Well, got a rude surprise I heard about before, but had forgotten about...

I've had several people tell me they won't buy my book because they can't/won't read online or on a reader. They have to have a paperback novel.

Well, that's not that hard to do (my editor said it's a few settings on the Vellum layout), so I thought 'sure'.

Amazon really shafts hard printing for the authors.

Basically, what happens is all the print costs get taken out of the Author's share of the price of the book. So, let's say a 400 page book is about $6 in printing costs. If the price is set at $12, that means Author Royalty is $7.20, and my actual income is $1.20 for the book.

That... is about half of what I get for an Ebook :/. Just, ugh.

I would like to set the price so that I make a flat $2 per book. However, that would raise the above cost to $13.35 list price for the paperback, which is... pricey for the book.

Now, if someone bought the Ebook, I'd be happy to let the print version go for $1 to me, but there's no method there for me to do that :/.

So, I'm looking for some feedback from my Patreon people. I'd like to offer a paperback novel for the Ebooks, but I'd also like to actually earn an income for my work from them, too.

The minimum price I can charge is $1 + Printing Cost, which is variable by book size (I've novels in the 300+, 400+, and 500+ sizes!). Divide the combination by .6, and that's the cover price.

What do you think I should charge for the paperbacks? All elements are fixed: Amazon gets its share, it fixes the price to print, and so the only variable is what the author makes.

I'm also going to set up a survey on Royal Road, and see what my Readers there think of this. I'll set up final prices when all the print stuff is ready to go and let you all know at that time.

Give me a reply and let me know what you think!

Thanks!

R E Druin