Using Dorico, making a pdf for a publisher- what's the best music publisher?

Labour. What happens when you need to spend 10 hours one day to fulfil your orders, but you have something else do to? And do you really want to spend your own life printing out other people’s scores and putting them in the mail?

And don’t forget the amount of time you will spend on the phone to people who (rightly or wrongly) think you have messed up over something - and the fact that your customers may ring you at any hour of the day (or night, if they are in a different time zone).

Thanks, I also can do a cursory Google search (hint: I did), and honestly, Spartan is not a site for composers having their works available to buy online, its a printing press. That’s it.

Subito’s site seems to be from 1992, and gives very little info on what the score looks like.

At least with Lulu, the potential customer can see a few pages of what they will be buying.

None provide any audio.

With Spartan, its the equivalent of me asking a printing press company to do a job for me, and that’s it. There is no link I could find to lead me to composers and their works (available scores for printing purchase), and no preview of their products, I would have to email them to ask for samples, and give them info on potential projects.

Maybe I was not clear initially?

I am using Lulu, and I like them-
BUT I’d like to find a place that does what Lulu does, yet gives me more control over sizes of scores:
Lulu lists the works from an author on a single page,
gives a description of it, and an image- with a preview of several pages.
It is also available via digital distribution,
and one can get a free ISBN number with certain types of products.

Re: “drop-shipping”-
If I have a conductor who is interested in a work, I can simply go to the Lulu site, order a SINGLE copy to be printed, and type in the conductor’s address, and within a few weeks it will arrive, drop-shipped straight to their address. I find this immensely useful.

I see no other place that will do this.
So, for this forum, these are the main questions I would ask:
u Are there any OTHER places like Lulu?
(2) Are there any other places that do it BETTER, and cater to composers?
(3) Has anyone USED these sites? If so, I would like feedback for our forum.[/u]

If there are no other places like Lulu, then I suggest that perhaps there is a hole in the market which needs to be filled.
(Daydream wishlist: Since Dorico is based on “printing”,
perhaps the company could later expand its offerings like a type of Lulu, but be focused primarily on MUSIC)

Thanks for all your responses so far.
You folks are awesome.
I hope that is a bit clearer. :slight_smile:

I see no other place that will do this.

I sent you the link to My Score JW Pepper. They’re the largest sheet music store in the world, both online and with many locations. They do exactly what you want including preview pages and you can upload audio clips. Here it is again.

https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/my_score/ms-faq.jsp

One of my children has had some success with this, embedding the links from web site and Facebook pages. Has the composer’s page on business cards, too.

One thing nice about Pepper is that many schools, churches etc. have accounts with them. They’re not exactly newcomers to the business having been around since 1876. The present company dates back to 1912.

Yes, thanks- I am familiar with Pepper, and on first impressions: I wasn’t terribly impressed-
reading up on it it seemed that they take quite a huge cut out of the amount of money the composer would get-
if I’m not mistaken. I could be mistaken since I looked at so many sites (my head was swimming).
Comparing it to Lulu, I am only paying for the printing cost (and shipping, etc).
I remember something about a membership fee (not sure if I’m dreaming about this??) as well that initially turned me off-
I’ll check it again, before I get all negative. Thanks, and I will report back. :slight_smile:
Any OTHER folks out there use Pepper??
What’s YOUR take on them?

I remember something about a membership fee (not sure if I’m dreaming about this??) as well that initially turned me off-

$99 one time setup fee. No membership fee.

Ah, yes. THAT was it. Thanks.
I’ll look more into it soon and get back to you folks on my review.
I’d really like folks here to openly review their experiences with these places, so WE have more choices.

Lulu is not for everyone, for sure-
it is completely do it yourself, and if that’s something you like, its great.
BUT- its not about music there. Its all books.
There is also NO set-up or membership fee whatsoever at Lulu.
They do not take most of the profit (like most of the printing companies I have looked at so far),
the author determines the price, and Lulu charges for printing.

When you are self-publishing, no reason not to do both or as many as possible. My kid tells me that, in spite of the margin, My Score/Pepper is bringing in more money.