Publishing Package:  

Xlibris.com takes an average of 20 to 24 weeks to publish a book, start to finish, which we feel is just too long. But, this service does offer some pretty nice royalties, paying 25 percent of the cover price for all books sold directly through Xlibris' bookstore and 10 percent of cover price for books sold through third-party retailers. The basic paperback publishing package from this service offers manuscript formatting, original cover design, ebook formatting, barcode creation, assigning of an ISBN number and web domain registration. Xlibris.com is also one of only two services that offer color printing as part of their publishing package. As part of this package, authors also receive one free author copy of their book, author discounts, and access to articles on writing and book marketing, as well as information about writer's conferences and seminars.

Bookselling Reach:  

Xlibris.com has published over 5000 separate titles and by distributing through Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor, Inc., it gives over 25,000 retail outlets access to its books. Xlibris also hosts its own onsite bookstore and sells books through a limited number of online retailers, including Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Borders.com

Additional Paid Services:  

Xlibris.com does offer a few services for an additional fee, which include copyediting, copyright registration, Library of Congress Control number assignment, ghost writing, creation of art for cover designs, custom interior image placement and creation of a CD ROM archive of your finished book and cover-art files. As for extra promotional services, Xlibris offers press release writing, makes copies of your book available for critical review and the creation of full-color posters, business cards, bookmarks and postcards. You can also purchase marketing literature from this service to help you better market and promote your book.

Help/Support:  

Xlibris.com offers toll-free phone support, both an online form and email support for submitting questions and one of the most extensive sets of FAQs we've seen.

There's no doubt that Xlibris is a good publishing option, but they'll need to shorten up their publishing timeframe and offer a few more services for the money, if they hope to compete against services, like our #1 pick, iUniverse.