Publishing Service Index: July 2015

indexJuly_2015
indexJuly_2015This is the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for July 2015. CreateSpace has replaced IngramSpark at the top spot of the index this month, but only by a whisker.

 

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has lost some significant ground to the top two and some of this is down to negative feedback TIPM has received. Unfortunately much of this feedback is greatly misplaced and surrounds the recent changes Amazon has made to how it pays authors with books enrolled in its borrowing programs (KU and KOL). It also hasn’t been helped by numerous news stories carrying inaccurate or deliberately slanted information. I’ve seen many news articles claim or intimate that the payment changes affect all authors with books loaded to the Kindle platform. David Gaughran has an excellent post clarifying matters over on his Let’s Get Digital blog called The Great Amazon Hysteria. It’s well worth a read if you are unsure about the recent Amazon payment changes.

 

There are no other changes in the remaining top ten positions. Draft2Digital continues its slow but steady climb up the index.

 

TIPM continues to receive regular feedback on services through comments under our reviews, via our TIPM Facebook page, and directly to us. The amount of feedback over the past four weeks to TIPM continues to remain particularly high and we want to thank all of those who took the time to share their publishing experiences. 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. We are hoping to add at least one or two new reviews for the June index.

 

JUL POS JUN POS COMPANY/SERVICE PROVIDER PRIMARY COMPANY BASEMARKET SERVICE CLASS JUL INDEX VALUE INDEX POS MOVE
1 2 CreateSpace USA DIY/FSP 698.63 UP
2 1 IngramSpark GLOBAL PRT/FUL 697.58 DOWN
3 3 Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) GLOBAL DIY 660.84 SAME
4 4 Smashwords USA DIY 603.46 SAME
5 5 Lightning Source (Direct) GLOBAL PRT/FUL 537.67 SAME
6 6 Matador UK FSP 518.62 SAME
7 7 Mill City Press USA PUB/FSP 459.07 SAME
8 8 SilverWood Books USA FSP 429.93 SAME
9 9 Blurb GLOBAL DIY 425.82 SAME
10 10 Kobo Writing Life GLOBAL DIY 414.65 SAME
11 11 Lulu GLOBAL DIY/FSP 411.71 SAME
12 12 BookLocker USA FSP 379.49 SAME
13 14 Draft2Digital UK/USA DIY 363.74 UP
14 13 Bookbaby USA DIY/FSP 361.93 DOWN
15 15 Publish Green GLOBAL FSP 347.34 SAME
16 16 Dog Ear Publishing USA FSP 345.67 SAME
17 17 Selfpublishing.com USA PRT/FUL 336.3 SAME
18 18 Unbound UK PUB/CRW 324.32 SAME
19 20 Thomson-Shore USA PRT/FSP 321.22 UP
20 19 York Publishing Services UK PRT/FULL 319.69 DOWN
21 22 Pressbook USA DIY 313.66 UP
22 21 John Hunt Publishing GLOBAL PUB/FSP 313.18 DOWN
23 23 Wingspan USA FSP 312.02 SAME
24 24 My Bestseller EUROPE DIY 311.81 SAME
25 25 CPI UK Antony Rowe EUROPE PRT 309.83 SAME
26 26 eBookIT DIY/FSP 304.05 SAME
27 27 Google Play Books GLOBAL DIY 300.3 SAME
28 29 VirtualBookVorm USA FSP 294.94 UP
29 28 Aventine USA FSP 294 DOWN
30 30 Checkpoint Press IRELAND PUB/FSP 291.34 SAME
31 31 Infinity Publishing USA FSP 289.11 SAME
32 32 Book Country GLOBAL FSP 288.81 SAME
33 33 SelfPublishBooks/Lettertec IRELAND FSP 287.44 SAME
34 35 Cold River Studio USA FSP 287.03 UP
35 34 Wheatmark Publishing USA FSP 286.94 DOWN
36 36 Apex Publishing UK PUB/FSP 284.35 SAME
37 38 Wasteland Press USA FSP 283.26 UP
38 37 Grosvenor House Publishing UK FSP 283.25 DOWN
39 39 The Choir Press UK/USA FSP 283.23 SAME
40 40 Acorn Independent Press UK FSP 279.71 SAME
41 43 FastPencil USA DIY 278.79 UP
42 41 Outskirts Press USA FSP 278.67 DOWN
43 42 Tate Publishing USA PUB/ASP 278.32 DOWN
44 45 Americas Press USA PRT 276.07 UP
45 47 Janus Publishing UK FSP 275.32 UP
46 48 Pumbo EUROPE DIY 274.82 UP
47 46 iUniverse USA FSP 274.81 DOWN
48 49 Telemachus Press USA FSP 274.46 UP
49 50 Xulon Press USA FSP 274.27 UP
50 44 Authoright UK/USA FSP 272.23 DOWN
51 51 PubliBook EUROPE DIY 271.27 SAME
52 53 Llumina Press USA PUB/FSP 268.67 UP
53 54 A.H. Stockwell UK FSP 268.02 UP
54 55 Diadem Books UK/USA FSP 267.94 UP
55 56 Open Book Editions USA FSP 267.94 UP
56 52 Kazoo Publishing Services IRELAND FSP 267.41 DOWN
57 61 Book Guild Publishing UK FSP 267.2 UP
58 57 Pyjama Press UK/EUROPE FSP 267.03 DOWN
59 58 Direct POD UK PRT 265.7 DOWN
60 59 Kbuuk USA DIY 265.53 DOWN
61 60 Eprint Ireland IRELAND PRT 265.24 DOWN
62 62 True Directions USA PUB/FSP 263.26 SAME
63 63 Original Writing IRELAND FSP 261.59 SAME
64 64 Abbott Press USA PUB/FSP 261.43 SAME
65 65 The Book Producers IRELAND FSP 260.41 SAME
66 67 Arima UK FSP 260.41 UP
67 66 Pomegranate Press UK/USA FSP 260.28 DOWN
68 68 Better Book Company UK FSP 256.16 SAME
69 69 Turning Stone Press USA FSP 255.7 SAME
70 70 Austin MacAuley UK FSP 252.73 SAME
71 71 UKUnpublished UK FSP 252.57 SAME
72 72 Archway Publishing GLOBAL PUB/FSP 249.85 SAME
73 74 Gemini International IRELAND PRT 246.22 UP
74 73 AuthorHouse GLOBAL FSP 245.39 DOWN
75 75 Trafford Publishing USA FSP 243.6 SAME
76 77 WestBow Press USA PUB/FSP 242.57 UP
77 78 Epic Press UK FSP 242.24 UP
78 79 Chandler Book Design UK PRT 241.88 UP
79 76 Balboa Press GLOBAL PUB/FSP 241.34 DOWN
80 80 Choice Publishing IRELAND FSP 240.74 SAME
81 81 Dolman Scott/Oak Press UK FSP 239.55 SAME
82 82 Dorrance Press USA FSP 230.86 SAME
83 84 ShopMyBook (Unibook) GLOBAL PRT 228.2 UP
84 83 Xlibris GLOBAL FSP 227.17 DOWN
85 85 Spire Publishing UK/USA FSP 226.46 SAME
86 86 Spiderwize UK FSP 223.41 SAME
87 87 Melrose Books UK FSP 208.69 SAME
88 88 Dom Tom Publishing UK/USA FSP 208.02 SAME
89 89 Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie UK PUB/FSP 208.01 SAME
90 90 PublishAmerica/America Star Books USA FSP 206.58 SAME
91 91 Olympia Publishers UK PUB/FSP 166.99 SAME
92 92 Raider International Pub./Green Shore GLOBAL FSP 95.68 SAME

 

(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. Helen Sedwick said:

    Mick, On behalf of all writers, especially self-publishing ones, thank you for putting this index together. It’s a tremendously helpful resource.
    Helen

    Reply

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