I got to have my heart broken for a while last night when I woke up at 1:50 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep again. I think insomnia is one of the most interesting states of consciousness. It had to do with the book, of course.
So I received the proofs!! Totally astounding. They came out of thin air without me ever even having an opportunity to consult with the book designer. Font, margins, spacing, all of it just decided for me and presented to me to proof.
Naturally, I wasn't very happy with it, and I was kind of reeling from the blow when I saw: List Price: $28.99.
This is a new release paperback, fiction. Goes for $16 to $18 dollars at the book store. They're telling me the list price of my book is going to be $28.99. The reason this is heart breaking is because it's a way of saying nobody is ever going to buy your book. We don't care if anyone buys it or not, we just have to cover our printing costs.
Then there's the $10,000. Which is what I'm out so far on this fascinating project.
So I lay awake all night going over and over in my mind how badly I was being ripped off! I couldn't get over it! I just kept imagining one conversation after another on the phone with people from iUniverse trying to somehow address this fatal threat to the publishing of Otorongo. By the time I'd gotten up, and played golf, and come home I was ready to tear up the contract and demand my money back. I was feeling particularly heartbroken at this point.
Then I had lunch and actually succeeded in communicating with people from iUniverse. I talked to Ray! Ray sold me the $11,500 book promotion package that I succeeded in bargaining him down to $8,500 for. I said to him you promised me you guys would deliver a beautiful book to me and aggressively promote it. And then you put a price of $28.99 on it? You call that a beautiful book? You call that aggressively promoting it? It's like trying to sell someone a square football. Who's going to buy it?
I had also talked to Robin before I talked to Ray. She asked me how much do you want the book to cost? I said between $16 and $18. She said I'll see what I can do and get back to you tomorrow. She actually called me. And so I had begun to feel slightly more optimistic.
So Ray explained to me that they're a print-on-demand publisher. They charge by the page to cover their printing costs. I had a 416 page novel and it was going to retail for $28.99. Strange to say, I had never really thought about printing costs before. The more pages a book has, I guess the more it costs to print it. Duh.
Well, I guess I'm learning something. I figure I have to get the book down below 300 pages to get the list price under $20. But there's no reason it can't be done. I sent them a 352 page Word File. When they got done with it it was 416 pages.
We can shrink it down. 88,000 words. Figure it out. 400 words a page, which I figure is common for a paperback novel, 88,000 words equals 220 pages. It can definitely be done! We just gotta do it.
By the end of our conversation Ray was on board with this concept. It doesn't appear to be a normal part of their operation, but with both Robin and Ray seeming sympathetic, I'm feeling less heartbroken.
Tough on the blood pressure, though. Wow. See what happens next.
