Now, as I mentioned earlier today, in the last three weeks I have sold more books than in the last year and a half. Some may see this statement as bragging, but when the sum total of books you’ve sold is sitting at a number less than ten in the last year and a half, it’s just a statement of fact.

Anyway, what did I do differently between then and three weeks ago? Three things: pricing, advertising, availability.

The first thing I want to talk about is pricing. I had set it at 10.99 when I first published it. The first couple months sold a few copies, but then I ran out of friends with available funds. I also then promptly got caught up in dissertation writing and few things garnered my attention, but more on that in tomorrow’s post. I want to focus on pricing.

First things first: why was it set at 10.99? That is expensive for a paperback, even now, and especially (in my mind, anyway) for one that was only 160 pages. However, when createspace started up, there was very little other option for me if I wanted to sell it on amazon and make more than a nickel a copy (which would not make it very much worth my time). When all was said and done, I seem to remember the 10.99 giving me a royalty payment of $1.

Now, of course, the plan was never to get rich on this book. It was to raise awareness, to try something new, and to pave the way for a sequel (THAT’S where I’ll get rich, heh heh heh!). So a dollar royalty struck me as relatively reasonable. Of course, at that time the price that they were charging was a bit astronomical per copy of book and 10.99 is where it sat.

Then in class in December, one of my students noticed the book and told me he was going to order it. I told him to hold off, because I wanted to see if I could lower the price a bit (hey, I remember being broke). So, for the first time in about a year, I went in to check the options.

Now, I knew createspace and pumped me up to the pro-plan, but I didn’t realize how much had changed in the pricing options since I had first heard they did that. I went in and noticed that I could lower the price of the book to 8.99 (about an 18% decrease). Since then, I’ve sold three books.

Now, it may be too early to assume that the drop in price was the reason for all three of those sales, but it certainly contributed. This is something to think about for self-publishing: measure how much the author thinks his/her time is worth versus how much the author thinks people will pay for the book. For me, it’s always been about the one dollar mark for this book. I think that is a good return for the work I’ve done on the book, and a good way to get into the market. I could be wrong, and to try and sell more, I may be forced to lose even more if I crunch the numbers again (which I will be doing monthly now).

And that’s just me. I worry about some people who think “hey I can make money!” with their writing, but then overprice the book and nothing sells…then they stop writing. This is a mistake. I’ve been writing for the last 6 years on a blog for free. Actually for negative numbers, since I’ve paid hosting on the thing. That may also inform my thoughts on getting paid for writing, and the fact I’m sharing my advice for relatively free: I’m used to it.

But that’s the long and short of it on pricing: balance the concept of what the work is worth against the concept of what the readers will pay for it. And honestly, maybe I haven’t found the magic balance point yet…but that’s the plus of what Createspace is giving me: a control over things like that where I can keep trying to find it with minimal loss of cash on either their end or on mine.

Something to ponder for your own writing.

That’s all for now, you keep on writing!

So, it’s been a while since I updated this blog.  For that I apologize, but for the last two years I was neck deep in something that the natives call “school.”  But that’s more or less done now, and I have a PhD.

If you self publish, you may want to consider very seriously the price that you’re listing the book at.  I started off listing it at 10.99 because that was the only way that I as an author could have made $1 on each book.  It has since changed, and Createspace has been putting me on their pro-plan.   Essentially this means that I get more per book. Now, I’d sold nothing between August of 2008 and September of 2009.  In september and october, I sold a sum total of two copies, to friends who had caught up to me on Facebook.  I changed some things in December, and I sold one copy then, and have sold 2 copies in January.

Now, you’ll obviously notice that I’m not going to get rich and retire any time soon, but it got me thinking about three things any self publisher should do for the books.  I’ll update the next few days on what those three things are, and get into depth on what I did to help them.   So, stay tuned.

That’s all for now, you keep on writing!

Over at Artmark, there’s a good article giving some more indepth details about Lulu for self publishing.

In summation, it seems that in addition to publishing, they also have a little side deal going where they “guarantee” clicks to your page listing your work. I’m agreement with the author, I’m not sure how that would work out, and it’s something to probably avoid. 30 clicks for $45? That’s ridiculously high priced.

One thing I’ve thought about with audience on both the Lulu site and the Createspace page selling my book is that those sites are made with the authors (or creators, as the case may be) in mind. They showcase the work that can be done for your art, and not much else. Contrast this with Amazon, which is made SOLELY with the customer in mind. The focus of amazon’s site is purely to sell items that you may be interested in. Sure, it’s evil capitalism, but when you’re trying to make a living off your book, do you want to invest money selling it to readers, or selling it to other writers?

It seems to me that advertising your book on lulu or createspace is akin to trying to sell knives at a blacksmith convention. Sure, they’re your knives and there aren’t any like it, but the blacksmiths can make their own, and aren’t really that interested in buying yours. Compared to amazon, which is akin to selling knives at a chicken roasting convention. The audience WANTS your product.

Keep that in mind when promoting your book: put money towards the correct audience, and avoid blacksmith conventions like Lulu.com for advertising.

Comments? Questions? Want me to babble about something? Drop me an email, or leave a comment.

That’s all for now, you keep on writing!

Over on Doc Morgan’s Blog, he brought up Blurb. Now, as I’ve gone on createspace for Inanis the Hooded, and am somewhat familiar with different self publishing situations (while giving for “REAL” publishers the 6-9 months they needed to tell me they weren’t going to publish my book (bitter? not much, just bored)) I’ve taken a look at blurb.

This had come up a couple years ago as well, can’t remember what it was called then, but it was definitely billed as software that would transform your blog into a printed book. Now, the question is, for those authors serious about publishing and giving their book a run for their money, how useful could blurb be? Not very.

Yes, blurb has its own bookstore, but it is basically a vanity press. If I were going to print a family history, print ye olde Froyd’s Rants for posterity (in case this global warming thing causes a new ice age and they need something to burn to stay warm), then sure I’d use blurb. it’s easy, possibly idiot proof, and the product looks good. However, for a serious self publisher who wants to market the book and make money, blurb is not the way to go. They don’t allow you to set prices and you make nothing off the book (from what I can tell by searching through their site). Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a great idea for a quality product…but if you are attempting to make money from your book, it’s not the way to go.

Now, contrast that with some POD (print on demand) places such as Authorhouse, or some others, where the initial price usually ranges from $300-500. When I was looking into them to publish a book for the sci-fi/fantasy club at my undergrad college, the price was definitely inhibitive to try and make a run of it. In fact, that seems to be the main problem that people have with these publishers is the price. Of course, the people who have problems other than that from what I’ve seen usually have inflated expectations of how much work they themselves have to do to publish the book as well.

Which brings us to Createspace, Lulu, and others like them. Basically, the setup is in your hands. The cover design, the interior of the book, everything. This of course, means that like me, one may have to run through about 3 proofs before things are correct. This’ll be covered in another post about stuff to watch for in book preparation, but for the most part it is a good thing. The main thing you want to watch for with these places is whether or not they are in cahoots with a bigger distributor. Both Createspace(owned by amazon) and Lulu can put your book up on amazon, but from the few books from Lulu that I’ve seen, it doesn’t have the search inside feature that Createspace does. I’d say, for self publishing, these are the most useful sites to use. Low cost of proofs, and you only need to purchase one to get going. Plus the ability to set your own price (they have a breakdown percentage of how much each company gets), this is the way to go for trying to make some money from your book.

Next post, within the next week or two, will be on the reasons to self publish, students and self publishing (a class that I think would really work at undergrad and grad level publishing/writing programs), self publishing and footwork, and probably one on things to watch for while preparing your manuscript for publication at createspace.

That’s all for now, you keep on writing!