Sunday Summary

  1. So Dorchester is apparently 86ing their paperback line in favor of POD and ebooks.  It’s not like they had a huge choice in the matter since they were, as I understand it, on the verge of bankruptcy.  Apparently Medallion did the same thing a few months ago, and I missed it.  The authors who have books coming out with Dorchester are understandably upset about the whole thing.  Many of them have spent large chunks on their advance doing the sort of promo that only works for print runs–like ads in bookstores.  While I am definitely all ra-ra ebooks, I feel for these authors.  They expected one thing, are being handed another, and they don’t get the kind of rights that make e a good move.  They’ll get lower royalties, higher publisher set prices, and no control over distribution, discounts, etc.  That makes it a lot harder to be successful in e.
  2. I admit, I hadn’t imagined that e would eventually replace mass market paperbacks.  I mean, it makes sense as things shift and the publishers are losing money.  E costs less to produce/store/ship/house.  Someone I mentioned this to yesterday said she’d expected it because mmp are throwaway books.  Frankly I have a hard time thinking of any books as throwaway books (well other than the books I had to read in all those poli sci classes in college–I would have been happy to burn those).  My shelves are covered 2 and 3 deep with mass market paperbacks (hence the practicality of moving to e).  If publishers would then attach paperback PRICES to those ebooks, they would seem less unreasonable.
  3. I’ve had a slight uptick in sales this week over last. Last month saw a steady decline each week in sales from the huge spike in June, so it seems like that’s finally leveling off at least, and coming weeks will determine whether it will climb again.
  4. Forsaken By Shadow is still discounted to $1 at Amazon, but since the list price is $1.99, I’m actually getting my 35% royalty on THAT price, and I’m directing the extra and unexpected funds to my next book cover.  If they want to keep it this way in perpetuity, I’m totally cool with it.  I get higher royalties, customers get lower prices, and I get the psychological benefit of it looking like it’s on sale.  Bonus all around.
  5. Forsaken By Shadow is now available in Amazon UK, which is pretty exciting. I’m international!  And so is everybody else published through DTP.  I haven’t sold a copy over there yet, but I expect that’s because the bulk of people don’t want to read via the ap on their computer or smartphone and Kindles are not yet widespread in the UK.  I figure we’ll see an uptick around Christmas perhaps.  Of course it drives me nuts that the reviews don’t transfer….I’m hanging out reviewless over in the UK.
  6. Pubit! at Barnes and Noble was supposed to be up and running by the end of the summer. I’m wondering what their definition of “summer” is.  School has started here.  The college starts back in 2 weeks.  The temps are in the triple digits.  I suppose, TECHNICALLY they have until the autumn equinox in September…  But seriously, I’m ready to move forward with that since I can’t seem to get properly categorized through Smashwords (and hence, not found by people not already looking for me).  There’s been nary a peep since the first announcement.
  7. I’m solidly into the writing of my freebie project, a short novella called Devil’s Eye. For anybody who wanted to see more of Gage’s BFF Mick, the Wylk who owns Le Loup Garou, he’s the hero of this one.  The story itself is freestanding, outside the metaplot and timeline of the rest of the Mirus series.  The idea is to give them a feel for my world that will hopefully interest them enough to start at the beginning and work their way through the rest of the series.  I’ll be putting it out for free via my blog, Smashwords, and any other sites where you can list free ebooks.  I expect it’ll be $0.99 at Amazon since they won’t let the rest of the peanut gallery list things for free.  It won’t ever go above that price there, and if free is ever an option to us, it’ll be free there too.
  8. Since there are still a lot of people out there who think that ebook formatting is hard or who simply don’t want to do it, I am considering offering it as a paid service, as well as formally listing my copy editing services. My hourly rate for copy editing is $35, which is considerably more labor intensive than formatting.  I was thinking of offering formatting services for $25 an hour.  Anybody think they’d be interested or know someone who would be?

5 thoughts on “Sunday Summary

  1. I like these weekly updates. Gives me some perspective not only on your life and views, but an idea of how the whole publishing/marketing thing works.

    1. Oh good! They started out as a means to kind of track sales and stuff but it’s sort of nice to have a list/summary post so that I don’t have to think too hard about what to talk about 😀

  2. I can’t wait to read Devil’s Eye!

    Offering editing and formatting services might be a good idea for making a little extra money. I even thought about doing that myself since I’ve done it free for a couple of people. But my question to you would be: WHEN are you going to find time to do it? :0)

    You mentioned Medallion did the same thing Dorchester is doing. So they aren’t doing trad publishing anymore? Just POD and ebooks? I’m asking because a friend of mine was going to submit to Medallion….

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