While Amazon and Lulu, two American self-publishing giants, dominate the North American market and offer pricing options that virtually drive smaller competitors out of the market, there are made in Canada options for short run, self-publishing, desktop publishing and print-on-demand printing.
A few of these are Friesen Press, Copywell, Bookprint.ca, Sure Print & Design and Tellwell. Tellwell offers the most complete assistance for writers.
Sadly, none have the marketing reach of Amazon and Kindle Desktop Publishing, since Amazon has its own enormous customer base. They also market through other associates worldwide, assuming a responsibility that would overwhelm an individual attempting to set up distribution in as many places and countries as Amazon does.
However, Amazon’s monolithic control does not prevent you from effective marketing of both e-books and print books. As a seller, you can sell directly on Amazon, set up links and consignment arrangements with local bookstores and use other ebook distributors to reach into your best markets.
Most of a Canadian author’s books will sell in Canadian markets, in any event, and using the numerous marketing tools to reach that audience can give you a better share of the market, for less cost, than advertising on Amazon and publishing through them.
As we use local, Canadian companies more, as an alternative to Amazon & Lulu, we will strengthen them which may, in turn, drive prices down for printing.