Sales Equation: Cheap + Bulk = Profit

Last week I argued for the creation of paperbacks even in this digital age. If you do have a paperback available for sale, you can benefit from a sales technique often overlooked by indie authors–bulk sales.

But bulk sells at a price lower than what I hope to get for my work, you may be thinking. And you’d be correct. Selling in quantity means selling at a discount. But it also means more sales.

How about I illustrate this with some actual figures? I’ll plug in my own. My paperbacks all sell at $10. My profit on the sale of a single book ordered through Amazon is determined by my cost, which is determined by the length of that particular book, but it hovers around $3. We’ll use that nice, round figure. If I sell one book, I make three bucks. But I’ve decided to set discounts for bulk purchases. Here’s my sliding scale:

3-10 copies: $8 per book

11-25 copies: $7 per book

26+ copies: $6 per book

 

How can I afford to set a $3 or $4 discount when I only make $3 per book? Because $3 is the profit I make when a customer purchases my book through Amazon. There is a cost for Amazon’s distribution services. But if I order my own books from the printer through my own account, I can get them for about $4 a book. I can then make a profit even if I resell them more cheaply.

Let’s run the numbers.

So let’s say someone orders 10 copies. That will cost me $40, but I’d resell them at $8 per book, or $80. That’s a customer discount of twenty bucks, and I actually make a higher profit than I would off Amazon, $40 compared to $30.

Let’s try 20 books. That would cost me $80. If I resold them at $7 a piece, they would cost the consumer $140, a savings of $60. However, I would still be making a profit of $3 per book, or $60, which is exactly what I would make selling 20 books through Amazon.

Let’s run the numbers again at 35 copies. That would cost me $140 to order but would be resold at $6 per book, or $210, a profit of $2 per copy. That’s a consumer savings of $140 and a profit of $70 for me. I’d even be willing to sell at half price if the order was large enough. One hundred books at $1 profit is still $100!

So you can see that each time, everyone wins! By having a bulk sale policy in place, buyers might be more inclined to purchase more than one book. Even if your profits per book grow smaller, quantity assures they still beat out a single sale. In addition, bulk sales result in more visibility. Notice, however, that I have to do the ordering and distributing and the collecting of funds, which is a small time factor and a larger risk factor. Also, I pass on the shipping costs to the customer, which, incidentally, average out to be MUCH less per book than Amazon’s single-book rate of $3.99.

But who would buy that many books? Classrooms are the most obvious answer. Bookstores, too. But I’ve also been contacted by a reading group who would like to include one of my titles on their list next year. And I made a bulk sale to an organization that was considering my book for an award. (I didn’t win, but I was thrilled to be nominated, and not too disappointed in a 25-book order.) You never know who might become interested, so it’s wise to have a bulk order policy in place.

Now you tell me…have you had any experience selling in bulk? Would you consider it?

Paperbacks–So Last Century?

Lots of indie authors are getting in on the ebook craze, and why not? It’s affordable, doable, and just so cool to see your novel up on Amazon. But fewer authors, it seems, take the time to create a paperback version of their novel. I’m here to say, you’ve gone through all the trouble of writing your masterpiece. Make it available to everyone!

Why paper?

Ereaders have been all the rage for awhile now, and ebooks are capturing a greater share of the market each year—I saw 25% in 2011! But you’ll notice that still leaves 75% squarely on the paperback side. You see, not everyone has an ereader. Not everyone wants and ereader. In my not-so-scientific observation of the blogging world over the past year and a half, perhaps half of the book reviewers I run across still accept only paperback. And these are people fully immersed in the digital world—bloggers and writers. What about all those people who don’t live online? What about the older generation which is much more hesitant to sell out to the computer age? What about those younger-than-forties who still like the feel and smell of paper in their hands? Yes, you’re missing a huge audience by not creating paperbacks.

But paperbacks are so 1990’s, you say. They cost more. They take up space. They use up natural resources. They wear out. They’re heavy. They take more time and effort to produce. They require different formatting than ebooks. They require different software. They’re tying me to an old project when I want to move on to a new one. They’re an ever-living pain in the you-know-what!

Agreed.

But my former arguments haven’t gone away, have they?

Why not paper?

Let’s look at your accomplishments so far. You’ve already spent years writing a book. Then you paid for editing and created a cover image. You’ve spent time creating blurbs, tweeting, and asking for reviews. You’re on Goodreads and Facebook. Why not put in a little more effort and reap bigger rewards? It’s not as intimidating as you might think.

So how do you do it?

Sorry. This post isn’t meant to be an in-depth tutorial. (But I have written one of those, if you have time to look it up.) This is simply a consideration of the pros and cons and an encouragement to get out there and learn the process for yourself.

A Few Considerations Before Starting

If you do choose to go the paper route, I would strongly recommend pay-on-demand. This means a digital copy of your book will be stored on your printer’s database so readers can order as few as one copy at a time. Prices will be slightly higher than mass-produced books—and the longer the book, the higher the cost, but as children’s books hover in the 50,000 word range, my prices have always remained fairly reasonable. Pay-on-demand also means that you, the author, will not be responsible to pay for, store, and distribute a 500- or 1,000-book print run.

Also, I advise not rushing, no matter how strong the urge to get your book out there quickly. New formatting requires further editing. Order a proof copy. Check and double check for errors, particularly spacing and page breaks. When you find them, fix them and proof it again. It may take a few tries, but having an error free book is worth it.  Get it right the first time.

And finally, don’t expect your paperback to be a best-seller. It won’t be on the shelves of Walmart. It won’t travel through the avenues the big six publishing houses use. You may be able to convince the local bookstore to stock a few copies, but most readers will not find your book. However, if you’ve created a clean, professional ebook and done your marketing homework, you will create more and more demand for your paperback.

Have them ready!

Now tell me your thoughts. Would you consider creating a paperback? Have you already? Was it worth your time? 

Indie Endeavors, Part 8: Should I Create a Paperback?

So you’re thinking of self-publishing?  Jump into my how-to series…

• Part 1: My Eight-Year Journey
• Part 2: Tradtional vs. Self-Publishing
• Part 3: A Word About Editing
• Part 4: Cover Images
• Part 5: What the Heck is an ISBN?
• Part 6: Publishing ebooks on Kindle
• Part 7: Why Publish ebooks on Smashwords?

Creating a paperback version of your book is a bit more complicated than creating an ebook. However, there is something very gratifying about holding, smelling and flipping through the pages of your very own hard copy. They also look fabulous sitting on the coffee table! But more importantly, perhaps, are the millions of folks who haven’t switched over to digital. If you don’t provide your book as a paperback, you’re missing a huge potential audience.

Not long ago, self-publishing a physical book involved a costly print run and perhaps five hundred or a thousand books in your basement that you were solely responsible for storing, distributing, and selling. Not anymore. If you are a brand new author, print-on-demand (POD) publishing is the only way to go. Here’s how it works: You upload your files digitally to the publishing company’s database where they are stored. (Making changes simply involves uploading a new file, even after publication.) Then, whenever someone purchases your book online, those files are used to print as few as one copy, which is sent to the purchaser. Amazing! And very cost effective, because as an author, you don’t put money in; you simply take out your cut of the profits.

My Experience with Two POD Companies

So where should you print your books? That depends on your needs. My first experience was through Lulu.com, as it was pretty established and the only one I had heard of before. I was extremely happy with the results. Their website was user-friendly, with step-by-step instructions and a great help forum. I could upload my files in doc format, the cover creator was a breeze, and the final product was extremely professional. I highly, highly recommend Lulu if you want only a few copies for yourself or close friends. However, I wanted to make my books available to a wide audience at a reasonable price, and I found that placing my books for sale on Amazon involved some legwork and a lot of fees. To make just seventy cents per copy, I had to price my 165-page novel at a ridiculous fifteen dollars.

Then I discovered CreateSpace, a POD publisher which is owned by Amazon. Suddenly, I could place my novel for ten dollars, make three dollars profit, and not have to give a thought to the logistics of distribution. Perfect! I must say Lulu produced a slightly higher quality book, but I am still quite satisfied with CreateSpace. Ease of production was very comparable. CreateSpace’s cover creator was user-friendly, the help forum super, and they also allow the uploading of Word docs. And as an added bonus, price per book for author copies was substantially lower than Lulu’s.

Formatting Basics

So you want to proceed? Keep in mind that creating a paperback is a different ball game than creating a document for ereaders. Each page is stationary, not free-flowing, so some formatting must be in place to make it look nice. It’s more of a building project, but since PDF is the industry standard, you actually build it in your favorite word processing program and then convert (or upload to your publisher’s converter). I use Word, and many of the sites even offer Word templates, which eliminates much of the following work.

Here are several things to think about when creating a POD paperback:

General formatting. First, you must choose your book’s size based on the options offered at your particular publisher. There are many, many sizes, and these vary by company, but several standards will be found at most of them. Once you choose your size, you must format your Word doc in the same size. You can do this in the “Page Layout” menu. Next, set your margins and gutters, the area where a two-page spread meets in the middle. Your publisher will have suggested guidelines available. And finally, add in any headers or footers you might want on each page, such as page numbers and the book title or chapter titles.

Since I do not usually name my chapters, I do not start new chapters on new pages. But if you would like to, you can make very effective use of page breaks. The section break feature is also very handy if you don’t want your headers or footers included on every page (like the front or end pages). You can break your manuscript into individual sections with their own unique formatting. Both page and section breaks are found in Word’s “Insert” menu.

Front and end pages. Paperbacks have important pages and information at the front of the book (some of which is required by law) that may differ from an ebook, such as a title page, copyright page, dedication, and table of contents. Your publisher will have specific instructions available about what is required and what to include on each page. Likewise, you may wish to include information at the end of your book, such as a bibliography, note from the author or glossary.

Images. When I added maps to one of my novels, I encountered some problems when uploading to CreateSpace. I learned that Word saves images in a low resolution to reduce file size, which would have resulted in a grainy printed image. To fix this, I had to covert my finished manuscript to PDF before saving as a Word doc instead of using the automatic converter. (See below.)

Converting to PDF. Since learning how easy it is to convert a Word doc to PDF, I now prefer to do it myself every time, whether I have images or not. It can be as easy as choosing the PDF file format from the “save as” drop down menu. This method, however, will not protect image resolution, so I choose to download the free PrimoPDF conversion software.

Primo is actually a virtual printer. To convert to PDF from a Word doc and maintain image resolution, DO NOT save the document after inserting your images. (Don’t move or enlarge the pictures, either. Insert them exactly as you want them to appear.) Instead, choose “print” from the “File” menu and then select the Primo printer from the drop down menu. Your document will be saved as a PDF with high quality images.

Producing a paperback can be a bit trickier and more time consuming than creating an ebook, but hard copies have advantages all their own. You just might want to consider diving in.

Read Part 9: Blurbs

Indie Endeavors, Part 5 – What the Heck is an ISBN?

So you’re thinking of self-publishing?  Jump into my how-to series…

• Part 1: My Eight-Year Journey
• Part 2: Tradtional vs. Self-Publishing
• Part 3: A Word About Editing
• Part 4: Cover Images

Next week we can begin diving into some of the publishing sites on the web, but before I do, a short discussion of ISBNs may be in order.  One of the first questions you will be asked before you begin publication is if you want to provide your own ISBN or not.  That begs the question, what the heck is an ISBN, anyway?

An International Standard Book Number is a unique 13-digit number given to every newly-published book and used for identification and cataloguing purposes around the world.  (Books dated before 2007 will have 9- or 10-digit numbers.)  Each country has its own distributor.  In America, that distributor is the Bowker Agency.  Anyone can purchase and register an ISBN through the Bowker website; however, if you purchase only one, it isn’t cheap.  Prices drop considerably when you buy additional numbers.  If you are interested in purchasing your own ISBN and you plan to write more than one book, you may want to consider purchasing ten numbers instead of just one, because it won’t cost much more, and the numbers are good forever.

Most digital publishers, however, purchase ISBNs in bulk and offer them freely to authors who publish through them.  AND they take care of any paperwork.  Is there a catch?  Yes, a small one.  The number issued by a company will point to that company.  In short, that means in within the cataloguing details, it will be easily deduced that you are a self-published author.

Last spring, I didn’t really understand how this all worked, so I undertook the expense and hassle of purchasing a set of three ISBNs.  And to make matters worse, I purchased through a reseller.  I did get a fair price, which included digital bar codes, but I have since come to regret my decision.  First, registering the numbers through this particular reseller was a pain, and my first attempt didn’t even go through.  Second, I found out that most publishers will generate a bar code anyway, so that part of my purchase was unnecessary.  Third, I found out that every edition of a book (hardcover, softcover and every ebook format) requires a separate ISBN, which gets expensive in a hurry!  And finally, I came to realize that the only ones who really look through the numbers are mostly bookstore people and librarians – not my primary market.  Joe Schmo who purchases my book off Amazon couldn’t care less what my ISBN is, let alone who issued it.

So I was out a hundred and forty buck with little to show for it.  I never even used the third number.  Since my early blunder, I happily accept whatever free ISBN is offered.  It’s made absolutely no difference, and it’s MUCH cheaper and easier.  If you want to pursue the placement of your book in libraries and bookstores, you may want to research this further, but it’s pretty tough for an indie to get inside brick-and-mortar.  So my advice would be, go for the freebie.

Part 6: Publishing ebooks on Kindle

Indie Endeavors, Part 4 – Cover Images

So you’re thinking of self-publishing?  Jump into my how-to series…

• Part 1: My Eight-Year Journey
• Part 2: Tradtional vs. Self-Publishing
• Part 3: A Word About Editing

Before you publish your manuscript, you must design a cover.  Even an ebook has a cover image associated with it.  It’s the first thing your potential readers will see, and you know what they say about first impressions.  Make it count!   Whether or not a person chooses to purchase your book is often directly related to the quality of your cover.

So what makes a great cover image?  It should be professional, appealing and uncluttered.  The title should be clearly readable even when the picture is reduced to the size of a thumbnail.  The author’s name is usually smaller and less important, unless you’re Steven King, but it should still be visible.  And the cover may or may not feature a snappy quote from a review.  Finally, the finished product should be saved in at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) to prevent a grainy image.

Sound like a tall order?  You can hire this done if you’d like.  Word-of-mouth recommendation are easy to come by on sites like Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing where lots of authors hang out.  There, you can “shop around” for covers you like.  If you find one, simply ask the author who designed it.  Or you can ask for recommendations on a forum like BookBlogs.  Here’s an example of one such comment thread.

But designing your own cover is cheaper, and it’s actually kind of fun.  All you need is image-editing software and images, and both are pretty easy to find.  You can use your own pictures, but if you’re no photographer, there are millions to choose from on the web.  But remember, copyrights pay a large role here.  Don’t just assume everything is freely available for your use.  Many sites on the web stock images you can purchase and use, but if you know where to look, you can find lots of great pictures for free.

Public domain images may be used by anyone in any way they wish.  For the most part, these include pictures taken before 1923, photographs of historical artworks, and government photos.  These can be found on sites run by state libraries, historical commissions, museums, universities and the Library of Congress.  There are even search engines to help you locate what you need.  Try everystockphoto.com.

Creative Commons provides another great way to find free photos.  Under a CC license, the copyright holder maintains only some of their rights.  The most generous terms allow a user free rein, but they must credit the copyright holder.  This is called attribution.  There are several levels of CC terms, however, so make certain you know which one an image is licensed under before using it.  I’ve found most of my CC images on Flickr and Photobucket.  (For a fuller explanation of both public domain and Creative Commons copyrights, visit http://www.pdimages.com/.)

Once you find an image you like, you need software.  Photoshop is the first program that comes to mind, but free downloadable programs do exist.  PaintNet is the one I use.  It’s been fairly easy to figure out, though I admit I’m still a novice.  There are plenty of plug-ins and features I haven’t even tried yet.  I’ve also heard decent things about Gimp, and there were many more options when I googled “photo software”.  Keep in mind that it may take some time and practice (and maybe some on-line tutorials) to learn the ins and outs of your program, so have patience, but once you’ve got the basics down, you can begin to choose fonts, colors and image effects to create exactly the cover image you desire.  Cut out sections of a picture, fade others, shrink them, move them, or even layer multiple images to create a collage.  The possibilities are endless.

In conclusion, a cover image seems like a huge obstacle at first, but it can be solved without too much pain.  Because I didn’t want to invest a great deal of money into self-publishing projects that may or may not pay for themselves, I chose to create my own cover images.  You can see them in the right hand column of my blog. Not the best ever, I freely admit, but I think they make a decent first impression.  And my books are earning a profit, not paying off a debt.  I’ll consider hiring an artist down the road.

Go to Part 5: What the Heck is an ISBN?

Indie Endeavors, part 3 – A Word About Editing

So you’re thinking of self-publishing?  Jump into my how-to series…

• Part 1: My Eight-Year Journey
• Part 2: Traditional vs. Self-Publishing

In my first post, I shared the path that led to my own decision to self-publish.  In my second, I briefly compared traditional and self publishing.  Now it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty.  How do you get your story out there for the rest of the world to read?

Okay, you have a polished manuscript that’s seen suggestions and revisions.  You’re ready to publish, right?  Don’t even think about it until your manuscript has been thoroughly edited.  I know, I know, even professionally prepared books sometimes contain errors.  But indie books have gathered a notoriously bad reputation in this department, and for good reason.  Many of the ones I’ve read have been so poorly edited that I hesitate to purchase them without previewing first.  And this coming from a self-published author!

It’s a good idea to hire a professional editor.  They’re simple enough to find through a Google search, but with fees charged per word, it can get costly in a hurry.  (Self-published author and blogger Lindsay Buroker recently posted a nice summary of three degrees of professional editing and their price tags.)  So I chose a non-professional option:

After the completion of my manuscript, I set it aside for a few weeks to let some of the details sift from my memory.  Then I read it again, twice, purely to search for errors.  After that, I sent it off to three fellow writers.  None of us proofread for a living, but we all have spell check and an excellent grasp of grammar.  I couldn’t believe how many errors I missed!  After making corrections, I went ahead and published my books…only to find they still weren’t ready!  My first few reviewers picked up on another ten or twelve typos and homophones (ie. sees/seas) in each book.

You’ll recall that my first several titles were published about the same time, so this process overlapped in a three-book mess.  One of my early titles, because it is the second in a series, didn’t receive quite the same amount of proofreading given to the others.  (Everyone wanted to read the first one.)  To my utter embarrassment, when I reread it several months after publication, I found dozens of errors.  I was horrified!  It has since received the attention that should have been lavished on it immediately.  Fortunately, digital publishing makes the correction of errors a fairly simple matter.  It cannot, however, erase the impression readers received when they purchased my unprofessional book.

So what have I learned?  Editing requires time and meticulous care.  And more eyes is definitely better.  A dozen typos isn’t horrible in a 50,000-word novel, but that’s still way more than I want.  (Dozens is unacceptable.)  For my next novel, I will repeat all the steps I mentioned above.  Then I’ll label my book as an ARC (advanced readers copy) and send it out to a much wider group of proofreaders, including some of the reviewers I’ve been fortunate to meet this past year.  Only after these come back and additional corrections are made will I launch my book.

I made a mess of my first attempts, and I do NOT want to repeat those mistakes.  Readers deserve a quality product immedietly (not to mention your reputation).  Take the time to give it to them.

**I’ll be without my laptop for a few days, so bear with me when I don’t reply to comments immediately. 

Go to Part 4: Cover Images