undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgiaour3y ago0 comments

Unlike KDP, an editor is not a hyper-discount service provider, so they can afford a more time consuming customer engagement process.

0 comments

sprovoost3y ago

You're confused about the roles here. An editor is someone who works either directly for the author or they work for the publisher. In any case they don't work for the printer / distributor, which is KDP.

An editor or "professional" publisher may be able to explain the author what the problem is, but if they upload the book to KDP, they'll the exact same information I do. Unless there's some old boys network of course.

There may also be publishers that have an in house printing service. But then you lose the distribution advantage Amazon offers, because they can get a book from the printing press to the customer much faster (without inventory).

As I pointed out in the blog, it takes Amazon about 3-4 days from their printer in Poland to my home in Utrecht, and that includes 1 day in some sort of intermediary Amazon delivery warehouse in Rotterdam. IngramSpark needs two weeks to get book into the EU, but even in the US - when a customer orders from Amazon - they seem to need about a week. Old school publishers are probably even slower, if they can do print on demand at all.

giaourOP3y ago

My only experience in the field is working for an "old school" publisher, where copyright concerns like the one described in the blog post would be the responsibility of the acquisitions editor (an employee of the publisher). Our printers were a separate company, who, like you say, had no editorial responsibilities. "Old school" publishers do typically coordinate distribution, though. There are also some that support print-on-demand (for example, Manning).

I think it's instructive here that KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, not Kindle Direct Printing.

sprovoost3y ago

I think their name is deceptive, see my other reply :-)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

sprovoost3y ago

giaourOP3y ago

I think it's instructive here that KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, not Kindle Direct Printing.

sprovoost3y ago

I think their name is deceptive, see my other reply :-)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse