Post by benziger on Mar 19, 2021 13:32:08 GMT
This post is about the probably greatest Print on demand service - for the German speaking world.
Yesterday my brother came to visit. He used to layout little books with scissors and glue sticks, copy them himself and staple them with Bostitch. Those days are over. Later he published on Lulu, but closed his account some time ago. He switched to Epubli. Why?
- Firstly, Epubli is backed by the Holtzbrinck Group. Holtzbrinck is one of the biggest German publishers and, through its majority stake in Macmillan, it is one of the big five in the English-speaking world. My brother suspects that this provides stability and longevity.
- Secondly, Epubli offers great service: posting books costs nothing. The ISBN is included. So is a voucher copy to the Deutsche Nationalbliothek in Leipzig and the annual entry in the VLB so that the books can be ordered in German bookshops.
- Thirdly, the trim sizes: Epubli not only offers a whole range of portrait formats, but also landscape sizes from small (DIN A6) over medium (DIN A5) to large (DIN A4).
What I see as less great:
- Firstly, the book is compulsorily published with an ISBN from Epubli. My own ISBN is not possible.
- Secondly, the site is only available in German. That's not a problem for me, but it clearly shows that no international expansion is being sought. This is also evident in the distribution. For German-speaking countries, VLB (brick-and-mortar bookshops), Amazon and the bar retailers KNV and Umbreit with the online shops Thalia, Hugendubel, Weltbild and Mayersche are great. For other language areas, however, this is not really recommended.
