Advantages, Disadvantages of Self-Publishing with Lightning Source

I would like to share our experience with Lightning Source, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages. Recently, my wife and I recently self-published a gluten-free cookbook. Some of the advantages we discovered by self-publishing with them:

Advantages

One advantage is since they are associated with Ingram (one of the largest book companies); they are easily able to take care of distribution to online books stores such as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Another advantage is how quickly they do print on demand (POD); that is, when a book is ordered is printed within hours and shipped directly to the customer, without any intervention from you, the writer and publisher.

Another nice feature about Lightning Source is that they not only take care of order fulfillment, but they also deduct costs for printing, shipping, and taxes (if necessary). They calculate your profit on each sale make, paying you by check or direct deposit depending on your preference.

Determining your publisher compensation is also a plus: you can get an accurate, up to date information of how much you made by accessing their "publishing compensation" report.

Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages to publishing with Lightning Source, however.

One disadvantage we have experience with their compensation policies. They delay payment until a minimum in sales is met and do not pay out as quickly as you might expect. Publisher Compensation (your compensation as a publisher/author) is paid ninety (90) days from report end date following their month end close schedule. They also have a minimum check writing balance of $25.00, therefore sales payments are not sent until sales accumulate to the minimum $25.00. For example, sales in July are not paid out until November and only if a $25 minimum in sales has been met. The only way to do away with $25 minimum payout is to set up direct deposit with Lightning Source.

Waiting until nearly Thanksgiving for sales made during the Independence Day month is a very long time to wait for payment, especially if you have put out a lot in book promotion expenses to make those sales way back in July. It has forced us to greatly limit our budget in promoting our book since cash flow is delayed so long.

Another disadvantage is that returns - when a customer decides they don't want your book and send it back - can affect that payment amount (that you have waited so long to receive).

Still another disadvantage is that many of the extras such as formatting, editorial review, book promotion, etc. available with other book companies are either not available or involve incurring extra charges to you the author/publisher.

Conclusion

We recommend using Lightning Source as long as you keep in mind their payment policies and have a good idea about the content and format for your book. Our experience has been that their printing speed has lived up to their name and they are able to fulfill customer orders very quickly. However, if you need editorial assistance or promotion help, you may want to consider a competitor.