Incoming Price Drop On Amazon.com

That's right, these are hard times and I'm willing to acknowledge that. It's one of the reasons I love being independent, the ability to control what happens with my work and counter bad market trends.

There are no plans for Amazon.com or their self publishing imprint Createspace to offer mass market paperback sizes. Why is that a big deal? Well, it's simple: Mass market paperbacks (also known as pocket book size), are cheaper, about $6.99-$9.99 in the US and $9.99-$12.99 in Canada. The currently offered Trade Paperback (measuring a much larger 6"x9" and featuring better quality paper), averages between $19.99-$29.99 in the US and between $24.99-$39.99 in Canada. By rights, if I were following the trends set down by the big publishing companies I'd be charging those prices.

I don't think so.

I like my readers and am willing to take a massive hit in order to offer Trade Paperback books for a price closer to that of a mass market paperback. In short, you get big, glossy, 6"x9", high quality books for nearly the price of those cheap, corner store quality newsprint paperbacks. US customers will also be eligible for Super Saver Shipping. Here's a list of the price drops:

First Light Chronicles Omnibus: Was $17.99 Now $14.99
Spinward Fringe Resurrection & Awakening: Was $15.99 Now $11.99
Spinward Fringe Triton: Was $14.99 Now $11.99
Spinward Fringe Frontline: Will be $14.99 when I can afford to cover the cost of shipping a proof copy from California to Ontario.

To be honest I'll be making $3.00 or less for each book I sell but I'd rather ensure that people can afford them than make more money for each one sold. These books are made to be read, enjoyed, and for that to happen they have to be affordable.

I've also run into a number of Canadian readers who are leery of buying from Amazon.com because they'd rather keep their money in the country. Sadly I don't have any print distribution in Canada. Don't wait for me to get any either; thanks to market conditions in this great country there's no telling when or how distribution will happen. So, if you're in Canada and want copy of my books, please order from Amazon.com. You're still putting your money in the right place; in my hands so I can keep writing full time.

As a side note, if you're a publisher in Canada and you'd like to acquire the print rights for my work in this country or any other, drop me an email with your contact information please. It's still early enough in the game to get the lion's share of the sales in North America since I've sold fewer than 20 books through Amazon.com.

I'm currently working with a publisher in the UK to offer my books in print in that end of the world and I hope to have more news on that soon. Those rights are available as well.

Thank you very much for your support so far everyone! I hope this makes it much easier for you to obtain printed copies of my work and spread the word to friends who don't read EBooks just yet.

On my end I'm hoping to see more than 3 books a month sell through Amazon.com (That's the current average). I love Mobipocket but I'd like to have a secondary source of income and more exposure in the US and Canada.

If you'd like signed copies of my work, send me an Email. I'm sure we can arrange something!

I aim to entertain and hope to increase my audience so I can keep working for you, my readers!

RL

UK Publisher / Self Publisher Wanted!

For months now I've been trying to find a good UK publisher / self publisher who is willing to sell printed copies of my work to people in their back yard.

In case you didn't already know, I'm located in Ontario, Canada. As a result I have access to a lot of US self publishing companies that will allow me to do all the design work myself and offer the work to readers. I still have to order a single proof copy with most of them, but that's a reasonable reality. It's best for me to see what my readers are getting. Other than that the companies I work with don't charge any upfront fees and there are no cash cost surprises.

What I've found in the UK is that the vast majority of self publishing companies are more interested in making thousands of dollars from independent authors and have little interest in selling books to readers.

After being thoroughly screwed by Trafford in Canada I promised myself that I'd never pay cash up front for a publisher to list my work and half heartedly offer it to readers. That rules out every self publishing company I've seen in the UK out.

The Emails regarding the lack of printed copies in the UK don't stop, however, nor would I like them to! The problem is I still don't have a way of fulfilling the demand. I could just give up and say; "Well, it's not easy, so I'm afraid you'll have to stick to buying EBooks in that part of the world!" That's not the way I work, however.

Instead I'm posting an open invite to all publishers and self publishing companies in the UK to offer my printed work to your customers. Here are a list of qualifications you MUST meet:

There must be no up front, listing, maintenance or procedural fees.
You get a cut of the cover price, that's it.
I must be allowed to determine the cover price (with a self publisher).
I will be given a 30% or higher royalty on the cover price (with a conventional publisher).
I retain all rights to my work (with a self publisher, a conventional publisher will recieve print rights but will have no entitlement to other media rights).

What I can provide:

10 titles.
Records of sale that will show thousands of EBooks sold.
Information and graphics for promotional purposes.
I can do all my own design work.
I will make myself available for telephone/radio/print interviews.
Your listings will be prominently featured on my various websites.
A conventional publisher will recieve exclusive print rights for a limited term in exchange for an advance against future sales.
I'll offer my eternal gratitude.

So that's all. I do have a note for users who might want to offer self publishing advice though, and that is to do your homework before offering it. Please don't recommend anyone unless you personally have a positive relationship with the company.

If you're recommending a publisher, be aware that I'm not interested in a long submission process and my readers don't want to wait around for a year or more and over 98% of unsolicited manuscripts are either never reviewed or rejected even if it's the best thing they ever read. There are many market, legal, time and budget considerations that come into play that prevent unsolicited manuscripts from being considered. I also don't have a literary agent.

Taking that into account, if you know of a good, free self publishing service in the UK or you're a real publishing house or literary agent and are interested in helping me, drop me an Email and I'll get back to you right away.

In the meantime I'll keep researching while I'm not writing and hopefully I'll be able to find a way to make printed copies of my work available in the UK.

RL