Looks like self-publishing's a no go as well.

[avevale_intelligencer]

So, just for the ducks of it, I gathered three of my not-long-enough-to-be-novels too-long-to-be-short-stories stories--The Sallow Man, The Shop and the Truesingers one--together into one two-hundred-page MS, went to lulu.com, and priced it up.

Cheapest possible option, best part of seven quid per book. No way I can make anything on top of that. No way anyone would buy it anyway.

It's nice, I suppose, to know that I was right to put them up on the site for nothing, as that seems to be the only way anyone is going to get to read them. I just hope they're being enjoyed.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Er, have you looked at the price of books recently? GBP6.99 for most of them for a mass market paperback with around 100 (not 200) pages. 'Trade' p/b around 10 pounds. (I'm talking about shelf price, not the massive discounts places like Amazon can get, often on US imports where they are cheaper anyway.)

No, you're not going to have a massive profit, but then authors hardly ever do get that much per book once the publishers have taken their cut. It depends whether you want to get them "out there" in hard copy (because some of us want to read comfortably in bed, not at a screen).

Oh, and some of us would indeed buy your books at that price. The nice thing about Lulu is that since they only print on demand you don't actually have to pay them for a 'run' of a thousand or more books which they then don't sell.

I can tell you that you have at least one guaranteed sale -- me. Do that book at anything up to 15 pounds in p/b (I'll go more if you do it as hardback) and I'll buy it. The same for Austin (as I recall that is novel-length) and for a collection of the other Nyrond stories. It will be a darn sight cheaper than trying to print them out and have them bound myself (limit on that is 64 pages, and that's pushing the lmits of the stapler)...

[aunty_marion]

Grrr, it's the damn dollar/pound parity thing still around. I've signed up for a copy of Sam Storyteller/copperbadge's Nameless, which he mentioned would cost a minimum of a little under nine dollars - so he's pricing it at (probably) $10 to start with. Trade-size paperback, and 216 pages (208 of which are text); but he said that the plain paperback version would be $6.58.

Oh, and needless to say I'd be buying it. Even if - as I said to Sam - it means a week when I simply don't eat as much.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Think of this as what retail types call a "loss leader"--a freebie to get people aware of and interested in your stuff, that will pay off down the road as you get more stuff published and people who liked the first one will pay for later ones.

And add me to the list of those who would buy.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

and me at anything up to a tenner.

[jahura.livejournal.com]

On my bookshelf in the living room is a second edition of The Little Minister that I searched every used bookstore (it hasn't been in print since the 30s) I came across for fifteen years and for which I paid forty dollars. Ten for yours is nothing. Where can I get it? Extra for autographed copy? No problem.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

I would buy it. And not just for me - copies for my parents, too.

Probably up to a tenner.

[occams_pyramid]

You may want to check this page before deciding
http://www.sfwa.org/BEWARE/printondemand.html

It does mention lulu, but not as one of the scam sites.

[hurdle1gal.livejournal.com]

The Shop was an excellent series, and since I like your writings, I would like to try and read some other stuff I haven't seen posted in here or on the forums. I have some other friends who are real bibliophites (?) and hopefully I can interest them via word-of-mouth.

So in short, let me know when it's up for sale, and I'll try to get a copy. :-)

[hurdle1gal.livejournal.com]

Also, what ages would your stories be considered "appropriate"?