Let’s talk money: What I’m earning from self-publishing my book
Yesterday I laid out the details of what I’ve spent self-publishing my latest book, Love at the Speed of Email. So far, it’s cost me about $3500.00 to bring this book to market. The other side of the equation, of course, is what I might earn from it. Here are some interesting facts on the “earnings” side of the money equation. Setting the price I decided to price the paperback at $12.95 and the e-book at $9.99. At those prices I earn about $3.50 every time someone buys a paperback from Amazon. I earn about $6 when they buy a paperback straight from Createspace. I earn about $5 for...
Read MoreLet’s talk money: What it cost me to self-publish my book
What is it about money that makes talking about it so hard? As I sit down to write this, I feel like I’m about to write a personal post about sex. In fact, I’ve been wondering for a while now whether to write this post at all, but then I realized that this is exactly the sort of post I wanted to read eight months ago when I first decided to self publish my next book. So, all you folks who are thinking about self-publishing a book, this is for you. Today I’m going to tell you exactly what it cost me to self-publish Love at the Speed of Email and share six lessons that I learned along the...
Read MoreWriting In Between: Too much of God, or not enough?
I’ve been up since 5:40 this morning. This would be great for getting a jump on the week’s work if I hadn’t also been up at midnight and 4am. And to top it all off (or maybe I should say “kick it all off”) I didn’t get to sleep until well after 11 the first time around. I blame Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche for that one. I’m reading her book Half Of A Yellow Sun. It’s excellent, but it’s set during the Nigerian/Biafran war and I should have known better – ever since Dominic’s birth this stuff just slays me. So I’m too tired this morning to do much more than post a couple of...
Read More“How do you feel about your child reading your memoir?” and other such questions
So I was going to write about post-launch letdown this week (which has struck with a vengeance, despite the fact that the launch is going very well) but that’s going to have to wait. I’ve been very busy, you see, doing important things like putting tiny sock puppets on my toes to amuse His Royal Babyness. And trying to teach him the meaning of the phrases, “No, books stay on shelves” and “stay off the stairs” (totally failing on both those fronts, by the way). I’ve also been avoiding the computer in the afternoons and actually reading other people’s books for a change...
Read MoreSix tips for marketing self-published books
Last Wednesday I wrote about the challenge that marketing can be for self-publishing authors. I asked what you would do if you were in charge of marketing my memoir, Love At The Speed Of Email, and was flooded with responses. Well, not exactly. But that’s not surprising. It’s a hard question for me to answer, and I know the book better than anyone. It’s also hard to think of ways to get the word out there without being overly and annoyingly self-promoting. The one person who tackled the question I asked last week suggested leaning toward authenticity whenever possible. I think that is...
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