Book Binding Primer for Self Publishers

First time self publishers often seem to get hung up on what book cover they need for their first book. In almost every case we hear first time self publishers who want their books to be published in hardcover. That is, until they hear the price. Hardcover books are great, they are the premium of the book world, they last forever, look great and ooze quality - but - they are expensive. If you are a self publisher and you are paying the bill and a batch of say only 500 books is costing you say $20 each (plus shipping) you can easily be starting off with a bill of $10,000.00  No small sum to get started.

Hardcover versus Softcover
Compare that to a minimum book order of soft cover books, same size same quality, with a color cover, but now we can print a minimum of only 25 books, and now the price is only $5.00 per book for a total price of only $125.00  Now doesn't that sound a bit more comfortable. Thats the kind of issues we see on a daily basis. What I tell first time self publishers is this. Before you invest $10,000 in a book that you don't even know how well it is going to sell, first try out a few books in softcover to see how they go ... then, if they sell like crazy and you really want to make the investment, go for the hard cover books.