Publishing Service Index: May 2016 | The Independent Publishing Magazine

This is the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for May 2016. IngramSpark holds the number one position at the top of the index, marginally increasing the gap on CreateSpace. Matador moves ahead of Smashwords into fourth place and Lightning Source slips below Silverwood Books to ninth place. Please be aware that service provider Original Writing based in Ireland has gone out of business and will exit the Publishing Service Index after this month.

One significant noted point during the preparation of the May index is that a number of larger publishing service providers’ listed catalogue shrunk between two to five percent compared to our March index. This will happen occasionally as providers ‘spring clean’ their catalogues, but the amount of reduction seen over the past month suggests that this is beyond just a yearly review of author accounts and databases. Again, this is lightly a reflection of a continuing shift away from publishing package providers to DIY self-publishing platforms. Clearly, large package providers are not experiencing the expansive growth seen between 2012-15. The freemium/DIY platforms now dominate the self-publishing market for authors as a first choice, with fewer authors choosing the assisted/tailored service providers. All things considered, it makes the consistent and continued positioning of self-publishing service providers like Matador and Silverwood Books in the UK, and Hillcrest Media/Mill City Press and Booklocker in the USA all the more impressive.

Every year Bowker release figures based on allocated ISBNs to publishing service providers and it will be interesting to see the 2015 figures.

TIPM continues to receive regular feedback on services through comments under our reviews, via our TIPM Facebook page, and directly to us. 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.

MAY POS	APR POS	COMPANY/SERVICE PROVIDER	PRIMARY COMPANY BASEMARKET	SERVICE CLASS	MAY INDEX VALUE	INDEX POS MOVE
1	1	IngramSpark	GLOBAL	PRT/FUL	810.6	SAME
2	2	CreateSpace	USA	DIY/FSP	794.36	SAME
3	3	Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)	GLOBAL	DIY	778.3	SAME
4	5	Matador	UK	FSP	684.05	UP
5	4	Smashwords	USA	DIY	682.94	DOWN
6	6	Kobo Writing Life	GLOBAL	DIY	601.63	SAME
7	7	Hillcrest Media/Mill City Press	USA	PUB/FSP	586.04	SAME
8	9	SilverWood Books	UK	FSP	568.74	UP
9	8	Lightning Source (Direct)	GLOBAL	PRT/FUL	568.53	DOWN
10	10	Blurb	GLOBAL	DIY	527.47	SAME
11	12	Draft2Digital	UK/USA	DIY	482.28	UP
12	11	BookLocker	USA	FSP	479.9	DOWN
13	14	Thomson-Shore	USA	PRT/FSP	451.1	UP
14	13	Epigraph Publishing Service	USA	FSP	444.96	DOWN
15	16	Dog Ear Publishing	USA	FSP	439.67	UP
16	15	Selfpublishing.com	USA	PRT/FUL	435.59	DOWN
17	17	Publish Green	GLOBAL	FSP	431.69	SAME
18	18	Lulu	GLOBAL	DIY/FSP	429.91	SAME
19	19	Bookbaby	USA	DIY/FSP	417.4	SAME
20	20	Pressbook	USA	DIY	410.58	SAME
21	21	Unbound	UK	PUB/CRW	406.43	SAME
22	23	Mijn Bestseller	EUROPE	DIY	404.56	UP
23	24	CPI UK Antony Rowe	EUROPE	PRT	402.98	UP
24	22	York Publishing Services	UK	PRT/FULL	402.77	DOWN
25	25	John Hunt Publishing	GLOBAL	PUB/FSP	392.32	SAME
26	26	Wingspan	USA	FSP	385.05	SAME
27	29	Aventine	USA	FSP	373.61	UP
28	30	Google Play Books	GLOBAL	DIY	373.6	UP
29	27	eBookIT	GLOBAL	DIY/FSP	372.7	DOWN
30	28	Checkpoint Press	IRELAND	PUB/FSP	371.93	DOWN
31	31	Wheatmark Publishing	USA	FSP	367.11	SAME
32	32	Cold River Studio	USA	FSP	367.02	SAME
33	34	VirtualBookVorm	USA	FSP	366.58	UP
34	33	SelfPublishBooks/Lettertec	IRELAND	FSP	366.54	DOWN
35	35	Grosvenor House Publishing	UK	FSP	364.33	SAME
36	36	The Choir Press	UK/USA	FSP	363.83	SAME
37	40	Wasteland Press	USA	FSP	362.76	UP
38	37	Book Guild Publishing	UK	FSP	361.11	DOWN
39	38	Infinity Publishing	USA	FSP	361.03	DOWN
40	39	Book Country	GLOBAL	FSP	353.86	DOWN
41	41	Acorn Independent Press	UK	FSP	353.59	SAME
42	43	Apex Publishing	UK	PUB/FSP	352.72	UP
43	44	Americas Press	USA	PRT	352.66	UP
44	42	FastPencil	USA	DIY	350.83	DOWN
45	45	Telemachus Press	USA	FSP	346.75	SAME
46	46	Pumbo	EUROPE	DIY	346.55	SAME
47	49	Authoright	UK/USA	FSP	343.03	UP
48	50	Janus Publishing	UK	FSP	342.38	UP
49	47	Xulon Press	USA	FSP	341.17	DOWN
50	51	Outskirts Press	USA	FSP	341.07	UP
51	48	Tate Publishing	USA	PUB/ASP	340.67	DOWN
52	52	Open Book Editions	USA	FSP	340.53	SAME
53	54	A.H. Stockwell	UK	FSP	337.22	UP
54	53	Kazoo Publishing Services	IRELAND	FSP	336.61	DOWN
55	56	Diadem Books	UK/USA	FSP	336.23	UP
56	59	PubliBook	EUROPE	DIY	333.7	UP
57	58	Pyjama Press	UK/EUROPE	FSP	333.62	UP
58	55	Llumina Press	USA	PUB/FSP	333.2	DOWN
59	60	Kbuuk	USA	DIY	331.99	UP
60	61	Direct POD	UK	PRT	331.83	UP
61	57	iUniverse	USA	FSP	330.91	DOWN
62	63	True Directions	USA	PUB/FSP	329.58	UP
63	64	Eprint Ireland	IRELAND	PRT	329.44	UP
64	66	Pomegranate Press	UK/USA	FSP	324.06	UP
65	67	The Book Producers	IRELAND	FSP	323.65	UP
66	68	Arima	UK	FSP	322.75	UP
67	69	Turning Stone Press	USA	FSP	321.49	UP
68	65	Abbott Press	USA	PUB/FSP	320.09	DOWN
69	70	Better Book Company	UK	FSP	319.63	UP
70	71	UKUnpublished	UK	FSP	317.54	UP
71	73	Gemini International	IRELAND	PRT	308.62	UP
72	72	Archway Publishing	GLOBAL	PUB/FSP	308.54	SAME
73	74	Dolman Scott/Oak Press	UK	FSP	303.52	UP
74	77	Choice Publishing	IRELAND	FSP	302.11	UP
75	75	Chandler Book Design	UK	PRT	302.07	SAME
76	76	WestBow Press	USA	PUB/FSP	300.47	SAME
77	79	Epic Press	UK	FSP	297.94	UP
78	78	Austin MacAuley	UK	FSP	297.77	SAME
79	80	Balboa Press	GLOBAL	PUB/FSP	294.03	UP
80	81	Trafford Publishing	USA	FSP	293.5	UP
81	83	Spiderwize	UK	FSP	283.95	UP
82	84	ShopMyBook (Unibook)	GLOBAL	PRT	283.39	UP
83	82	Dorrance Press	USA	FSP	281.12	DOWN
84	85	AuthorHouse	GLOBAL	FSP	276.68	UP
85	87	Xlibris	GLOBAL	FSP	275.89	UP
86	86	Spire Publishing	UK/USA	FSP	275.24	SAME
87	89	Melrose Books	UK	FSP	253.66	UP
88	90	Dom Tom Publishing	UK/USA	FSP	251.01	UP
89	91	Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie	UK	PUB/FSP	249.66	UP
90	88	PublishAmerica/America Star Books	USA	FSP	245.97	DOWN
91	92	Olympia Publishers	UK	PUB/FSP	201.64	UP
92	62	Original Writing	IRELAND	FSP	156.79	DOWN
93	93	Raider International Pub./Green Shore	GLOBAL	FSP	113.29	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.

One Comment;

Shearin Lee - June 13, 2016 said:

Hello Mr. Rooney, thank you for this information! Our company is looking to self-publish our first children’s book (in a series) but would love some expert advice on which self-publishing companies are the best for children’s books. We have our manuscript written and edited and are currently working on our illustrations. Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you!

Related posts

One Comment;