I have written a short article, about 10 pages long, about my experiences with Writing and publishing my first book over the last year. I am definitely a novice at this business, but I think I have learned several things of value that I want to be sure to share with others. If you are thinking of publishing and you would like a "new author's" perspective, please go to the link below to download the attached file. I hope that it has some useful information and that your experience publishing is a good one.
My publishing experience - a short article
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
PublishAmerica e-book pricing
I have been arguing with PublishAmerica for a couple of weeks now to lower their prices, especially for Kindle/e-books. This is the response I get each time I asked them to lower the price. Exact same response each time!
***
Dear Richard Raker:
There is no reason whatsoever why e-books should be cheaper than printed books. If there is, then someone ought to explain it to us. E-books come to the customer with a great advantage: the instant gratification of immediate downloading, and no shipping or handling charges. E-books cannot be damaged in transport, they don't harm the environment (no dead trees, no exhaust emissions from trucks and planes before the book is delivered on your doorstep), and they can't be borrowed and not returned.
In the market place, the customer should have equal options to choose from. PublishAmerica offers a book in various formats, at a pricing that does justice to the value of the book. If the customer wants a paper format, we deliver. If they want an electronic format, we deliver too. The difference between the first option and the second should be the shipping expense, and nothing more. The fact that the publisher saves on printing is offset by providing the significant comfort bonus of delivering the book instantly. If the customer doesn't want that extra comfort, or doesn't want to pay for it, they should buy the paper product. We don't charge extra for the printing.
We are well aware that when e-books were first launched a decade ago, to capture a still non-existing market pricing was kept artificially low, very low, at a net loss to all traditional publishers. Now the market is there, fueled by Kindle and Nook sales, and everyone can start behaving normally again. The costs to acquire, produce, publish and market a book stay the same, regardless of the format in which it is sold. Therefore the time has arrived for normal margins to be included in e-book pricing. Publishing is for profit, and not for publishers to compete against themselves by undervaluing their e-books.
Authors should embrace regular pricing. It doubles their royalties. Those who don't embrace it, effectively root for large numbers of publishing companies to go under in the ongoing digital revolution. As Publishers Weekly wrote recently, "A key for valuing publishers in the future will be their ability to generate the same level of cash flow from the sale of digital products as they do for print." Those who don't, will perish. PublishAmerica has no such intention.
Thank you,
PublishAmerica Support
support@publishamerica.com
Follow us on Twitter at @PubAmericaNews!
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/publishamerica.publisher
***
Dear Richard Raker:
There is no reason whatsoever why e-books should be cheaper than printed books. If there is, then someone ought to explain it to us. E-books come to the customer with a great advantage: the instant gratification of immediate downloading, and no shipping or handling charges. E-books cannot be damaged in transport, they don't harm the environment (no dead trees, no exhaust emissions from trucks and planes before the book is delivered on your doorstep), and they can't be borrowed and not returned.
In the market place, the customer should have equal options to choose from. PublishAmerica offers a book in various formats, at a pricing that does justice to the value of the book. If the customer wants a paper format, we deliver. If they want an electronic format, we deliver too. The difference between the first option and the second should be the shipping expense, and nothing more. The fact that the publisher saves on printing is offset by providing the significant comfort bonus of delivering the book instantly. If the customer doesn't want that extra comfort, or doesn't want to pay for it, they should buy the paper product. We don't charge extra for the printing.
We are well aware that when e-books were first launched a decade ago, to capture a still non-existing market pricing was kept artificially low, very low, at a net loss to all traditional publishers. Now the market is there, fueled by Kindle and Nook sales, and everyone can start behaving normally again. The costs to acquire, produce, publish and market a book stay the same, regardless of the format in which it is sold. Therefore the time has arrived for normal margins to be included in e-book pricing. Publishing is for profit, and not for publishers to compete against themselves by undervaluing their e-books.
Authors should embrace regular pricing. It doubles their royalties. Those who don't embrace it, effectively root for large numbers of publishing companies to go under in the ongoing digital revolution. As Publishers Weekly wrote recently, "A key for valuing publishers in the future will be their ability to generate the same level of cash flow from the sale of digital products as they do for print." Those who don't, will perish. PublishAmerica has no such intention.
Thank you,
PublishAmerica Support
support@publishamerica.com
Follow us on Twitter at @PubAmericaNews!
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/publishamerica.publisher
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A Remarkable Life
I am almost ready to publish my memoir "A Remarkable Life, lived by an ordinary person". I am attempting to use the self-publishing tools created by Amazon, createspace.com. So far the tools that they have available seem to be pretty intuitive and easy to use. I'll let you know what it looks like after I have received my first authors edition... A good friend of mine from Japan, Daisuke, has been working on the cover for the book. I shared with you below!
Friday, May 13, 2011
My continuing publishing experience
Hello friends, I thought I would update you on my latest efforts at trying to get my book available to all. Earlier this week I sent out an e-mail stating that I was thrilled to finally have my Book "Dolphins Dance" Available on Amazon.com. Even though the prices set by PublishAmerica, my publisher, were very ridiculously HIGH... I was still very happy to see my book available. Unfortunately, I purchased the Kindle copy for $25 (outrageous!) Just to see what it would look like - the formatting was terrible. Throughout the book there are missing words and letters, some of the alignment is also screwed up. I immediately contacted the publisher and Amazon.com to rectify the situation. Amazon Kindle support replied very quickly And will be removing The Kindle version within 24 hours... If anyone purchased this version I believe you can return it to Amazon for a refund. I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
I am now waiting to hear from PublishAmerica to see if they will fix the formatting issues that make the book available again had Amazon.com/Kindle. I really believe In the Kindle and And e-book "revolution"... I believe/think it is the future of publishing and Makes Reading books more accessible/books available especially to the younger more technological generations.
I am asking PublishAmerica to lower the prices of my book. I would like to see the print copy available for $12.95 on Amazon.com (you can get it for that price if you go directly to the PublishAmerica bookstore) and I would like to see the Kindle version of my book available for less than $5.95. That way my friends and family who would like to read the book do not have to fork out so much money! If you want to help me with this "campaign" please go to the PublishAmerica website and give them feedback that you would like to see my books listed at lower prices.
Anyway lesson learned! I am not saying that PublishAmerica is a "scam"... They have fulfilled their contract with me. They did help me get my book into print with no upfront costs or charges. They did format the book and designed the cover - something I could not do on my own. They did make the books available on their website and on Amazon.com as promised. So, looking on the positive side I am now a published author. It's just that my book is priced so high that I believe there will be very limited sales. In my opinion I believe that PublishAmerica makes its money from the authors, not from selling the books to the general public. It's a different business model and had I been fully informed and not in such a rush to be published, I would have gone a different route.
So there it is, my thoughts on my publishing experience to date! I have not given up. I continued to ask that the prices be lowered and I would also like to rewrite Dolphins Dance - I'd like to grammatical errors and make the paragraphs a little more readable. Someday a second edition will be out there. In the meantime I plan on either self publishing on Amazon.com using their self-publishing services or if I can find a literary agent that might be even better. I'd rather not spend so much time formatting and publishing, I want to spend more time just writing.
Sorry for the long winded message today! Just needed to get some of these thoughts off my chest.
I am now waiting to hear from PublishAmerica to see if they will fix the formatting issues that make the book available again had Amazon.com/Kindle. I really believe In the Kindle and And e-book "revolution"... I believe/think it is the future of publishing and Makes Reading books more accessible/books available especially to the younger more technological generations.
I am asking PublishAmerica to lower the prices of my book. I would like to see the print copy available for $12.95 on Amazon.com (you can get it for that price if you go directly to the PublishAmerica bookstore) and I would like to see the Kindle version of my book available for less than $5.95. That way my friends and family who would like to read the book do not have to fork out so much money! If you want to help me with this "campaign" please go to the PublishAmerica website and give them feedback that you would like to see my books listed at lower prices.
Anyway lesson learned! I am not saying that PublishAmerica is a "scam"... They have fulfilled their contract with me. They did help me get my book into print with no upfront costs or charges. They did format the book and designed the cover - something I could not do on my own. They did make the books available on their website and on Amazon.com as promised. So, looking on the positive side I am now a published author. It's just that my book is priced so high that I believe there will be very limited sales. In my opinion I believe that PublishAmerica makes its money from the authors, not from selling the books to the general public. It's a different business model and had I been fully informed and not in such a rush to be published, I would have gone a different route.
So there it is, my thoughts on my publishing experience to date! I have not given up. I continued to ask that the prices be lowered and I would also like to rewrite Dolphins Dance - I'd like to grammatical errors and make the paragraphs a little more readable. Someday a second edition will be out there. In the meantime I plan on either self publishing on Amazon.com using their self-publishing services or if I can find a literary agent that might be even better. I'd rather not spend so much time formatting and publishing, I want to spend more time just writing.
Sorry for the long winded message today! Just needed to get some of these thoughts off my chest.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Great News, Good News and a scare
The great news is that my book "Dolphin's Dance" is now available on Amazon.com and for the Kindle. Search using the title or author name (R.K. Raker). Unfortunately the price is too high for my liking, but the publisher sets the price not Me. If you go to Amazon.com and find the book please visit the author information page. And if you have read the book please, please, write a customer review!
The good news is that my parents were here to visit for one week. We had a wonderful visit and I was so proud of them still traveling and doing their best at 83 years old. They are from Phoenix so the wet and humid weather was a bit uncomfortable for them. But on the whole we had a nice visit and it was good to have the whole family together.
A scare occurred a week ago on Monday during thunderstorm that we had here on Oahu. Suddenly we had a very strong electrical search and all the power went out. My backup emergency battery for some reason did not kick in and I was left unable to breathe for a couple of minutes--which seemed like years for me. Luckily my good friend Michael was here and stayed calm and in a few minutes the electricity came back on. We were both pretty scared. We now have new caregiver procedures which we hope will prevent any future electrical malfunctions.
The good news is that my parents were here to visit for one week. We had a wonderful visit and I was so proud of them still traveling and doing their best at 83 years old. They are from Phoenix so the wet and humid weather was a bit uncomfortable for them. But on the whole we had a nice visit and it was good to have the whole family together.
A scare occurred a week ago on Monday during thunderstorm that we had here on Oahu. Suddenly we had a very strong electrical search and all the power went out. My backup emergency battery for some reason did not kick in and I was left unable to breathe for a couple of minutes--which seemed like years for me. Luckily my good friend Michael was here and stayed calm and in a few minutes the electricity came back on. We were both pretty scared. We now have new caregiver procedures which we hope will prevent any future electrical malfunctions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)