With half its customer base in the United States, Australia’s Tablo self-publishing platform has added print-on-demand typesetting services and distribution
Australia’s Tablo is a self-publishing service established in 2013 by author Ashley Davies, who was having no luck getting a publishing contract. In four years, the company has drawn more than 70,000 self-publishing authors from 150 countries. TechCrunch’s John Biggs reported that Davies had raised $400,000 in seed money in 2014 from Y Combinator partners Kevin Hale and Paul Reining. Davies declines to disclose how many books have been produced on the platform; revealing that, he says, would “make it very easy for competitors to measure our performance.”
But, of course, competitive is the word. Publishing services abound. Distinguishing a service’s attractions is becoming more difficult. We asked Davies—a Forbes “30 under 30” entrepreneur—why Tablo has added print editions now. “Print has always been something we’ve wanted to offer,” Davies says. “It’s just been a question of focus and of time. The product started to come together after a breakthrough we made in Word document importing. We’ve invented and protected a process that lets you drop in almost any unprepared file.”
According to Davies, Tablo analyzes each book to learn its structure, then presents it ready to publish—fully typeset, with a working table of contents—a few seconds later. “It’s 20 times more accurate than import tools from Amazon,” Davies says—a claim that cannot, of course, be independently verified.
Tablo uses Ingram for print-on-demand print production and retailer relationships. Davies says he thinks the print capability he’s adding will expand his reach. He considers his main competitors CreateSpace, as well as Wattpad, since the Tablo platform also incorporates a free social/community aspect.
Davies says fiction is 80 percent of the platform’s output, with 50 percent of authors based in the US. Australian activity makes up less than a fifth of Tablo’s output. “We have a strong local market in Australia,” Davies says, “largely because of our presence in writing festivals, local libraries, and workshops. Australia and the UK are each around 15 percent of our business.”
Bottom line: Tablo’s pricing is set up with packages that run between $99 and $299 per year for publishing and distribution; authors keep 100 percent of net sales and are paid quarterly. All rights are retained by the author at Tablo, according to its terms and conditions, but ISBNs are registered to the company. As always, read the details carefully.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
