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When it comes to selecting a specific editor for your paperback book (and as I say, check again the Internet, you may find somebody new), you will need to consider different fundamental topics. For example, you may want to review the following:

• Manufacturing costs, which will be usually the price you can buy your own books at (removing all editor benefit and your royalty). This is important if you will buy your own production for later distribution, be it on the Internet or in a local shop. In case of eBooks, this could be related to file size, which implies electronic storage and delivery costs.
• Your margin as author, typically a percentage of the final selling price, or rather the “remaining part” after taking out manufacturing, delivery costs and editor commission.
• Available distribution channels where you want to market your book. Frequently, editors will have a direct channel to main online shops as Amazon or iTunes, but they may charge you some commission (either a fix quantity or a percentage on the book price) for data handling. Access to physical libraries and bookstores is usually charged, too, since the seller’s commission is also added.
• Available book formats, in case you have some special idea in mind (mostly for paper editions), out of standard print sizes, or maybe paper quality, binding…
• Book contents. It will be a very different process the production of a pocket paperback novel or a big-sized photo book. Some editors are specialized in a certain type of books.
• Editor’s support. Nowadays, most online editors include some manuals and how-to documents that will help you creating your final product. Some editors also include a forum where you may contact other authors.
• Professional services. If you don’t see yourself capable of doing some of the publishing steps (for example, cover creation), many editors will provide you with contacts to designers and publishing professionals, at reasonable rates.

In the end, decision is only yours. Depending on the type of book you are preparing, your target reader, the desired output quality… you may prefer working with one specific editor or the other, and this might change from a book to the next one.

Recommendation here could be to try different publishing platforms, if you do not come to a clear decision. However, we will see later on that royalties’ generation is a long run, and you may prefer to stick to a single editor…

If you just want to publish a single book, many of the above listed topics may not apply to you – then, decision is much easier…

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Did you like this post? It was adapted from the book "Online Publishing - do it yourself" that you may find on the main online stores...