My Experience with Xulon Press, a Christian Print-On-Demand Self-Publishing Company

Xulon Press, today a part of Salem Communications, is a Christian print-on-demand publisher. I have been working with Xulon since 2003, when I had chosen to self-publish with them the first book of my Christian fantasy trilogy. Later on, I proceeded to release books 2 and 3 with Xulon as well, in 2004 and 2006 respectively. My experience with this company has been mostly good, with some slight disappointments mixed in as well.

Xulon's policies and rates have changed several times since 2003, so I will not be able to tell you exactly how much I had paid and what exactly was included in my publishing packages simply because I do not remember. However, the basic principles of how Xulon Press works have stayed the same. You send your manuscript and payment - Xulon does your book layout and creates a cover design - the materials are sent to you for approval - the book goes to press and gets listed with online booksellers like Amazon.

Your book is stored digitally (as a computer file), with copies printed only when orders come in - that's what "print-on-demand" means. Xulon handles printing and shipping. You get your royalties off of every book sold. Sales reports and royalties are supposed to be sent out every quarter (I will say more about that later).

Authors tired of playing the Waiting Game with big publishers will appreciate Xulon's fast production: it only takes 90 days from the moment you send in your manuscript to see your book in print. That's one of the reasons I had chosen to publish my books this way. Another reason is distribution, handling and shipping: Xulon Press takes care of it all, from assigning your book an ISBN number to listing it with major book distributors like Spring Arbor. Basically, they make your book available to order from any bookstore (brick & mortar) and major online stores. I did not want to deal with that myself, so I was glad Xulon offered these services.

Note that making the book available to order from any store does not mean actually placing it on store shelves. If a customer asks for your book, the store personnel will be able to look it up in their computer system and place an order; that's all. Promotion, marketing and getting your books into bookstores will be your sole responsibility. While Xulon does offer some marketing services, I have found them to be not very effective.

Another thing I like is that the author is not required to buy any amount of their books. Xulon will even send you some free copies, and if you do want more you can purchase them with a good author's discount. There is no required minimum, if you only want 5 or 10 books that's fine.

Xulon Press does not edit the book unless you pay additionally for their editing service, so if you choose not to use it you'd better make sure your manuscript is proofread by several people. I have some embarrassing typos in my first book because I thought it was enough to proofread it myself several times. It wasn't.

When it comes to production, I have experienced some minor problems. My first book's cover design is not exactly what I'd like it to be. While Xulon's artists do listen to the author's suggestions regarding the book cover and try to follow them as close as possible, in this particular case they just did not have a suitable stock photo to use. Having learned from this experience, I had found my own models for books 2 and 3, took photos and sent them to the publisher. Xulon used my images and followed my other directions, so the books turned out very well.

Another problem I had was a half-page of gibberish text inserted in the end of book 3 of my trilogy. This was easily corrected after I sent back my book galleys and requested the mistake to be removed.

Xulon Press sticks to its promise to have your book done in 90 days. However, when it comes to the quarterly royalty payments, I am sorry to say that delays are quite common. The payments were timely at first, but then as the company grew and had more book titles to deal with, royalty payments began to come in late. The matter had gotten even worse after Xulon Press was bought out by Salem Communications. As I write this in early October, I am still waiting for my royalty check that was supposed to be mailed out in mid August. Of course, it is frustrating. My online complaint to Salem so far remains unanswered.

Despite these minor problems, I would say working with Xulon Press has been a positive experience. I have achieved my goal of publishing my trilogy. The books are of good quality, they are returnable, which is very important for bookstore placement; they are being purchased and read. I don't have to worry about them going out of print, either.