— Mark Paxson
Towards the end of our last video chat, I mentioned a new initiative Saffron Asteria is attempted over at Indiosyncrasy. If you click on that link, you’ll see that Saffron is updating the website and making it bigger and better than it ever was.
What I mentioned in the video chat is that Saffron is working on becoming a printer in support of indie authors. I talked with her about it a few days after we recorded the video chat and it sounds like a great opportunity for indies who want to take over a little more control of printing and distributing their books.
This is something I’ve thought about off and on over the years as I struggle with finding an audience for my books. What I’ve thought of doing is selling copies directly through my own website, or just posting the stories there for people to read for free. For the former, I would still need a printing option and that is where Saffron comes in.
She has access to a printing company and is working on providing printing services to indies. She has done so with one book so far and will be slooooooow rolling it out to other writers in 2026 and beyond. Why sloooooooow rolling it? Because the woman can only do so much.
There may be different options available for indies. For instance, if you think you can sell 200 books on your own, you can order 200 books and she’ll ship them to you. Or, if you don’t want to deal with distribution, she’ll send the books out for you.
Because the scale Saffron can operate on is tiny compared to Amazon or Draft2Digital, her prices will be higher. Based on the information she gave me, the cost to print will be around 50% higher. So, it won’t make for cheaper books, but it will make for having more control and Amazon not getting its cut.
Something for you to think about.
One more thing, I’m aware of other changes Saffron is making to the Indiosyncrasy website. There is lots of good stuff coming, so you should keep taking a look to see what’s coming.
Writers Supporting Writers 