Xlibris, the print-on-demand and publishing services vendor, will publish about 4,000 books this year and reports a 50%—70% growth in revenues over last year. Much like other large POD subsidy publishers such as iUniverse and FirstBooks—vendors that publish books for a fee but print copies only when a title is purchased—Xlibris publishes a phenomenal number of titles of wildly varying quality without much expectation that anyone will buy them.
Nevertheless, book publishing for a fee is booming, said John Feldcamp, president of Xlibris—"there's great volume and great general growth." Feldcamp told PW that Xlibris is "basically" profitable, noting that the company had achieved "pro forma profitability." He also announced that Xlibris has now paid out $1 million in royalties to the 9,000 or so writers who have used the service since it was founded in 1997.
But that statistic also indicates the biggest problem facing POD publishers. Feldcamp is quick to acknowledge that finding people with manuscripts who'll pay to print them is not a problem. But finding consumers who will buy those books is another question entirely. The bestselling books at Xlibris sell 2,000 to 4,000 copies, Feldcamp said, while the vast majority sell no more than about 150. And while POD publishers frantically try to provide programs to help their authors market and promote their books—usually but not always for an additional fee—Feldcamp acknowledged, "some things work and lots don't."
Books that do break the 2,000-copy mark, said Feldcamp, "almost always land somewhere with a major book publisher." But it's all "serendipity," he said, a combination of determined authors and the timing of sensational public events. "It's not absolute quality that drives interest in books. Right now, we've got a book on NASA and safety," said Feldcamp. "The author's been on TV and the book is moving to a major publisher. This happens fairly often. But we're still in the Stone Age when it comes to making this happen."
POD vendors, said Feldcamp, are good at distribution, printing and packaging and do a bad job at editorial quality and marketing. "We need a marketing factory to go along with our publishing factory. But we're years away from a real solution," he said. The key to any POD book's success, he continued, remains a "serious author and a bundle of net-connected friends interested in his subject. We give serious authors a platform and an opportunity by putting a book in print."
Feldcamp also noted that a number of Xlibris titles "have landed at Random House," an Xlibris investor and board member. But he's quick to downplay the Random House connection, also describing the acquisition of those titles as serendipity. Random House, he said, "brings stability and support to our board, but we've got to make this work ourselves." He estimated that it costs most publishers about $5 a page to publish a book. "Xlibris can do the whole book for $50. We're the scrappy, cost-conscious entrepreneurs, and Random is interested in learning to use technology to be more efficient. They're looking at the long term," he said.
Feldcamp estimated that somewhere around 100,000 books of all kinds were published in the U.S. last year. Thanks to POD technology, he said, 200,000 titles in a year is fast approaching. "We need a micro-marketing strategy. If we can figure this out, books won't even be the most important product to benefit. You'll be able to use it to sell anything."
