Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I turn a book manuscript into a paperback book with little fuss and no setup fee.

A few years ago I published a book with iUniverse. I enjoyed that experience with in self publishing or publish on demand. The package with iUniverse cost me $200, and I sold enough books to cover that expense. The book was one done for family and friends, so it all worked well.

I recently complete a manuscript of a book on systems engineering. I have put that online for free download as a PDF file. I wanted to have that book in the standard, paperback book form. The 6″x9″ paperback book is just plain handy at times.

For the past six months I have looked at various publish-on-demand sites. I stumbled on FastPencil.com. There are two things I love about FastPencil:

1. no setup fee
2. quick publish an existing PDF book

All I had to do was

• reformat my manuscript to 6″x9″ paper
• convert that to a PDF
• create a FastPencil account
• upload my 6″x9″ PDF
• create a front cover and a back cover
• click the right buttons online

And so now I can buy paperback book copies of my manuscript for $8 in low quantities (including shipping costs). Again, I love that I didn’t have to pay several hundred dollars for setup and that FastPencil would accept a PDF book. A number of publish-on-demand houses limit the number of figures and things like that – no such limits with FastPencil.

Now I have to wait until the ten copies I bought arrive at the house. I’ll report on the quality of the binding, paper, and such at that time.