Welp. Readying a book for a paperback edition is as time and energy intensive as I thought it would be. I finally did it, though. Stars Die is now available in paperback! Paperback editions of Hexes Fly and Rogues Lie are underway.
After researching my options I chose the easiest path to getting my books into paperback, which turns out to be remaining in Amazon’s scary embrace. So, I have Amazon-supplied ISBNs and the process of Amazon linking the digital editions to the paperback editions ought to go smoothly. Ought.
I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little on what went on behind the scenes over the last couple of months. (I’ll spare you my muttering, squinting, and violent stabs at the keyboard and screen). Basically, I wanted to share the pricing screen with you.
The books in my current series, Caldryn Parliament, average around 90,000 words and I’ve priced the digital editions at $4.99 (all pricing in US dollars). When someone buys a digital copy, Amazon takes 30% of the list price, leaving me with roughly $3.50 per book. If the book is borrowed in Kindle Unlimited I get about $2 when it’s read from cover to cover. (If my math is right. I’m having doubts. But it’s close enough).
It might seem that I earn less from Kindle Unlimited borrowed copies, but that’s not true. People borrow far more readily than they buy (and I understand because that’s me as a reader, too), so volume more than makes up for the lower price. Kindle Unlimited is crucial to my survival as an indie author. Please, please keep borrowing and reading my books in Kindle Unlimited!
Now, to the paperback edition.
Remember, getting the formating right was a pain in the beep. And for all that effort, and by raising the price to $12.99 (slightly above Amazon’s minimum of $9.99 retail price), I get a whopping $3.06. Yup, that’s less than when someone buys the digital version. And if they buy from outside Amazon, via Expanded Distribution, I get … $0.46.
So, yes, I want paperback editions available in the interests of accessibility (which is the same reason I compromised and used Amazon’s virtual voice to provide text-to-speech editions since I can’t afford (money, time, energy) to produce professional audiobooks right now). However, financially, I’m better off writing the next book. It’s certainly far more enjoyable!
Okay. I’ll let the curtain fall back and hide the reality of publishing once more.
I love being an indie author. I’m incredibly grateful to be living this life. But it does include hard choices.
For now, I intend to release paperback editions of all eight Caldryn Parliament novels, probably a month or three after the digital editions. However, until I have a lot bigger breathing space, I won’t be bringing my backlist into paperback.
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