Some authors are discovering
the catch about PAYperbacks. Those aren't listed on Amazon or other online stores.
How do we (and can we) get the new paperbacks listed on Amazon? My book is listed there at the softcover price of 25 dollars, and I think we could get more sales if people see that they can buy the books for less than half of that. Now that it is available in paperback, I tell people that they could buy it directly from the publisher for ten dollars plus shipping, rather than from Amazon.
Softcovers are listed (even though they're usually unavailable, out of stock, buy buttons removed, etc) but apparently PAYperbacks aren't there at all. So unless a reader finds a PA author's website and discovers a book is at a lower price, or the reader browses PA's PAYperback section, they're unlikely to know about this option.
Oh, and the part about "buy it from the publisher for $10 plus shipping"? Yesterday I came across a PA book that did sound interesting and was in PAYperback. But PA charged $12 for shipping to Canada and I wasn't about to pay $22. So I checked Amazon. There, the book is in softcover, but the buy buttons are gone and it's priced at $16, which meant I'd probably end up paying nearly as much.
Sadly, it was listed under the Independence Books imprint, which meant the author paid to have the PAYperback activated, paid for it to be an Independence Book and now lost a sale thanks to PA.
And on the PAMB thread an author says,
I sell mine for $16.99 plus tax. I haven't made any profit yet, but I'm glad to at least be getting my name out there.
Her book has been out for 17 months and she hasn't made any profit. Mine has been out for four months and... I have.
If all you want to do is get your name out there, you'd do better uploading your manuscript to a free website.
Finally, the lady who is on a fixed income and can't buy any more of her own books posted,
Amazon has mine for $15.95.Barns & Nobles has it but doesn't have a price. Both are in softback. Borders and Baker & Taylor does not have it.
Maybe some day the price will get right for all of us.
I wouldn't count on it. I really hope you're not counting on it either.