One Book at a Time FAQs
Or someone has probably already asked that question
Here are answers to questions our customers have asked in the past. We’ve organized it in sections to make it easier to find the answers you’re looking for. Can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Give us a call!
Starting Out
One Book at a Time is a printer, and we work with many self-publishers like yourself. We have services and advice that many of our customers use to make it easier to self-publish.
Our best advice is to think ahead. Some questions to ask yourself are, who is your audience for this book? Do you want to sell it, or just give it away? How would you like to get your book into readers’ hands? Just hand it out? Fulfill through our online bookshop? Approach your local bookstore about carrying it? Libraries? Amazon?
What makes a good cookbook is going to be a little different than creating an interesting autobiography. Size? Length? Our experience with a wide range of books may provide some helpful thoughts and insights. Check out some helpful tips regarding the specific genre of book you are creating here.
Also, you don’t want to forget there will be some extra pages in there for things like copyright pages, indexes, forewords, and dedications. Writing your text in MS Word? You can get your document’s word count under “Tools”.
Yes, it’s good to protect the book you’ve worked so hard on. Fortunately, copyrighting your work is not hard to do. A copyright is automatically established when the work is created. Just place a notice on the copyright page of your book. Write either “copyright” or use the little copyright symbol along with the first year of publication, and your name. Voila! You’re protected! To make it even more secure, many experts recommend also registering your work with the copyright office of the government. Read more under our How-Tos section.
Yes. The good news? It’s free! Before publishing, you need to get a PCN number (Preassigned Control Number) in order for your book to be distributed to libraries. More good news: This sometimes results in greater awareness of your book from people who would not have otherwise known about it. Here’s where to go to get it: https://www.loc.gov/publish/pcn/
An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a specific 13-digit number that identifies your book in the commercial marketplace. In order to sell your book in a bookstore, or online (Amazon) or even get it into a library, your book must have an ISBN number connected to it. If you choose to only make your book available in our One Book Fulfillment Center, then no ISBN number is required. Get more info about ISBN here and how One Book at a Time can help you get one.
Pricing
Yes, hardcover books take more time and effort to create. Materials are also more costly. However, it may surprise you how inexpensive a hardcover book can be! Use ASAP Price Quote form to see for yourself. Want a very large quantity, or to create a more unique book? Just as the name of the price quote says, we’ll get back to you ASAP! Still have questions? Give us a call.
Yes, the cost of labor and materials is more.
Yes, because we use state of the art digital printers, you can print pages in either black and white or color in whatever order your choose.
Once you get your estimate, there shouldn’t be any additional charges. However, if you decide to make changes to your order after the initial estimate, this could affect the price. Some of the ways in which your final cost may increase include, adding additional pages, or requesting additional proofs to review, or adding additional services like cover design. Shipping and taxes should also be considered. See our shipping page for more information on shipping charges.
Additional services include Interior page formatting, and Cover design. For small technical corrections like adding a spine to your cover file, or an ISBN barcode, we charge a flat fee of $25/file. Check out our Services page.
Unlike other book printers that just send you a pdf of your book file, the proof you receive from One Book at a Time will be a digital proof with pages that actually turn (like the digital books you read online). Customers have said they find it more helpful to see just how their book will work, page by page.
To access your digital proof, you’ll receive an email with easy-to-follow instructions and a link that allows you to download your digital page-flipping proof.
Alternatively, you can request a printed proof instead for a small fee. A printed proof features hand-trimmed, loose pages (unbound), printed on your chosen paper stock. Call for details.
Go to our HowTo’s section and look for How to make a PDF.
Turnaround times are quick at One Book at a Time. Softcover books are printed within 5 days, Hardcover within in 10 days. Need your books faster? We can print your books as soon as overnight. Please call to discuss your requirements and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Anywhere in the USA. See Shipping Info.
After your book gets printed, we pack it for shipping. Boxes are no larger than 9x12x12” and weigh approximately 12-18lbs. We use USPS for shipping. For large volume orders, freight trucking may be necessary. See our Shipping Page for more information.
Yes, we can send books to more than one location. See our Shipping Page for more information.
Shipping costs will depend on the quantity and size of books ordered. We ship to any domestic US address, using UPS best rates. Addresses in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands requires a surcharge.
Those who purchase your book from our One Book Fulfillment Center will have handling and shipping added to the cost of the book.
See our shipping page for more details.
That’s up to you! As a convenience to our customers, you can choose to use our One Book Fulfillment Center. When you order your book to be printed, you will let us know how many copies of your book you would like us to keep at the Fulfillment Center, and we’ll ship the remainder to you. Then we’ll send you a link that you can share with readers so that they can purchase your book directly through the One
Book Fulfillment Center. If we run out of books we will contact you.
We can reprint your book anytime without you needing to send new files. We archive your files for 5 years from your last order, so it’s quick and easy to order reprints whenever you need them. Just Login to MyAccount and select History. Select the book you’d like to reprint.
If it’s an exact reprint, select reprint and just submit your payment online. If you have changes you want to make to your reprint, just mail in a copy of the book with changes marked up, or submit a Word document with exact changes you want to make, ie, include your personal information and book title, then write the page number, line number and the change you want made. Of course, feel free to contact us with questions.
Yes! The One Book Fulfillment Center is a free service to our customers to make it easier to distribute your book without the expense and complexity of commercial publishing, or the hassles of fulfilling each book order yourself.
After printing, we will send you a link that you can share with anyone wishing to order your book. Your customers will pay whatever price you have determined for your book along with a handling and shipping charge. We accept all major credit cards, and will ship their book out within 5 days. Easy, peasy.
You can set the price to whatever you want — even make it free to your readers. However any
book that we fulfill for you through the One Book Fulfillment Center will incur a shipping and handling fee.
When your readers purchase your book through the One Book Fulfillment Center, you keep 100% of your sales profits — no fees, commissions, or royalties. One Book at a Time will send out checks to you each month for any books sold.
We are happy to warehouse and fulfill your book orders through the One Book Fulfillment Center for one year free. After one year, we will send you a notification, and let you decide if you would like us to continue to keep your books at the Fulfillment Center for a charge of $25/year. At any time, you can ask us to ship the remaining books to you at standard UPS rates and avoid this annual charge.