[jarcane]

80%-cost is higher than any other POD service I know, that's potentially quite good.

Through my current publisher I get 70% after cost, so it depends on what their fee is (and it irritates me more that they don't specify what that fee is).

I'm also more than a little uncomfortable with the monthly fee angle, especially with it being mandatory to have your books listed on other services. I'm a firm believer in 'money should flow to the author,' and it makes your book's public availability outside of a niche site with poor discoverability contingent entirely on continually providing said site with more money. Your book now no longer pays for itself, but rather must make at least enough to cover the cost or else it vanishes from the public eye.

It's a small fee, but having been through it and seeing what the long-tail of a book can look like, it's something that can add up and be problematic in the long run, and it also hampers the service's utility for those who wish to offer their book free in digital. You can also probably bet on the likelihood it will get bigger, not smaller, over time.

This is, in small scale, why vanity publishers were awful and why everyone jumped on board with POD in the first place.

[friendcode]

I'll add more details about what are the fee and that the author is keeping 80%.