Life Perspective: Reviews & More

I just received a letter from one of the submitting poets asking if he could get a discount since three of his poems were published in the the Mayberry poetry book (actually, only two were published; we declined one). Don't get me wrong -- usually I am the person negotiating for a discount! However, I have had people raise eyebrows at the cost of the books before. I think shoppers are used to buying trade paperbacks with lots of pages for $7.99. They look at a book which is larger but with fewer pages and think the $12.99 price tag is high. To put things in perspective, I sent him the following note. Actually, more poems = more formatting and more pages printed = more cost to print, so the more poems I run from one person, the more they have increased my costs. That's one reason many publications charge a "reading fee" or "submission fee" for each poem submitted. The $12.95 covers the cost of compiling, editing, formatting, layout, binding, trimming, print...

It is like being back at square one again! Well, not really, but still.... I am still in the process of negotiating with a new publisher, but things are taking a bit longer than I anticipated, because I am having to reformat my text, side bars, and graphics in hopes of going with a slightly-smaller, less expensive book size. And since I am having to go back in to reformat, why, of course I am going back in to the text as well, adding, tweaking and updating! I am not making any big changes, but if I can save a little on the cost per book, and make some small improvements to the text, I might as well take advantage of it! Reformatting it myself saves me the cost of hiring someone else to do my layout. If I have done all this reformatting and decide NOT to go with the new publisher, I will be VERY ticked with myself. I am still not even sure I am going with them, because they need to see the book in its new, improved, tighter, reformatted state to tell me what the cost per book will be. I...

How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget started its life as the 8-page booklet "How to Promote Your Benefit Concert on a Shoestring Budget" way back in 1990. That's how long I have been organizing promotional, marketing and publicity tips along with event-planning ideas. I started work on this book in September of 2006, and even had a proof copy done at a local vanity press. However, I was very unhappy with the results and have spent the past two years refining the book, adding four new chapters plus a checklist, as well as workbook pages with every chapter. The book has been through the editing process, has been proof read, designed and laid out, and now I am just waiting for the final product to roll off the presses, hopefully by the end of August! If you order the book, I want you to know that's not all you get! I have just created a Yahoo group where my readers will have access to me and to other writers where you can give feedback, ask questions, and sh...