Well the question is not so much about the content of the book but about the legal aspects of it.
I own a website with fairly decent traffic. It so happens that more and more of our visitors have asked us to write a book, which is been edited at the moment. We plan to use CafePress’ Print On Demand services. BUT… we have no idea what copyright really is all about.
So… How do we know somebody else will not come along and say we stole his/her book? Do we need a lawyer, or do we need to submit it to some organization?
That’s a pretty complicated topic, and one should should bring up with a lawyer who specializes in copyright. I don’t want to give legal advice, but for simple copyright, just make sure the book has the appropriate notices. In fact, by law, I’m not sure you even need them anymore, but it’s always best. Check out the Chicago Manual of Style. They have a section on copyright that should answer most of your questions.
As for publishing POD, I recommend it, if it’s done right. I (we) just published our first novel (I’m not the author) and we have several more on the way. But I can tell you one thing, you should research your POD companies. The CafePress website is down, so I can’t look at them, but check that you’re getting a good price. We’re an actual publishing company (which is easy to do) so we bought our own batch of ISBN numbers. In addition, we were able to work with bigger POD companies than only work with publishers. As an example, we were just about ready to go with a particular POD company that was going to force us to charge about $19 for a mass paperback book. But we found out that this company (and in fact most POD companies) actually send their work to a larger company. We skipped the middle man and went straight to them (since we’re also a pub company). We were able to put a $12.95 cover price on a trade paperback (not mass market–trades usually cover for $12-$16).
Anyway, I’m sure you’ve done your research, but if you haven’t, make sure you do. And again, check the Chicago Manual of Style for copyright questions. They also have excellent advice on setting up your whole copyright page as well as other sections of your book. The CMS just released their 15th edition this month.
SpaceForRent – you did your homework. Nearly all POD publishers go to an outfit called Lightning Press, which does the actual POD publishing. If you can get Lightning Press to do your work (they limit their clientele), you are maximizing your chances of success.
Mighty_Girl – I have no direct experience with Cafe Press, but they seem to be the best way to go. Their prices aren’t completely out of line with other books, and you have much more control than the other electronic vanity presses.
Now as far as copyright is concerned, the news is less good. Technically, the people writing the comments own copyright and you must get their permission to use them. What you should have done was to do what the SDMB does:
Thus, if they wish to publish “The Best of the SDMB,” they can do so without asking further permission.
You can add such a notice to your website and you’d be in the clear for any messages posted after you put it up. However, those posted before are problematic – the writer can say they never agreed to having their words turned over ex post facto. Ultimately, unless you ask permission, you’re in a vulnerable position.
The burden of proof is on the person who claims you violated his or her copyright, not on you. That person must prove that his or her work preceded your work. So register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office. It’s easy (fill out a two-page form, and return it with two copies of your work and the registration fee).
I think it’s Lightning Source, but yes, that’s who we use. Our account rep is actually kind of a pain, but we’re very happy with the results. And the prices are fantastic. But they only work with actual publishing companies.
As for your copyright comments, you’re probably right. Might_Girl, what kind of book are you publishing? Is it a collection of posts to your site? Or something else?
Mighty_Girl, I finally got on to CafePress’ site. They’re a touch on the expensive side. Most likely, the do in fact outsource their POD work. For a standard mass market paperback (they call it grocery store paperback) at 300 pages, you’re looking at $16 per book just from them. Now you can get a Trade Paperback for the same price, which improves things a little. But Trades usually cover price for $12 - $16. You would barely break even at $16, so you’d probably have to charge a few dollars more. Not completely unreasonable, though. I would certainly recommend you print a 5x8 perfect bound book (maybe a little larger).
Anyway, I don’t know what kind of book you’re doing, so you may be fine. CafePress seems a little more reasonable than many of the POD companies we researched.
Our website is about Dominican cooking. Dominican culinary culture to be precise. We (The Three Aunts) will not use anyone’s material but our own, which is original.
As it is there isn’t enough people interested to get a deal from a printer and we are not about to invest any money on this for now.
If it’s your own stuff, then copyright shouldn’t be an issue. Go for POD. CafePress is reasonable, if a touch expensive. Go for a larger sized book and you’ll be fine. I didn’t catch what their fees were, but it shouldn’t be more than $100-$200, which isn’t bad, considering what the cost would be for offset printing.
As a comparison, and not to get too far OT, but the first book we published was a children’s hardback, only about 20 pages or so. We went with traditional offset printing. The initial run was for 2000 books, so the cost, including paying the artist, ran around 14k. We lost a bundle on it. We recently published a novel in trade paperback using POD. We paid about $180, but only that much because we decided to redo to change the size. Normally would have cost about $100. We figured we only needed to sell about 40 books to break even, which was no problem.
I think the main factor for pricing your book will be page count. And also your cover (i.e. do you need to pay a cover artist). But go for it! Publishing is exciting. And if your readers are willing to buy the book, the chance of you losing money are small.
Let me know if you have any more specific questions.
CafePress doesn’t charge anything in advance. They take the cost off any book sold. If we don’t sell any book we wouldn’t have wasted anything but time and braincells. And we won’t hire an artist. I am a designer myself, the other two “Aunts” are the professional writer and editor respectively.
I was most concerned about copyright than anything else.
Wow, that’s a good deal if CafePress doesn’t charge in advance. Nice.
In that case, I just recommend reading through the Chicago Manual of Style (or another Manual of Style) in their copyright section. It should answer most all your questions.