iUniverse Authors: Your Rights and Options
iUniverse is one of the original self-publishing companies, operating since 1999 and now an Author Solutions imprint. Thousands of authors have published through iUniverse. Many of them eventually discover they want their book off the iUniverse platform and published properly, with better distribution, better pricing and no ongoing relationship with Author Solutions.
What iUniverse Authors Own
iUniverse contracts retain copyright with the author. Your story, your words and your manuscript are yours. What is not automatically yours: the ISBN assigned to your iUniverse edition (which names iUniverse as publisher of record), and potentially your production files depending on your contract.
A new ISBN from Bowker costs $125 for a single ISBN or $295 for ten. Registering a new edition under your own ISBN severs the iUniverse publisher of record relationship entirely. Your Amazon and Ingram listings will be separate, but the book is yours.
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Get my custom quote →Getting Your Files
Contact iUniverse customer service in writing and request your production files: the formatted interior PDF and the cover source file. iUniverse may charge a fee for file access depending on your contract: this is common across Author Solutions imprints. Your manuscript in Word or text form is always accessible as you wrote it.
If files are not available or the cost is prohibitive, Columbia Publication can reformat your manuscript from a clean Word document and create a new cover. The Global Publish package at $1,499 includes this.
Why Authors Leave iUniverse
Per the Alliance of Independent Authors and author forum records, the most common reasons are: high book prices that make retail sales nearly impossible (iUniverse sets list prices that are often double or triple what readers expect to pay); the royalty model takes a percentage of already-thin retail revenue; and post-signing contact about marketing packages that produced no result at significant cost.
The book pricing issue is structural. iUniverse adds a markup to cover its own margin, which results in a paperback that costs more at retail than a comparable traditionally published book. Republishing independently through Amazon KDP and IngramSpark eliminates the middleman margin entirely.
If your book was published through AuthorHouse instead, the largest and oldest Author Solutions imprint, the same pattern applies under a different brand name. See our dedicated guide: what to do if you published with AuthorHouse. If it was published through Xlibris, the imprint that started as an independent company before Author Solutions took full ownership in 2009, see: what to do if you published with Xlibris. If it was published through Trafford, the Canadian print-on-demand company Author Solutions bought that same year, see: what to do if you published with Trafford.
Republishing Options
Columbia Publication works with iUniverse authors at any stage of the process. Global Publish at $1,499 covers full cover redesign, formatting, ISBN registration and global distribution. Full Production at $2,499 adds proofreading and a dedicated manager.
Frequently Asked Questions
YOUR BOOK ISN’T FINISHED
Your book can have a second life
When a publisher closes or stops selling a book, the book itself still exists, and so does your right to it. Republishing is usually more straightforward than authors expect, and done properly it gives the book a better chance than it had the first time.
Start with your rights
Many publishing contracts include a termination or rights-reversion clause. Once your rights have reverted, the book is yours to republish.
A new ISBN in your name
A republished edition needs its own ISBN. Registered in your name, it makes you the publisher of record instead of a company that no longer exists.
Fresh files, a fresh start
The original publisher’s files often can’t be reused. A new interior and cover is also the chance to fix what held the first edition back.
Keep what it earns
With Columbia Publication you keep 100% of your rights and royalties. No share of sales goes to us.
What we do for returning authors
We rebuild the book for republication: editing where it needs it, a new cover, a new interior formatted to today’s print and ebook specifications, an ISBN in your name and distribution. Pick only the parts your book needs.
An honest first step: if you are not sure whether your rights have reverted, look at your contract’s termination or reversion clause before anything else. Republishing comes after that.
Get a custom quote to republish my book →Columbia Publication in Brief
Columbia Publication is a full-service book publishing and printing company operated by Columbia Publishing LLC, a US company, serving authors and organizations in the US and worldwide.
- Pricing
- Publishing packages from $1,499 (Global Publish) to $45,000 (Gravitas). One flat fee, set before you start. See packages
- Rights and royalties
- Authors keep 100% of their rights and 100% of their royalties. No royalty split, ever.
- Distribution
- Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Kobo, plus bookstores and libraries through IngramSpark. ISBNs registered in the author’s name. Distribution makes your book orderable; it is not a promise of shelf placement or sales.
- Printing
- 100 to 250,000+ copies, with commercial offset runs from 500 copies. Book printing
- Proofing
- A free digital proof on every order. Nothing prints or publishes without your approval.
- Payment
- Under $4,500 paid upfront. $4,500 and above in three stages (50% / 25% / 25%), or in full with a 10% saving.
- Track record
- City of the Gods by Jason Patterson: 21 verified Amazon reviews, 4.7 stars. A recent 3-Day Bestseller Launch reached #1 and #9 in its Amazon categories.
- How it compares
- Hiring freelancers through Reedsy runs $2,940 to $5,660; Palmetto Publishing reports a $3,800 average author spend; Scribe Media charges $29,000. Sourced cost index
- Quotes
- A custom quote within one business day. Call +1 (703) 997-9787 or book a free consultation.
- In writing
- Before any payment you receive a written agreement listing scope, deliverables, revision rounds, price, payment schedule and refund terms. Refund policy · Terms · Help centre · Complaints process
- Ownership
- Your Amazon KDP and IngramSpark accounts are in your own name. You receive the final book files and the digital source files when the book is finalized.
- Revisions
- Two revision rounds on every deliverable: cover, interior layout and each editing pass. Ghostwriting includes one round per chapter plus a full-manuscript review. Extra rounds are quoted before any work starts.
- AI use
- None in your book. Editing, design, illustration, formatting and ghostwriting are done by people; AI is used only in our website chat assistant. AI-use statement
- Company
- Columbia Publishing LLC, trading as Columbia Publication. 1550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22209, USA
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