I love paperbacks and worry about their future, but having looked at my paperback sales over the last five years, I have come to the painful decision that I cannot publish any new paperbacks until I see a drastic improvement in these figures.
Formatting a book for paperback publishing takes precision and a lot of patience. It’s also not a cheap process, especially if it requires correcting proofs and tweaking covers until you get the desired effect. I have currently reduced all three of my paperbacks to the very minimum price I can offer them, and still they are not flying off the shelves. In contrast, my Kindle book sales are going from strength to strength and will soon eclipse my total paperback sales of all time.
Formatting a book for paperback publishing takes precision and a lot of patience. It’s also not a cheap process, especially if it requires correcting proofs and tweaking covers until you get the desired effect. I have currently reduced all three of my paperbacks to the very minimum price I can offer them, and still they are not flying off the shelves. In contrast, my Kindle book sales are going from strength to strength and will soon eclipse my total paperback sales of all time.
Kindle publishing is so much easier. New or corrected versions of eBooks can be uploaded overnight at no extra cost. Purchased eBooks can be downloaded in seconds, so readers get instant gratification. If the book is not as gratifying as hoped then readers can just as easily claim refunds.
I hate to leave my hard-line, dead-tree-reading friends and colleagues to join the high-tech electronic-reading brigade, but I have to say the more Kindle books I read, the more I embrace the concept. Although I worry vaguely that surely this can’t be good for the eyes!
