The Plot Cafe Creative Writing Magazine - Latest Comments

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

Arwen Taylor — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:00:00 -0000

Hi Jesse,

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your pricing information. According to Createspace's book cost calculator a 6 inch x 9 inch 300 page (which is your average trade paperback) book costs $7.50. If you upgrade to their Pro Plan, $39 per book title the first year and $5.00 per book title each year after, your cost per book goes down to $4.45.

However, that $39 still needs to be included in the cost per book price. Therefore, purchasing one book will really cost you $43.45. To bring that cost down to a decent level, you would have to purchase at least 39 books which would spread the cost of that Pro plan to $1.00 per book and putting your actual cost at $5.45 per book. If you purchased 78 books, your per costs price would come down to $4.95 and so on and so forth.

They say there are no set up costs involved with publishing your book but I haven't been able to determine if you are required to purchase one of their service packages in order to get them to publish your book.

Even if they are not required to purchase a service package, most authors will because they have no experience with designing a book cover etc. Therefore the cost of that package needs to also be included in the per price cost of the books.

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

Jesse Gump — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:18:42 -0000

>The biggest problem with places like Createspace is that in order to get a good price on your books and therefore sell them at a decent price to your customers is that you have to buy them in bulk.

This is not correct. I can buy a single copy of a 300 page book from CreateSpace for about $4.50. If I get an order through Amazon with a selling price of $14.95, my "royalty" is about $3.50. I don't have to buy in quantity.

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

Arwen Taylor — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:57:36 -0000

Hi NJ Lindquist,

I know. I read author blogs and the only thing many of them can think of is getting that book in their hands. And the problem is compounded by the mistaken belief that once they have a book, they will sell millions and be the next JK Rowling. It's crazy but as long as people won't listen, I guess these companies will continue to flourish.

Arwen Taylor

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

N. J. Lindquist — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:16:02 -0000

Very good article. I keep saying the same things, but, unfortunately a lot of people only hear what they want to hear. And many just want a book in a hurry, and aren't really willing to spend the time learning what they need to know.

Re: 5 Tips For Writing a Book Announcement News Release That Will Get Used by the Press

Arwen Taylor — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:49:36 -0000

Hi Cathy,

A news release is something that you can write or you can hire a freelance writer to write for you. You can then submit it to several press release websites online.

Here is a link to a good guide on how to write a press release:

How to Write the Perfect Press Release

Here is a pretty decent list of places where you can submit a press release:

List of Press Release Websites

Hope this helps. Good luck :)

Arwen Taylor

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

Arwen Taylor — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:42:10 -0000

@ Michael Marcus

You are correct. What people try to pass off as subsidy publishing today is really just glorified book printing. In the past, true subsidy publishers would pay half and the author would pay half. In addition, subsidy publishers were just like regular publishers in that they actually screened the books that came across their desks to make sure they were putting out something that would sell. They wanted to make their money back.

Today's "Subsidy Publishers" do nothing more than print the book. They don't do any screening, editing or marketing. The onus is on the author to make sure their book reads well, is edited correctly and to market the book. You may as well be a self publisher.

It's sad how marketers have mislead writers in such a way but the only thing that can combat that is education.

@ Cathy

From what I understand CreateSpace is the same as LuLu. They are just book printers. It looks like they do have some helpful services that you can pay for such as editing and it looks like they will handle shipping of the book. But in the end, it's all on you to make sure your book reads well and to market and sell it. Additionally, unless you purchase an ISBN, you will be published under theirs which can limit what you can do with the book.

The biggest problem with places like Createspace is that in order to get a good price on your books and therefore sell them at a decent price to your customers is that you have to buy them in bulk. With LuLu one 200 page book (perfect bound, 6x9 paperback) costs $8.50.

If you want to make money on your book, you have add a few dollars on top of that. How much you add depends on who/where you are selling them. If you are selling them out of the trunk of your car direct to the reader then you might be okay selling them at $10 or $11. And I emphasize might because you would be competing against other similar books selling at $7-$8 that were produced by commercial publishers.

However, if you want to sell your books to bookstores you would have to price your book at a minimum of $21.25 to cover the cost of your book because bookstores require a minimum of a 40% discount off the list price before they will even consider putting your book on their shelves. If you want to make money on your book, you would have to price it even higher than that.

If you want your 200 page book to sell at a reasonable price you would have to buy 1000 copies of your book which would bring the individual price down to $4.80 making the minimum list price you could sell it for to recoup your costs $12.00.

I couldn't find the per book price for CreateSpace but I doubt they are much better.

I think places like CreateSpace and LuLu are fine if you are selling a specialized product that your target market would buy regardless of the cost and if you are not looking to get your book into bookstores. However most authors are trying to sell mass market paperback fiction books and want to get them on the shelves of Borders and Barnes&Noble and therefore are not best served by these types of websites.

I hope this helps Cathy. Good luck.

Arwen Taylor

Re: 5 Tips For Writing a Book Announcement News Release That Will Get Used by the Press

Cathy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:16:37 -0000

How do you get a news release? I am very new at this and my book is ready for publish!
Help! Thanks

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

Cathy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:05:16 -0000

From what I just read, are you suggesting we do not go with self publishing companies like CreateSpace?
I would like your feedback on that. I just did and having some reservations now.
Thanks

Re: Subsidy Publishing Versus Self-publishing: a Clarification

michael n. marcus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:55:51 -0000

Not only are subsidy publishers not "self-publishing companies," they're not really subsidy publishers, either.

In other fields, such as subsidized housing, subsidized child care, subsidized transportation, subsidized agriculture, subsidized education, etc., a government, employer or organization pays part of the cost of a service, and the user of the service pays part.

In the strange world of subsidy publishing, the user (author) pays the entire cost of publishing.

There is NO SUBSIDY in subsidy publishing.

It’s particularly ironic that, publishing — which depends on words — so frequently misuses them.

Also, technically POD is not a "printing technology." It's a business method. Although POD is usually done with high-speed laser presses, POD could be done with offset, letterpress, or even a quill on parchment.

Michael N. Marcus

Author of "Become a Real Self Publisher"

{One link per person please. Thank you :) }

Re: 7 Relaxing Tips For Stress Relief

Elizabeth Stanfill — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:05:36 -0000

Excellent advice Michelle,

I like to visualize while I soak in the tub.

Elizabeth

Re: Writer's Block-Try This and You'll Never Be Stuck Again

Miki — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:23:44 -0000

Hi Lynie,
I love this post! Not only do you have great advice, but I can actually see you getting your coffee and sitting down to 'take notes'. I'm sitting here chuckling because that's exactly (I mean exactly) what I do - with the notes. I've been overcome with notes and great ideas that I finally bought Microsoft One Note to keep it organized. I love this software because it gives me the creative flexibility to set it up the way MY mind works - not someone else's.

Thanks for the great tip - I just know it will work beautifully for me!

Re: Author Interview: Many Faces for Many Places Author Judy Azar LeBlanc

Jerry D. Simmons — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:43:10 -0000

What a great interview, Judy is an amazing person as well as author and deserves much success. Her book will inspire you, I highly recommend it to anyone.

Re: Contact

Jill — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:14:23 -0000

See above

Re: Top Ten New Year's Resolutions for Writers

Arwen Taylor — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:48:11 -0000

Same to you Joanna. It's a great article so I was only to happy to post it. Happy 2009!

Re: Top Ten New Year's Resolutions for Writers

Joanna — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:46:55 -0000

Thanks for posting this Arwen! I hope 2009 brings you writing success and happiness!

Joanna Penn

Re: Holocaust Memoir Book Gets the Axe and Other Tidbits

Arwen Taylor — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:02:39 -0000

Hi Rose,

I agree that the Rosenblat story should have been checked out first. Most especially by Oprah who had been burned before. She can be forgiven for being taken in by a fraud the first time but a second time? C'mon.

Dina's story is wonderful. I hadn't heard of it before and I would love to read about it. I agree that it is fraud stories like Rosenblat's that casts a long shadow over true wonderful stories like Dina's.

The New Republic was calling for Rosenblat to go back on Oprah and make a public apology for the fraud. I hope he does it.

Re: Holocaust Memoir Book Gets the Axe and Other Tidbits

Rose — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:39:01 -0000

The Rosenblat story is so sad. Why is Atlantic Pictures making a film based on a lie? Why didn't Oprah check the story out before publicizing it, especially after James Frey and given that many bloggers like Deborah Lipstadt said in 2007 that the Rosenblat's story couldn't be true.
Genuine love stories from the Holocaust do exist. My favorite is the one about Dina Gottliebova Babbitt - the beautiful young art student who painted Snow White and the Seven Dwarves on the children's barracks at Auschwitz to cheer them up. This painting became the reason Dina and her Mother survived Auschwitz. After the end of the war, Dina applied for an art job in Paris. Unbeknownst to Dina, her interviewer was the lead animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They fell in love and got married. It's such a romantic love story. Another reason I love Dina's story is the tremendous courage she had to paint the mural in the first place. Painting the mural for the children caused her to be taken to Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death. She thought she was going to be gassed, but bravely she stood up to Mengele and he made her his portrait painter, saving herself and her mother from the gas chamber.

Dina's story is also verified to be true. Some of the paintings she did for Mengele in Auschwitz survived the war and are at the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum. The story of her painting the mural of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the children's barrack has been corroborated by many other Auschwitz prisoners, and of course her love and marriage to the animator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Disney movie after the war in Paris is also documented.

Why wasn't the Rosenblatt's story checked out before it was published and picked up to have the movie made?? I would like to see true and wonderful stories like Dina's be publicized, not these hoax tales that destroy credibility and trust.

Re: Overcoming the Primary Obstacle in Learning Speed Reading

Arwen Taylor — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:13:38 -0000

I've come across speed reading off and on over the years. Maybe I'll make one of my New Year's resolutions to learn how to speed read.

Re: Get Your Goals Going with Seven Proven Steps

Arwen Taylor — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:12:14 -0000

I've actually found this out the hard way. But I suppose it is the purpose of life to make sure you learn these lessons. Interesting website. I will refer to it often.

Re: Interview with History Novelist Dianne Ascroft

Arwen Taylor — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:59:30 -0000

Thank you Laura for stopping by. It used to be that brilliant works sold themselves through word of mouth. Not anymore. If you want to get noticed, you must go out and promote yourself. Luckily, the internet makes this a lot easier.

Re: Overcoming the Primary Obstacle in Learning Speed Reading

Colin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:04:06 -0000

Speed Reading may sound impossible in the first hear but trust me, it works. After a course, you'll feel like superman or something, it's an awesome feeling being to understand words by a fraction of second's glance...highly recommendable

Re: Interview with History Novelist Dianne Ascroft

Laura Essendine — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:53:52 -0000

The final comments are very telling - writing is big business now and marketing/branding is as important as content in many cases. There's no point producing a masterpiece if you aren't prepared to put in equal effort with the marketing.

Starving in a garret is hugely over-rated!

Great authors mentioned in the interview but can I also recommend Judith Lennox, a British author who produces the most wonderful stories.

Fascinating interview - thanks.

Laura Essendine
Author – The Accidental Guru
The Books Limited Blog

Re: Get Your Goals Going with Seven Proven Steps

Ron Towns — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:22:53 -0000

I’ve often been asked, “What do you think is the biggest contributing factor to failure of executing goals?”

I can easily answer that question with one word… inaction.

To succeed, you have to do something, something that will move you toward what you want. When you’re not moving toward what you want, you’re suffering in what you don’t want. It’s like quicksand, and you get stuck there. It paralyzes you, so that just taking the first step seems unachievable.

But the first step is better than the quicksand because it’s one step closer to where you want to be and what you want to be doing. And that inaction is what kills more businesses and relationships than anything else.

Avoid failure… take action!

Check out this great resource I've been using to fuel my motivation: www.johnassaraf.com/hia. Let me know what you all think!

Re: Weekend Roundup

Arwen Taylor — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:29:34 -0000

Sorry about that. I corrected the blog post. Thanks for stopping by :)

Re: Weekend Roundup

che — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:50:32 -0000

Followed your link from Dear Author. Just want
to mention it was not really a poor review,
but a 3 star review.