On-demand printing companies

[Indyhouse]

Does anyone know of an on-demand printing company (like Lulu, Cafepress) that will publish on-demand bundles of products? Like a book, with a CD, with a DVD and a workbook, all published on-demand and sent together?

The places I've found (lulu.com, cafepress, etc) does each separately but can't seem to find one capable of bundling different products together into one purchase.

Thanks for your help!

[kamakiri]

I can think of many places that will do 1,000 a week, but none that will only do a few for you.

There really is no justification for the added expense and hassle of using a company that will do that for you with low volume sales. Buy yourself a shrink wrapper, get a fedex account, and mail your product yourself once a week.

The 4HWW is about saving time, and in your case, you will save time by actually doing it yourself. Concentrate on your product. Make it the best in it's market. Get your marketing nutted, and hone your adwords. That is the 'low hanging fruit' of your muse, not finding a do it all and mail it with the kitchen sink company.

If you are insistent on having someone else do it, I will be happy to provide that service. Shipping from Japan is $33, and I would add a handling cost of $100 per bundle.

[Madmouse2]

I just found out that Amazon.com will do printing, DVDs and that kind of thing. Their print-on-demand company is at: http://www.createspace.com

I would think that they could bundle a couple of things and mail them together.

[Madmouse2]

Oops...I forgot to mention that they take about half of your profit, so that might not be the best option.

[Indyhouse]

I can think of many places that will do 1,000 a week, but none that will only do a few for you.

There really is no justification for the added expense and hassle of using a company that will do that for you with low volume sales. Buy yourself a shrink wrapper, get a fedex account, and mail your product yourself once a week.

The 4HWW is about saving time, and in your case, you will save time by actually doing it yourself. Concentrate on your product. Make it the best in it's market. Get your marketing nutted, and hone your adwords. That is the 'low hanging fruit' of your muse, not finding a do it all and mail it with the kitchen sink company.

If you are insistent on having someone else do it, I will be happy to provide that service. Shipping from Japan is $33, and I would add a handling cost of $100 per bundle.

Well these on-demand printers and duplicators are revolutionizing the self-publishing business. It's all they do -- make one-off copies of your products when people order them. It's perfect to test a niche market before getting a few thousand copies printed up that might just sit in your garage collecting dust (like the cassettes Tim talks about in his book).

So its not really like I'm trying to avoid work (though I am) by tracking down an "everything and the kitchen sick company", but that's what these companies EXIST for. It's their niche. All the major ones have said they will one day provide product bundling.

The book I'm working on right now will have a companion CD with it and rather than having people have to buy two items -- the book and then the CD -- I'd must rather them just buy one product that ships them both items. Lulu has been supposedly going to add this ability for over a year now, but so far its vapor.

As for shipping it myself, yes I can do that, but then that kind of goes agaist the idea of a muse. I currently have a book published through Lulu that I do -NO- work on whatsoever. But I still make money on it (not much). I want that same automated, set-it-and-forget it for this new book I'm working on.

I've decided what I will probably do is set up a section on my website where people can come and download the bonus materials that would be on CD, and just include instructions on how to get to that in book.

[Indyhouse]

Oops...I forgot to mention that they take about half of your profit, so that might not be the best option.

Yeah they are pretty pricey, especially if your sale is generated through Amazon.com, where their cut is more than 50%. That's crazy.

But, alas, they don't bundle yet. So my search continues.

[Dancemuse]

Yes, it is expensive. I am torn between using Createspace or another DVD dropshipper. Createspace/Amazon are pricey, but is it worth it to get the exposure on Amazon?

Has anyone else made this choice? How is it working out?

[kamakiri]

As for shipping it myself, yes I can do that, but then that kind of goes agaist the idea of a muse. I currently have a book published through Lulu that I do -NO- work on whatsoever. But I still make money on it (not much). I want that same automated, set-it-and-forget it for this new book I'm working on.

It doesn't go against the idea at all. A muse is something that will make you enough money to cover your monthly cash needs. They all take time to set up, and get operating effectively. There is no instant free lunch.

That is not my point though. You might just want to think about doing the work yourself until you have something actually set up (marketing, web site, effective customer contact methods...). You could find very quickly that attached DCs are dinosaurish (they are). Instead of taking the time to get them packaged and set up in a process that is behind the times, spending your time and energy on low hanging fruit will produce much better future results, or compound time.

Think about how much more effective a tag line like:

Free pod casts from out web site!
is over

CD attached - FREE jewel case too!

[Indyhouse]

It doesn't go against the idea at all. A muse is something that will make you enough money to cover your monthly cash needs. They all take time to set up, and get operating effectively. There is no instant free lunch.

That is not my point though. You might just want to think about doing the work yourself until you have something actually set up (marketing, web site, effective customer contact methods...). You could find very quickly that attached DCs are dinosaurish (they are). Instead of taking the time to get them packaged and set up in a process that is behind the times, spending your time and energy on low hanging fruit will produce much better future results, or compound time.

Think about how much more effective a tag line like:

Free pod casts from out web site!
is over

CD attached - FREE jewel case too!




Yeah, I still don't think you're seeing what I'm trying to do or looking for. CDs being bundled with books is not dinosaurish... this is a how-to programming book and if you go to any book store right now you will find companion CDs is just about every programming book available.

And actually a companion CD is the most requested feature owners of my current book have requested to be in my next one.

Plus I don't know why you are coming down on me saying i'm trying to find an "instant free lunch". I'm not. I'm already published, I already have a customer base of a few thousand people, already know the self-publishing process. I don't need schooled in low-hanging fruits and stuff.

I already have most of the up-front work done. I already have a distribution system for my previous book. I've already got a system operating efficiently. The advice you're giving me IS NOT WHAT I'M ASKING FOR. I was asking if anyone knew of a self-publishing company that had the ability to bundle a CD with your book.

Period. Anything beyond that I'm not interested in hearing at this point. This is the freakin' AUTOMATION board and I was looking for information TO AUTOMATE MY NEXT MUSE.

[webgal]

I know there is a demand for this. Not everyone wants to digest their info the same way. I wish I had an answer for you. I feel sure someone on here does.

[dking]

If you have already been published, why not just ask the publisher of the books you see what already have this feature?

And PM me the details, eh? I code for food..

[kamakiri]

Plus I don't know why you are coming down on me saying i'm trying to find an "instant free lunch". I'm not. I'm already published.

I am not coming down on you. Getting published is dime a dozen level. Making money off being published is an entirely different story.

I've already got a system operating efficiently. The advice you're giving me IS NOT WHAT I'M ASKING FOR. I was asking if anyone knew of a self-publishing company that had the ability to bundle a CD with your book.

Well, you might be asking the WRONG questions then.

[lovinglife]

This company does a CD in a book with on-demand printing http://www.infinitypublishing.com/additional-book-publishing-services/cd-in-a-book-program.html. I can't tell if they will do single orders to individuals or they supply book sellers and the author only.

[Indyhouse]

If you have already been published, why not just ask the publisher of the books you see what already have this feature?

Because so far I've been unable to find an on-demand publisher that offers this.

I'm currently self-published through Lulu.com. I make about $600-700 a month right now from my book sales, which is fine -- it pays most of our mortgage. After reading Tim's book, it kind of lit a fire under my butt to write a few more books and increase that $600-700 to a high enough number to pay all our bills and have some extra.

I LOVE on-demand self-publishing because my books are specialized and have a relatively small niche. I don't want to have to get 1,000 books made. My startup cost? Just the time to write and edit my first book.

Due to the fact that I'm in a small niche, I can charge more for the book ($89.95 to be exact), which was a price I was hesitant to use but after doing a survey among my newsletter subscribers, decided was fair. They agreed and I started sellign about 15 copies of my book every month, with a growing customer base.

So now I'm branching out. I'm confident that in a month or two I can have a muse in place that will cover all my living expenses and then some.

And back to why I like on-demand printing: It's no work for me, at all. Lulu handles printing, shipping, customer returns, everything. EVERYTHING. It didn't even cost my anything more than time to get started.

However, Lulu doesn't (yet) offer the ability to bundle their products together into one product though, which is why I came here asking in the first place.

[Indyhouse]

This company does a CD in a book with on-demand printing http://www.infinitypublishing.com/additional-book-publishing-services/cd-in-a-book-program.html. I can't tell if they will do single orders to individuals or they supply book sellers and the author only.

Awesome, thank you!! I can't believe they charge a $499 setup fee for a book and a $200 setup fee for the CD, though, but its a start. Maybe I can negotiate them down! :cool: