Publishing Service Index: March 2015

indexMar_2015

 

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.

 

Authors

2 Comments

  1. Patti Frisch said:

    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?

    • Mick Rooney said:

      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.

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