Put simply, it is technology that allows books and publications to be printed in very small quantities, even one book each time. While authors may use POD to self-publish a book, publishers use POD for galley (advanced review) copies, to keep older titles in print, and to experiment with new titles.

If you are a new author or are a small publisher, print-on-demand helps you save by avoiding investments in large inventory. As a small business, print-on-demand helps in reducing costs of printing manuals and reports. Print-On-Demand also helps regular publishers by helping them make backlists available without large print runs.

POD implies a higher cost per book, but to appreciate POD, a little knowledge of the economics behind it is required.

Imagine you have written a book. You have submitted your manuscript to established publishers but haven't heard from them in a long time. So you decide to publish the book yourself but don't know how to proceed. You lay out your text, design your cover and approach the printers. You see a market for only 100 copies but the printers say you must print a minimum of a thousand copies (they too can't help it). The cost of each is small, say Rs. 30 per book, but a thousand copies means an amount of Rs. 30,000/- needs to be invested upfront. Being an "unknown author" yourself, you are not sure if all the copies will sell but that is a gamble you are forced to take.

Or imagine you met us at CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing and agreed to print on demand. And got to know that you do not have to print a single copy before it is bought. The same book might cost around Rs. 120/- per copy, but you now are able to print your books depending on how many copies are ordered, and have it shipped to any corner of the world. That means if you need just 100 copies, you print only 100 and pay only Rs. 12,000/-.

Besides, you don't even have to bother about page layouts, cover designs and ISBNs. We will do that for you while you concentrate on writing your book. After you have written your book, we will help you market it.

Print-on-demand technology has continually been refined during the past ten years, and book quality has improved tremendously. Although paper stock and colour vary with each book, print-on-demand books are indistinguishable from other books, printed using an offset press. CinnamonTeal books feature color covers, clean graphics, and easy-to-read text. While the quality remains the same, print-on-demand methods require no up-front printing costs.

CinnamonTeal is a provider of services for individuals and institutions that wish to self-publish, not a vanity press.

Vanity presses typically offer many services, all of which must be paid for in advance. Most vanity presses require an initial order of hundreds of copies of any book they print. As an author, you are then responsible for the sales of these copies.

CinnamonTeal offers POD (print on demand) services, other, allied, pre-publishing services and also a channel to help you to sell your books yourself. We charge only for the services you have availed of. There are no upfront charges.

While deciding to publish a book, CinnamonTeal does not consider the marketability of the book. This is, in fact, a major differentiating factor when compared to mainstream publishers. CinnamonTeal does, however, insist that a certain quality of writing be maintained. We recommend, at a minimum, a round of copy editing prior to typesetting. Further, we also insist that a certain quality of typesetting be incorporated into the book.

Note that while copy editing and typesetting are services that CinnamonTeal provides, the author may choose to do both herself/himself. In such a case, we'd be happy to provide a few guidelines, if requested.

There are no upfront costs involved i.e. you don't have to invest any money up front to have your work published. When your book gets sold, CinnamonTeal will handle the transaction and pay you the Author's Earnings that you specified while submitting your manuscript. CinnamonTeal will only charge you the cost of printing the book or for any additional services that are provided such as editing and cover design.

Because of the nature of this service, we are unable to accept returns. Retailers understand this peculiar situation and may be reluctant to stock your books. We therefore ask you to buy a couple of your own books so that they can be reviewed and can be used to persuade retailers to stock a few copies. Of course, you will be able to avail of author discounts when you purchase your own books.

Simply contact us and we will have the required number of copies delivered. Please note that for all orders, a down payment will be required. The amount will be communicated to you before the order is processed.

In case of third party orders, the books must be paid for in full before they are printed and dispatched. This holds good for books requested by distributors too.

Yes, you can. As long as your manuscript is completed in the appropriate fonts and according to your layout, you may submit it to CinnamonTeal for publishing. We can also help you prepare your manuscript.

No, not if you are approaching us. Other publishing houses may insist that you be represented by an agent. We do not. If you have a manuscript that you have laboured upon and wish to publish it, you can approach us all by yourself.

No, it will not. However, you may avail of pre-publishing services that we provide. These will cost you over and above the cost of publishing the book.

Although there is no constraint on the size of the books that we can print, the following is a list of commonly used book sizes
Publisher Grade
a. 5.5 x 8.5" or 13.97 x 21.59cm
b. 8.50 x 11" or 21.59 x 27.94cm
Small
a. 4.25 x 6.87" or 10.79 x 17.46cm
b. 5 x 8" or 12.7 x 20.32cm (a normal paperback size)
c. 5.83 x 8.26" or 14.81 x 20.99cm
d. 6 x 9" or 15.24 x 22.86cm (for non-fiction/poetry)
e. 6.13 x 9.21" or 15.59 x 23.38cm
f. 6.625 x 10.25" or 16.82 x 26cm
g. 7.5 x 7.5" or 19 x 19cm
h. 9 x 7" or 22.86 x 17.78cm
Large
a. 7.44 x 9.68" or 18.90 x 24.58cm
b. 8.26 x 11.69" or 20.99 x 29.70cm
c. 8.5 x 8.5" or 21.59 x 21.59cm
b. 8.50 x 11" or 21.59 x 27.94cm

We provide perfect binding, saddle stitching, centre stapling and spiral binding.

Please note that if the page count is lesser than 68, perfect binding cannot be provided.

Yes, you do. You remain in complete ownership of all your work. If you own an ISBN, it will be published by you. However, if you choose to avail of an ISBN owned by CinnamonTeal, it will be published by CinnamonTeal. In both cases, you continue to own the rights in your name and CinnamonTeal does not make any claim or restriction on the ownership of your work.

However, please do note that if you wish to be published by some other publisher you need to inform us a month in advance so that we can remove your book from our listings. In case your book is published by another entity, we will insist that the new entity issue you another ISBN.

CinnamonTeal enters into a non-exclusive agreement with every author and that means you can terminate the services of CinnamonTeal at any time. However, you need to give an advance notice of at least a month so that the book is delisted from the online bookstore.

However, if CinnamonTeal has issued the ISBN for your book, this ISBN belongs to CinnamonTeal and cannot be used on a book published by another publisher. We will therefore insist that the new publisher issue you another ISBN.

Consequent to termination of service, CinnamonTeal is under no obligation to provide the manuscript files. CinnamonTeal, however, does undertake that those files will not be used without the author's express permission.

We prefer that you email us at editorialservices|@|dogearsetc|.|com or at contactus|@|cinnamonteal|.|com. You may also call us on +91-832-2751509/ +91 94226 85530 between 9a.m. and 5p.m. IST [GMT +5:30].
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The process works thus:
a. you write the manuscript first and get it edited and proofread. Please note that we prefer you provide your text after at least one round of editing. You could choose to have your book edited yourself or engage our editorial services

b. Once your manuscript is ready i.e once it is edited, you have to get your cover designed. Again, you can have the cover designed yourself or engage our cover design services. If you need one, we will issue you an ISBN that must be added to the copyright page of your book and a barcode that must be added to the back cover.

c. The interior of the book must then be designed. This involves the appropriate selection of font, margins and paragraph settinsg besides the formatting of the header, footer, the imprint page and the table of contents.

d. Once the manuscript and cover are both ready in pdf format, your book is ready to be printed. Your book will be available within ten days of ordering.

In the meantime, we will send you an author's contract that you are required to print, sign and send back. The contract is a legal document mentioning the terms and conditions.

d. If you do not avail of our pre-publishing services such as editing or cover design, you have to pay only when the copies of the printed book are ordered.

There are many word-processing programs available that will help you design your book. Among the many that have been tried and tested, we have zeroed in on Lyx. Like one of our users said, "there is a learning curve involved, but it is worth the effort". Take your time mastering the software, there is much you can do with it. And the Help Files and Internet Resources will provide you all the answers you need.

Scribus is another versatile page layout program you can use, especially if you are familiar with Adobe® PageMaker, QuarkXPress or Adobe® InDesign. Scribus is free to use and can be downloaded from here.

Cover designs and illustrations within the book can be developed using Inkscape, a freely available vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format..

Additionally, there are resources available on the Internet that will help you convert your files into PDF format. Some of those resources are:
i.pdfonline.com - word-to-pdf converter
ii.  fastpdf.com - another one
iii.   PDF Creator is installed as a printer driver. To create a PDF, open your document, then print to the PDF Creator "printer." The result is a PDF file.

You need to submit your content and cover in separate pdf files. For details on how to format your content and cover, click here and here.

Please note that we prefer you provide your text after at least one round of editing. You could choose to have your book edited yourself or engage our services. We provide editorial services such as editing and proof reading besides other related services such as cover design, page layout, translation and ghost-writing.

The link here provides guidelines on both the technical as well as editorial aspects one should keep in mind while drafting the manuscript.
There is also a PDF version available for free download. Please consult the document before you draft your manuscript so that the quality of your manuscript is assured.
Currently the manual of style is available only in English.

Yes, we can. We offer professional proof reading and editing services in addition to a host of other services you can avail of.

Your book can have as many images as you choose. In order to get a good print, we suggest that your images be of at least 300 dpi. Further, we request you to lay out your images within your book and include all images in the pdf that you submit. We also provide page-layout services, but that will cost you an additional amount.

While the design of your cover may require some imagination and creativity on your part, the actual process of designing it isn't too difficult. There are many software programs that you can use, some of which are legally available for free (see above for query on software you can use). We have provided you with a template that you can use to design your cover. Additionally, you may also avail of our cover-design services.

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a universal code that publishers and booksellers use to identify and order books the world over. In India, ISBNs must be provided free of cost. You can obtain one from the issuing agency in India. Or CinnamonTeal will issue you one.

However, before assigning an ISBN for your book, we require certain information including the title of the book, the number of pages, etc.. CinnamonTeal also provides you an ISBN barcode that you can add to the back cover.

Having an ISBN is not necessary if your book is for personal use or for circulation within a limited group of people. It is required if you wish to sell your book in bookstores, whether online or offline, or in any other retail outlet. Each version of a book — whether paperback or hardcover, first or second edition — must have a different ISBN. A unique ISBN distinguishes between different versions of a book, helping customers ensure that they get the book they want.

For more information about ISBNs, visit our blog.

The price of your book is mainly made of two components: the cost of producing the book and the commission you wish to earn off each book, called the Author's Earnings.

For more on pricing, visit this page.

Since the cost of production is fixed depending upon the number of pages and dimensions of the book, the Author's Earnings needs to be fixed appropriately so as to maintain a balance between earnings and sales. Lesser earnings imply a lower price for your book and might translate into larger sales. If the book sells well, you can always increase this component incrementally on later editions and earn more from each sale. Going in, however, your objective is to increase sales.

Yes, it can be changed. Simply send us the new manuscript and indicate that it should be used for further prints. However, please note that we are not responsible for maintaining earlier versions of the manuscript.

In fact print-on-demand allows you to change your manuscript for each successive reprint. Many authors have used this to their advantage by incorporating user suggestions into their manuscript or by mentioning book reviews on the back cover.

As many as you wish. There is no minimum or maximum number of books you have to print. If you want just one copy, we'll print you just one.

We use 70gsm maplitho (50 pounds), in natural shade (off-white) or white, for the pages and 300gsm for the cover. Authors may also specify their stock of choice and we will be happy to oblige subject to availability of the requested stock.

Your book will be listed online and available for sale two weeks after the complete manuscript is submitted. By "complete manuscript" we mean one that needs no further improvement or additional work on it. The text, the cover, and illustrations if needed, should all be submitted.

Once a completed manuscript is submitted, it takes between ten to twelve days to receive it, time of transit included.

For shipping both within India and abroad we use private couriers. We choose not to ship using the postal service because the packages cannot be tracked and because there is no redressal in case packages go missing or get damaged. The option is still open for small packages (upto 3 kgs).

Currently, we use DHL™ for overseas shipping and Blue Dart™ for shipping within India.

After printing your book, we will do all we can to help you sell it. Our marketing services are listed here.

You can. However, during purchase you will be expected to pay the entire amount for the book. After deducting the cost of printing we will reimburse the remaining amount to you.

Yes they are. For details contact us.

Yes, as an author you may seek other channels for distribution of your book. These channels could be online or offline. However, you must explicitly mention CinnamonTeal as the publisher of the book. Failure to do so constitutes a legal breach that may attract punitive action.

You can contact distributors on your own and have them supply your book to bookstores. However, you will have to negotiate the terms yourself. Books requested by the distributor will be printed and dispatched only after they have been paid for in full.

The following payment options are available to buyers on Dogears Etc.:

Credit Cards:
- American Express
- Diners Club
- Visa

Net-Banking:
To avail of this facility, you need to have an internet enabled bank account with any of the following banks to perform a net-banking transaction.
- PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK Internet Banking
- HDFC Direct Pay
- CITIBANK NRI Rupee Checking
- CITIBANK Bank ACCOUNT Online
- CITIBANK SUVIDHA Online ACCOUNT
- ICICI Bank.com
- Oriental Bank Of Commerce ipay Netbanking
- IDBI i Net Banking
- UTI I Connect Net Banking
- Federal Bank FedNet Banking
- Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Bank of Rajasthan
- IndusInd Bank

Pay by Mobile:
To avail of this facility, you need to get regsitered with Paymate. Currently this option is available only for Citibank (India) account holders. For further details about Paymate, we request you to click here.

Pay by Cash Cards:
Customers can also avail of another payment option called ITZ Payment Cards. For further details about this option, we request you to click here.

Pay By Cheque/Demand Draft/Direct Deposit:
Customers can also pay by Cheque and b]Demand Draft made in favour of DOGEARS PRINT MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED.

Payment by PayPal is also an option currently offered.

Please note that we currently do not offer Cash-On-Delivery as a payment option.

You will be invoiced for services rendered to you and you will be expected to pay within 10 days of receipt of invoice. Our terms of payment are 50% before and 50% after the service is rendered.

If your books have been sold during the month to persons other than you (i.e. if you have not bought those books yourself), you will receive an amount equal to the Author's Earnings you have accrued by cheque at the end of each month. The cheque will be accompanied by a detailed account of each sale and the amount due to you. If you have bought your books yourself, you will be reimbursed the author discounts.

We do not accept any returns and will not refund any purchases unless we have sent the wrong book or a defective copy.

For as long as you want. When you publish with CinnamonTeal, your book will never go out of print.