I just received a letter from one of the submitting poets asking if he could get a discount since three of his poems were published in the the Mayberry poetry book (actually, only two were published; we declined one). Don't get me wrong -- usually I am the person negotiating for a discount! However, I have had people raise eyebrows at the cost of the books before. I think shoppers are used to buying trade paperbacks with lots of pages for $7.99. They look at a book which is larger but with fewer pages and think the $12.99 or $14.95 price tag is high. To put things in perspective, I sent him the following note. Actually, more poems = more formatting and more pages printed = more cost to print, so the more poems I run from one person, the more they have increased my costs. That's one reason many publications charge a "reading fee" or "submission fee" for each poem submitted. The $12.95 covers the cost of compiling, editing, formatting, layout, binding, trimming, printing, and publishing, as well as the costs to ship to me and the cost for envelopes and postage to ship to you, most of which money goes to the publisher, Staples and the Post Office, not to me.Also, The Mayberry Poem - A Tribute to Mayberry and How to Promote Your Book are printed in small runs numbered in the hundreds, not thousands like drug store paperback books, so the cost per book is higher. And since I only have 7 left from my first order, I am not highly motivated to discount!Next time you see a Hallmark card which is one sheet of paper folded twice with one poem and a couple of illustrations on it for $5.99, just think - for the price of two of those plus a couple of bucks, you would have paid for a book with over 200 poems and 45 illustration!
We signed the publishing agreement today!How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget will be published by Darden & Associates through an agreement with another publisher publisher and printed and distributed by that publisher. The reason Darden & Associates will show up as publisher is. that we already had everything, including the ISBN number and bar code. Since the ISBN and bar code are registered to Darden & Associates, we remain the technical publishers. However, The publisher will do everything for us, from printing to distribution, getting us on Amazon.com, and putting the book in their own book store, doing fulfillment, etc.We don't have to pay for a "publishing plan" where the publishing company charges us an arm and a leg for doing things we can do or already have done at a fraction of the cost, but we will get the support, placement, and fulfillment we could not easily do on our own! And the books will cost slightly less per book to print, since they are a smaller size, so we will be able to offer a slightly lower price per book! More details coming as we firm them up!
My new book, How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget, better be out by the end of September because I have set up some book signings in Mt. Airy, North Carolina for both the Mayberry Poetry books and How to Promote Your Book. I will blog more later when the details are all firmed up, but this is what I have so far:Book Signings at Mayberry on Main, Mt. Airy, NC126 N. Main Street(across from Snappy Lunch)Mount Airy, NC 27030Phone: 336-719-0405Thursday, September 25: 7 to 8 PMFriday, September 26: 11 AM to noon; 6 PM to 7 PMSaturday, September 27: After the parade to noon; 5:30 PM to 7 PM.If you live in the area, why not come by and say hi???
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