I like to keep an eye on things, how various companies are reacting to the strange phenomena that is self-publishing. Some companies, like Amazon and B&N, seem to know what they’re doing. Some are dipping their toe into the water, like Sony. And then there’s some who exist to solely rip you off.
Everyone, let’s give a round of applause for the scam known as Border’s good friend, Bookbrewer.
Ignoring their joke of an ebook process, I’d like to specifically call out something I received an email about: their printing service. Yes, Bookbrewer is now doing print books, and oh what a deal. Their email to me even states: “We’ve done our research and we know that you can’t get this level of quality at this low price anywhere else.” Oh yes, the gauntlet has been THROWN. So let’s take a look.
First off, you have to have pay $49.99 per title. Kind of steep, but for fairness, I’m just going to equate this to the Pro Package at Createspace (which is technically optional). Though for Bookbrewer, this may not end up being much of a kindness, because when you see Pro rates at CS, it goes beyond laughable. This company is lying, flat out lying. Here’s their claim, sent to me in their email.
“Thanks to the cutting-edge digital presses we’re using, a 50-page book will cost only $4, and a 200-page book only $6 — with NO MINIMUM ORDER required! (Note: you’ll also have to pay for shipping – see the Terms, Conditions and Pricing for more details). We’ve done our research and we know that you can’t get this level of quality at this low price anywhere else.”
Wow. I should be able to double check this in seconds over at Createspace. Let’s take a look, shall we?
That didn’t take long. Funny. I see $5.50 there per book (and $3.25 with the Pro plan!). I think that’s lower than $6.00. With Pro plan (which is CHEAPER than the $49.99 you’ll pay to Bookbrewer) you’ll be saving $2.75 PER BOOK. Oh, but it gets so much better. See, you still have to pay shipping, that sneaky extra amount no one thinks about when they grab those one cent books on Amazon. So, what does shipping cost for this hypothetical 200 page novel? You can find this image here.
That. Is. Epic. I had to read this twice just to make sure. Yes, it really, truly does say that for each book you order, you’ll be paying that set amount. Bulk orders? Haha, they sure hope so. I still have a hard time believing it. But really, this is what it says below it on their website:
“An additional amount for shipping will be added for each title based on the page count (see chart above).”
So let’s do a comparison. I have a book at Createspace that is 224 pages (let’s just pretend it is 200, give Bookbrewer a little benefit of the doubt). Let’s pretend I want to order 10 copies. Not a crazy amount, right? Here’s what it would cost me from CreateSpace, shipping and all.
Slightly more than $4 a book. So how does Bookbrewer stack up? Well, let’s see here. 10 books x ($6.00 per copy + $5.00 shipping per copy) = $110. We’re almost talking triple the cost. Oh, and it gets even more ludicrous if you make the book longer. My book, A Dance of Cloaks, is 386 pages. Let’s see how it compares between these two companies.
Little more than $6.00 a book. Not too terrible a price. So now scroll up to that little Bookbrewer graphic, and let’s do some more math. I’ll even give them a helping hand (not that it’ll matter) and pretend the book is only 350 pages. $10.50 a copy. $10 shipping. Ready for the math?
$205, or $20.50 PER COPY.
This is a joke. A scam. A ripoff. A total and complete abuse of authors who don’t know what they’re doing. Listen, CreateSpace isn’t perfect. It can be difficult formatting your cover if you try to do it yourself, and you might make mistakes until you learn how to get the interior formatted right. But Bookbrewer is just flat out lying. They aren’t cheapest. They don’t even beat Createspace BEFORE the Pro Plan. They’re charging enough shipping to send a dead body through the mail. That Dance of Cloaks order is $7.90 shipping for CS, $100 for BB. Would you like to imagine ordering 20 copies? 50?
Last, a parting shot for their ludicrous e-book service. This is something Dan Pacheco, their founder and CEO, had to say about his company.
“In addition, we have increased post-retailer royalty payments to 95%, which is 10% better than the closest competitor. But thanks to our partnership with Borders, authors will now receive 100% of post-retail royalties for books sold on Borders.com…
You can see from our track record that our sole mission is to help new authors get published, be found and become a success. Our new pricing, which promises to give 95% of all royalties we receive (and 100% post-retail of those sold through our partner Borders) underscores this fact. We only make money when authors make money, and they will always make more than we do from their own books.”
That right there is the biggest lie of it all. They’re giving away practically all the royalties (which isn’t as much as you might think; I might mess about with that later. Michael Stackpole does a pretty good job of it, though, here.) The fact is that Bookbrewer does make money when authors don’t, and that’s every time they publish a book. You’re paying $39.99 per title on the low end (more if you get various other pointless features). You’re paying $49.99 to get a print version. You’re paying out the rear on shipping. But they try to justify it because they’re barely taking any scrap of your sales. Why?
They don’t expect you to sell. They don’t expect to be losing a single dime. So many self-published works will go up and sell maybe a three or four a month at a 99 cent price. There’s thousands of them. That’s who Bookbrewer is staring at with a big, drooling grin on its face. Stay away, far away. Go direct to Amazon. Use B&N’s Pubit service. Visit Smashwords. This is a scam that offers nothing, NOTHING useful to someone trying to make their self-publishing dreams come true.
*edit*
I’d also love to give this example of pBooks amazing print quality, surely matched nowhere else.
Check out that wonderful white frame around the cover of EVERY book. Doesn’t that just scream quality? Incredibly professional. Who cares what your cover image, white borders for everyone!
