Why doesn’t my book generate the same amount of income for every sale?

There are several reasons for this:

1.       Prices go up and we don’t always change the RPP immediately.

2.       Exchange rate varies so although we fix an RRP for each currency the actual amount we get varies according to the exchange rate.

3.       Our printer sometimes reduces prices.

4.       There is a variance in wireless costs when sending e-books.

5.       We have to allow retailer 35% discount and 40% in the US. When we sell directly with a shop we have to pay shipping. When books go through our distributor we don’t.

6.       The biggest profits are made on large orders from authors.

7.       Prices have to be neat – so there isn’t a set percentage profit.

8.       Shipping rates can vary. Sometimes they are reduced if our printer is sending other books to the same outlet.       

Saint Ettie’s Music School

 

 

How we came to publish this one

Martin approached us with this story, It wasn’t yet quite ready for publication so he worked with a couple of our developmental editors before it then went through our normal editorial process.   

The title

Yes, it’s a story about a music school.

Some notes about the process

This went through the normal three stages of editing:

·         A structural edit

·         A line edit

·         A proof read

As well, of course as the normal four proof reads.

The cover

This was a composite picture using copyright-free material including one of Martin’s own photos. The main concept was Martin’s own. Our designer worked with him to get this exactly right.    

Some notes about style

This has an old-fashioned voice which is one of the main features of the text.

Who we think the reader is

Although we’ve published this under our Red Telephone imprint this may well be enjoyed by an adult reader who likes some nostalgia.

What else

The quirky point has to be the talking musical instruments. Curious? Then take a look at the book.   

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to our bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free PDF.

 

Grab your copy here.        

Contract up? Do Not Fret

 

There will be a termination clause in your contract. Most of the times we give the rights back to you after three years from publication date but some contracts vary. However, we’re very reluctant to take books completely out of print unless the author wants it.

When we license your rights, it is for that particular book.  So, if it’s a collection of short stories, and you have one about a banana boat, and suddenly there is a call for stories about banana boats, yes its’s fine to send that story to the call. Chances are anyway you’ll re-edit it  so in fact it’s not the same story anyway. Of course bad practice would be to submit the book that we’d carefully edited and designed to Penguin Random before the termination time. We would me a little miffed.

So, when the three years is up (or whatever time is on the contract), what can we do?

Basically, we’ll keep it in print unless you tell us to take it down.  

You may have moved on so much, as a writer, that you no longer want the book in print. We can then pull it totally. Your choice!

A couple of comments on social media

 

Sadly, I’ve left Twitter.  My account is still there but I’m doing nothing with it. Twitter was always my favourite social media platform. However, I can no longer interact with it because of who owns it and which regime he belongs to. So, I’ve moved over to @gillj.bsky.social. Do come and find me there. I’ve left 4000 followers and I’m slowly building up on this platform – currently I have 241 followers and I’ve posted 197 times. Hopefully it will be different by the time you go and look. In many ways I’m enjoying the slow build up and now that I am older and wiser I’m taking a little more care about who I interact with and how I interact. I’m recognising some old friends and gaining some new ones.  

It isn’t a miracle cure. The same issues are still there that are on all social media platforms. Annoyingly many people‘s profile descriptions are rather vague. But there are a lot of Twitter refugees there and they behave very well on the whole. They are a critical mass.     

I wonder a little whether it will affect how visible all my enterprises are but here’s a thing: CaféLit has had over 129,000 hits in December – and that’s with me no longer linking to stories from the Facebook page.

Having said that, I think I’ve cracked how to make references to the e-zine acceptable. If I’m already on the Facebook page when I link from Blogger, Facebook doesn’t seem to mind so much.

So, we’re visible.