Pothi.com is a great self-publishing platform that encourages and helps newbie authors & self-publishers and is very fair to them
I had a recent exchange with Pothi.com on me exploring the possibility of self-publishing my part auto bio book with another self-publisher in India, in addition to Pothi.com. I was very happy to see their clear and unambiguous responses that confirmed their not having objections to my self-publishing with others (as the agreements are non-exclusive) and they also confirmed that I can use the output of their cover creator tool for books that are published elsewhere (not on Pothi.com)!
They were OK with me sharing the exchange with them publicly here. I felt that will help some newbie authors & self-publishers and perhaps some oldies too! The exchange is given below in a slightly edited manner:
I (Ravi) wrote to Pothi.com on 12th June 2019 afternoon, as follows (slightly edited):
Hi,
This is with respect to my book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-autobiography-indian-software-techie-and-spiritual-aspirant-%E2%80%93-part-1, which I am self-publishing (now it is private till the book gets finalized at which time I will make it public) with Pothi.com in non-exclusive arrangement. This book is of A5 size and has 297 pages of inner content.
I felt it appropriate to inform you folks (Pothi.com folks) that I am also in the process of printing the same book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", but in 6 in. x 9 in. size and of 262 pages (inner content) with another self-publishing platform (--snip--) in non-exclusive arrangement. I felt it appropriate to inform you of this. Do let me know if you have any issues with this in general.
Another point is that I have used Pothi.com's Cover Page Designer to create the 6 in. x 9 in. cover page (minor alteration to A5 size cover page that I had created earlier using Pothi.com's Cover Page designer). I carefully went through the Cover Page design form as well as Pothi.com FAQs to check that there is no restriction on output of Pothi.com Cover Page design tool being used elsewhere by me. Note that all the images and text in the Cover Page are owned by me. Further note that the Pothi.com logo is NOT present in my cover page (to reduce legal exposure to Pothi.com for my book).
However, on ethical grounds if you folks at Pothi.com feel that I should NOT use Pothi.com's Cover Page design tool's output pdf file for the cover page for the 6 in. x 9 in. size version of the (same) book that I am in the process of self-publishing using --snip--, do let me know. In that case, I think I will recreate the same 6 in. x 9 in. cover page (or almost the same) using --snip-- cover page design tool.
I would like to be respectful to, and be an ethical user/customer of, both Pothi (Pothi.com) and --snip--. Before finalizing the self-publication with --snip--, I will be informing --snip-- of my book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", in A5 size form (297 pages), being in the final stages of self-publication by Pothi.com. So far, I have not had any email interactions with --snip-- on this book and so I will wait for the right time to inform them of it and check that they have no objection.
Do let me know if you have any issues with me using both Pothi.com and --snip-- to self-publish the same book of mine but in different sizes.
Thanks & Regards
Ravi S. Iyer
--Rest of email signature snipped--
----
Pothi.com folks responded in a short time (slightly over half an hour) and I responded back a couple of hours later. The exchange is given below with my responses given inline:
Hi,
Thank you for writing to us.
Publishing through Pothi.com is a non-exclusive arrangement, and you are free to publish your book through other platforms or publishing houses at the same time.
However, please note that we cannot speak for any other publishing house, and you will need to confirm that any other platform or publishing house is also non-exclusive in this fashion.
Our cover creator tool is free for general use, and there are no restrictions on it with regards to where the cover generated from it should be used.
We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have further queries.
—
Regards,
Pothi.com Team
----
The header part of my response is given below (the inline comments have already been mentioned above):
Thank you so much for your prompt and ****clear**** response. No ambiguity! No confusion! That's what I really appreciate of Pothi.com.
--- end of email exchange between me and Pothi.com--
Ravi: BTW the paperback print of my part autobio at Pothi.com had got stuck for some time to understand why some of the images had printed with some white streaks. That analysis is over now. So the next print has been initiated today (12th June). In a week to ten days I should have the new printed copy which has a new (and bright) cover page. I will then check the cover page and images in the inner contents. If they are OK, I will go to the next step of making the paperback book copy publicly available on Pothi.com (as of now it is private and accessible only to me and Pothi.com).
They were OK with me sharing the exchange with them publicly here. I felt that will help some newbie authors & self-publishers and perhaps some oldies too! The exchange is given below in a slightly edited manner:
I (Ravi) wrote to Pothi.com on 12th June 2019 afternoon, as follows (slightly edited):
Hi,
This is with respect to my book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-autobiography-indian-software-techie-and-spiritual-aspirant-%E2%80%93-part-1, which I am self-publishing (now it is private till the book gets finalized at which time I will make it public) with Pothi.com in non-exclusive arrangement. This book is of A5 size and has 297 pages of inner content.
I felt it appropriate to inform you folks (Pothi.com folks) that I am also in the process of printing the same book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", but in 6 in. x 9 in. size and of 262 pages (inner content) with another self-publishing platform (--snip--) in non-exclusive arrangement. I felt it appropriate to inform you of this. Do let me know if you have any issues with this in general.
Another point is that I have used Pothi.com's Cover Page Designer to create the 6 in. x 9 in. cover page (minor alteration to A5 size cover page that I had created earlier using Pothi.com's Cover Page designer). I carefully went through the Cover Page design form as well as Pothi.com FAQs to check that there is no restriction on output of Pothi.com Cover Page design tool being used elsewhere by me. Note that all the images and text in the Cover Page are owned by me. Further note that the Pothi.com logo is NOT present in my cover page (to reduce legal exposure to Pothi.com for my book).
However, on ethical grounds if you folks at Pothi.com feel that I should NOT use Pothi.com's Cover Page design tool's output pdf file for the cover page for the 6 in. x 9 in. size version of the (same) book that I am in the process of self-publishing using --snip--, do let me know. In that case, I think I will recreate the same 6 in. x 9 in. cover page (or almost the same) using --snip-- cover page design tool.
I would like to be respectful to, and be an ethical user/customer of, both Pothi (Pothi.com) and --snip--. Before finalizing the self-publication with --snip--, I will be informing --snip-- of my book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", in A5 size form (297 pages), being in the final stages of self-publication by Pothi.com. So far, I have not had any email interactions with --snip-- on this book and so I will wait for the right time to inform them of it and check that they have no objection.
Do let me know if you have any issues with me using both Pothi.com and --snip-- to self-publish the same book of mine but in different sizes.
Thanks & Regards
Ravi S. Iyer
--Rest of email signature snipped--
----
Pothi.com folks responded in a short time (slightly over half an hour) and I responded back a couple of hours later. The exchange is given below with my responses given inline:
Hi,
Thank you for writing to us.
Publishing through Pothi.com is a non-exclusive arrangement, and you are free to publish your book through other platforms or publishing houses at the same time.
[Ravi: Thanks for the confirmation.]
However, please note that we cannot speak for any other publishing house, and you will need to confirm that any other platform or publishing house is also non-exclusive in this fashion.
[Ravi: Yes, it is my responsibility to ensure that with any other publishing house (like --snip--).]
Our cover creator tool is free for general use, and there are no restrictions on it with regards to where the cover generated from it should be used.
[Ravi: Great! That's a great service to self-publishing authors like me.]
We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have further queries.
[Ravi: It sure helps a great deal! Thanks a ton! You folks are wonderful partners especially for newbie self-publisher authors like me. May God bless you folks OR, for those of you who do not believe in God, best wishes to you folks.]
—
Regards,
Pothi.com Team
----
The header part of my response is given below (the inline comments have already been mentioned above):
Thank you so much for your prompt and ****clear**** response. No ambiguity! No confusion! That's what I really appreciate of Pothi.com.
--- end of email exchange between me and Pothi.com--
Ravi: BTW the paperback print of my part autobio at Pothi.com had got stuck for some time to understand why some of the images had printed with some white streaks. That analysis is over now. So the next print has been initiated today (12th June). In a week to ten days I should have the new printed copy which has a new (and bright) cover page. I will then check the cover page and images in the inner contents. If they are OK, I will go to the next step of making the paperback book copy publicly available on Pothi.com (as of now it is private and accessible only to me and Pothi.com).
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