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.
I eventually will have all my book-length books in print. I do some of them sooner for contest entries and because I donate them to local libraries. I have far more libraries in this area, many of which are small and underfunded. Getting my books into them also gets them into the "system" for inter-library loans. Not sure it helps my sales, but hey, people get to read my books!
ReplyDeleteI think you should do whatever you want to do, and on your timeline. I don't sell hardly any paperbacks but they are there if someone prefers print over digital. *shrug*
I put all of my books up as paperbacks. The nonfiction mostly sells that way, and (very) occasionally a fiction title sells on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I like to have a set on my shelf, where I can see them from my desk. Inspiration? LOL!