The Tears and Triumphs of a New Author - Chapter 15

The Tears and Triumphs of a New Author

Chapter 15

My manuscript was now in the hands of “Team Pearl” of Authorhouse.
I had negotiated a “rapid release” in the package I purchased. Knowing that most publishers state in their website, “ If we accept your book, we will publish within 2 years”, I wondered if rapid release meant a year and a half.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email in just one week with my completed galley and cover.
The next step was to read the whole thing again looking for errors or editing we had missed.
We were told that everything was on hold until we either accepted what had been sent or submitted corrections.
We were cautioned that once we sent our approval, it would cost our firstborn child to make any other corrections. We felt pretty secure since we were both over 65.
Finding no glaring errors, I sent the email confirming acceptance of the galley and cover and we were on to production.
I was told I would receive my author’s copy in about a week.
With Authorhouse, I was given the right to set my retail price and I was given a program to calculate my royalty based on varying retail prices.
Tough decision.
Naturally, anyone wants to make as much as possible but if the book is priced too high, no one will buy it.
I decided on $10.95 for the paperback and $14.95 for the hardcover, my royalty being just over a dollar a book.
At that point, I was introduced to two new departments at Authorhouse, marketing and book sales.
The package I purchased included a marketing kit and a book signing kit. I was sent an email requesting the verbiage I wanted on the materials. The marketing kit contained flyers, postcards and business cards and the book signing kit contained a large poster, bookmarks and more postcards. We decided on the verbiage and sent the email.
My next contact was the gal in charge of selling me my own book. Her first order of business was to negotiate a price per book depending on the number of books I wanted to order. I informed her that I had already negotiated a price and told her the terms. She seemed surprised and asked that I forward the email with the negotiated price, which I did.
In a few days she responded and said they would honor the price for an order of 1,000 books or more. I asked for a price breakdown on lesser amounts and the increase per book was astronomical!
I had negotiated two cents per page plus $1.28 for the cover, making my 180 page novel cost $4.88. With shipping, my price per book was $5.35.
If I was going to sell books on my own, it only made sense to order a thousand.
What the heck! In for a dime, in for a dollar, and I placed the order.