Formatting for Print

I'm formatting for print today.  Fun fun fun.  

In case you weren't aware, I almost never use smaller than 11pt font in my print books.  I think I did 10pt once to try and keep the price reasonable, but that's it.  If I don't want to go blind trying to read tiny print, I'm sure as hell not going to subject you to that either.

It occurs to me that if I am going to venture into young adult, I probably shouldn't swear so much on my blog.  :shrug:  There are no swear words in SONG, except for the curses they use in that world.  Blast, blaze, etc.  Nothing you wouldn't want your kiddies reading in there.  Here?  Umm...  Parental Guidance is suggested for this blog - language, sometimes violence and adult themes.  No sex.

Chances are that the kids reading this particular book are old enough to have seen and heard many nasty words by this point in their lives.  Probably said a few, too.  Still, I didn't want that for this book, so it's not there.  I might've used damn... :shrug:

Anyway, I should be done with the print formatting and uploading today.  Then I have to wait for my proof copy to arrive and verify it's all good.  Then it'll be available for sale.  Right now, it's looking like it's going to be 424 pages.  Probably like $14-$17 a copy US and near to that elsewhere.  I try to keep them as cheap as I can and still make it worth my while to make print copies available.

Anyway... back at it.

What are you up to today?  How do you feel about print copy books?  Do you think I should try out Amazon's new 'hardcover' option?

International Paperbacks and Pricing

Recently, I received an email from Amazon that my paperbacks would now be available in Australia, and if I didn't go in and specify what I wanted those books to sell for, Amazon would choose a price for me.  When I went into each book to see what Amazon thought was a good price for my paperbacks, I saw that in each case, the amount they'd chosen would leave $0 for me.  

Umm... no.

So, I went through each and every book to change the price of the Australia paperbacks.  But in doing this, I noted that the prices I had let Amazon choose for all the other countries where paperbacks are available (based off my US price, supposedly) left very little meat on the bone for me. 

Noting this, I changed the prices for all international paperback copies.  I mean, come on.  I should be allowed to make a little somethin-somethin for the effort, eh?  I tried not to be greedy.  I mean, I make less on each paperback copy than I do on the ecopies of the same books - no matter what country it sells in.  

Unfortunately, with the amount Amazon takes for doing the job of printing and distributing, my paperbacks are not as cheap as I'd like them to be.  When you see the prices, don't curse me.  If I could give you all the same prices the trad pubs offer, I would.  I've got them all as cheap as I can make them - which is also why they aren't available for wide-distribution.  To give all those other sellers a cut,. I'd have to add even more money to the price just to eke out my dollar and change.  

It's the curse of being self-published, I guess.  :shrug:  There are quite a few of us self-pubs who don't even bother to offer hardcopy books because the expense versus the profit just isn't worth it.  I don't blame them.  But I wanted all of you to have a choice.  There it is.  

And, like I said, they're ALL now available as paperbacks in Australia.  Yay!  

And, if you're an author with paperbacks being printed and sold through Amazon, get in there and check your prices before you end up selling books and not getting any money for you.  Jus' sayin'.  

Paperback Update Stuff

Here's an article on Moving From Createspace to KDP that explains some things.  Mainly, I learned why I can't find the easy way to port my books over.  They don't give you the option, I guess, until they send you the letter.  And I haven't gotten mine yet.  I expect they're doing all the more important, better selling people first.  :shrug:

My proof for Sleeping Ugly arrived yesterday.  It's gorgeous.  Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the Createspace system and I had no way to approve it.  I wrote them a note and they fixed it.  I approved the paperback and it's available for purchase now at CS.  It'll be available on Amazon in 3-5 days.

Here's the paperback cover...

Pretty, eh?  She sends it to me only in PDF, so I had to screen capture the above, but that's basically it.

I'm waiting on the proof for Early Grave.  Here's the print cover I came up with for that...

Fingers crossed it looks as good in person.

Every finger crossed that my paperbacks work out with the Amazon printing process.  If I have to buy a new set of proofs for 12 books, it's going to put a dent in my budget.  And if I have to buy all new proofs, I'll be giving away old proofs.  My friggin' proof shelf is overloaded as it is.

Oh, and I ordered copies of Sleeping Ugly.  When those arrive, I'll do a giveaway or something.

Don't expect a paperback of Blink of an I any time soon.  I had planned to start that process after I did Early Grave, but then the CS thing became real.  It's gone this long without a paperback, it can go a little while longer.

Meanwhile, it's back to manuscript polishing on Unequal for me.  I have about a hundred pages left to go before I send this to AWE tomorrow.  And after I finish this, I will be back to writing new words on Ugly and the Beast. 

Have a great weekend, folks. 

Paperbacks and Formatting

Hey All. 

Since I'm hip deep in stuffs, and part of that is formatting books to become paperback copies, I thought I'd talk about that again. 

Sleeping Ugly is formatted and uploaded and the proof copy is on its way.  It's supposed to be here Thursday.  If all goes well, I'll approve the proof and it'll be available for purchase shortly after.

Yes, I used Createspace again.  Yes, there is a strong rumor that Createspace will be going away as Amazon (who bought Createspace a while back) tries to move everyone over to their print publishing.  I opted to go Createspace again because I am not interested in reinventing my wheels right now. 

I also spent the better part of yesterday formatting Early Grave for print and creating a print cover.  It's uploaded and I should be hearing later today if they accept the files.  Since I made my own cover here, I expect they'll grouse about something.  But I don't expect it to be too awfully bad and I should be able to order a proof shortly.

Next up is finally getting a paperback started for Blink of an I.  Then all my books will be available as paperbacks and all will be right with the world again. 

Once those three are approved and up for sale, I'll started the process of putting all the titles through Amazon print publishing.  The process is supposedly easier if you already have the books up on Createspace.  :shrug:  We'll see. 

I'm still leery of printing through Amazon because they're new and I'm unsure of the quality of their print books.  Then again, Createspace's quality ain't always the best either.  One of my books, they sent the wrong cover on the proof.  As in, the cover for someone else's book was on my proof.  A Christian Romance, if I remember correctly, wrapped around my proof of Fertile Ground.  I'm sure the cover was as shocked as my manuscript.  In another case, the manuscript pages were all printed slightly off.  They said the 'off' was within acceptable parameters.  Acceptable to them, maybe.  :shrug:  I guess, right now, it's 'better the devil you know' for me.

As for formatting, I know it sounds scary. But once you have a system for doing it, it's not really all that bad.  More tedious than difficult.  Which is why I dragged my heels on EG and Blink.  I hate tedium.

Here's my checklist for formatting a print copy:

1)  Type THE END

2)  Find and replace all double spacing between sentences with single spacing

3)  Remove all Bookmarks.

4)  Make sure everything is the font you’ve chosen for the book.

5)  Format all chapter headings as Headings.  Including THE END.

6)  Apply print font for Headings to all.

7)  Format all scene breaks for continuity within book and within series

8)  Create title page

9)  Create Copyright and Acknowledgements page

10)  Add in About the Author Page at the end

11)  Add in back matter.

12)  Create Section Breaks after Acknowledgements and after THE END

13)  Add Pages Numbers to manuscript section centered bottom

14) Verify ‘Link to Previous’ is unchecked

15)  Format Page Numbers to chosen look

16)  Set to ‘Different First Page’ in manuscript section

17)  Delete page number from first page of manuscript section

18)  Verify no page numbers in front matter section or back matter section

19)  Set page size to 5.5” x 8.5”

20)  Set margins to Top .88”, Bottom .88”, Inside .75”, Outside .63”

21)  Make sure margins are ‘mirrored’

22)  Verify all chapters start on right hand page.

23)  Print a few pages to verify it will look how you want it to look.

24)  Upload to Createspace

Feel free to borrow the above, but remember, your process may vary with regard to page size and margins.  There are also reasonably priced formatters out there, if you're not interested in the DIY.  The price I usually see quoted is $50.  I'd rather save the $50 and do it myself, but that's me.  And I have the time to do it, when I actually set my butt down.  Like I said, it takes about a day for me.  (Okay, not a whole day.  Maybe a couple hours over the course of a day.  Again, tedious but not hard.)

I print out the above for each book and then check the items off as I get them completed, so I don't miss a step.  (Like with UWC, which had no page numbers.  Derp.)  And I do all of this in MS Word.  The first 11 items should already have been done during the 'format for ebook' phase, but I like to have them there anyway, just in case.

Woo, that's a long post up there.  Thanks for reading all the way down, or for scrolling all the way down to here, if that's the case.  Any questions?  Comments? 

Oh, and it's not in the checklist, but if you're formatting for print, get rid of your Table of Contents and any hyperlinks.  They're not necessary and totally not clickable in a print book.  ;o)

To Print or Not to Print?

Ah, therein lies the rub.  Whether it's more marketable to offer works in paperback or to suffer the slings and arrows of only going ebook.  Or something.

As I approach release day for Blink of an I, I'm once again questioning whether to offer a work in hardcopy as well as ebook.  Supposedly, having a hardcopy version available lends validity to the ebook.  I'm not sure about that.  I know plenty of people who only have their books in eversion and they don't seem to be hurting for sales.  And I have hardcopies of all my books so far, but they don't seem to be doing much for my sales. 

It'd be nice to have some hard data on the subject, and there might even be some somewhere, but I'm not in the mood to go looking for it.

It's not like putting a hardcopy version out there is that hard.  A pain in the butt sometimes, but not hard, per se.  A little more formatting, a print cover.  It's a little more expense, too, with purchasing proof copies, etc.  But not enough to make it totally out of the question.

Which still doesn't answer my question.

If I put out paperbacks, I could offer them as contest prizes.  But so few people enter my contests, I'm not really seeing any good come out of those.  The one person here who regularly enters has already won a copy of this book anyway - in eversion.

If I have paperbacks, I can hand sell them.  Except my hand sales are so down, I don't even bother trying anymore.  I could give them away to people I know...  Yeah, that's not really happening lately either.  Being a hermit has its downside.

Lazy me says 'just put this one out ebook only'.  Publisher me says 'put them both out so you cover all the bases'.  Not sure who'll win.

What do you think?

If I do put out a paperback version, it won't be out for at least a month after the ebook, because of shipping proof copies, etc.  

Chicken. Head. Off.

It's pre-release week.  So, basically, I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  Not literally, of course, but in my head, that's about what it feels like. 

My last to-do list was a full page of little notebook paper.  Right now, all but two things have been crossed off.  I started a new to-do list - moved those two items and added two more.

I'd forgotten how much stuff has to be done around a release. 

Last night, I got WHTF formatted for print.  Then I went through all of the Once Upon a Djinn ebooks and adjusted the back matter so they all have WHTF info on them along with links.  Meanwhile, I found an error in the print copy of Up Wish Creek which needs to be corrected in case anyone should want to buy a print copy.  (Not likely, but still.)

I also firmed up and paid for some advertising last night.  And contacted my cover artist with a page count for WHTF so she can do the paperback cover. 

Today, I have to work on bookmarks, updating the back matter for all my other books, more advertising stuff, work on the Createspace stuff for WHTF...  Argh.

It'll all get done.  It has to.  And since there's no one else to do it but me, I guess I'd better quit ma bitchin' and get to work.

What are all y'all up to today?

Why Publish in Print?

You know, I wish I had the answer.  I still publish in print, despite the fact that I haven't sold a print copy of a book in over a year.  In fact, the print copy of Natural Causes should be available soon - good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.  (And the reason it's months after the ebook release is exactly the fact that I haven't sold many print books and it ain't cheap getting these without anything to show for the expense.)

I guess part of the reason why I publish in hardcopy is because I like print books.  I especially like holding a print copy of my books in my hands.  I like petting them and smelling them and thumbing through them.  It's a thing.

Another part of it is that I read somewhere that having a print copy available - even if buyers choose ebooks instead - adds legitimacy to the book.  :shrug: I'm not sure if that's true, but I do know that with sales off the way they are, I'm willing to try. 

Another part of it that offering free copies of print books is supposed to help with sales and reviews.  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  If they actually read the book and want to read more of my stuff, they can find all the books in the back of either print of ecopies of my books.  And if they actually read the book they received free, they could possibly write a review.  (Umm, except for that one gal who got a copy free through Goodreads and put it up for sale almost immediately as a New, Signed copy.  Good luck unloading that, lady.)

In truth, I'm not sure what having paper copies of my books actually does for me.  Other than the expense of copies and shipping, it doesn't hurt to try.  Who knows, maybe the wiser heads are right and they really do help.  Either way, I have physical proof I wrote books for after I'm dead, right? 

What do you think? 

And, if you want a copy of the version of Blood Flow with the original cover say "pick me" in the comments.  I'll draw a name or two at the end of the week.  

Wider Distribution - the Hard Numbers

This time last year:

Me (at the local smoke shop): I'm self-publishing a book.  It's due out in a couple weeks.
Manager: Cool!  Where can I buy it?
Me: It'll only be available at Amazon.  Do you have a Kindle?
Her: No. I have an iPad. But that's okay, because I have that app thing.
Me: Kindle for iPad?
Her: That's the one.

That's just an anecdote, but it's fairly indicative of how my non-Amazon sales go.  Them what don't have a Kindle use the app.  Them what don't like Amazon have to wait to buy my books elsewhere. Why?

Well, I initially started out as Amazon-only because I wanted to see how the Kindle Select perks worked for me.  Then, in May, I took Dying Embers out of Kindle Select and put into wider distribution to see how that worked for me.

:crickets:

I sold 5 books in the 90 days I had DE in wider distribution - and those 5 sales were due to an ad that sold me over a hundred books at Amazon.  Needless to say, I put DE back into Kindle Select and haven't regretted it.

Then I took Wish in One Hand out of the program and placed it in the wider distribution windmill.  Almost 90 days have gone by.  1 sale.  To a friend. 

I tried looking for 'non-Amazon' marketing outlets.  They don't seem to exist.  Those Kindle advertisers who do put up links for your books at other sites garner very few sales.  How do Nook / Kobo / Apple users find new books?  Got me.  Perhaps those distributors are using their marketing space for the Big 5.  :shrug:  I am not Big 5 and I never will be, so oh well. 

I still have WIOH in the wide distribution and I will through at least a month's worth of the launch for In Deep Wish.  Because I am launching IDW everywhere and I want to see how that goes.  Maybe if I wave two books in a series at those other readers, they'll be inclined to buy.  Probably not, though.  I have low expectations.  We'll see.

I tried a wider distribution for my printed books.  I sold like 1 book that way.  To the same friend.  I made .61 on a $15 book through B&N.  (BTW, I made .59 on the 99 cent ebook I sold through B&N.)  And that is the money for a cheaper to print book.  If I wanted to take BloodFlow through the process, my take would be considerably less unless I wanted to price my paperbacks so high no one would want to buy one.  Raise your hand if you're willing to pay more than $15 for a paperback.  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Hell, even at $12.99, I can't move these suckers and any lower makes my cut feel like I'm giving these away.

To sum up, I haven't figured out how to make money at the wider distribution thing.  There are dollars out there, but I can't seem to tap into them.  If I do, I'll let you know what the secret is.  I suspect if the other book distributors got a little more friendly to self-published authors like myself - provided some perks and incentives, a little marketing somethin-something - it might be better.  I'll probably never know.  In the end, I keep trying new things.  And after I try the new things, I end up back with Amazon exclusively because that makes the most sense for me.  Time will tell.  If that changes, I'll roll with it.

Sales Goal Giveaway

Sitting here this morning trying to figure out how to word this giveaway so people don't get the wrong impression...

1000 Books Giveaway?  Umm, not giving away 1000 books. No way, no how.
1K Giveaway? Umm, not giving away 1K of anything. 
Sales Goal Giveaway.  May not be exciting sounding but at least it's accurate. 

I reached a sales goal I didn't know I would have at the beginning of the year.  As of this morning, people paid for 1000 of my books - in one form or another. 

795 ebooks
183 KU books
22 hardcopy books

And so I thought a giveaway would be a good idea.  Soooo, comment on this post before the end of the year (11:59pm CST on 12/31/15 - which is the end of my year) and you'll be entered to win a hardcopy of any one of my books - if you live in the US.  If you're outside the US and I draw your name, you'll win a PDF copy of any one of my books and I'll mail you a postcard from that book. 

That's about as equitable as I can make it.  I lurve all my fans worldwide, but shipping rates are killer for non-US bound packages. And Amazon won't let me buy ebooks for other countries.

So come celebrate with me.  Leave a comment.  Tell your friends.  Have friends leave a comment.