Indie-publishing is transforming traditional publishing and bring new ‘flavors’ to what is available to be read and how books are created. As an Independent author you have both a lot of control and a lot of responsibility for your book and the publishing process.
Print-on-Demand is the most cost effective way to get your book distributed world wide. A book created on Amazon KDP ( https://kdp.amazon.com/ ) or Ingram Spark ( https://www.ingramspark.com ) is almost immediately available online. Books distributed by Ingram Spark will be available in many book stores (World Wide!) for special order.
Color pages Print on demand printing for color pages provides the same advantages in that it too gets world wide distribution online with royalties for online sales sent directly to the author. But the color printing options are more limited than traditional printers and the price per page is substantially more than non-color printing. Sheridan ( https://www.sheridan.com/ ) out of Grand Rapids, MI prints high quality full color books at reasonable prices.
Book design – Amazon and Ingram offer online tool to design you own book. The result can be good with some effort. But the book design is limited to the platform that it is created on.
Marketing – While Amazon and Ingram can get you book online and available world wide, It is really up to you to market your book.
Some things to consider.
1. Because Print-on-Demand (POD) is a technological and internet based process, the Author or some one they are working with needs to have a good working ability to do things on line such as filling out forms, managing online accounts, and uploading files.
2. People do judge a book by its cover. A good cover design can sell books.
3. Both Amazon and Ingram have online tools to help an author to do the page layout and cover design for their book.
4. Amazon is probably the worlds largest book seller but not everyone loves Amazon. Some indie-authors prefer Ingram Spark because they get international and online distribution ( including listing on Amazon) without being printed by Amazon.
5. ISBN - International Standard Book Number. The ISBN is the thirteen digits long identifier used for identifying a specific book and format of that book. Both Amazon,Ingram Sparkand others offer free in-house ISBN numbers. If you use their free ISBNs, the book publisher is the owner of the ISBN – not you. If you purchase your ISBN for your book you have more flexibility in where you get the book printed The listed putblisher will be you. ISBNs in the US are supplied by Bowker ( https://www.myidentifiers.com/ )
6. Author copies – books you buy to sell directly. As a print-on-demand author, you can purchase any amount of author copies at printing cost. Unlike traditional printers there is no minimum purchase and no discount for buying more books than you need.