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Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 312
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 03:16 pm: | 
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Would it make sense for a self-publisher to sell books at cost or barely above cost in order to sell as many copies of a book as possible to attract the attention of a traditional publisher? If the author sold, say, 5000 books at $5.00 each, would a publisher be interested? It seems like one way a self-published author can compete with a traditionally-published author. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9178
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 05:26 pm: |
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This sounds like a good plan to me at some point in the life span of a book. |
Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 313
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 05:57 pm: |
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I wonder why more self-publishers looking for a book deal don't do this. Instead, a lot of self-publishers price their books higher than similar books of the same genre written by more well-known authors. Mmmmmmmm... |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 5182
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:25 pm: |
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They don't want to devalue their books. They don't want to seem desperate. They are prideful. Many reasons. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9424
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:39 pm: |
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A books is not a commodity like an orange or a pound a beef, where some margin of price differential or discount will dictate its demand in relation to its competition. Foks will buy a book because they think it'll be an interesting, entertaining and informative read.
NOT because it's cheaper. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9180
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 09:26 pm: |
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I can see the advantages of your "creative financing" idea, Emanuel. LOL Folks might be more interested in buying what they're taking a chance on being an "interesting and entertaining read" if it's $9.00 instead of $17.00. Authors want to have it both ways. They want to bedazzled readers with "bought-and-paid-for-reviews" and eye-catching covers and misleadng blurbs, and then suddenly when it comes to pricing books,they switch from being pitchmen to artists who want to preserve their aesthetic integrity. I definitely think that lowering the price of a book can be a good marketing strategy. A book is a product and, as such, is a commodity and if it's not moving at the price being asked for it, then a lower price is just as much incentive to a buyer as a tainted review. That's why self-published authors are advised to never have a price printed on a book cover or to include its cost in a bar code, isn't it? |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 482
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 12:24 am: |
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I take it by a "traditional" publisher you mean a commercial publisher? If so, this is what it costs to print 1000 books:
ISBN assignment - $27.00
Copyright registration - $45.00
Cover design - $500.00
Page layout - $300.00
Edit, copy edit, proofreading - $1000.00
Offset print run (1000 books) - $2750.00
Freight - $200.00
TOTAL: $4822.00
4822 / 1000 = $4.82
Sell the book for $5.00 each, make an $.18 profit on each sale. Is it worth it? And of course, these would have to be direct sales because there’s no allowance for bookstore/library, wholesaler or distributor discounts. This means standing out on street corners, rain or shine, and peddling your books yourself. Is it worth it? How many books can you move an hour? A week? A month?
Now, let’s deduct gas money. Gas averages $2.5/gallon. This means you’ll have to sell 14 books just to buy one gallon of gas. Is it worth it?
You’re going to become hungry and thirsty standing out on that corner. Let’s deduct food and beverage. I don’t know where you live, but I’m in NYC. In any NYC “hood,” you can get 4 packs of Kool Aid for $1.00. You can buy a 5lb bag of Domino’s sugar for $3.00, and a 10lb bag of ice for $2.5.
BEVERAGE TOTAL: $6.50 or 42 books
You gotta eat. A pound of Boar’s Head oven roasted turkey breast: $7.99 (makes 4 hearty sandwiches). Half-pound of Boar’s Head Swiss cheese: $2.75. Loaf of bread: $2.00.
FOOD TOTAL: $12.74 or 70 books
So, just to cover transportation, food, and beverage, you’ll have to move 126 books/day. Is it worth it?
This is why it doesn’t make sense to sell books at cost of production, or anything else for that matter. Now take that same book you paid $4.82/copy to produce and sell it at $13.95/book. Your profit per book is $9.13.
$2.50 for gas
$6.50 for beverage
$12.74 for food
TOTAL: $21.74 Selling 3 books will cover your expenses, and you pocket the $5.65 leftover. Suddenly, IT’S WORTH IT. The objective here, I think, is not to be penny-wise and pound-foolish (or starve to death) in an attempt to grab the attention of a major house. Y’know, if you look at the demographics of any major house, roughly 70% of its staff is in marketing. If you’re a self-publisher and can move 5000 books in about a 3-month time span OR LESS, it’s a good chance that’ll grab the attention of a major house. But the first question they’ll ask you is: How’d you do it?
(Oh and, if you sell books directly, you don’t need an ISBN. So you can knock $27 off your overhead. And to have 5000 books printed all at once costs around $1.60/book; freight will be about $700).
Of course, people will be more inclined to buy something, anything for less. Hey, everyone likes a bargain. But the self-publisher has to earn a living too, no? So unless the self-publisher is independently wealthy and can afford to lose money, there's no way they can compete with a commercially published author. The self-publisher has to invest tens of thousands of dollars of their OWN MONEY into their books, and assume all financial risks. Whereas the commercially published author had tens of thousands of dollars invested in their book - and assumes no personal financial risks.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9182
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 02:07 pm: |
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True, true, Urban_Scribe but here is my "generic" scenario of a "do it yourself on a shoe string" method. (I might add that Emanuel has previously shared similar cost-cutting tricks.) There are printing companies who charge considerably less to produce a MS if it is submitted on a disc/CD that contains a camera-ready manuscript. And the margins for a camera-ready manuscript are easy to put in place on a computer word processor which is what should be used to type up, in a "Courier" font, the manuscript. Short-run printers will provide as many books as you request. 1000 copies? Why not start off with 500 and you can order more later if necessary. You can also save a lot of money by creating a camera-ready book cover by using your computer graphics or your imagination. I once made a cover by using colored contruction paper and a scary looking font(Mistral) and included this prototype with the camera-ready manuscript to be printed. For this horror book I was experimenting with, I used a black silhouetted skyline of tall buildings set against a dark blue sky featuring a yellow half moon and birds (~ ~) flying around in it, all of which totally achieved the eerie effect I was looking for. (Less was more.) And isn't a book automatically copyrighted once you use the (c)symbol and accompany it with the date and title? Here's the thing: so many self-published authors are on such ego-trips and have such grand visions, that their books are more about themselves than the consumer. Over a period of time, I think a person can sell a good number of "user-friendly" books in such places as beauty shops, local book fairs, book signings at community libraries and small black book stores and, yes, at yard sales where you advertise your book as a "one-time-only specially-priced autographed copies of a popular best seller". LMAO. As I have often said, I get my biggest charge out of creating a book from scratch, doing everything but the printing myself. After my baby is born, however, I turn into a negligent mommy and never invest very much more of myself in the promotion because it's like my creative energy saps my agression or - if you prefer, because I'm lazy. heh-heh. I actually only had 50 copies of my little horror book printed which I sold for 5 bucks each back in 1996(?) and I unloaded 15 of those suckers in one day at a local street fair. I, myself, didn't actually use all of the methods I cited to sell copies of books, but I do know people who did. I say all of this to say that there are less expensive alternatives to selling more lower-priced copies of a book in order to boost the sales figures to impress a regular publisher. Of course, being computer literate is a must when relying on this method to defray expenses. |
Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 315
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 08:11 pm: |
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So let's say the author has coin from other endeavors and selling at a cost barely breaking even or even taking a loss due to marketing costs is not a big deal. If a self-publishing author approaches a publishing company with 5,000 units sold at $5.00 each (hypothetically), would a publishing company consider offering he or she a deal? Is selling 5,000 (verifiably) enough attract the attention of a commercial publisher regardless of the price of the book? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9200
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 08:28 pm: |
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side bar. How can an author prove that they sold 5000 units? |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 5186
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 10:11 pm: |
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Emanuel, I don't know if this is a hypothetical question but my thinking is that the publishing companies probably keep an eye out for who's selling great volumes, so why would a self-publisher approach them. Wouldn't he wait until they beat a path to his door. I think the self-publisher should play hard to get. Act like you don't really need the publishing house. That should get their attention 
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Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 484
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 12:18 am: |
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Cynique wrote:
side bar. How can an author prove that they sold 5000 units?
Publishers (self-publishers) are supposed to keep a ledger, and know at all times where every book goes. Let's use '10' because it's an easy number to work with.
July 7, 2007 UNITS ON HAND (opening): 10
1)Doe, John; Reviewer ABC TIMES; 1 Complimentary copy; ISBN 978-0000; July 7, 2007
2)Smith, Dave; Reviewer XYZ TRIBUNE; 1 Complimentary copy; ISBN 978-0000; July 7, 2007
3)LMN Bookstore; Purchase Order LMN1232007; 5 units shipped at 40%/NET 30; ISBN 978-0000; July 7, 2007
July 7, 2007 UNITS ON HAND (closing): 3
Of course, this is difficult to do/keep track of when selling direct. But it's possible to use a simpler format. On July 7, 2007, I left home with 10 books and returned with 3. Seven (7) sales for July 7, 2007. Then set aside 15% for quarterly self-employment taxes.
Emanuel wrote:
So let's say the author has coin from other endeavors and selling at a cost barely breaking even or even taking a loss due to marketing costs is not a big deal. If a self-publishing author approaches a publishing company with 5,000 units sold at $5.00 each (hypothetically), would a publishing company consider offering he or she a deal? Is selling 5,000 (verifiably) enough attract the attention of a commercial publisher regardless of the price of the book?
No, that won't grab a commercial publisher's attention. Listen, we all know how to spend/waste money, but very few of us know how to make an honest dollar while working for ourselves; even fewer of us know how to make our money make more money. So what a self-publisher has money to burn? Congratulations. Do they know how to make money? Because that's what's going to impress a commercial publisher - selling a large quantity of books in a short time span while turning a decent profit. No one's impressed by someone who loses money in a business venture.
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Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 317
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 11:46 am: |
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Urban_Scribe said:
"...what's going to impress a commercial publisher - selling a large quantity of books in a short time span while turning a decent profit. No one's impressed by someone who loses money in a business venture."
Now that makes perfect sense. Thanks for your insights.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9203
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 03:51 pm: |
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Indeed. |
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