Review of AuthorHouse

I thought I'd take a moment to give a short review of what I thought of AuthorHouse's services. As you all know, they're the Print On Demand company through which I published Portal to the Gods.

As far as POD publishers go, I thought they were wonderful. I really have no complaints about how AuthorHouse functioned within their industry. They were wonderful to work with. They were helpful at every turn. They took my (somewhat lackluster) artwork and made a great cover. The galley looked really good. Everything moved along on a pretty good timetable. I pretty much got everything that I asked for.

My mistake was in choosing to do Print on Demand in the first place for a fantasy novel. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great (albeit expensive) technology and really fills a much needed niche. When I get around to writing my family geneaology book, I will DEFINITELY use AuthorHouse again. Also, I have a nonfiction book on step-parenting that I plan to write in the future and may be inclined to self-publish through AuthorHouse. But it was a mistake to publish Portal to the Gods there.

The problem lies in the per unit cost. I was hoping to be able to buy copies for around $5 each. To do this P.O.D., I'll have to buy 2000 copies. Otherwise my per book cost is around $9. Geez...I can't afford $10,000 for 2000 books that I may not be able to sell. As it stands, who is going to buy a writer's first fantasy novel for $15 bucks? That's what I'd have to charge to be able to even GET it into a bookstore and make maybe a dollar for myself.

But it was a great learning process. It is one thing to have a manuscript typed up in a word document, but it is something else entirely to see it printed and bound. It was a wonderful experience.