With the sale of over one million copies of some individual books on kindle, and other e-book libraries, all being downloaded on to PC’s, ipads, iPhones, iPod Touch, iPod, Kindle, the concern shown by the publishers and retail outlets of paperbacks is brought into the spotlight.
Major high street shops selling the printed books, whether paperbacks or hard cover, have to consider just how viable the sale of books consisting purely of text will be when in competition with e-books. Certainly e-books are normally less expensive than a paperback and for the indie author it is an easy way to see their stories available to the public.
Is the content of a story any less intellectual, less interesting, does it lose any of the content value because it is an e-book? As an author the difficulties of entering within the closed wall of the established publishing world becomes apparent. Not because you are not welcome. Not because your work is not worthy of being published. It’s the cost of putting a book out onto the market place that is the problem. Estimates are usually put at roughly £30,000.00. for one book. No publishing house will take the risk unless they are certain of some return.
Writing a series of books, of which the author feels sure are going to be a block buster, takes time. To then find what you consider your epic series will never go before the public is to say the least heartbreaking. So more, and more, authors are turning to placing their cherished works with the electronic world of the e-book. Once you have established the distribution, something that requires some work on your part but only work, then you can forget about the cost of printing.
You can of course advertise, but that can prove costly! Getting known to the public means diligent work. Now you can go twitter, facebook, blogging, and by asking friends to mention you and your link to the book or books you become known for free. Home and dry, not really, the question of cost per book must now be tackled. In this your distributor has a say, how low, how high, or are you not going to charge, it no longer is going to cost you anything so why not give it away? Writing costs money and time , you should have a return.
This is where the printed paperback hits several problems. The cost of printing and distribution of a printed book, and the retail outlet shops including their staff, the profit margins, and the holding of stock. All this can be very heavy. However on the internet there is a different story!
This writer has several books in his stable and the prices have been set. But the guide lines have now been redrawn. Take one of my books ‘Hocus Pocus and the Pentacle Pendant’. The paperback is part of a series and is £6.49, the kindle version was £3.39, but no longer. I can sell it at a much cheaper rate, it has become a ‘loss leader’ without actually being a complete loss, now it’s 70p, and I still retain a profit! Do you have to search for it on the internet? No - all you have to do is click on the following link, this link this now appears on all the non cost outlets! http://amzn.to/jAD5PR or you can type ‘Hocus Pocus and the Pentacle Pendant’ onto books Amazon web page search window.
