Paperback Pricing

Back when I used to read torrid romances on the beach, I could pick up a mass market paperback for around $2.99. Harlequin romances were .99 cents at the supermarket, and the church thrift story usually had some hanging around for .25 cents. Needless to say, I was always reading. (Check those prices and you'll see how old I am. lol)



Two years ago when I was going on vacation I decided to pick up a couple of books to read. Imagine my astonishment when the price tags were $7.99 and $9.99. For a mass market paperback! Ouch.

Back in the day, the New York publishers would print up a run of 20,000 books at a time (or so, depending on who the author was and if they thought the book would be a best-seller). If they didn't sell, they would get returned to the publisher and pulped. Or they would rip the covers off and sell them to an outlet store for pennies on the dollar. Now, I'm finding more and more stores (Cheap John's or Building 19, The Dollar Tree) are selling them at 95% off.  Hardcover, and/or paperback for so cheap, sometimes I think it's easier to wait a couple of years for a best-seller. And those authors never receive a dime from those sales.


It broke my heart to see a friend of mine's book at the Dollar Tree, in hardcover no less, for a buck. It was an international best-seller, and she's become quite famous in literary circles. Yes, she made money from the sales of her book, but I know her royalty statements do not have any money from the outlet sales. And that is a shame.


When I decided to publish my own paperback books I went with Create Space, a pay-on-demand publisher. Of all the p.o.d companies, they seemed the easiest for me to work with. They also have a tool to show you how much it cost to produce a book, how much you'll make for profit, and how much each distributor will make. (Because everyone takes a piece of the pie.)



You need to input such things as how many pages there are in the book (including front and back matter, and also extra blank pages), what the size of the book is (mass market paperback, trade paperback, etc), and what the color of the paper is (yes, really. Cream paper is thicker than white and creates a different spine width for the book). Yes, indeed, there is much more to know about how to "create" a book, than I ever imagined.



When I published my first Regency paperback, I sold two copies. And I know who bought them because they told me. Other friends said they were too expensive. They were priced at $14.99. (Okay, ouch. I get it now) But I had to take into consideration how much money I would be making on each book sold. I needed to make a profit somewhere. I didn't want a mass market paperback size, I wanted my books to be different, ergo, cream paper, 6x9, and Times New Roman font pt. 12 -- easy on the eyes.


But now, I'd like to publish REMEMBERING YOU in paperback and I'm having fits trying to decide which size, what color paper, and which font size to use. Fit's I tell you. I also have 3 different covers and trying to decide which one to use is also giving me a headache. (But more on this at a later date)

Depending on where you buy a book from, an author website or Amazon, (And I'm strictly speaking self-published authors here) there's a lot of difference in profit margin. Because I used Create Space to publish, they give you your own link, which then you create your own "store" as it were. You order directly from them so  there is no middle man. It's just you and Create Space and I make more money.


If you order from Amazon, the book gets made at Create Space, then ships to Amazon, then ships to you. Amazon takes a cut off my price tag, so my profit decreases. (Technically, I'm not sure if this is true because Amazon owns Create Space, so there might not be any shipping involved other than to the customer, but Amazon gets a piece of the profit sharing pie.)



Having only published my Regencies in paperback, I'll be discussing these for my numbers.


No matter which book of mine you buy, it cost me almost $5.00 (average) to produce. That's how much Create Space charges me to "make" one book. Even if I order 100 copies, that price doesn't change. (The only thing that changes is the shipping price. If I order one book, it cost $3.95 to ship to me, if I order 100, the shipping price is .80 cents per book.) And the shipping price is not built into the average above, so we're looking at around $5.50 to "make" a book. (and that's if I want to hand-sell at events and such.)

So for some real numbers --

On average, if I sell my book for $14.99, I make about an $8.00 profit if you buy my books from my website at the Create Space "store" I set up. (Yes, I know the math is wrong from above, but I've never been good at math. I'm missing the actual page count numbers -- Create Space charges a finite amount for pages, so, the more pages a book has, the more they charge to make it.)

At $12.99, the profit decreases by $2.00, naturally. And so on and so forth.
However, if you buy the book from Amazon, my profit decreases by another $3.00. So on a book priced at $14.99, I'm only making $5.00. At $12.99, around $3.00. Not nearly the 70% profit margin I make in e-versions. (But that's another blog post.)

And to get down to the real nitty gritty -- if you should buy my book from a bookseller, say Ralph's Bookstore in Seattle, (who in this scenario would be a third party dealer -- known in the industry as an extended distributor ) I make only $1.50. That's a big drop from nearly $8.00 if you buy direct from me on my website. I have no idea what the percentage is for this. Like I said I can't do math, but it's pretty big. More than 50% I know.

In the publishing industry, everyone makes money. Well, I guess in every industry, right? Everyone needs a cut.

Now, I've read some blog posts that say putting a Create Space link on your website to sell your books is kind of a sleazy thing to do. It makes you look like you're money hungry. Like you're trying to get the most out of your book and duping the customers who buy it.

Huh?

Duping them into what? It's the same book if they buy it from me or Amazon or Ralph in Seattle. The only difference is, I'm making more money. And shouldn't I benefit from that? I mean, I was the one who wrote the book in the first place. I slaved through how many revisions, rewrites, formats, cover designs, and then the final push of marketing and promotion. Why shouldn't I get the most out of my book as I can? If I'm doing all the work, shouldn't I get more pieces of the pie?

Author, proofreader, copywriter, book designer, formatter, marketing manager, publicist. That's a lot of hats for a self-published author, and if I paid everyone of those people (as the publisher) they'd make about $1.15 each.

If I wanted to buy blueberries, would I go to a supermarket and put money in their pocket, or would I go directly to the farmer and put money in his? I'd rather put money into the farmers pocket directly. He's the one who kept the crows from eating them, watered them during the drought, and picked them by hand to ensure their quality.

My advice to you, if you do decide to buy a paperback book, not just from me, but from anyone, especially if they're self-published -- buy it from their website, (or blog if that is their website -- like mine are). The author will make more money than if you buy it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or from any other bookstore. And don't you want the author to make more money? Isn't that what book buying is all about?

They create a product you want and like. Don't you want to support them directly? And why would you want to support Amazon? (If that's where you buy your books from -- they're taking money out of the author's pocket.) And I didn't tell you that so you would buy one of my books, I told you that to help you think about HOW you buy books and from where. I always want the creator of a piece of work to get the best part of the deal, don't you. I mean, it all goes back to blueberries, doesn't it? Just cut out the middleman.

And yes, I know that Amazon offers deals on shipping and percentages off on books with their Prime Membership and all that. But are you really saving all that much money? Would you rather support Amazon and their global industry or would rather support the local economy and give a well-deserved hard working author a chance to support themselves?

Think about that -- that's all I'm saying.

Robynne Rand (c) 2013

And just so you know, I dropped all the prices on my Regeny romances to $12.99, with the exception of THE LADY'S MASQUERADE which is now $10.99. You can find them all at my Anne Gallagher blog.

The Drama Continues....

I bet you think I'm talking about the latest story I wrote. I'm not. Today it's all about my mother.

As a good friend of mine once asked, "When did we become the adults, and our parents become the whiny, bratty children?"

You see, we were supposed to rent a beach house for a month back home in Rhode Island. But then my father had a melanoma scare. We had to wait until July 10 for the results from his test. So my mother put off the idea of going up until we knew what was going on with my father. Luckily, the results of the surgery came back negative. yay

So he's all comfy cozy, not going to die, or have to have chemo. Which means, we're free to do whatever we want for the rest of the summer.

I told my mother if she wanted to rent a beach house up there, she needed to get on the stick and find one in January. By March, everything is booked solid. (I used to live in a resort town, I know how it works.) And naturally, my mother didn't do that.

Having owned our own beach house for 30 years, my mother can't grasp the concept that she must "rent" now. She thinks we can just go up there, and something will magically appear. For less than $500- a week. (I've checked -- if you can find something for a $1000- a week, you're doing something.)

Now, she has a good friend that we (Monster, me and my mother) stayed with a couple of years ago. It's right up the street from the beach, very quiet and cozy, and even though I was worried Monster would drive the old lady crazy, she didn't. She was a very good little kid.

However, this year, my mother doesn't want to bother Mary. (Mary's 85.) Well, actually, my mother doesn't want ME to bother Mary. I don't know why, I cook, clean, and stay out of Mary's way. We were down the beach most days last time. It's not like we throw giant parties or drink or I have 10 kids.

So I told my mother that she could stay at Mary's and I would stay with my cousins. Or rather that Monster and I would stay in my brother's camp trailer at my cousins house. They have a pool, and a 2 year old girl that Monster could play with. (She's very good with little kids.)

You'd think I told my mother I was going to stay on the moon. "Well, I have stuff to do when I go up there. I don't need to be carting you and Monster to and from the beach everyday."

Um, did you miss the fact there's a POOL at my cousins house? A big freaking pool. That nobody uses. Monster doesn't care where she swims, as long as she CAN swim.

I get the idea that my mother doesn't want me around. Problem is, my father won't let her drive up there alone, so someone has to drive her. And that would be me. And wherever I go, Monster goes.

And you know, I need a vacation. Bad. I'm almost ready to chuck the whole idea of doing anything with my mother and just packing me and Monster a suitcase and cruising up there by ourselves. But if I do, then my mother will just be a whiny brat.

All I know is she needs to make up her mind what she's going to do within the next two weeks. I've got someone lined up to watch the dogs. I've got the bills paid through August. I AM going to the beach, whether up there or in NC.

I don't understand -- I gave her two viable options to stay in RI. What is the big deal? Pick one and let's get on with it. Why is there all this drama?

Robynne Rand (c) 2013

Writing Controversial Material

I finished the short story I started last week, came in around 16K words, and I like it. One of my critique partners asked me why I was writing it, instead of working on the story I should be working on.
I gave her all the reasons I had, but mainly it was because I wanted to write it. It got a hold of me and wouldn't let go, so instead of pushing it off until later, I wrote it now to get it out of the way. (Therefore allowing me to concentrate on the story I will be working on -- instead of feeling guilty I didn't write it first.)

Anyway, this short WHEN WE WERE IN HEAVEN is a weird little thing, involving angels and God, serendipity, deja vu, cotton candy, memories, dream analysis, personal goals, temptation, and a plane crash. Yeah, as I said before, a hot mess.

It's not my usual contemporary romance. For one there's a lot of God in it. Okay, maybe not so much God, but religion, or better yet, faith. How Sarah has it, loses it, and then finds it again. For two, I do not curse in it. Weird, I know, for a sailor/truck driver like myself. Not even a damn. (Which is pretty controversial for me.) And for three, you have to read it while pretty much suspending your belief.

Meaning, as a reader, you have to put everything you know on the back burner and just read the story. Other genres do this all the time -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, etc. et al.

Now I was taught never discuss in polite company -- sex, politics, religion, ethnic background, and money. And on the blogs I pretty much stay away from all that. In my writing, I've touched on some of these themes from time to time, but never in a "in your face" kind of way. I don't spout my personal views, only those of the characters.

But in this story, faith, religion, God and angels play a prominent role. Why? Because they can. Because I wrote it that way. I like this story. I'm glad I wrote it. I'll stand behind it 100%.

Funny thing is, if you're a constant reader of this blog, you may have noticed (or not) that I took my WHO ARE YOU - A Collection of Very Short Stories off my page. I also unpublished it from Amazon. Why, you may ask? Because after reading it (again) I found it was too controversial.

If you looked inside the sneak peek on Amazon, I dropped the F-bomb three times on the first page. Not only that, I had a voyeur watching a sex act. Yeah, I know, shame on me. But it was what I was writing at the time.

Do I stand behind those short stories -- you bet. I like those stories. They mean something to me. However, with the release of WHEN WE WERE IN HEAVEN, it just wouldn't look right. You know, God and angels competing with F-bombs and contemporary love stories with sex and fights and drama included.

I wouldn't want my 90 year old Aunt Elsie reading WHEN WE WERE IN HEAVEN and then reading WHO ARE YOU. She'd have a heart attack. As a writer, doing business, I don't want to lose readers. It's how I make my money. I have to look at my demographic. My business is writing and publishing books. I have to look at my audience.

As Henry David Thoreau once said, "God and I have never quarreled." I feel the same way. But, perhaps that's why WHO ARE YOU only sold 3 copies in six months. I'm allowed to write what I want, but maybe God decided it's just too controversial for someone like me, therefore didn't allow it to move. Divine Intervention? Algorithms? F-bombs?  Maybe. Who knows.

All I know is that my short stories are controversial in one way or another. But in the self-publishing market, I do with them what I will. Edit, unpublish, republish, whatever. It's my call.

What about you? Do you write controversial material or do you stick with what you know?

Robynne Rand (c) 2013