TheBookPatch FAQ
Get your questions about Print on Demand answered in our FAQ section is designed to facilitate a free and open dialogue between our authors and publishers and provide a platform for authors using TheBookPatch to get answers based on experience.
The staff of TheBookPatch will also provide answers or corrections when a misunderstanding arises.
Price & Cost
The cost of printing your book depends on how many pages are in the book and how many you order. Calculate the cost to print your book with our calculator. We really want people to realize their dream of writing and publishing, and we aren’t into squeezing you for every penny you have. We try our best to make printing as cost-effective for you as we possibly can.
There are no set-up or hidden fees and we don’t take one cent from the sales of your books. There is a Handling Charge which shows on the invoice. Calculated: $1.50 first book plus $0.10 book after, plus a 3% of the credit/debit card charge. This Handling Charge is separated from the Shipping Charge for clarity.
There is a Handling Charge which shows on the invoice. Calculated: $1.50 first book plus $0.10 book after, plus a 3% of the credit/debit card charge. This Handling Charge is separated from the Shipping Charge for clarity.
Bookstore
You would do this in the cover wizard. The names you enter in the “Edit Front Cover Author Name” option will be the names that will show up on your cover and in the bookstore. Even if you are uploading a cover that you created somewhere else you will still need to enter the correct information in this area.
This can not be changed. The slashed retail price can only be seen by the author when he/she is logged in along with the wholesale price listed below it. Everyone else will see the retail price without the slash.
No, the wholesale price can only be seen by the author when he/she is logged in. The author will also see the retail price with a slash through it above the wholesale price.
When listing your book in the bookstore you keep 100% of your sales profits, no fees, commissions or royalties. We mail out profit checks around the 15th of the following month, assuming your balance is $40 or more (U.S.). If you do not have a $40 balance, your profits will be rolled over to the next month until that amount is accumulated. Each book you have in the bookstore is dealt with separately and a separate check is made for the profits derived from its sales. We do not calculate profits based on the author but rather on the book. No exceptions will be made.
Shipping
We offer a variety of shipping options using both USPS, UPS and FedEx.
Shipping costs can be viewed before placing an order.
No. Once the order is placed it can not be changed in any way. If you would like to change the shipping method you would have to cancel the order and then place the order again. Remember that orders can only be cancelled before midnight of the day the order was placed.
No. If it’s the same day the order was placed you can cancel the order and place a new one. If it’s after the day the order was placed you will have to place a new order for the additional quantities.
If an order is returned to us for any reason (other than we created the mailing label incorrectly) you will be responsible for paying to have the order reshipped. Once we receive the package we will contact you via email to verify the shipping address and to request your credit card information for the additional shipping charge (not including the handling). Returned orders will not be refunded (partial or full).
Printing
Yes, you can print just one book. With a single copy you can give it to a friend to edit, send a finished copy to a major publisher or agent or give it as a gift to someone.
Again, we are looking out for you, the writer. With a one-copy minimum you also don’t have to incur large upfront expenses and you don’t have to find a place to store a bunch of books.
We do. We have a sister printing company called Wilshire Press so you can write and print all under one roof.
Yep. This allows you to avoid multiple shipping fees. You can send from us to anyplace you want.
Many reasons, mainly related to cost and quality. We have no set-up fees, we have a one-copy minimum.
Of course, our printing is bookshelf-quality and our prices are as good as they come.
A perfect bound book is also known as a soft cover book.
Yes. Just upload and go from there.
No. To keep our costs this low we do not include proof copies. We recommend that you order one book as a proof before placing a large order. If you find items that need to be changed/corrected then you can go back to your book and make the changes/corrections for free. It is up to you if you want to place another order for one book as another proof after the changes/corrections have been made.
If you intend to print a book that will be laid flat we highly recommend selecting the spiral binding. All perfect bound books will eventually break if you keep forcing the book to lay flat.
Your book is printed on a 60 pound paper for black and white pages and a 80 pound paper semi gloss for color pages. The covers are all printed as a 100 pound full color cover that are laminated with UV coating.
We offer 3 perfect bound, case wrap (Hardcover) and spiral.
All covers and text pages printed on our digital color printers are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. Text pages printed on our black and white digital printers are SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified.
No. The text and cover that are used for that order are the images and text that were available at the time of ordering.
We can usually print each order within 5 – 10 business days and then your order is shipped. Shipping times will vary depending on your location and the shipping method selected. Business days start on the next business day from the day the order was placed.
We recommend that your images be between 150 and 300 dpi. Anything less than 150 dpi may print blurry or pixilated. With the book sizes we are printing, anything over 300 dpi is over kill.
Unfortunately we do not support bleeds on the interior pages. We recommend that you leave all images, photos, illustrations, graphics, text, background colors, etc. at least 0.125” from the edges. If you upload a PDF with bleeds the books may end up with a white line between the object and the edge of the paper.
Usually a printer will ask that you include around 0.125” to 0.25” for the bleeds, which is called the bleed allowance, to allow for shifting when trimming to the final size. Since we require your PDFs to be the exact size as the final book size we do not have the bleed allowance to ensure the bleed will be trimmed out properly.
Since we are printing on digital printers we cannot guarantee the exact same colors between orders. This is common with digital printing.
No. You can not cancel your order the following day as we have already started printing your book.
If the book you uploaded has an odd number of pages, we add the last page to your book with our imprint on it. Your last page can be empty but the page count must include it.
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.
The five parts of an ISBN are as follows:
1.) The current ISBN-13 is prefixed by “978”;
2.) Group or country identifier which identifies a national or geographic grouping of publishers;
3.) Publisher identifier which identifies a particular publisher within a group;
4.) Title identifier which identifies a particular title or edition of a title;
5.) Check digit is the single digit at the end of the ISBN which validates the ISBN.
The 10 and 13 after the ISBN indicates the number of digits in the ISBN. Due to growth in books published the 10 digits ISBN numbers are running out and are being replaced with the 13 digit numbers. The ISBN-10 is being phased out.
All ISBN-13 numbers are still assigned an ISBN-10 by the governing board, even though they are not used. We provide them to you as a reference only.
Yes, each book you write must have its own ISBN assigned to it. This also included books in a series (part 1 & 2).
No, the ISBN that is assigned to your book includes updates and revisions.
No, each media needs its own ISBN number.
You have two options:
1.)TheBookPatch.com cover generator will automatically create the barcode for you when you enter the 13 digit ISBN and the retail price.
2.) Download an image from our site to use while designing your cover somewhere else (get instructions).
Yes. If you purchase the Enhanced or Premium Package you will need to email us the text as a PDF and the cover as a jpg since we would not have them on our system. These are required and the registration will not be completed until we receive them. Email files to [email protected]..
Click here to view the instructions on how to download the barcode image.
The imprint name you will need to use on other sites is “BookPatch LLC, The”.
eBooks
Yes you can sell the electronic version of your book but you must have the printed version uploaded first and it must be listed in the bookstore.
Sorry, TheBookPatch is not set up to create the eBook files. You will need to create them elsewhere and upload them to TheBookPatch for sale.
The eBooks we sell on our site were created and uploaded by the author. We are not responsible for these issues.
Nothing. We do not charge you to upload your files.
You can upload an ePub, mobi or PDF and are not required to have all three, you can upload any combination of the three file types. You can always come back and upload the missing file type(s) when you get it. There is no cost to upload the files..
The author does not have to purchase the eBook since they already have the file to upload so there would not be a wholesale price for eBooks.
You can set the retail price at what ever price you want. We require that the minimum price be set to one dollar (US).
Yes you can change the retail price whenever you want.
No. The retail price will be the same for all of the formats you upload.
Yes. You can always upload a new version of each of the file types separately at no cost to you.
Yes. Look in the Electronic Files section on the book’s detail page and the number of times an eBook version has been downloaded will be displayed at the book of each version’s column.
Yes. Look in the Electronic Files section on the book’s detail page and the number of books sold will be listed under the price.
When an eBook is sold the person purchasing it can download all of the formats you have uploaded and have listed in the bookstore.
Author profit checks will be mailed out at the same time the profit checks for the printed books get sent. This usually happens on the 15th of each month depending if it falls on a weekday or not. If it falls on a weekend or holiday, profit checks are processed and mailed the following business day.
All orders must be canceled within 5 minutes of when the order was placed. If it is not canceled by then, the order can not be canceled and refunded. If you are still within the time frame to cancel the order, the order can not be canceled if you have already downloaded the eBook.
Go to the My Account page and click on the My eBooks tab. There you can select which format you want and download it.
An eBook will not show up in the bookstore if the printable version is not listed in the bookstore. Once you list your printable version in the bookstore you will see the eBooks listed as well.
We take one dollar (US) from each eBook sold. Your eBook must be listed for a minimum of one dollar (US).
Privacy/Security
You do. We own nothing. You can also share copyright with other authors that contribute to a book, but only if you choose to do so.
Yes. We won’t sell or share your information with anyone. Please read our privacy policy for complete details.
Only the people you allow to.
General
TheBookPatch was actually created by New York Times #1 bestselling author Victor Ostrovsky.
Anyone on a PC or Mac with an Internet connection can use TheBookPatch.com. We recommend using either Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, or Safari.
If you already have a completed book saved as a PDF, you can upload your book, and cover as a JPG, using a PC or Mac.
We current offer the ability to sell eBooks and we plan on offer audio books soon.
Unfortunately you can not. You will have to create a new book with the new binding and re-upload your book and create your cover.
We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, DiscoverCard, Diners Club Internation and JCB. We do not accept gift cards or checks.
TheBookPatch.com requires that Cookies be activated. The steps required to enable cookies on your particular web browser will vary depending on which browser and which browser version you’re using. Click on the browser name for instructions for that browser: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
Yes, fill out the form on the contact page and let us know what you would like us to add. Please include an e-mail address so we can contact you when it’s completed.
Design Layout
We accept 1 PDF for the interior and bmp, gif, jpg, jpeg, png, tif, tiff for the cover. No PDF is able to be uploaded for a cover.
When creating the interior of your book with bleeds, we recommend that you fade out your images about 1/8 inch from the edge of the paper or leave a white border on all four sides. This bleed is kept within the desired printed size when creating the document and pdf.
To make sure your PDF prints correctly we suggest embedding all fonts and images in your PDF, we are not responsible for anything printed incorrectly if these items are not embedded. Creating the PDF as a PDF/X version (we suggest PDF/X-1a:2001) will ensure the fonts and images are embedded.
If you don’t have an even number of pages our system will add a page with our imprint on it to make up the difference.
To avoid having our imprint on the last page, please make sure you upload a PDF that has an even number of pages.
You would do this in the cover wizard. The names you enter in the “Edit Front Cover Author Name” option will be the names that will show up on your cover and in the bookstore. Even if you are uploading a cover that you created somewhere else you will still need to enter the correct information in this area.
Yes, you can still use the cover wizard for free. The cover design service is for anyone that wants to take their cover to the next level.
Cover dimensions and template are available after you have uploaded the pdf and are in the process of creating a cover.
Thinking Out of the Box with TheBookPatch
Educational uses, business uses, gifts and fund-raising purposes are a few things our feeble minds can think of, but we are really looking to users to define the limits of TheBookPatch.
Of course. Store business documents that can be accessed anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Share them with co-workers or other collaborators across the world and collaborate with them in real time.
As compared to something like Google docs, TheBookPatch has a couple of advantages, one being the ability to have multiple story lines so that people can take business reports different directions at the same time, and add their contributions.
Yes. Both teachers and students can find many uses in TheBookPatch. Have a class writing project or are you concentrating on short stories or poems? Why not put them together to create a class book?
We have more ideas on our best practices page.
Writing Advancement
There are many ways depending on where you are at. No matter what level you are at you can use the writing tools to help organize your thoughts and overall book; you can gather feedback from trusted friends or complete strangers; you can browse the forums for topics that are relevant to writing; you can find a graphic designer for your cover or an editor for you book.
For those who are advanced, you can (and should) print a “finished” book to send to publishers and agents. This not only shows your ability to complete a work, but your professionalism and resourcefulness.
Of course, with our prior contacts in the writing and publishing business, agents and publishers will undoubtedly be browsing our site in search of new works to pick-up.