Indie Spotlight
is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan Daiko interviews
Allison Izard, the Hong Kong country manager at Pixalib, an international
company providing a publishing platform and online bookstore for visual books
by indie authors.
Where is Pixalib
based, and what is your mission statement?
Pixalib was founded in Shanghai by two French
associates and their Chinese partner. They gathered their knowledge in
printing, factory processes and marketing to create a print-on-demand company. They
quickly noticed not only that artists wanted to make their own books for
themselves but also that they wanted to share them with the rest of the world. That
is why they designed a cloud-based publishing platform and bookstore to help
smart and creative people, especially up and coming artists and visionaries,
get their work out to a wider audience, cheaply and easily, while earning money
in the process.
In the past, only artists already famous and those who
could spend money on printing had the chance to make their own book. Thanks to digital technology, and
print-on-demand, artists have now the means to promote themselves and share
their passion. Not only is Pixalib's print-on-demand model cost-efficient but
it allows indie authors to market and sell their work at competitive bookstore
prices.
By providing book creation, on-line marketing,
printing and logistical services to indie authors, Pixalib makes it possible
for artists to focus on their art only.
For now, PixaTeams are located in France, Italy,
Shanghai and Hong Kong and, there’ll be one in the UK soon.
What type of
books do you focus on?
Pixalib focuses on high quality visual art books such
as photography books, illustrated books, comics, etc. We are proud to be the
first company printing-on-demand sewn binding books at competitive market
prices.
What are the
advantages of your print-on-demand model?
It means that our customers, indie artists and
authors, only need to pay for the first copy of their book. All other costs are
covered by paying customers who enjoy very competitive bookstore prices. So now,
any artist can publish and sell his or her own book without taking risks,
spending money ordering many copies and dealing with unsold books.
Making a book has never been so easy: artists enjoy
creative, easy-to-use tools and anyone is now able to design his or her book.
Pixalib simplifies the creation and publishing processes.
Artists are now at the heart of the process; they
retain creative control, and they are freed to focus only on the creation of
their book.
What is the
up-front cost to the author, or artist?
As I said, thanks to our print-on-demand model,
artists need to pay only for the first copy before selling their book
worldwide.
The up-front cost depends on the format of the book
and the number of pages but in general, in Hong Kong, it is between 250 - 350 HKD (approx 30 - 40 USD). The cost of
the proof copy is always a bit more expensive as we have to confirm the final lay-out, and to work on the file to
make it printable, and then export it to the printer.
What percentage
of the sales price is paid to the author?
Customers enjoy competitive market prices. On those
market prices, 60% goes to the printing costs, 20% to Pixalib and 20% to the
client – the artist, or author. Artists can order several books with no minimum
order required and enjoy discounts from two books ordered. This way, they can
enjoy more than a 20% share.
What about
distribution?
Many of our authors order multiple copies of their books, and successfully go to bookstores to display them.
Where does the
book get printed and how long does it take?
The printing depends on the geographical position of
the buyer, in order to offer shipping costs as low as $5 for a book. Sales to Asian customers are printed and sent
from our print centre in China. For Europe our print centre in Italy would be
used. We are continually investing in print centres around the world, which
means authors can be sure their books will be delivered to customers anywhere in
the world within 15 days and that the quality will be the same as we follow the
same processes everywhere.
Why should an
author use your service rather than go to one of the bigger companies such as
Amazon or Ingram Spark?
Pixalib is an online bookstore on which artists are
not lost in the crowd. Each artist enjoys a customized selling page with a
viewer, descriptions, videos, photos, links...Promotional tools are at the
artist's disposal (a viewer can be inserted on websites and personal pages,
free flyers are printed when holding events, interviews are posted on our
social networks...)
If artists start doing well, Pixalib appreciates the
efforts being made and will put some marketing effort into them (presence on
the homepage, slider, “Our Selection”...)
Pixalib is specialised in providing high quality books
and not only paperbacks. Pixalib will highlight the content of the book with
its bright colors and perfect binding.
Authors and artists can consider Pixalib as a toolbox:
they can directly see their statistics on their account, send newsletters to
their clients, analyse their sales, ask for payment...everything is completely
transparent.
Last but not least, the PixaTeam is behind them, and supports
them.
What advice
would you give to an author seeking to self-publish?
Authors should pay attention to the quality of the
printing, the after sales service (is it easy to reach someone in the company
and be given pieces of advice?) and understand the services included in the
offer.
Some companies offer to take authors’ books into bookstores, but that does not mean that the
books will actually be displayed in bookstores; in general it means only that
clients can order a given book from a given bookstore. This is really different.
Is it easy to reach the PixaTeam?
Reaching the PixaTeam is really easy. Phone numbers
for each region are displayed on the website or simply write an email to hello@pixalib.com.
A member of the PixaTeam near to your location will contact you soon and you
will be able to ask as many questions as you want and, also to have the contact
details of the team member to speed up the process.
Pixalib in Asia
Pixalib books on
Asia include Shanghai Cityscape by
Florian Delalee, Made in China by Officina
Contemporanea and Myanmar, by Luca
Bracali
Follow Pixalib
Asia on Facebook here.
