Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Publisher's Office [Public] => Topic started by: R. C. on July 27, 2025, 10:28:24 PM
-
I searched and didn't find this topic.
The reviews are all over the map. DiggyPOD (https://www.diggypod.com/) for printing services, yeah or nay?
R.C.
-
I've never used or heard of them. But quick glance shows pricing at $125 per book. You can buy Vellum for $250 for as many books as you like, and get a used Mac or virtual program for Mac use. You could even check out Atticus. Unless you're only publishing one book, I don't follow the reason for paying for printing and formatting services. But I didn't probe look much further into this company, tbh.
-
I don't see any immediate red flags about the company. Alhawke is correct, however, that the price seems a bit high. Atticus will do formatting for unlimited books for $149, even cheaper than Vellum. If formatting is your primary concern, there may be better options.
That said, I suppose you could compare the options in detail to see if DiggyPod has something you can't get from other alternatives. Each one is different. (By the way, the Atticus comparison chart for Vellum is misleading. Vellum has added some of the features Atticus says it doesn't have, and it can do things Atticus can't.)
-
I've never used or heard of them. But quick glance shows pricing at $125 per book. You can buy Vellum for $250 for as many books as you like, and get a used Mac or virtual program for Mac use. You could even check out Atticus. Unless you're only publishing one book, I don't follow the reason for paying for printing and formatting services. But I didn't probe look much further into this company, tbh.
I'm not sure the $125 is accurate...
I checked here (https://www.diggypod.com/book-printing/price-and-cost/) and here (https://www.diggypod.com/book-printing-quote.html), the pricing is comparable to other services.
R.C.
-
I was looking at their formatting services. I didn't realize you were looking for distribution.
POD seems to still be expensive--unless you sell more than 50 copies. $4.35 per 50 page book for first 50 copies. Most Indie writers won't do down on price because they don't sell more than 50 copies. Sad but true. Looking up Amazon, Amazon charges me about $3.74 for one of my 250 page books. But Ingram charges more. Maybe they use Ingram services? A lot of POD services funnel through Ingram.
Why are you checking DiggyPOD out? Do they offer services not available through the usual common companies: Ingram, Amazon, D2D, Bookvault, and Lulu?
-
I second the questions. Are you planning to hand sell your print books? I would caution you that if you do not already have a solid game plan for doing so, there's little reason to buy printing in bulk from a printer. Amazon or Ingram will print your book for you as needed, one book at a time. You will find typos and they can be corrected quickly and you won't be stuck with stock that has discovered errors.
As for paying for formatting, I always do, because I have zero interest in doing the formatting myself. A price of $125 for formatting one book in multiple applications (pdf, epub, epub for Kindle) is not outrageous. If you need names, I have several.
-
As for paying for formatting, I always do, because I have zero interest in doing the formatting myself. A price of $125 for formatting one book in multiple applications (pdf, epub, epub for Kindle) is not outrageous. If you need names, I have several.
D2D does it for free.
The only thing they don't do is colour.
-
....
Why are you checking DiggyPOD out? Do they offer services not available through the usual common companies: Ingram, Amazon, D2D, Bookvault, and Lulu?
...
Amazon or Ingram will print your book for you as needed, one book at a time. You will find typos and they can be corrected quickly and you won't be stuck with stock that has discovered errors.
....
I'm good enough at formatting that the print copies I have ordered are decent. The questions about formatting are my effort to take the quality of the final product to the next level.
I don't sell or plan to sell directly, I like to have books available to gift when people ask. 'Zon is the cheapest printer I've found. It's prudent to look for alternatives and, possibly, help the smaller businesses. With each effort at publication, I am less fond of the 'Zon and my opinion was already low...
R.C.
-
Amazon is definitely the company we all love to hate. It screws up or uses suboptimal practices a lot. But it does have a huge audience, and it is the only reason self-publishing as we know it exists in the first place.
Your actual mileage may vary, but indie authors sell far more ebooks than they do print books. With a minimum print run of 24, it will probably take you quite a while to sell all of them. With Amazon (and probably some other options), you're dealing with genuine POD that doesn't require a minimum quantity. That is usually pricier than offset. But here, offset seems to be more expensive. $5.28 for a 16 page book? I can get an Amazon print price of $2.37 for my 116 page novella (which is 6 X 9, a size that would push the per book price to $5.60). Speaking of which, we ought to talk about why the quote calculator doesn't enable you to change the number of pages (and spine width). I thought maybe that was a glitch on Chrome, but on Firefox, the page does the same thing. Is this a ploy to force you to call customer service just to get an accurate quote? Anyway, you probably get some reduction on price per page as the book gets longer, but enough to compensate for the increased number of pages? Probably not. So we're looking at something that becomes substantially more expensive than Amazon.
Also, did anyone else notice the extra shipping charges? As far as I can tell, paperback distribution is done by the author. The books get shipped to you, and you need to ship to distributors. I know, that sounds insane. But searching for paperbook book distribution gets results for book printing and a couple of 2018 blog entries that talk, among other things, about how to arrange for publication on Barnes and Noble (as well as a weird description of seller accounts on Amazon, as if KDP didn't exist, which it did by that point).
When one adds in shipping costs, the per-unit cost goes even higher. (Note the cheap ground shipping rates apply only to orders of 100 or more.) The situation reminds me of the pre-self-publishing horror stories of people whose garages are filled with books they can't unload. In this scenario, you can at least get rid of them--for a ****ton of extra shipping charges. And then some distributors might charge fees over time for warehousing inventory for you.
It sounds to me as if DiggyPod is taking a process that is simple on Amazon or Ingram and making it several orders of magnitude more complicated and expensive.
With Amazon, you have no upfront costs for printing or shipping. Print costs get deducted from your royalty share, but you never pay anything out of pocket. And the print costs appear to be far cheaper.
Ingram has really good distribution. Amazon has okay distribution (not much bookstore possibility, for example). DiggyPod appears to have DIY distribution for print books.
Many people recommend Ingram for expanded distribution and Amazon for Amazon only. Being lazy about that, I just use Amazon. But indies who actually get significant presence in bookstores are rare, regardless of distribution, and almost all of my sales are on Amazon, even though I have their expanded distribution option. Writers need to experiment to find the best fit for them.
Anyway, DiggPod seems cumbersome at best--or am I missing something?
-
...
Anyway, DiggPod seems cumbersome at best--or am I missing something?
I think your points are valid and well considered. 'Zon is the Gorilla, is easy, and less painful. They're the 'Zon for a reason...
R.C.
-
Just wanted to add to Tim's point about formatting. D2D does basic formatting, nothing fancy, but it's free and it's certainly good enough for most needs. If you pay a formatter, you can have control over many elements, including making changes. If you are a formatter yourself, you can control even more, but all the responsibility for getting the file right is on you.