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A question for fellow writers
message 201:
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Leta
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Apr 06, 2015 12:41PM
So we're pioneers! I like that.
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All that may be true, but there are many of us who prefer to hold a book in our hands. My novels are in both forms and sales are about 50/50.
There will always be those who prefer an actual book or newspaper. Factual evidence shows that percentage continues to decline.
Lee wrote: "All that may be true, but there are many of us who prefer to hold a book in our hands. My novels are in both forms and sales are about 50/50."Stu wrote: "There will always be those who prefer an actual book or newspaper. Factual evidence shows that percentage continues to decline."
Lee, I get that & I'm trying to get my e-book formatted into a paperback using CreateSpace, a true learning experience, but making progress.
How much is CreateSpace charging for this? I used Bookcrafters to format for both. They were easy to work with and the cost was reasonable.
Lee wrote: "All that may be true, but there are many of us who prefer to hold a book in our hands. My novels are in both forms and sales are about 50/50."Lee, I also prefer to hold a book in my hand. My novels will be in both formats too, but personally I cannot understand having to be "plugged in" or "glued to a screen" 24 hours a day. For me, I have to get away from electronic devices and actually carry on a conversation with another person.
Amen! I go out and hang with my horses, clears my head.
Highly recommend CreateSpace based on my own experience. Very efficient, responsive and reasonable. Not surprisingly Amazon has the leading platform.
Lee wrote: "All that may be true, but there are many of us who prefer to hold a book in our hands. My novels are in both forms and sales are about 50/50."I hold my kindle in my hands. Was I only supposed to hold ebooks with my feet?
Stu wrote: "Highly recommend CreateSpace based on my own experience. Very efficient, responsive and reasonable. Not surprisingly Amazon has the leading platform."I had a good experience with Create Space also.
I have my novel on Create Space, too. Indie publishers who lack marketing experience love the print-on-demand feature. It lets you order one book at a time or 10 or more at a smaller cost. Keeps us from having a garage full of our own books and giving them as Christmas gifts. LOL
Morris
Morris
Mod
Learn telekinesis. I make mine hover in the air.
Dwayne wrote: "Christina wrote: "I hold my kindle in my hands. Was I only supposed to hold ebooks with my feet? "Learn telekinesis. I make mine hover in the air."
Show off!
Dwayne wrote: "Christina wrote: "I hold my kindle in my hands. Was I only supposed to hold ebooks with my feet? "Learn telekinesis. I make mine hover in the air."
Use the Force!
Mod
The last time I tried that, I got sued by LucasFilms.
What is this fixation with greasy hands? Ick! I'd rather get caught with the drippy bag than have greasy hands.
Question: have you ever taken your book down from Amazon or wherever to made some editing changes & then up-loaded it again? If so, have you done this more than once? Do you think it's a good or bad idea? When do you think it would be a good time to do this? Thanks for your input
Question: What does CreateSpace charge to format for print and ebook, both for Amazon and Smashwords?
CreateSpace and Smashwords are two different things. Create Space can charge you to do the work, but it's better to look at their tutorials and do it yourself.
Morris
Morris
Smashwords is just another place to sell your books for those who don't have the Amazon reader.
Morris wrote: "CreateSpace and Smashwords are two different things. Create Space can charge you to do the work, but it's better to look at their tutorials and do it yourself.Morris"
Have to disagree. CreateSpace will edit, format and design your cover for a reasonable price.
Lee wrote: "What price?"Didn't need editing. Cover and to format manuscript was $748. Well worth it. Very pleased with process and result.
What is the per book cost on print books?
Lee wrote: "What is the per book cost on print books?"I get $2.50 for each paper back that sells for $9.99. For each kindle version that sells for $4.99 I get $3.50.
That's what I get as well. What do you pay for a print book? I like to take some with me when I speak and sign.
Lee wrote: "That's what I get as well. What do you pay for a print book? I like to take some with me when I speak and sign."Think I pay $3.50.
Wow. I think I pay 6.58 for a print copy and I don't get as muh royalty as Stu - this is Amazon - print on demand through Create Space and Kindle. I agree that Create Space is easy to use - somewhat of a learning curve but they have a good template - for the print on demand. Formatting for ebook is another thing.
Leta wrote: "Wow. I think I pay 6.58 for a print copy and I don't get as muh royalty as Stu - this is Amazon - print on demand through Create Space and Kindle. I agree that Create Space is easy to use - somewha..."Found the kindle conversion to be very simple and very reasonable in cost. Not surprisingly, Amazon has the best publishing platform.
Mod
Didn't need editing. Cover and to format manuscript was $748. Well worth it. Very pleased with process and result."
!!!!$748!!!!I need to open a formatting for Amazon section to my blog! Holy frijolies man, I went into the wrong field!
Riley wrote: "Stu wrote: "Lee wrote: "What price?"Didn't need editing. Cover and to format manuscript was $748. Well worth it. Very pleased with process and result."
!!!!$748!!!!I need to open a formatting fo..."
That also includes the cover.
V.M. wrote: "The old adage that will determine the future of publishing is the same as it was during the newspaper days: Content Is King.If you have a good story to tell, having more channels to bring the aud..."
Yes, that is true. But you have to get the first people to come to your book. I haven't jumped in quite yet, but I'm sure it will take more than just uploading the book(s) and making it/them available. We have to be marketers as well.
Mod
There's so mu..."
I can't stress this enough either, unless you are an already strongly established author, most publishing houses are counting on YOU to do your own marketing, even if you're picked up by the big 5. So even if/when you get a traditional publisher, you will still be doing most of your own marketing.
writing is a very solitary role. I know for me, when I start talking about my writing, I feel the pizazz leave me. Let it become a communal activity when the work in progress is done and ready to share. :) Then celebrate whether they do it with you or not. You know you always have us to celebrate with you.
I'll second and third Riley's and V.M.'s points. When I first joined this group in January, my plan was to publish my novel in late Feb./early March 2015. After reading the laments of self pub authors, in this group and others, who published too quickly before the proper editing, development, marketing, and promotion was in place, I have "cooled the jets" to put things in proper order. If the content of your work is good, creative, and compelling, it will do well no matter when you publish. My view is that you don't want to risk having it go into obscurity by not having all the components of a successful launch in place at least thirty days before the pub date. In my case, I have gone from a tentative early March publication date to an anticipated release date of 5/25/15. I thank God every day that I held back on publishing according to my original plan, and for the great support from SIA group.
Susan wrote: "Question: have you ever taken your book down from Amazon or wherever to made some editing changes & then up-loaded it again? If so, have you done this more than once? Do you think it's a good or..."Susan, I think if you want to do that, it's fine. If there's something out there of yours (you wrote it) and you don't like the way it is, and you have the ability to "fix" it. I say go for it. I don't think anyone will get upset when you improve your product.
Denise wrote: "Yes, that is true. But you have to get the first people to come to your book. I haven't jumped in quite yet, but I'm sure it will take more than just uploading the book(s) and making it/them available. We have to be marketers as well..."Every book and every author is different, and will have a different experience. I've learned a lot since we published our first book almost 2 years ago. What I've learned that I think applies more generally is what's already been said here: take your time and beware distractions. What I've learned that may not apply more widely is that Amazon knows far more about how to sell our books than we do. So we don't market, we write.
Once you jump in, it will become apparent what "marketing" means in your particular case. And that is where the "don't rush" becomes important, I think. Time is on your side, so I would say: don't give in early pressure, too much advice, or premature despair. Take the long view and persevere.
Susan wrote: "Question: have you ever taken your book down from Amazon or wherever to made some editing changes & then up-loaded it again? If so, have you done this more than once? Do you think it's a good or..."Absolutely! I've done it when I've caught a typo or wanted to add an introduction, change the back matter, etc. If you're revising an eBook, they'll process your changes but the old version of your book will remain live in the meantime (I've had this take up to 48 hours, but usually it's more like 18.) If you're revising a paperback, it won't be available while they process the changes, so you need to be careful with the timing. I've generally found that if I submit a change late in the evening they'll have it processed by morning, which minimizes the down time - you just have to make sure you approve the revised proof right away so they can get it back up.
Yep, did it just recently when I found that for some unknown reason the printer had the page numbers in Roman numerals. One of the issues with self-publishing is that it is really difficult to get everything right the first time, even with copy and line editors. So I recommend that you revise as necessary...
Leta wrote: "Wow. I think I pay 6.58 for a print copy and I don't get as muh royalty as Stu - this is Amazon - print on demand through Create Space and Kindle. I agree that Create Space is easy to use - somewha..."Leta, CreateSpace charges mostly based on the number of pages. Yours is expensive because it's long and also in a small trim size (5 x 8). You might consider reformatting to a larger trim size, which will reduce the number of pages, thus decreasing your cost and increasing your royalty.
Mod
Only if there is an error in punctuation, spelling, etc. I would not change the story itself. It wouldn't be fair to those that already bought it.
I do, sometimes, have excerpts of other stories at the end and I will change those at times. Not often. But, that doesn't affect the story I'm selling.
You don't have to take them down to make editing updates. I would strongly recommend against that, actually, since those that bought your book previously would not get the updated material.
Dwayne, Lori and all - Making editing changes is what I had in mind - nothing to do with the story line, and in one instance I used the wrong character's name, so I wanted to fix that. Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions - you all are the best!
Lori wrote: "Leta wrote: "Wow. I think I pay 6.58 for a print copy and I don't get as muh royalty as Stu - this is Amazon - print on demand through Create Space and Kindle. I agree that Create Space is easy to ..."Thanks for the input. What is a recommended size? Also, I think the site shows 500+ pages which is wrong. The book is actually 356 pages.
Leta wrote: "Lori wrote: "Leta wrote: "Wow. I think I pay 6.58 for a print copy and I don't get as muh royalty as Stu - this is Amazon - print on demand through Create Space and Kindle. I agree that Create Spac..."They say 6 X 9 is the most popular size, and it does look nice (I think) - that would make your page count probaly 75% of what it is now. But you can look at other sizes, too, if cost is a factor - I decided to publish my 110,000-word novel in 7 X 10 just because that was the size that allowed me to get the price down to below $10. I like 6 X 9 better, but I felt that the price and cost differences were worth the tradeoff. You also have to figure in the cost of reformatting the cover, but if you buy and/or sell a significant number of hard copies, it might be worth doing.
Thanks. I'm haveing the cover redone. I did the first one using Create Space's facility but I'm having this one done. My price is under $10 now and I'm wondering if I want to go through all that reformatting for a small change in size......
Leta wrote: "Thanks. I'm haveing the cover redone. I did the first one using Create Space's facility but I'm having this one done. My price is under $10 now and I'm wondering if I want to go through all that re..."It is a fair amount of work, and might not be worth it for you to re-do the formatting. I was just shocked by how much you were paying per copy - even my full-length novels only cost me about $3.50 per copy.
Wow. Maybe I should go to the trouble of re-formatting.
Leta wrote: "Wow. Maybe I should go to the trouble of re-formatting."Try running it through the pricing calculator on CreateSpace first - see how much of a difference a change might make to your cost and your royalty before you go to the trouble. If you do decide to reformat, now's the ideal time since you're having the cover redone anyway.
Can I run it thrugh the pricing calculator without actually putting up the reformatted material? (You can tell I'm new at all this.)
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