Catherine wrote:
"I just posted on arachne this morning 4 copies of my book at what I
consider to be a very reasonable price."
I've just looked to see if any of mine are on ebay. There are 15 in total
across the 3 books, all new, mostly just under the cover price (£7.95), with
a couple about half price (obviously bought as remainders from a print run
at the publisher), but 2 which are "Buy it now" at 25% more than the cover
price - they'll be lucky! What they try to sell them for doesn't affect me
because I've already had my pennies in royalties (either 10% of the cover
price or of the remainder price the publisher sold them for). I should get a
cheque next month for royalties on 6 months of sales, which will amount to
about GBP 50 if previous recent years are anything to go by, but of course
I'll lose 20% of that in income tax.
Secondhand books are another matter because as Catherine says high prices
are appalling - she got royalties on the original price- but also authors
get nothing on secondhand sales. As I said previously I had my first
published in 1984 and the last around 2000. The hard work went into them
then, and I'm lucky that they are all still selling and I still get a
pittance from them after all this time - most authors get royalties from one
or two print runs and that's it.
I was told by my publisher that they don't accept a book for publication
unless they think they sell a minimum of 3,000 copies. That could mean a lot
of hard work and then have it rejected. Nowadays, self-publishing through
print-on-demand would seem to be the way to go if you can be certain that
you'll sell enough to cover costs and get a small income. The internet has
made that easier than it was. Like lacemaking, I don't think anyone can make
a living from non-fiction books.
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
-
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to
[email protected]. Photo site:
http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
