Hey Folks,
First, to new subscriber M. Shephard, thanks for jumping in! Good to have you along.
***
I made a new friend (well, acquaintance) early this morning. A guy wrote me out of the blue to request all six books from my current special offer.
He went on to say he graduated high school a year before I did (different school) and knew several people from my hometown.
He also said he’d only recently found my books and had just finished reading The Wes Crowley Saga (all ten books in one edition) and loved it.
Talk about a great way to start your day. (grin)
Topic: Why I Have a Publisher Website
This topic won’t appear over on the big site, so it’s exclusive to you.
More and more often, as borne out by posts from such major players as Kristine Kathryn Rusch, booksellers are ordering books directly from the publisher.
They do so primarily because they’ll receive what they order more quickly than if they order from distributors.
But they also expect to get the same or similar volume discounts from the publishers as they get from the distributors.
At StoneThread Publishing, I no longer do print books. It just isn’t practical, given how many folks buy ebooks instead of print books, often because of the price difference.
So chances are I’m not going to land many (if any) bookseller orders.
On the other hand, readers deserve discounts too. And yes, volume discounts.
Not because a reader might order multiple copies of the same book, but because, as long as they’re on the site, they might prefer to order multiple books.
On StoneThreadPublishing.com (and now on HarveyStanbrough.com), I make that an attractive possibility.
For instructional purposes, my Reader Discount Schedule is as follows:
▪ Any single title, 12% discount (retail price x .88)
▪ 2-4 individual titles, 15% discount (retail price x .85)
▪ 5-9 individual titles, 20% discount (retail price x .80)
▪ Additional copy as a gift, 35% discount (retail price x .65)
Notice that I stress “individual titles.” That’s to be sure they understand the can order 2-4 (or more) separate, individual titles and still get the discount.
Also notice I give them a discount if they order even one title directly from StoneThread (or me).
Why?
Because if they pay the full retail price of $6 (rounded) at Amazon, I get $4.20 royalty (70%).
If they pay the same retail price at the tiny Smashwords store I get an 80% royalty ($4.80). (This is why I sometimes push buying at Smashwords.)
But if they buy that single title directly from me, they pay less ($5.28) and I get more (also $5.28).
That doesn’t seem like much difference. But if I sell 100 $6 titles through the various sellers, the difference becomes more obvious.
From Amazon my royalty would be $420. From Smashwords it would be $480. But from StoneThread Publishing it would be $528. Over $100 more than I would get if I sold the same books through Amazon.
And if I got lucky and sold 1000 books? Just add another zero.
So if you’ve written more than a few novels, consider setting up a publisher website. Especially if you also publish to paper. In that case, there’s a good chance you’ll attract not only readers but booksellers to your site.
I should also mention that I pretty much mimic my publisher site on my author site. In fact, this morning I added a Reader Discounts page to my author site.
I won’t talk about bookseller discounts here, but I had them back when I had paper books in stock. You can see those discounts at http://stonethreadpublishing.com/for-booksellers/. But look quick. That page will be coming down in the next few days.
However, that’s been awhile ago. Rather than mimmicking me in that regard, I recommend going to some other publisher sites and seeing what they offer for bookseller discounts.
Hope this helps.
***
Not a good writing day. I allowed for too many distractions. I’m calling it early. Back at it tomorrow.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See the comments on “No One Cares” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/no-one-cares/#comments. Some great stuff in the comments, especially Dean’s responses.
Also see the comments on “Special Stories” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/special-stories/#comments. For the same reason. Some great stuff here.
See “Comic Relief” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/01/comic-relief.html. Interesting take on fonts.
See “Why I don’t outline” at https://tonydwritespulp.com/2019/01/12/why-i-dont-outline/.
Fiction Words: 1355
Nonfiction Words: 740 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2095
Writing of The Case of the Mourning Widow (novel)
Day 1…… 2784 words. Total words to date…… 2784
Day 2…… 3250 words. Total words to date…… 6034
Day 3…… 2507 words. Total words to date…… 8521
Day 4…… 1049 words. Total words to date…… 9570
Day 5…… 2459 words. Total words to date…… 12029
Day 6…… 2723 words. Total words to date…… 14752
Day 7…… 1355 words. Total words to date…… 16107
Total fiction words for the month……… 17755
Total fiction words for the year………… 17755
Total nonfiction words for the month… 10740
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 10740
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 28495
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… X
Calenday Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 37
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31