For those who may be thinking about Lightning Source (LSI), I wanted to give you a quick rundown on what it takes to at least get your foot in the door and get an account.
The first thing you need to keep in mind is that Lightning Source is not a path for those who don’t know how or aren’t willing to do all the in-depth pre-press work. This company is geared toward working with publishers who have technical people working the nuts and bolts of getting a book to press. They’re willing to work with authors, as well, as long as you really understand what you’re getting into.
So, what’s involved? First, assuming you’re up for the technical side of it, you log onto their site and go through the account creation process. A few things you’ll need up front: your company information; ISBN prefix from at least one of your ISBNs; charge card information so they can charge the necessary fees when you get that far; and bank account information (account number and routing number) for where your royalties will go. As far as I know, they don’t verify that you’re a company, but if you’ve gone this far in getting your book published, you’re silly if you don’t at least set up a sole proprietorship or LLC so you can write off your business expenses (there are lots of other good reasons to do this as a business, but that one goes directly to your wallet or pocketbook).
Once you fill out the basic questionnaire on-line, there’s a break in the action so a sales rep can contact you via email for a follow-on series of questions:
- How many titles do you plan to print with Lightning over the next 12 months?
- Do you own the rights to the title(s)?
- Have your titles been printed/published by any other company other than yours?
- How do you plan to submit your title(s) to us?
- Have you previously spoken to any sales representative at Lightning Source?
Again, just be honest in answering the questions. I think their main concern is probably just making sure people aren’t getting in over their heads and confusing Lightning Source (LSI) with a POD publisher like Lulu or Outskirts Press.
Once you answer those questions, the sales rep will get back with you and send you some additional documentation in PDF format:
- An account application form with the information you put in on the web, but you have to sign it
- A publishing agreement
- A W-9 tax form
There aren’t any big surprises here after what you fill out on the web – this is basically to confirm, sign, and send back.
Next: pricing:
- For a book that’s in the proper electronic (PDF) form, you’ll need two digital files: one for the cover and one for the bookblock (text), which is standard for all the “DIY PODs”, it seems. The title setup charges for processing these files are $37.50 each, so for one book that’s $75.
- For books that you buy direct (say, to sell through your web site), the charge for paperbacks from 5″x8″ to 6″x9″ is $0.90 + $0.015 per page.
- For books sold wholesale to retailers (which LSI takes care of), their price is a bit lower: $0.90 + $0.013 per page.
- They also offer price discounts for bulk orders.
- You have to order at least one proof copy of your book, which is $30 for paperbacks, including overnight delivery.
- If you want to take advantage of their wholesale distribution network, it’s a $12 annual fee.
That brings us to the primary reason I’m interested in LSI: wholesale distribution. Here’s the boilerplate text from the information one of my sales reps sent:
Our US distribution partners include Ingram Book Company, Spring Arbor, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, NACSCORP and Amazon.com. To have your title made available through this distribution channel, the digital catalog fee for this service is $12.00 per year, per ISBN, per binding type. You may also choose to have your title(s) made available through our UK distribution partners at no additional charge. Our UK partners include Bertrams, Gardners Books, Blackwell’s Library Services, Coutts and Dawson, Holt Jackson, Paperback Bookshop, The Book Depository and Amazon.co.uk.
That all sounds great! And, now that I think about it, I have to check on UK distribution, as I didn’t indicate in my application that I wanted to do that (“duh!”)…
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Tags: CreateSpace, ISBN, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, Outskirts Press
A newbie here: can people order single issues that will be shipped to them from Lightning source? I am assuming they don’t have a webpage like other pod’s do (Createspace and Lulu) where you can send people to buy your books. If I set up my own webpage for people to order the book will Lightningsource ship say a single book to them? And if so how would I link up the my webpage to Lightningsource to do this?
There is a cover generator with the ISBN number where they ask for the price.. how do I determine the price. I didn’t see a price calculator (for my fee, Lightning sources fee and retail mark up) on the website so how do I know what to put on it? I’ll need more information on all of these details so that I can figure out the price to put on my back cover…. how do I do this or get this information?
Can it be put on and priced for you?
And, I can’t figure out the PDF submissions. I have a color cover and all color insides, I need one for the front and back called .cvr and then what is the middle called?
P.S. if my book is 7×10 and it’s a graphic novel that I want to print all the way to the edge, what information do I put in for trim etc.? It is exactly how I want it right now at 7×10…
P.P.S. if I want to sell through Ingram, amazon all retailers, library exposure and individual sales do I pick this one? http://www.lightningsource.com/print_to_publisher.aspx
Thank you! Gina
Gina – LSI is a distributor, not a retailer. They’ll sell you (the publisher) one or more copies directly, but they don’t fulfill direct orders from customers, only through their retailers like Amazon, B&N, etc. So once your books goes live on LSI, it will automagically be made available through LSI’s retailer channels (although it may take a couple/few weeks for your book to appear), and your customers would just buy the books there like they would any other book. Their distribution, by default, is through Ingram (since LSI is an Ingram-owned company).
LSI’s pricing information is available once you’ve gotten an account, although for standard-size paperbacks up through at least 6×9 format, it’s $0.90 (cover) + (number of pages) * $0.013. Larger formats like 7×10 are more expensive: $1.30 (cover) + (number of pages) * $0.018. Note that these are the prices to print for retail distribution; if you want copies for yourself, the page price is higher ($0.015 for small format, and $0.020 per page for large format). So that determines the print price. Then you have to figure out what retail price to set it to, taking into account the print price (which is LSI’s cut), the retailer’s cut (which is a minimum of 25% of the retail price), and whatever royalty you want. I believe there are some calculators floating around out there that can help on this (try searching on “book royalty calculator”).
They’ll put the ISBN on, you just have to provide it (they don’t have a “we’ll provide an ISBN for you” program).
As for the PDFs, that can get a bit tricky. You have to read the submission guidelines very closely, particularly for color saturation and other issues with CMYK color. NOTE that LSI is *not* for casual do-it-yourselfers: they’ll hold your hand through the process, but at a price of $40 a change or per half-hour. That can get a bit pricey. So you might want to hire a third party to help with the technical bits, or consider going with CreateSpace for your first book run – it’s sort of like LSI with training wheels, but the price of entry is cheap ($39 for the pro pricing model – don’t go the “free” route!) and their technical standards aren’t as demanding…
Hope that helps!