The decision to Print-on-Demand

SELF-PUBLISHING- PRINT ON DEMAND

I have recently made the move to make my Legacy series available for print on demand- this is a fantastic opportunity to see your work in the written form of a paperback rather than on E-book.

I’ve had the Legacy novels published for a few years now, and in that time they’ve undergone the first publication- edited on a word document which, as any editor will know, is not the best tool for editing grammar. In fact, it rates poorly compared to the mind of a trained editor.

But editors cost money! I’ve read many posts on the subject, and people tend to agree that “there’s nothing better than an editor” – the problem is, they cost between $1500 and $3000 based on word count, the ability of the editor and how much they want to sell themselves in the marketplace.

I know: editors are people too, and they have mortgages, lives, families, and costs to meet- but to a lot of individuals, even in full-time employment, $1500 is a price they could never hope to meet when you consider the average novel makes less than $100 in its lifetime. Why would you spend that amount of money on your life’s work when you aren’t going to get the money back?

To many, it’s a labor of love, and no cost is too high. To others, if they are going to spend over $1000 on something they won’t see the benefit of, they’ll use it to buy something else or go towards the cost of something else they need. That roof always needs fixing, the car needs repairs, the children need money for college or university, and then there’s the down payment on a holiday.

So, with apologies to editors everywhere, I bought Grammarly instead and issued my latest edition following a thorough edit and re-write of all four novels.

At the time, I saw the Kindle Direct Publishing link to “print on demand” and began to wonder…

What were the advantages of print over e-book?

For one thing, I had a greater chance of attracting readers. People like books! Yes, there are those who have a Kindle and can read from a Kindle, but for many, they find the Kindle too small, too intricate, it doesn’t feel like a book, and they just prefer paper.

We’re human beings after all- we appreciate the little things in life, and to curl up on a comfortable couch with a roaring fireplace and a dog at your feet, a mug of your favorite drink steaming beside you, and a good book in your hand is one of life’s pleasures.

OK, we don’t all have a roaring fireplace, a dog, and some prefer a cold glass of milk or a single malt to a hot drink, but you get the picture.

So how do you go about it? It’s easier than I thought.

Initially, I turned to the greatest resource available- the internet. Finding videos from people who have done this before and watching their various podcasts, youtube videos, etc. was a great source of inspiration.
KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) has an excellent section on advice, although it can be a little wordy in places it ticked the boxes in what I had to do at each stage.

Now for the editing part.

KDP publishes books in a 6” x 9” size, and you pay for what you want. There is a cost per word, a cost per type of paper, and a different cost if you want a matte cover than a glossy cover.

Uploading the book details and the cover art was a straightforward process, and I was able to use the cover art I had already utilized for the paperback version without any difficulty. KDP gives a range of image options, and the first one gives a full-size image, sufficient room for a brief mention about the writer (I hate writing about myself!) and more space for the description of the story content on the back.

That itself is an art form: most people, when you ask them to describe something, will take their time and go off on a long, rambling, detailed story, full of anecdotes and tangents, until they meander about the point and finally, maybe, get to the point.

When you have to describe a story in a few words, you don’t have that luxury!

When you publish an e-book, Amazon has a sufficient word limit to describe the story on the web page of its KDP purchase screen. The description for the ebook can, therefore, be longer and more detailed than the small space you have to put a vivid yet succinct description on the back of a published novel.

But publishing houses have people trained for this sort of thing! How is a self-published author supposed to produce a compelling description of the novel that entices a reader, hints at the content within but doesn’t give away the secrets?

You try. You edit, you read and re-read it aloud, and eventually, you do the best job you can.
The text will cram itself into the available space when you format the book using the size guidelines provided so that isn’t a problem, although you might find you play about with the border size and the gutter (space between the text and the center of the book).

But what about images? If you’ve read any of my Legacy novels, you’ll know I work with a fantastic artist called Steven Hargraves who not only designed the beautiful cover art, but also the starship “Silhouettes” for the chapter headings.

How would I edit the images as well as the text?

Word comes with a fantastic editing tool in the View panel that allows you to put gridlines over the entire document to match the parameters of the spacing inserts on top, bottom and on the sides. Grid lines display the spacing of the text next to any images you add, and from there, you can resize the image to fit the gridlines.

I had my text re-sized for the novel. I had my indent spacing, my gutter, and I had resized my images. It was time to upload the document to KDP and display a preview.

The preview tool is essential: this highlights publishing errors, stops you making a mistake, and gives you a chance to correct any issues before approval.

Sometimes, you will edit and re-edit before publication. It’s not a matter of getting it wrong, it’s a matter of perfecting the document until it’s right- and no time spent is time wasted.

Finally, you have your cover, your writer’s description and succinct novel description on the back cover, the wording is formatted correctly, and you have your images in place. You’ve generated the preview and found, to your pleasant surprise, it looks good! It’s time to accept and save the changes and move onto the final page- setting the price.

KDP will calculate the minimum price for a novel based on the word count and content- in the case of my first novel Legacy Engendered; this came out around $3.20. When I set the price, KDP calculated the price range for the book I was allowed to charge- from $6.40ish to $199.00.

Amazon (through KDP) will calculate their “cut” of the price, adding the difference between the minimum print cost of £3.20 to reach the actual minimum amount I was allowed to charge. The web page also helpfully displays the royalty I would receive as a writer- and for the lowest cost of $6.40+, my royalties would be $0.00 – if I wanted to charge the basic, I would not benefit.

So how much royalties should I take? I researched paperback novels of similar sizes and found that the average paperback retails between $10.00 – $14.99 (about £8.00 – £12.00) and, if I charged around $8.00 – $8.50, I would receive royalties of around $1.04 (about £0.72p) per copy. This seemed like a good place to start: I wasn’t an established author charging the same rate as mainstream published novels, and any person purchasing the book would be buying a “reduced rate” novel rather than taking a full price gamble on a book they had never read.

Any increase in word size can increase the cost, and I justified any increase because I would not be earning more than my $1.00 – $1.05 / £0.70 – £0.74p royalty per novel. Even though the fourth novel in the series: Legacy Conjoined, was much bigger in word count, I reckoned that if anyone had read and enjoyed the series to that point, their wish to continue with the story might offset any increase in the price for the larger and more expensive Legacy Conjoined.

What happened since?

A lot. Sales have increased, my profile has improved, and I’ve had a lot more hits on my Facebook page for the novel than ever before. Like many in this field, I write to tell a story and to entertain. Few writers make money, and if you’re not writing because you want to, then you’re in the wrong job. Writing Legacy is my pleasure, as I hope reading the stories of Serena, Rabbit and Lazlo and their respective crews is yours. If I can introduce a wider audience to my work who can enjoy the stories and share them with their friends and family, that’s enough for me.

If I make a little money along the way, that’s ok too.

Jacob Larch.