Print-on-demand printing is technology that allows our authors to sell their books globally without having to fulfill orders through their own physical inventory of books. When you sign up for one of our Managed Distribution options, Tellwell sets your book up with Ingram, which makes it available to thousands of different online retailers such as Amazon, Chapters, Barnes & Noble, etc.
Each retailer can decide whether or not they list your book, but the most popular retailers that our authors typically see listing their books online are Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, and Barnes & Noble.
Print-on-demand means that when someone orders your book online, a single copy is printed and then shipped to the customer. This technology is especially great for indie/self-published authors, because they don't have to invest anything up-front to build up an inventory of printed books. Instead, the author sets a suggested retail price, from which the distributor will retain a fixed amount to cover their cost of producing the book, the retailer will take a percentage in exchange for listing the book, and the author will earn the remainder as their royalty, each time a book is sold. For more information on how royalties are calculated, click here.
Ingram will usually be the company to print, ship, and fulfill those orders; however, authors also have the option of purchasing the Enhanced Amazon service, where Tellwell will set their book up for print-on-demand distribution through KDP, so that paperback orders placed through Amazon will be printed and fulfilled by Amazon itself. Click here to learn more about the pros and cons associated with this option.
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