Frequently Asked Questions

Pothi.com is a provider of publishing tools, services and a platform. Backed by Print on Demand, this platform allows people to publish and sell their books in print without having to invest upfront on bulk printing of copies. It can be used by individual self publishers as well as other organizations, NGO's and publishers.

No. Pothi.com is not a publisher. It only provides a platform for publishing. For the books published through Pothi.com, the user submitting the books or the organizations they are working on behalf of are the publishers of those books.

Calm down, be a bit patient and read through the following helpful articles in that order. It should start making some sense.

• What it Self Publishing?
• What is Print on Demand (POD)?
• Publishing at Pothi.com
• Other entries in this FAQ

If you still have queries, please feel free to contact us.

In a traditional publishing scenario, the publisher is a person or organization typically unrelated to the author. This unrelated entity takes care of all the responsibilities of publishing a book like the selection of a manuscript, preparing it for printing, printing copies, marketing and distribution. In Self Publishing, the author himself/herself takes the role of a publisher. Hence, he/she bears all the responsibilities of publishing his/her book, while gaining the power to make independent decisions about the content and presentation of the book. More details are available in the Self Publishing 101 article.

Print on Demand (POD) is a printing technology where the cost of printing does not depend on the number of copies being printed. This is essentially digital printing, where each copy is printed independent of the other. More details about POD can be found in this article on Print on Demand (POD).

Print on Demand (POD) is a relatively new technology. Before its arrival, it was impossible to think of printing one copy of a book or any other material in a cost effective manner. Offset Printing, the most popular printing technology around, as well as the other alternatives have a high setup cost. So one needs to print a large number of copies (typically 500+) to distribute that setup cost over all those copies. That is the only way to achieve a good per copy cost. The whole publishing economics has therefore had to work on the assumption of bulk printing, with the associated operational and financial issues. But with the possibility of printing one copy at a time, thanks to POD, the printing and publishing economics can change entirely. More details about this can be found in this article on Print on Demand (POD).

To quote from wikipedia: "Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface." The plate making process is costly. But once you create a plate, you can use it to generate a large number of copies. Therefore, printing just a few copies is not cost-effective with offset printing, but the cost per copy decreases with increase in the number of copies printed.

Advantages of POD

• No up-front investment is required in printing a large number of copies.
• Each copy is printed separately, so each of them can be customized.
• The manuscript can be updated, if needed, for new copies, because all the copies need not be printed in one go.
• The quality of printing has become very good with newer machines and it matches the offset printing quality for most practical purposes.

Disadvantages of POD

• If you have to print a large number of copies, the per copy cost with offset printing becomes much less. So, POD is not cost effective for large print runs.
• offset printing quality, especially for colored photos, still exceeds the Print on Demand quality

On-demand Publishing actually does not mean anything. It is the printing that can be done on-demand, not publishing. However, on-demand publishing is often used to indicate publishing that is supported by print on demand. It is sometimes also used synonymously with self-publishing. But as explained in another FAQ, Print on Demand (POD) and Self Publishing are not the same.

No. Print on Demand (POD) is just a printing technique. It can be used for traditional publishing or Self Publishing.

Similarly Self Publishing can be done with offset printing or with Print on Demand (POD).

These terms are often used together and even interchangeably, because self publishers, with tight print budgets, are probably the ones who benefit from POD almost immediately and hence are one of the first ones to embrace POD.

Advantages of self publishing:

• Don't have to chase publishers/agents
• The book makes it to the market faster because you are the sole decision maker
• Complete Control over your book
• Ability to publish on niche, specialized topics which publishers of mass market books may not be interested in
• Easy to publish for friends/family

Disadvantages of self publishing:

• Operational and financial burden of Self Publishing (Pothi.com platform eases a lot of this)
• Access to distributors and retailers is limited. Marketing and promotion is your responsibility.
• Since no third party has vouched for the quality of your content, reviewers and critics can ignore the book.

In a typical publishing process at Pothi.com

• The author prepares and uploads his book to Pothi.com.
• Pothi.com does a technical review of files and approves it.
• Author specifies the royalty (also called author earning or author margin) he wants to earn per book, enters book details and publishes the book to Pothi.com's online store.
• Readers can order the book from there. The books are produced using print on demand technology, only after an order is placed. Hence, there is no upfront investment in the printing.
• When a copy sells, the author's earning accrues to his account and is periodically transferred to him.

This process is explained in more details here.

Besides this typical print on demand publishing process, Pothi.com also supports private publishing (publishing without listing on Pothi.com's store), e-book printing etc. Please check relevant FAQs for more information.

For authors who need help in preparing their book for publication, paid Writer Services are available.

Step 1: Finalize your book

If you have just finished writing your book, your manuscript most likely needs more work. You would like to re-read the manuscript, correct any mistakes or re-write certain portion so that they are more readable. You may need somebody to read and edit the manuscript. This person could be a friend or family member or you may want to avail professional help. If you want to take professional help, you can avail Pothi.com Editing Services. After editing and proof-reading, you manuscript is ready.

Step 2: Format your book

After the actual content is ready, it needs to go in a format that looks good when printed. You can do formatting in your favorite word processor (Microsoft word, Openoffice.org etc.) or go for a DTP software for advanced control (Adobe Page Maker, Adobe In Design, Corel Draw etc.).

The specifications of how to prepare your book for submission to Pothi.com is available here. Once again, you can do it yourself or go for professional help. If you are doing in yourself, a lot of help is available in Self Publisher's Resources section. If you are going for professional help, you can avail Pothi.com Formatting Services.

Step 3: Create a Cover

A book can't be considered ready until there is a cover to accompany it. You can prepare your cover according to the specifications here. A simple generic cover can be created using our Cover Design Wizard. Once again, if you need professional help Pothi.com's Cover Design Services are there.

Step 4: Submit it!

You have the formatted interior, you have the cover. What are you waiting for now? Submit it to Pothi.com.

Pothi.com is not a publisher. Its an open platform for anyone to use. So, there is no question of us "considering" any book for publication. We do not have any restrictions on the content or topics of the book, except that it should not violate the law of the land. This means content banned by law or that which violates somebody's copyright or for which you do not have publishing rights for any reason should not be submitted. Otherwise, please feel free to go ahead, prepare your book for publication and submit it.

We do not evaluate manuscripts. Remember, Pothi.com is not the publisher; you are. We are only providing a platform to enable people publish themselves. So, we do not give any judgment on the manuscripts submitted. If your manuscript is ready from your side, go ahead and submit it.

However, if you are interested in getting a paid evaluation by a professional editor, contact us with the details and sample chapters from the manuscript.

At this stage only complete books can be published through Pothi.com.

There is no cost of publishing at Pothi.com. If you prepare your book according to our specifications, you can go ahead and submit it. It will made available on our store or for your personal printing for no listing fee. If you want our help in preparing the book, then you will have to pay for the services you avail. Have a look at the steps involved in publishing through Pothi.com to determine if you need any services.

Yes. If you get your files (for interior and cover) according to our specifications, there is no publishing or Book listing fee involved. You should go ahead and submit your book. If you need help in preparing your book though, you will need to pay for individual services you avail.

It depends on which stage your book is in. If your Interior and Cover is formatted according to our specifications, once you submit the book, it will generally go online withing 1 business day. If you need any of the writer services to prepare your book, the time taken will depend on the services taken, size and topic of the manuscript etc. Have a look at the steps involved in publishing through Pothi.com to determine if your book is ready for publishing.

That is for you to decide. While listing the book on the Pothi.com's online store, you can specify the royalty (also called Author Earning or Author Margin) you want per copy of the book. The price of the book is calculated by a formula, which takes into account the earning you specify. As the book sells, the earning accrues to your account. You can check what will be the price at various levels of royalty for your book in the Price Estimation Tool.

We can't. That is upto you to decide. In general, you can look around for the books of similar genre. Then look at how these books are priced and what will be the price of your book at different levels of author earning. You can calculate the price at different levels of earnings through Price Estimation Tool. Accordingly you should choose a price. If you think that you can command premium for the content of the book, you can decide to take a higher earning and price it high.

Yes. You retain all the rights to your content when you publish through Pothi.com. So, you can do whatever you want with it. Pothi.com has no objections to these at all. You should, however, check the terms of the other places you are putting content on to ensure that they also allow this non-exclusivity i.e. their terms do not stop you from publishing your book through Pothi.com.

Yes.

If you get a traditional publisher and are comfortable with their terms and working with them, then there is no reason to publish through Pothi.com. If, however, you do decide to self publish, Pothi.com provides you with a print on demand backed platform, which you can use to publish for free and without upfront investment. If you need help in preparing the book, paid services are also available.

It depends on what kind of support do you want. If you want a magazine priced for mass market (real cheap), then it won't be possible with POD costs. Especially if you want colored magazines. In any case, you should go ahead and estimate the price using Price Estimation Tool and check out if those work for you. If they do, you can go ahead and submit your magazine for publication just like a book. If you want any other kind of support like services for preparing the magazine, which are very different from the book preparation services, please contact us.

Our Business is done online and we do not have field representatives. You can find information about publising through Pothi.com in FAQs and also through other articles on the website. If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us through the Contact Form on the website.

We do not provide formal phone support. Please send us your queries through the Contact Form on the website.

Books at Pothi.com are priced as Production Cost + Author's Margin + Pothi.com's Margin

Author's margin/royalty/earning is specified by the author. Pothi.com's margin depends on the author's margin. Currently it is equal to the author's margin or a minimum. As the book sells, Pothi.com earns its margins.

Paid services are available for typing/formatting your book. You can check out the details at

• Typing Services
  • Details
  • Start the order process
• Formatting Services
  • Details
  • Start the order process

You can design a simple, generic cover using Pothi.com's Cover Design Wizard.

If you want a unique, professionally designed cover, Pothi.com provides cover design services at very reasonable price. Check out the options here and start the order process for availing the service.

Yes.

If you simply want to delist the book, you can log in to your account and go to your book page. There you should click on "Edit" link and under "Who should see this book", select "Only me". Once you save the book, your book is no longer available for public. This option will suffice for most people wanting to take down the book.

If you want your completely removed and not be even accessible to you, you should write an e-mail to writer@pothi.com from your registered e-mail id for the removal of the book. The e-mail should mention the sku number of your book and URL on pothi.com where it is available. SKU number would be available in "Author's Dashboard" under "My Published Books" The book will be removed within 2 working days from the receipt of the removal request.

Pothi.com reserves the right to fulfill any orders of the book pending at the time of removal.

Many a times Authors need professional help in preparing their book. For example editing, formatting, cover design, indexing etc. These are available paid Writer Services at Pothi.com

A large number of services encompassing all aspects of Book Preparation are available. A complete list and other details are available on Services for Writers page. If you need any services other than those listed there, please feel free to contact us.

Some services have standard packages and pricing. For other's we need to give individual quotes depending on the manuscript. Please see the details of individual Services on their respective pages.

No. Each of these services are priced reasonably by themselves.

Each of the services have order forms linked from their description pages. Forms for ordering the various services are also linked from this "Services Quick Link" page.

No.

It will depend on the specifications of your book and your author earning. Please use Price Estimation Tool to calculate the price.

The book is priced at Production Cost + Author's Margin + Pothi.com's Margin. Pothi.com's margin is equal to the author's margin subject to minimum.

There will be a minimum price of the book depending on the physical specifications of the book (number of pages, size, paper type etc.) and it will include Pothi.com's minimum margin. You get this price when you put Author's Earning as zero in the Price Estimation Tool. Beyond that it is up to you (the author) to set your author margin and hence the price.

Authors can buy their copies at Author's Price. This is the price with zero Author Margin and minimum margin for Pothi.com. So, the book can be listed on the store at any price depending on the author earning. But Authors will get the copies at this special price. Price Estimation Tool will show you the autor's price when you calculate the cost for your book.

You can buy copies of your own book at a special price called "Author's Price". This is the price with zero Author Margin and minimum margin for Pothi.com. Books can be listed on the store at any price depending on the author earning, but you will always get this price. Price Estimation Tool will show you the autor's price when you calculate the price for your book.

Price Estimation Tool will show you the autor's price when you calculate the cost for your book.

Make sure you are logged in from your account before adding the book to the cart. It will automatically get added at author's price.

No. You can buy as many copies as you like.

Yes. You can order the books at Author's Price to be shipped anywhere.

Yes. The details are shown by the Price Estimation Tool when you calculate the price of your book there.

Sorry! We don't have a price negotiation department. We give our best prices in one go and do not negotiate further.

This is the amount you want to earn on the sale of each copy of your book.

That is upto you to decide.n general, you can look around for the books of similar genre and how they are priced. Then look at how these books are priced and what will be the price of your book at different levels of author earning. You can calculate the price at different levels of earnings through Price Estimation Tool. Accordingly you should choose a price. If you think that you can command premium for the content of the book, you can decide to take a higher earning and price it high.

There will be a minimum price of the book depending on the physical specifications of the book (number of pages, size, paper type etc.). You get this price when you put Author's Earning as zero in the Price Estimation Tool. Beyond that it is up to you to set your author margin and hence the price.

By default, the books on Pothi.com are printed using Print on Demand (POD) technology. These are printed only after an order has come and has been paid for. If you want to print copies in bulk, then we seemlessly move from POD to offset printing depending on the quantity.

Generally the book are printed on demand i.e. only after an order has come and has been paid for. Hence, neither the author nor Pothi.com needs to pay for printing cost upfront.

One! Pothi.com uses Print on Demand (POD) and hence there is no minimum quantity needed for printing. Books can be printed one at a time.

The printer you have spoken to is talking about offset printing. As explained in another FAQ, offset printing has high setup costs. Hence, if you print small number of copies the costs are very high, whereas as the number of copies increase (typically at 500+) it starts becoming very reasonable.

When we print one copy at a time, we use a different printing technology called Print on Demand. The per copy cost here is higher than what you would get if you printed 500+ copies with offset printing. But it is still much more reasonable. While printing one copy will be infeasible with offset printing, with print on demand it is within the range of feasibility.

The discounts and details are available when you calculate the price using Price Estimation Tool.

Yes.

Print on Demand books are generally produced in 3-5 business days. Offset printing takes between 2-4 weeks depending on the production options.

The books published through Pothi.com are sold through Pothi.com's Online Store.

Depends on you. We do not market individual books. It is your responsibility as the publisher of your book to do the marketing and promotion.

Depends on how much of successful marketing you can do. Pothi.com can not guarantee the sales of the book.

No. Books published through Pothi.com are sold only through Pothi.com's Online Store. As the author/publisher, you are, however, free to tie up with any distributors and retailers you want.

Currently no.

We can print in bulk, but we do not store the copies. Bulk printed copies will shipped to you for further usage.

There are two options for selling books through our online store, if they are already printed.

1. Shipped by Pothi.com: In this case once the order comes we take care of shipping the books to them. We take 45% of MRP as discount. To opt for this option you need to ship us five copies of your book, which should be replenished when they are sold out.
2. Shipped by Author: In this case once the order comes, we pass it on to you and you need to ship the book to the customer withing 2 working days through courier or speed post and send us the tracking number. We take 30% of MRP as discount and pass on the rest along with shipping charge collected from the customer to you. The shipping charge collected may or may not match your actual shipping cost. To go for this option, you should ship us 2 copies of your book, which are for validating the book and for emergencies - if we can not contact you for fulfilling any order.

If you want to go for either of these options, contact us with the details of your book.

The most important things needed for submitting your book for publishing are correctly formatted files for Book Interior and Cover. Check out the steps involved in publishing through Pothi.com to determine if these are ready.

Apart from the files, you will need to provide the following information in the Book Submission form

• Book Title
• Author's Name
• Language of the Book (this can not be changed later. You should select the correct language)
• Category/Genre of the book (this can not be changed later. You should select the most suitably category)
• Number of Pages: Number of Pages as in the interior file of your book
• Interior Paper Type: Between Plain Paper and Coated Paper, Plain paper would be good for most books. For gift books or for colored books coated paper can be chosen.
• Book Binding Type: Select Perfect or Saddle Stitch Binding. Saddle Stitch Binding is available for 64 or lesser number of pages. Perfect Binding is available for 50 or more pages. Select accordingly. If a non-applicable option is chosen, we'd convert it to the applicable one.
• Color Scheme: Whether the interior of your book should be printed in black and white or colored. Please note that the book can be priced according to either all pages colored or all page black and white. Selected pages can not priced as colored. If even one page is to be printed in color, it will have to be priced as a fully colored book.
• Book Dimension (The page size of your book). Must correspond with the page size of your interior file.
• Page Range for Preview: 10 or more consecutive pages from the interior that should be shown as preview. Please keep in mind the following
  • Minimum 10 pages must be given. Otherwise we'd add the pages consecutive to the beginning or end of the range to take the number of 10.
  • The Preview must begin from an odd page, else we will create a preview from the previous page.
  • Only consecutive pages can be shown in the preview. Pages from different places in the book can not be used.

Once the Book Files have passed the technical review by Pothi.com team, you will receive an e-mail with the instructions to update the following and publish the book.

• Who should see the book: If you want public listing of your book, you should select "Everybody". If you want to keep the book private, you should leave it as "Only me"
• Author's Margin: The amount you want to earn per copy
• About the book: Can be skipped for private books. For publicly listed books, it is strongly recommended that you put a good, short succint description. It should be something that tempts users to buy the book. Simply saying "A collection of stories" does not convey much. Make sure that spellings and grammar is correct. If the Book Description does not have correct language, it is unlikely that someone will think of buying the book.
• About the author: Can be skipped for private books. For publicly listed books, it is strongly recommended that you give details which make the readers curious about the author and make them want to read what he has to say. Take care of spellings and Grammar here too.

The book is printed and hence maintained in two parts, the interior and the cover. Interior of the book includes the complete content of the book and all other components of a book that should be printed on the interior pages. These include table of content, preface, foreword, title page, copyright information and anything else you want in the book. Remember that we do not add anything from our side to the book before printing. So, the interior file should be prepared to include everything you want printed inside the book.

The book is printed and hence maintained in two parts, the interior and the cover. Cover files contains the back cover, spine and front cover of the book. These should not be placed randomly. The file should be prepared according to our specifications before the book is submitted for publication.

For the Interior we check the following

• Page size of the file should be a supported Page Size
• Page size in the file should match the page size you have mentioned in the submission

For the Cover we check the following

• If submitted as pdf, the overall size of the cover is correct.
• If submitted as an image, the overall size of the cover is correct at 300 DPI

If these conditions are not met, your submission will be rejected and you will need to send the revised files. Please note that we do not check the following (and everything else) for interior. If we observe an obvious problem, we may sometimes notify you. But we are not responsible for doing so. Any problems in the printed copy due to these are not our responsibility.

• The actual content: We do not check if the content is complete or not, whether something can be modified etc.
• Formatting issues (fonts, spacings, paragraphs, blank pages, margins etc.)

Also note that following potential issues in cover is not checked by us. If we observe an obvious problem, we may sometimes notify you. But we are not responsible for doing so and any problems in the printed copy due to these are not our responsibility.

• We do not check the individual sizes of front cover, back cover and spine. Even if the overall size of the cover is correct, if these things are not created in right size, printed book may look awry. We are not responsible for that.
• If overall size is more than the expected size of the cover, we assume that the extra portions are bleed on all sides.
• We do not check the DPI of embeeded images in pdf. If they are low resolution, they will be printed as such.
• We do not check if Book name, Author's Name etc. is written on the cover.

Following are the standard page/trim sizes we support

• 5"x7"
• 5"x8"
• A5 (5.83"x8.27")
• 5.5"x8.5"
• 6"x9"
• 7"x9"
• A4 (8.27"x11.69")

To pass through our review, you need to make sure that

• You format the book in a supported page size
• You select the same page size in the Book Submission Form.

There are other things that we do not check in our review, but which you should take care of while formatting your book to ensure it looks good in print e.g.

• There is at least 10 mm margin on all sides of the pages
• You have used a print-friendly (sans-serif fonts recommended) at a suitable size - not too big, not too small.
• Font Type and Size does not change abruptly in the document
• Pages are Numbered
• If the book is a collection or has chapters, there is table of content with page numbers
• There is a title page in the beginning, which has the name of the Book and the Author/Publisher
• A new section starts on an odd page (right side of a printed book). If needed leave a blank page to achieve this.
• Chapter and other headings have consistent style

Many other tips are available in the Self Publishers' Resources Section of the site.

Formatting of the book means preparing the interior book for printing. A formatted book should be printable as it is and it should look good after printing.

Trim size is the actual page size you want in the printed book.

To ensure that your cover file is ready for submission, you should take care of the following

• The final formatting of you interior is done so that you know the page size and total number of pages in it.
• You have correctly calculated the overall size of the cover as well as the individual sizes of front cover, back cover and spine from our Cover Design Specification Page
• You have designed your cover image at 300 DPI
• You have designed the cover in a single page containing Front Cover, Spine and Back Cover. Separate Front and Back Covers should not be submitted, nor should three piece covers.
• You have placed the Back Cover on the left, spine in the middle and Front Cover on the right side of your Cover (except with RTL languages)
• You have put the book name/author name and other usual details a the right places on the cover

Through the Book Submission Form.

The description of the various fields are given below

• Title: Book Title
• Author: Author's Name as it appear son the book. This will be listed as it is. So, if a pen name has been used in the book, it should be the pen name.
• Language: Language of the Book
• Category: Genre of the Book
• Book Interior: Your finally formatted, ready to print Interior File. If your Interior and/or Cover Files are not yet ready, do not submit the book. First prepare the files. The specifications for preparing interior file is here.
• Book Cover: Your print ready Cover file prepared according to our specifications.
• Number of Pages: Number of Pages as in the interior file of your book
• Interior Paper Type: Between Plain Paper and Coated Paper, Plain paper would be good for most books. For gift books or for colored books coated paper can be chosen.
• Binding Type: Saddle Stitch Binding is center pinning. Perfect binding is usual soft cover binding you see in book stores. Saddle Stitch Binding is available for 64 or lesser number of pages. Perfect Binding is available for 50 or more pages. Select accordingly. If a non-applicable option is chosen, we'd convert it to the applicable one. Currently hard cover binding option is not available for one off books.
• Color Scheme: Whether the interior of your book should be printed in black and white or colored. Please note that the book can be priced according to either all pages colored or all page black and white. Selected pages can not priced as colored. If even one page is to be printed in color, it will have to be priced as a fully colored book.
• Dimensions (The page size of your book). Must correspond with the page size of your interior file.
• Page Range for Preview: 10 or more consecutive pages from the interior that should be shown as preview. Please keep in mind the following
  • Minimum 10 pages must be given. Otherwise we'd add the pages consecutive to the beginning or end of the range to take the number of 10.
  • The Preview must begin from an odd page, else we will create a preview from the previous page.
  • Only consecutive pages can be shown in the preview. Pages from different places in the book can not be used.

If it is possible to send the file through e-mail (within the limits imposed by GMail), you can mail us file at writer@pothi.com. Include the following in the mail.

• All the information required in the Book Submission form in the body of the e-mail
• Interior and Cover Files as attachment in the e-mail
• Your Pothi.com username in the body of the e-mail

If the files are too big even for e-mail, write to us at writer@pothi.com including other details except the attachments. We'd arrange an ftp account for your to transfer your files.

If it is possible to send the file through e-mail (within the limits imposed by GMail), you can mail us file at writer@pothi.com. Include the following in the mail.

• All the information required in the Book Submission form in the body of the e-mail
• Interior and Cover Files as attachment in the e-mail
• Your Pothi.com username in the body of the e-mail

If the files are too big for e-mail, write to us at writer@pothi.com including other details except the attachments. We'd arrange an ftp account for your to transfer your files.

If you do not have an ftp client (or if you are not sure what those are), download and install an ftp client on your machine. Filezilla is a free client available for multiple Operating Systems.

Once you have the ftp client installed (assuming it is Filezilla), open it and enter the hostname, username and password as sent to you and click connect/quickconnect. It should connect to the server and in the panes below you will see files on your local machines. Browse to reach the files you need to upload, right click and select upload. Wait until the upload is complete and successful before closing the ftp client.

Do not click on the link to open it in browser. To access ftp server, you need to use an ftp client. If you do not have an ftp client (or if you are not sure what those are), download and install an ftp client on your machine. Filezilla is a free client available for multiple Operating Systems.

Once you have the ftp client installed (assuming it is Filezilla), open it and enter the hostname, username and password as sent to you and click connect/quickconnect. It should connect to the server and in the panes below you will see files on your local machines. Browse to reach the files you need to upload, right click and select upload. Wait until the upload is complete and successful before closing the ftp client.

Generally you should hear back from us within one working day. You should wait for up to two working days. If you do not get a mail back in that period, send us a mail at writer@pothi.com. Before sending us a mail, please check your spam folder once. Also, note that these are two working days. So, count out weekends [Saturdays and Sundays] and other holidays.

In order for the books to print well, we need the files to be according to some specifications in terms of layout, image quality and size. These specifications are available here. If you do not understand the specifications, then you should

• Either design a generic cover using our Free Cover Design Wizard.
• Or get a Unique Cover designed by going for our paid Cover Design Service.

If you do not understand image size and/or resolution, you can read about it here. In general, it is not possible to correct it if your image is low resolution. You will need to recreate your cover at a higher resolution. Some pointers are given in the above article. If you are not comfortable with it, then you should

• Either design a generic cover using our Free Cover Design Wizard.
• Or get a Unique Cover designed by going for our paid Cover Design Service.

Please read about image resolution and sizes here.

Pothi.com supports some standard sizes of the books. The page size in your Interior File needs to be one of those supported sizes. Also, it should match the size you have selected in the Book Dimension field of Book Submission Form.

You will need to correct the errors in the original file and send it back by replying to the e-mail you received.

We do not check submissions for all possible mistakes. We only look at some technical specifications. Please check out this FAQ to see what are things we do and do not check in the files before approving.

You can take our formatting service.

You can

• Either design a generic cover using our Free Cover Design Wizard.
• Or get a Unique Cover designed by going for our paid Cover Design Service.

Yes. After you have submitted your book and your files are approved by Pothi.com, you are given a link to update the book information and publish it. At that stage, you can select the option "Only Me" under "Who should see the book". Then this book will not be available for anyone else to buy. Only you will be able to order it.

After you submit a book and your files have been approved, the book will be available at a URL who link will be sent to you. The link will also be available in your "Author Dashboard" under "My Private Books". This book will be visible only to you and you will need to log in from your account to see it. You can order the book like any other book from there.

As a first step determine if your book is ready for printing/publishing. For this check out this FAQ about steps involved in publishing through Pothi.com. Generally editing, formatting and cover design are the essential steps for making a book print-ready. If you need help in any of these, check out our Services for Writers. Specifically

• Formatting
• Cover Design

Once the book is print ready, submit it. After the files are approved, you will receive a mail to update the book. Choose "Only to me" option under "Who should see this book?" You can order the book after this.

The e-book should be a public domain book with printing allowed or you should at least have the right to print it for personal use. If one of these conditions are true, then create a cover for the e-book. If you want a simple generic cover, generate one at our Cover Design Wizard. After that submit the book and go for "Only for Myself" option. After you get a confirmation of book being ready for printing. Order copies for yourself.

Author Dashboard is a place where authors can access all the relevant information related to their published Books. This is the place to track the sales of their books and earnings accrued. And also to enter information related to earning remittance, marketing options etc. Author Dashboard can be accessed by logging in to your Pothi.com account and clicking on the link on top-right.

Log in to your Pothi.com account and go to Author Dashboard, by clicking on the link on the top-right (the link will appear only after you are logged in). The click on the Section "My Sales and Earning Report".

When a book is sold (paid for and shipped) on Pothi.com, the author's earning gets added to the balance in author's account. This can be tracked on the Author Dashboard. If the balance at the end of the month is 200 Rs. or more, it is transferred to the author within first week of next month. If the balance in the account of author is less than Rs. 200, the transfer takes place at the end of the quarter (subject to the balance being the minimum amount that is possible to transfer through the selected means e.g. if check/DD is the selected method of remittance, the balance should be greater than the courier cost).

Earnings of non-Indian authors are subject to a TDS of 10.3%. Starting from financial year 2009-10, royalty for Indian authors are also subject to a TDS of 10.3%, which is deductible after the earning for the financial year becomes Rs. 20,000 or more

You should ensure that your remittance information updated on Author Dashboard in order to receive their payments in time.

Following options are available for receiving author earnings:

• Direct Bank Transfer: Most preferred method for authors with Indian Bank Accounts. It is the fastest way with no overhead.
• Paypal: This is the payment method for authors, who do not have an Indian bank account.
• Check/DD: If for any reason, direct bank transfer is not possible for an author within India, they can choose to receive a check/DD through courier. Courier cost will be deducted from the amount, if this method of transfer is chosen.

Earnings of non-Indian authors are subject to a TDS of 10.3%. Starting from financial year 2009-10, royalty for Indian authors are also subject to a TDS of 10.3%, which is deductible after the earning for the financial year becomes Rs. 20,000 or more

You should ensure that your remittance information updated on Author Dashboard in order to receive their payments in time.

Log in to your Pothi.com account and go to Author Dashboard, by clicking on the link on the top-right (the link will appear only after you are logged in). The click on the Section "Enter/Update Remittance Information". Enter the relevant details there.

The books will start showing up in the Sales report after the order containing that book is marked as completed. This happens after the order is paid for, shipped and we have received the shipping information from production.

No. To repsect the privacy of the buyers, we can not reveal this information in general. We are looking at an option where a buyer can choose to reveal his/her information to the author of the book he/she has purchased. But we can not comment on ETA of this feature.

You can order the book yourself at Author's Price and ship it to your friends/family. Any other special price is currently not available.

If you want to change information about the book like

• Book Description
• About the Author
• Author Margin
• Corrections in Title/Author Name/Language

then you should log in from your account and go to your book's page on the site. You will see a tab titled "Edit" there. Click on that and you will be presented with a form where you can make the changes and save them.

For changing the files of the book (interior and cover), send a mail to writer at Pothi.com with the following information

• SKU number of the book (if your book is listed on the store you can find the sku number in Author Dashboard in "My Published Books" Section. If your book is not listed on store, you would have been given this number after submitting your book.)
• URL of your book page (Where on Pothi.com is your book available)
• Book files (Cover/Interior) to be changed as attachments.
• Any other information that needs to be changed, but you can't do it on your own with the first method.

Book Language and Genres are set at the time of submitting the book and can not be changed later.

If your book is listed on the store you can find the sku number in Author Dashboard in "My Published Books" Section. If your book is not listed on store, you would have been given this number after submitting your book.

Currently the following methods are available for making the payments:

• Credit Card, Indian Debit Cart/Net banking through Times of Money Direcpay: The payment options supported include
  • Credit Cards: Visa, Diners Club (For Master card, please use Paypal)
  • Debit Cards: SBI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Deutsche Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Corporation Bank, Karur Vysya Bank
  • Net Banking: ICICI, Citibank, HDFC, Yes Bank, Bank of India, Kotak Bank, IDBI, Axis Bank
• Paypal: Payment can be made using paypal balance or Credit Cards. This option should be used for Master Card, as direcpay currently does not support Master Card. An additional charge of Rs. 15 is levied over the total bill amount for each transaction. Since paypal does not accept INR, we pass on the total amount in USD to paypal. The current rate of conversion being used is Rs. 42 to 1 USD. If you are paying by an Rupee Credit Card, due to the conversion rates applied by paypal/bank (which is beyond our control), there may be some discrepancies in the final amount. The best way to avoid this is to use electronic transfer, if you have an Indian bank account.
• Electronic Transfer to our bank account: Easiest and Cheapest method. You can transfer to our bank account from any bank that gives the facility of electronic transfer. For example ICICI Bank, Axis(UTI) Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI etc. Following details can be used for the transfer:
  Bank: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)
  Branch: M. G. Road/ Dickenson Road, Bangalore
  IFSC (NEFT) Code: HSBC0560002
  MICR Code: 560039002
  Account Number: 072566961001
  Account Type: Current
  Account Holder's Name: Mudranik Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
• Check/DD/Moneyorder: These can be issued in the name of "Mudranik Technologies Pvt. Ltd.". Check or DD should be payable at Bangalore. The address for mailing them is

  Mudranik Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
  #202, Scion Avenue
  4th Cross, Kaggadaspura
  Bangalore - 560093

The books are produced after payment has been received. In case of check/DD payment, this is after they have been realized. The normal production time is 3-5 days. Shipping time is extra, which depends on the destination. We can expedite the process for urgent orders. Please contact us for the same.

Steps to buy a book on Pothi.com

• Go to the book page (e.g. Constitution of India is available at this page).
• Then click on "Add to Cart" button. This will add the book to cart and take you to the cart.
• If you want to buy more books, you can click on "Continue Shopping" or go to another book page for which you have the link and then add that to the cart too. If you do not want purchase a book, you can remove it by clicking on Remove checkbox on the left and clicking "Update Cart". If you want to change the number of copies, of a book you can do so in the field named "Qty." and then click "Update Cart". You can come to your cart while browsing the store anytime by clicking on the link on the top-right of the page.
• Once you have all the books you want to buy in the right quantity in the cart, you should click on "Checkout". This will take you to the checkout page.
• If you are not logged in, you will see a field for e-mail address where you should fill up your e-mail id. Optionally you can also fill up username and password for an account Pothi.com through which you can track the order. Otherwise an account will be automatically created with your e-mail id as the username. After filling up the information, click "Next"
• You will see fields for Deliver Details. Fill up your Deliver/Shipping address correctly and click next.
• You will shipping cost which would be automatically calculated. If there are multiple shipping options, those will be displayed here and you can choose one. If for some reason, shipping cost does not appear there, you can click on "Calculate Shipping" to get it. Click "Next" after selecting a shipping option.
• Now you can select payment options. Choose the one you want to pay with. Any details related to that shipping option will be displayed. then click next.
• The billing details fields will be visible. You should fill up the right billing address depending on the payment method. The billing address may or may not be the same as shipping address.
  • For Credit Card/Paypal: The billing name and address that is there with the Credit Card/Paypal.
  • For electronic transfer/Check: Name and address of the person from whose account payment will be made.
• Click "Next" and optionally put any "Order Comments". Then click on "Review Order".
• Verify all the order details on this page. If something needs to change, click "Back" and change it. Otherwise
  • If you have chosen Credit Card/Paypal as the payment option, you will see "Proceed to Payment" Button. Click on it. It will take you to payment gateway/paypal. Follow the instructions there to complete the payment. Once the payment is successful you will be directed back to our site. You can later check the status of your order from your account. You will received e-mails with invoice and other details.
  • If you chose Electronic Transfer/Check/DD/MO, then you will see a "Submit Order" button. Click on this and you will go to a confirmation page. After this you can make the payment through your chosen method. The order will be processed after payment is credited to our account. The order status can be tracked in your account.

A cart on Pothi.com's online store is equivalent to a shopping cart you use in a physical stores. In a physcial store, you will put all the items you want to buy in a shopping cart and then go to the billing counter to bill and pay for them together. Similarly on Pothi.com's online store, all the books you want to buy should be added to the cart. Once all the books are there, you can click on checkout, where you provide the shipping and billing details for all the books together.

This is the address where the books should be shipped.

This is the address fo the person who is paying for the books. If payment is by credit card/paypal, it should be the billing name and address as it is on the credit card/paypal. If payment is by electronic transfer/Check, it should be the name and address of the person from whose account payment is being made.

No. This is not possible.

No. We do not provide phone support.

You can make the payment by supported debit cards or direct Bank Transfer or by check/Demand Draft/Moneyorder. All these options and their details are available during checkout.

No. These options are currently not supported.

Pothi can deliver books all over India and also Internationally.

Please contact us with your requirements.

Copyright Registration is not required for claiming copyright. Copyright comes into existence as soon as the work is penned down and registration of copyright is optional. If you expect a dispute, a registration may come in handy as a proof, but it is not mandatory. The protection under relevant law is available irrespective of registration of copyright.

So, your decision to register for copyright should be based on whether you expect a dispute and whether you would be willing to spend time and money on the same.

No. Pothi.com imposes no such requirement.

Nobody can tell you whether or not you will win a court case. But not having the resigration is not the sole reason to lose a copyright dispute. Protection under copyright law is available irrespective of the registration. For more concrete legal advice you should consult an IP (Intellectual Property) lawyer.

ISBN and copyright have no relations whatsoever. ISBN is only an attempt to catalog all the published books. It makes no statement about the copyrights. Having or not having an ISBN does not affect your copyright.

ISBN and copyright have no relations whatsoever. ISBN is only an attempt to catalog all the published books. It makes no statement about the copyrights. Having or not having an ISBN does not affect your copyright.

ISBN and copyright have nothing to do with each other. ISBN is an attempt to catalog all published books and it makes no statement whatsoever about the copyright. Getting an ISBN is not equivalent to registering a copyright; nor is it necessary to get an ISBN to claim copyright. There should be no confusion here - ISBN and copyright are absolutely independent of each other.

The registration form and other details are available in this pdf file on Copyright Office's website. Technically you can use this form and instructions to apply for copyright registration. If you need help, you would have to contact an IP (Intellectual Property) lawyer. However, this will be a costly affair. It is likely to cost you around Rs. 10,000 even on the lower side.

ISBN stands for "International Standard Book Number", which unique, numerical identifier for the books. Each ISBN represents a particular edition of a book.

No. Publishers assign ISBN to the book published by them. Since Pothi.com is not a publisher, it does not assign an ISBN to any book. However that is not much of an issue because

• You don't need an ISBN for publishing or selling through Pothi.com
• If you want an ISBN, you can get one yourself as a self-publisher for free in India. Check out the simple application format and other details in this Article on ISBN.

While there are companies which assign ISBN to self published books, its not a correct use of ISBN. ISBNs are supposed to be assigned by the publisher. For a self-published book, Author is the publisher. So, someone else should not be assigning an ISBN to a self published book. In some countries, there are resellers for ISBN; who can legitimately give you an ISBN that you own and hence can use for your self publishing book. But there are no resellers in India. There is only one government agency, which is in-charge of assigning ISBNs. So, the best thing to do is to apply to the agency and get one for yourself. And its not difficult. It can be obtained form the ISBN agency for free with a simple application. Check out the application format and other details in this Article on ISBN.

A simple application needs to be sent to the ISBN agency for assignment of ISBN to self published books. The details are available in this Article on ISBN.

ISBN and copyright have no relations whatsoever. ISBN is only an attempt to catalog all the published books. It makes no statement about the copyrights. Having or not having an ISBN does not affect your copyright.

ISBN and copyright have no relations whatsoever. ISBN is only an attempt to catalog all the published books. It makes no statement about the copyrights. Having or not having an ISBN does not affect your copyright.

Yes. We accept Book in all Indian Languages.

The best way to submit a book writte in Indian Lanague is to convert it to PDF and embed all the fonts in the PDF. If you have Adobe Distiller, you can use that to convert your MS word or other files into PDF. Otherwise, there are pretty good free PDF converters like cutepdf, which you can use for the same. In some converters you may need to change settings to ensure that all the fonts are embedded.

Of course, you should conform to the other generic specifications for creating interior and cover files as well.

In PDF files you can embed fonts. Given the wide variety of fonts used for the large number of Indian languages, this removes the dependency on the font being available on our system.

If you have Adobe Distiller, you can use that to convert your MS word or other files into PDF. Otherwise, there are pretty good free PDF converters like cutepdf, which you can use for the same.

Yes. Enter the same in the Book Submission Form using a Unicode Font and it will appear on the site as it is.

Cover Design Wizard is a tool to let you design a generic cover for your book so that you do not have to worry about specifications.

Please note that you should design your final cover only after your Interior Files is finally formatted so that you know the right page size and exact number of pages in your book. After that go to the Cover Design Wizard.

• On the "Setup" Tab, select the number of pages, page size and Binding type correctly.
• Click on "Select the Theme" and select a theme you want to work with.
• Click on "Front" Tab. This will update the preview. Wait for it to get updated.
• On The Title, Subtitle and Author Tabs, enter the relevant details. Update the Preview and if needed adjust the font and its size.
• Repeat the same with Back and Spine Tabs. If number of pages is too less, the spine tab might be disabled becuase we can not have any text of spine in that case.
• If needed, move between the tabs to change settings.
• Click on "Update Preview" to see the effect of changes when needed.
• After you are satisfied with the Cover in the Preview, click on "Download Final Cover" to download the Cover File.
• Submit this Cover File along with the Interior and other information through Book Submission Form

You can experiment with it. But you should design you final cover only after you know the page size and exact number of pages in your Interior File.

You may not have selected correct page size or number of pages while creating the cover. Please recreate it with correct number of pages and page size.

Price of Books on Pothi.com is decided by a formula which takes into account the specification of the book and author earning. Price Estimation Tool lets you calculate the price of your book with various specifications and at different levels of Author Earnings. The tool can accessed here.

To use the Price Estimation Tool, you need to know the final specifications of the book you will be printing i.e. page size, number of pages etc. If you book is in A4 size currently and you calculate the price according to the current page size and number of pages, the price may be totally different when you reformat the book to a different size. So, even if you are only estimating the price, estimate it according to the expected final specification.

Once you are clear about the specifications of the book, go to the Price Estimation Tool.

• In the first textbox, Enter the Number of Pages in your book
• In the second option, select the page size. Its best if you prepare your book in one of the standard supported sizes. But if you absolutely need the book in some other size, for the purpose of price calculation, select the next bigger size.
• In the third option, select the Binding Type. Currently Perfect Binding (the normal soft cover binding you see in the book store) and Saddle Stitch Binding (Center Pinning) are available. Only one or both of these options may be available depending on the number of pages.
• In the fourth option, select color scheme of the book.
• In the fifth option, select the paper type you want to use for the book
• In the sixth option, select the Author Earning you want per copy of the book.
• The click on "Compute Cost"

The output will show you Store Price, Author Price as well as any quantity discounts available.

Store price is the price at which your book will be available on Pothi.com online store at the selected Book Specifications and Author Earning. Author Price is the price at which author can buy the book irrespective of how much is the author margin selected and how the book is price at the store.

Store price is the price at which your book will be available on Pothi.com online store at the selected Book Specifications and Author Earning.

Author Price is the price at which author can buy the book irrespective of how much is the author margin selected and how the book is price at the store. Read More details here.

No. we need the specifications of the book in terms of final page size and number of pages to estimate the price. Once you have those, you can estimate it yourself with Price Estimation Tool.

In Office 2003 or earlier

• Go to File->Page Setup
• Click on the tab named "Paper"
• Choose the desired size from the "Paper Size" drop down. You can specify the size using "Custom Size", if it is not already available.

If you are using Office/Word 2007, "Paper Size" option would be available in the "Page Layout" tab.

To insert Page numbers, go to Insert->Page Numbers. Page numbers inserted like this would be updated automatically, if you insert or delete pages from the document. Do not insert page numbers manually for every page. Updating such documents would be a nightmare.

In Office 2003 or earlier, use the following steps to insert an automatic table of content

• Format the "Chapter Titles" and whatever else you would want in the Table of Content with pre-defined Styles. In general you can use "Heading 1", "Heading 2", "Heading 3" etc. for the titles at different levels. It is possible to define custom styles and include other things in Table of Content too. But you may very well do without it.
• After the chapters are written, click where you want to insert the Table of Content.
• Go to Insert->Reference->Index and Table (If you are using MS Word/Office 2007, Table of Content feature can be found on "Reference" tab.)
• Click on "Table of Contents" tab. Select the desired options there. Playing around with options a bit would give you an idea of how the table looks the best.
• Sometimes you would have formatted some things with the heading styles, which you would not want in the "Table of Content". You can manually delete those lines manually.
• If you change things is the document, before finalizing it, update the Table of Content. For doing this, right click on the Table of Content and click on "Update Field". There would be two options, namely
  • Update page numbers only:Use if no new headings would come, but page numbers might have changed.
  • Update Entire Table: Use if you have added new chapter headings etc.

If you are using MS Word 2007, Table of Content feature can be found on "Reference" tab.

For Office/Word 2003 or earlier, click of File->Page Setup. Then go to "Margins" tab and select the margins you want.

In Office 2007, "Margins" option can be found in "Page Layout" tab.

There are broadly two types of fonts namely "Serif" and "Sans-Serif". You can check out more details about them on their wikipedia pages at

• Serif Fonts
• Sans-Serif Fonts

Although you are free to experiment, the general wisdom is that serif fonts are good for printing, while serif fonts are good for screen/web viewing. So, while preparing the book for Pothi.com's POD service, you would generally want to use a Serif Font for body text. Sans Serif font can be used for headings, titles etc. But for main body text, use a serif font.

In Office/Word 2003 or earlier, go to View->Header and Footer. Now you can type the text you want in the header area and it will appear on all pages.

If Office 2007, "Header" can be found in "Insert" tab.

You need to use two features of Word to be able to achieve this namely "Different odd and even headers" and "Sections".

For having different headers on even and odd page, you can select the option different even and odd page headers. In Word 2003 and earlier, after you go to View->Header and Footer, click on "Page Setup" and select "Layout Tab". Under "Headers and Footers" select "Different Odd and Even". Then you will be able to enter one header for odd pages and another for even.

Since you want to use chapter name in the header, you will need different headers for different parts of the book. To achieve this, you need to divide the document into sections. To know how to create and use sections, please refer to this article.

If you need some content to always start on a new page, do not achieve this by pressing "Enter" several times. Use the page break feature instead. To introduce a Page Break in Office 2003 and earlier:

• Click where you would want the new page to be started
• Go to Insert->Break->Page Break
• Click OK

If you are using MS Word 2007, Page Break option can be found in "Insert Tab".

If you use "Enter" multiple times to get the content on a new page, there will be a problem when you update the content. Suppose you started chapter 2 on a new page. Later you wanted to add few sentences to chapter 1. Now, as you add that content, the first line of chapter 2 will start going down and will no longer start from the top of the new page. Similarly, if you delete content from chapter 1, chapter two will come on the previous page no longer starting from a new page. This is because MS word only knows that there were so many "Enter"s between chapter 1 and 2. It has no idea that you wanted chapter 2 to start on a new page. This will be an ongoing formatting headache.

So, the right way to start something on a new page is to use page break feature of MS Word. When you use page break MS Word knows that you want the content on a new page and irrespective of how content changes, it will intelligently always start it on a new page.

Page Break is a feature in MS Word that lets you start some content on a new page. To introduce a Page Break in Office 2003 and earlier:

• Click where you would want the new page to be started
• Go to Insert->Break->Page Break
• Click OK

If you are using MS Word 2007, Page Break option can be found in "Insert Tab".

This is because MS Word has no way of knowing that you wanted the content to start on a new page. So, even slight changes in content/formatting elsewhere would spoil the alignment of your new page. Instead of pressing "Enter" to start a new page, use Page Break feature.

MS Word has actually created a border around your content. It is not a horizontal line; so it can not be deleted. To get rid of this border, select the content before the border. In Word 2003 go to Format->Borders and Shading. Click on "Borders" Tab. In the "Preview" you will see a border at the bottom. Click on it until it goes away, then click OK. This should remove the horizontal line.

In Word 2007, to reach to this option, you need to go to "Page Layout" tab, then click on "Page Border" and go to tab "Borders".

Following are the options

• If you have already registered on Pothi.com, provide the username and password and click on "Log In".
• If you have registered and forgot the password, use the "Forgot Password" link. The link is also available on the login page which can be accessed by clicking on "Login" link on the top-right of the page.
• If you are not yet registered, register using "Sign Up" link, which is also available on the top-right on the page.

Click on the "Sign Up" link, which is also available on the top-right of the page if you are not logged in. Enter your desired username and your e-mail id. Then click on "Create New Account". You will receive an e-mail with your password and further instructions.

For browsing the site for information, you do not need to register at Pothi.com. However, you will need to register if you need to publish your book or contact us for author services.

Go to Login Page, whose link will be available on the top-right of the page if you are not already logged in, enter your username and password and click on "Log In".

Use the Forgot Password link. The link is also available on the login page which can be accessed by clicking on "Login" link on the top-right of the page. If you have forgotten your username also, you can enter your e-mail id there. You will receive an e-mail with a one time login link. Use that to log into your account. You should change your password after then. To do that go to "My Account", whose link is available on the top-right of the page. Then click on "Edit Account/Change Password". Enter a new password on "Password" and "Confirm Password" fields and click "Submit".

Clicking on that link will log you into your account. Then you should go ahead and change your password. To do this, go to "My Account", whose link is available on the top-right of the page. Then click on "Edit Account/Change Password". Enter a new password on "Password" and "Confirm Password" fields and click "Submit".

Log into your account and Pothi.com. Then go to "My Account", whose link is available on the top-right of the page. Then click on "Edit Account/Change Password". Enter a new password on "Password" and "Confirm Password" fields and click "Submit".