the companies selling author solutions services every day – good and bad. We get a great deal of information from monitoring services week by week against the experiences of what authors report back to us. Simply put, and truthfully, we cannot reflect all of this information through the reviews. That is why the comments section under each company we review is so important. It is your recording and dealings with that specific company, and a positive or negative flag to subsequent authors considering using the same company.
So, how do we reflect the changing ups and downs with services?
We believe the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX will help to guide authors to services on the up, and those, gradually on the down. If you like, what we present is a kind of stock exchange for companies supplying publisher services.
The PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX was first launched in June 2010.
There are so many reviews out there, many are old. I haven’t found one comparing Publish Green and Bookbaby. Can you point me in the right direction?
Patti,
It’s very hard to compare companies like Bookbaby with Publish Green. BB is an ebook conversion service and distributor while PG is a full service provider.
TIPM has fully reviewed both companies.