Good Morning. No, this post isn't about the Beatles, but you can thank me later after the song has been in your head all day.
Today's post concerns the idea of putting my books into paperback form. I've been thinking about this for a long time. A LONG time. Probably since I was a kid and dreamed of becoming a famous author. There I was in braids and braces, holding MY book, accepting an award for writing the best durn book in the world. I think I was maybe 11, so Pulitzer wasn't in my vocabulary. Thinking back on it, the book probably had to do with horses (Misty of Chincoteague and The Black Stallion), and maybe a girl detective (Trixie Belden) who saved a town from the villainous villain. You get the drift.
Anyway, since I published to Kindle, the thrill ride has been amazing. I still get goose bumps every time I see the covers when I click to Amazon (about 8 gajllion times a day). Pulitzer is not in the picture, nor would I want it to be, I'm not that smaht, but something's been missing. And I finally figured out what it was.
The fact is, it's not a "real" book. I mean, sure, it's there, you can download it and read it, my name is on it so I know I wrote it, I even formed my own publishing company to do that. But I can't hold it in my hands. I can't smell it. I can't stick a bookmark in it, write in the margins, or kill a fly with it. I can't FEEL it. It's not tangible to me.
And so I've been scouring the internet looking up POD (print on demand) companies, looked at pricing, and royalties, distribution models, and percentage mark-downs. It's a lot to take in. Most companies are about the same. That's not the problem.
The problem is the consumer. When you can buy digital books for so much less, would you really spend the money on a paperback? I've seen prices from small publishers and self-publishers run the gamut from $9.99 to $15.95. (Most traditional publishers for the 5x8 mass market paperback are still hovering around $7.99 but that's with a 50K print run.) However, after looking at the POD models and how the companies do it, with the cost of paper, ink (not only for 273 pages but also the color covers), staff, electricity in the plant, all that, I can actually see how they would come up with the price they do to print one. Which is actually fair. (Working in a restaurant all those years really makes it easy to see the wholesale/retail mark-up.)
I guess the question I'm asking is, do people still buy "books"? Real books made out of paper. I mean, I wouldn't expect people who have the digital version to buy a paperback version too, that would be crazy, but I'm thinking of Aunt Martha who wants a nice Regency but without the sex, and maybe cousin Joyce who doesn't have an e-reader yet. If you're stuck in an airport, or dentist office, maybe a day at the beach. Do people still buy books as gifts? How much is too much for a paperback? (I know what I pay and how I read, so my opinion doesn't count.)
PS I have another novella coming out shortly. (Like within the next few days.)
You can read all about it here.
