For PA lurkers
I was doing a little figuring with PA's discounts and came up with something interesting. Well... it's late and I'm tired so with my brain working on being sleep deprived, it was interesting. Someone feel free to correct my math if it's incorrect.
Breaking it down: An average book from Publish America costs $19.95. That is somewhere in the neighborhood of between a 100 and 250 page book, some even less pages. Before the publication of your book, PublishAmerica will send you a letter stating that you can purchase up to 100 copies of your own book at discounts. (That is what my offer said anyway.) 40% on 40 copies, and 50% on 65 or more, and 55% on 100 copies or more. (that 55% is a rare offer, not a standard one) Let’s do the math on 65 copies at a 50% author discount.
65 copies at $19.95 totals $1296.75.
50% of $1296.75 totals $648.38
Shipping cost @ $3.99 per book totals $259.35 (That price per book to ship it is actually 20% of $19.95.)
For the cost of $907.73, you have just purchased 65 copies of your own book, that you got printed for FREE.
That 50% discount turned into a 30% discount once the shipping cost was added back into the total. (Isn’t 30% what is written in your contract on author purchases?)
Because the retail on these books is marked at least $5.00 higher than other trade paperback books, you will have to discount the price in order to sell the copies you just purchased. Say you decided that since you paid $9.98 (50% discount) plus that $3.99 for shipping for each book you purchased (totals $13.97), you can sell them at $15.00 and still make a very small profit. The problems arise when you start talking to bookstore managers about setting up book signings. They may agree (and I stress the word may)to let you have a signing provided you bring the books and share the profits. Okay, so the book store wants 40% of the selling price just for taking the time to set up a table and ring the books out through their registers, as well as allow you to have the book signing on store property. Hmm… what happened to that small profit margin you are allowing yourself of $1.00 per book? You just lost almost $5.00 on every book you sell for $15.00 (40% of $15.00 is $6.00, you keep $9.00 but total paid with shipping was $13.97) at the book signing, and will end up owing the bookstore money if you sell even one copy. If you try and sell the books for the original retail price of $19.95, and give the store 40%, you will end up with about a $1.98 profit.
Now comes the next dilemma; trade paper backs are not going to sell for $19.95, especially ones that have been poorly edited, unless you have a lot of family and friends willing to shell out that much money. In total, you might sell two or three copies of your book at each book signing you attend, and after you take out the cost of gas, and other expenses, you are even farther in the hole. How far in the hole you end up will depend on how far you traveled in order to have your book signing. In the meantime, you are having business cards printed out with your book information on them, sending out fliers that you either paid to have printed up or bought the paper yourself and used your own printer, or making phone calls trying to set up radio or news interviews; spending money on website memberships, or paying a monthly fee for a bigger, better website; yearly charges for memberships to advertise on other websites. It all ads up to a lot of cost, very few sales, and a deep hole in your wallet where your credit card used to be. But hey... you didn't pay to be published.
