This is the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for November/December and will be the last published update of 2015. IngramSpark looks to have won the seesaw battle with CreateSpace that marked the index over the past six months. The Ingram-owned publishing platform has returned to the top, but with a wider margin than we have seen for some time. Recently rolled out new features appear to have swung the balance in its favour. But perhaps the most significant news this month is Smashwords moving into third above Amazon’s KDP. Smashwords announced last week that the flipkart catalogue will now become part of its own distribution channel.
Lightning Source continues its gradual slow slide, slipping one place to seventh. Another eye-catcher is Lulu’s slip of four place to 19th.
I noted last month that the title output of a number of full service providers (FSP) had decreased in output. Figures over the past few weeks have returned to what I would consider average. I expected something of a recovery given the approaching holiday period and authors and providers alike are eager to publish titles this side of Christmas and the new year. I suspect output will fall again in January. February and March could be very interesting months to look out for. It’s often a time of year that publishing service providers revise their offerings and pricing.
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.
NOV/DEC POS | OCT POS | COMPANY/SERVICE PROVIDER | PRIMARY COMPANY BASEMARKET | SERVICE CLASS | NOV INDEX VALUE | INDEX POS MOVE |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | IngramSpark | GLOBAL | PRT/FUL | 744.64 | UP |
2 | 1 | CreateSpace | USA | DIY/FSP | 731.68 | DOWN |
3 | 4 | Smashwords | USA | DIY | 692.69 | UP |
4 | 3 | Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) | GLOBAL | DIY | 687.85 | DOWN |
5 | 5 | Matador | UK | FSP | 631.91 | SAME |
6 | 7 | Mill City Press/Hillcrest Media | USA | PUB/FSP | 569.99 | UP |
7 | 6 | Lightning Source (Direct) | GLOBAL | PRT/FUL | 568.57 | DOWN |
8 | 8 | Kobo Writing Life | GLOBAL | DIY | 563.67 | SAME |
9 | 9 | SilverWood Books | UK | FSP | 546.92 | SAME |
10 | 10 | Blurb | GLOBAL | DIY | 513.79 | SAME |
11 | 11 | BookLocker | USA | FSP | 471.3 | SAME |
12 | 12 | Draft2Digital | UK/USA | DIY | 463.98 | SAME |
13 | 13 | Epigraph Publishing Service | USA | FSP | 444.95 | SAME |
14 | 14 | Dog Ear Publishing | USA | FSP | 433.34 | SAME |
15 | 18 | Selfpublishing.com | USA | PRT/FUL | 432.03 | UP |
16 | 17 | Bookbaby | USA | DIY/FSP | 430.55 | UP |
17 | 16 | Publish Green | GLOBAL | FSP | 429.58 | DOWN |
18 | 19 | Thomson-Shore | USA | PRT/FSP | 425.95 | UP |
19 | 15 | Lulu | GLOBAL | DIY/FSP | 425.02 | DOWN |
20 | 21 | Pressbook | USA | DIY | 408.48 | UP |
21 | 20 | Unbound | UK | PUB/CRW | 408.24 | DOWN |
22 | 22 | York Publishing Services | UK | PRT/FULL | 398.77 | SAME |
23 | 24 | Mijn Bestseller | EUROPE | DIY | 396.18 | UP |
24 | 23 | John Hunt Publishing | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 395.38 | DOWN |
25 | 25 | CPI UK Antony Rowe | EUROPE | PRT | 388.28 | SAME |
26 | 26 | Wingspan | USA | FSP | 385.05 | SAME |
27 | 27 | eBookIT | GLOBAL | DIY/FSP | 376.43 | SAME |
28 | 28 | Aventine | USA | FSP | 373.61 | SAME |
29 | 31 | Cold River Studio | USA | FSP | 371.02 | UP |
30 | 29 | Checkpoint Press | IRELAND | PUB/FSP | 367.93 | DOWN |
31 | 30 | Wheatmark Publishing | USA | FSP | 367.05 | DOWN |
32 | 32 | VirtualBookVorm | USA | FSP | 366.58 | SAME |
33 | 33 | SelfPublishBooks/Lettertec | IRELAND | FSP | 366.53 | SAME |
34 | 34 | Book Country | GLOBAL | FSP | 359.85 | SAME |
35 | 40 | Google Play Books | GLOBAL | DIY | 359.6 | UP |
36 | 35 | Infinity Publishing | USA | FSP | 358.96 | DOWN |
37 | 36 | Grosvenor House Publishing | UK | FSP | 356.31 | DOWN |
38 | 38 | The Choir Press | UK/USA | FSP | 353.93 | SAME |
39 | 39 | Wasteland Press | USA | FSP | 353.75 | SAME |
40 | 37 | Acorn Independent Press | UK | FSP | 353.58 | DOWN |
41 | 42 | FastPencil | USA | DIY | 352.71 | UP |
42 | 41 | Apex Publishing | UK | PUB/FSP | 352.71 | DOWN |
43 | 43 | Americas Press | USA | PRT | 352.63 | SAME |
44 | 44 | Tate Publishing | USA | PUB/ASP | 348.24 | SAME |
45 | 49 | Book Guild Publishing | UK | FSP | 347.61 | UP |
46 | 48 | Telemachus Press | USA | FSP | 346.75 | UP |
47 | 45 | Pumbo | EUROPE | DIY | 346.43 | DOWN |
48 | 46 | Xulon Press | USA | FSP | 344.92 | DOWN |
49 | 50 | Authoright | UK/USA | FSP | 343.03 | UP |
50 | 47 | Outskirts Press | USA | FSP | 342.91 | DOWN |
51 | 51 | Janus Publishing | UK | FSP | 342.38 | SAME |
52 | 52 | Kazoo Publishing Services | IRELAND | FSP | 338.63 | SAME |
53 | 54 | Open Book Editions | USA | FSP | 338.51 | UP |
54 | 53 | A.H. Stockwell | UK | FSP | 337.22 | DOWN |
55 | 60 | Llumina Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 337.19 | UP |
56 | 55 | Diadem Books | UK/USA | FSP | 334.23 | DOWN |
57 | 56 | Pyjama Press | UK/EUROPE | FSP | 333.62 | DOWN |
58 | 57 | iUniverse | USA | FSP | 333.48 | DOWN |
59 | 61 | PubliBook | EUROPE | DIY | 333.03 | UP |
60 | 58 | Kbuuk | USA | DIY | 331.93 | DOWN |
61 | 59 | Direct POD | UK | PRT | 331.71 | DOWN |
62 | 62 | Eprint Ireland | IRELAND | PRT | 329.44 | SAME |
63 | 63 | True Directions | USA | PUB/FSP | 327.56 | SAME |
64 | 64 | Original Writing | IRELAND | FSP | 326.83 | SAME |
65 | 65 | Abbott Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 324.09 | SAME |
66 | 66 | Pomegranate Press | UK/USA | FSP | 324.06 | SAME |
67 | 67 | The Book Producers | IRELAND | FSP | 323.65 | SAME |
68 | 68 | Arima | UK | FSP | 322.8 | SAME |
69 | 69 | Better Book Company | UK | FSP | 319.62 | SAME |
70 | 70 | Turning Stone Press | USA | FSP | 319.49 | SAME |
71 | 71 | UKUnpublished | UK | FSP | 317.55 | SAME |
72 | 72 | Archway Publishing | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 312.32 | SAME |
73 | 73 | Gemini International | IRELAND | PRT | 308.62 | SAME |
74 | 74 | Chandler Book Design | UK | PRT | 302.06 | SAME |
75 | 76 | Dolman Scott/Oak Press | UK | FSP | 301.48 | UP |
76 | 77 | Choice Publishing | IRELAND | FSP | 300.1 | UP |
77 | 78 | WestBow Press | USA | PUB/FSP | 300 | UP |
78 | 75 | Austin MacAuley | UK | FSP | 299.71 | DOWN |
79 | 79 | Epic Press | UK | FSP | 297.88 | SAME |
80 | 80 | Balboa Press | GLOBAL | PUB/FSP | 295.7 | SAME |
81 | 82 | AuthorHouse | GLOBAL | FSP | 294.87 | UP |
82 | 81 | Trafford Publishing | USA | FSP | 293.61 | DOWN |
83 | 83 | Dorrance Press | USA | FSP | 287.12 | SAME |
84 | 84 | ShopMyBook (Unibook) | GLOBAL | PRT | 283.38 | SAME |
85 | 85 | Spiderwize | UK | FSP | 277.95 | SAME |
86 | 86 | Spire Publishing | UK/USA | FSP | 275.24 | SAME |
87 | 87 | Xlibris | GLOBAL | FSP | 269.44 | SAME |
88 | 90 | PublishAmerica/America Star Books | USA | FSP | 252.17 | UP |
89 | 89 | Melrose Books | UK | FSP | 251.66 | SAME |
90 | 88 | Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie | UK | PUB/FSP | 251.64 | DOWN |
91 | 91 | Dom Tom Publishing | UK/USA | FSP | 251.01 | SAME |
92 | 92 | Olympia Publishers | UK | PUB/FSP | 206.92 | SAME |
93 | 93 | Raider International Pub./Green Shore | GLOBAL | FSP | 119.29 | 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.
I would be interested to know which of the listed companies actually provide their publishers 1099s for book sales. Amazon has always provided us documentation but when I investigated BookBaby they claimed they didn’t have to provide this. Consequently, I was very skeptical. It would be interesting to see how others handle tax reporting.