BookBaby ebook conversion service

There's an existing thread about BookBaby in our e-publishing room. I'll merge this thread into that one.

NJLIBRARIAN said:

What are people's experiences with Bookbaby?
I couldn't find anythiing from the Better Business Bureau or Editor and Preditors?
Thank you

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We've been using them since early 2011 for several titles, without major problems -- we upload ePubs, they get distributed, we get paid. I haven't tried any of their other services such as ePub formatting or cover design; we prefer to create everything in-house.

The fees clearly do come across as expensive, but you must set that against what you'd be paying to a distributor that takes a percentage. Also, as a non-US publisher, using a pure distributor like BookBaby means that we're not liable to withholding tax, since payments to us are for sales rather than being classed as royalties.

My main gripe with BookBaby is that they can be painfully slow and imprecise when responding to queries. For example, despite pestering by email and on their Facebook page, I have yet to get a clear, consistent answer about what percentages their various distributors take, and exactly which distributors are Agency/Non-Agency.

With a strong seller on Amazon/Kindle, these issues are important (because if you list with, say, B&N who is non-Agency and who discounts, then price-matching at Amazon can easily cost you more than you gain from the B&N sales).

Having had numbers of BookBaby emails, it has been an interesting thread.

Knowing little, but being a dreamer, it can be alluring. Having others with more experience comment, why I enjoy coming back to this Forum.

So it sounds kind of like Smashwords but with a flat fee instead of a percentage royalty? Might not be a bad deal, actually.

I like BookBaby. I'm an old lady of 55 and don't know squat abt formatting, etc. It was worth it to me, to have everything done correctly, inc, the cover. I have 5 e-books available, yes, royalties too!

It isn't entirely a flat fee at $20 per book per year.

Which is why I will be going for a flat fee-only service instead.

Book Baby?

Had any experience with this "self-help" outfit?

They lost me at the (easy to miss, small font) $19 annual fee. It may be not be a huge amount, but I am never a fan of that approach. I would rather they set the book up and then leave it to me to look after it.

BEA ad

I just got an e-mail from BEA (Book Expo America) about a contest Book Baby were running. Here's the grand prize (to give you an idea of their pricing):

• BookBaby — Premium eBook Publishing Package (A $249 value!)
• BookBaby Print — 300 Books, Deluxe Cover Design, Interior Formatting (A $3,000 value!)
• HostBaby — 12 Months Web Hosting (A $199 value!)
• BEA Trip — BEA Passes, Transportation, Hotel, Book Signing (A $4,000 value!)
• IndieReader.com — Interview & Review (A $500 value!)
• Circle of Seven — Book Trailer Production/Distribution (A $2,000 value!)
• Smith Publicity — Press Release, Media Blast (through Net Galley),
  Publicity Consultation (A $3,000 value!)
• BookDisplays.com — CityStand Book Stands (A $80 value!)
• JKSCommunications — 15-Date Virtual Book Tour (A $1,750 value!)
• PR Newswire — Web Reach Plus Release Distribution (A $400 value!)
• PR by the Book — Social Media Consultation (A $900 value!)
• Total Prize Value: $16,078

If anyone is interested in entering, I'll edit this post with the URL it takes you to.

The other thing that crossed my mind is I'm wondering how much BEA charged them to solicit their attendee list.

Ineti said:

That $19 annual fee is a terrible deal for any writer. A writer should be able to either do the formatting themselves or hire someone at a flat fee to do it. I'd encourage writers to not pay a royalty or an ongoing fee to anyone for services, be it formatting, a cover, etc.

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I don't think that a yearly fee is to bad. If a website publish my ebook to over 20 ebook stores and I have only one account to look at to receive all the money and to pay me out once the deal is not bad. Do you have time to handle 20 or more accounts of different ebook stores?

I think the fee is pretty bad for the average, low volume, seller. It might be a good choice for a high volume seller.

I am just not impressed at how hard they make it for users to even notice the fee is being charged until after they sign up. I think transparency is a good thing and more companies should provide it.

Transparency is good. What do you think if there would be an aggregator for ebooks like tunecore for cd's? What makes me nerveous on all the aggregators is that they have ugly websites so I do not trust them or they have tons of text and information I do not want to read. I want to have it simple and if I need more services I can order it but firs I want upload and sell to all channels. For that I would also pay a yearly fee. I compared now over 10 different sites and I am not happy with all of them.
Most of them looks shady and I do not feel like they are here to help me but only to get my money.

Any new updates? I see they now have a free service if you upload your already verified ePub.

Question about a certain e-book self publishing company

Hello, I am brand new here, and I have a question to ask,though granted it might have been asked before. I did check the forums, but found nothing on it, so I wanted your opinion. Since my budget is minimal to zero, I opted to go for an e-book publisher named BookBaby that distributed my novel to all online stores i could care to. I won't bore you with any other details, but what I'd really like to ask is if this particular company is any good. (I only paid them to distribute my novel, and turn it into e-book) Thanks in advance for any information

I couldn't find a thread in the Bewares & Background Checks Forum about this company either, so I did a little GoogleSleuthing. Here's really good, in-depth article about them from December of last year, which might be just what you're looking for. It's a little late now, of course, since you've already paid for the service, but it might help other people decide. The short version is: you'll need to sell a bunch of books to make it worth the price, but they appear to do what they promise. Good luck.

The issue is you have to pay a fee per book per year, regardless of whether the book is selling. Plus you're paying this on top of the per sale fees at the retailers. This will make it expensive to keep the book up if it's not selling, and makes it harder to build up the number of books you have available.

It's not a good option for a budget of zero. Doing everything yourself takes longer, but it's much cheaper with a higher profit margin. It also means you keep full control.