"Thoren" Publishing a book

[cj7ox]

Love it!

[Flyin6]

Finished the cover today

This is what it will actually look like:

Chris made the illustration larger, added my pic and framed in gold, added in my bio, dropped the "About the book", and enlarged the font to better fit a book which will be 1.5" thick.

[Flyin6]

Anne, the senior editor offered me the opportunity to place art on the 10 blank pages, so we are currently busy filling that tall order. As of tonight Andrea inked in eight total so far. They are scanned and submitted. The blank pages were necessary to insure the chapters start always on the right side of the page.

Chris, the project manager thinks he will be able to print the very first copy by COB this week. This is a necessary final step in the process. The author must sign off on an actual book. Up to the point I do, anything could still be changed, but once I seal the deal, the necessary print files for the print on demand publishers are created. One of those files goes to the library of congress, one to copy right and one to get the ISBN

We should be for sale in June. So writing this book will have taken darned close to one year. I hope the sequel is not as labor intensive.

[dave945]

I know of one young lady that is very excited about that cover Don. She was equally excited about the chance to put some more artwork together for it.


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[KensAuto]

Looks great!

[Flyin6]

I know of one young lady that is very excited about that cover Don. She was equally excited about the chance to put some more artwork together for it.


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She did a great full court press yesterday. I needed 10 total additional illustrations. I already sent in foru "Extras" so they would have something in the event one of the accepted illustrations caused problems. So they picked up those four. I quickly scanned that first one she did of the "Chasm" and in it went.
Then she had her "Doodle" page with three shield and sword detail sketch's. I told her to ink those in and turn em into real pics. Those were 6-7, and 8. Then there was the two banners she did months ago. I am still waiting for them, but I think I'll have them in hours. The publisher is eagerly awaiting as they are now doing the final assembly.

Oh, and it won't be too long before I'll come ah-callin' again with another opportunity as the second of the series fleshes out.

[Flyin6]

The first proof of the book is in the mail!

Still a part of the process, and it will not have an ISBN or a CC, this is the final step for me to take. I have to actually hold the thing and look it over and when/if I approve it, then we are finally finished with the "Change" portion of the process. Beyond this final step, we go get the copyright, and upon receipt of that, upload the print files to the print on demand sites and the book goes on sale.

Since I am sharing all this so that others will learn about what is involved in the publishing of a book, let me share some information about the pricing and how, who makes the money.

I've discovered the great Amazon "Print on demand" scam that in my view ruins the process and removes almost any chance for a legitimate author to make any money. I would estimate that maybe one tenth of one percent of authors make any money at all. Hundreds of books are actually written a month with the vast majority being self-published.

Amazon and Barns and Nobel essentially own the industry and very much control it.

So when Thoren is finally ready and we upload it, I have to agree to their pricing structure. The pricing is based on whether the book is B&W or color. A color book involves a different process which more than doubles the cost of the printing.

I selected B&W, meaning that I had to change the two color illustrations to B&W. The reason was the price. The industry more or less sets the asking price of the book and based on the almost 600 pages of Thoren, the book will come in at $25 for a paperback and I think mid 30's for a hard cover.
Of that $25, there are printing fees and the "Amazon Royalty. These are non-negotiable. To print Thoren, it costs $7.81. The Amazon royalty is $10.01!! I will make $7.81 from a single sale. Keep in mind I will have to pay income taxes from that so, I'll really be making something around $5 a copy! Now I'll tithe 10% off that, and will give as well, and well, that is really irrelevant, but you get the idea.

I paid $4,500 for the publishing services including the all important editing. That means the first 700 copies I sell will only pay expenses. I then will pay for the illustrations so, really, unless this book takes off which is highly doubtful, I won't make any money, but Amazon will have made nearly $8,000 from those minimum sales.

Although I'd want to make something from this, writing Thoren was not about money. As you know, I wrote it to fulfill a promise to my son, so when that first copy rolls off the press, I am "Mission accomplished" and a satisfied man.

I haven't even calculated how many books I'd have to sell to pay for the time I spent on this. For nearly six months I wrote anywhere from a couple hours to around twelve hours a day. Suffice it to say I spent a lot of time on this project. Now let's consider my normal wages when I worked. Now I don't want to say too much here, but I was a high income guy compared to most. I'd say a grand a day, sometimes much higher, so do the math. If I took as much time out of my day when I was doing my professional stuff, well, there was no time remaining after giving my other job 12-20 hours a day.
I'd have to sell books in the range of 50,000 or better to maintain my normal level of income.

So what does all that mean? I think all this industrial profit taking by the big publishers just stifles creativity. People can't even earn enough to pay rent and eat if they write. Now if you toss out the professional editing services and just upload your book from your computer, then yea, you'll make more, not having the publishing costs, but I feel the product will be of a much lower quality. So normally creative people are going to simply bypass the challenge of writing a book unless they have another means of income. Maybe that's the future. He Jeff Bezos of the world just sit back while everyone around them sends their work and earnings to his bank account. I suppose that is the system we're in.

Now, I am going to do an experiment. I am going to self-publish a simple book, called "CIEMR," as an experiment.

My plan is to edit my already published CIEMR essays, writing a little prelude to each and toss them together into something around 270 pages. I'll go get my own ISBN and CC, and upload it myself. I think I may even find an independent print on demand company and attach a purchase tab somewhere to buy it. But the book will get very little marketing and probably sell very few copies, but I want to do it as an experiment.

So that's it so far. Still on track to go on sale in June some time.

[Flyin6]

We are about to release the book.

I have made some final changes to Andrea's artwork. She drew up some better illustrations and they have been incorporated.

I could publish this week, but we are printing up another single and putting it in my hands to verify the integrity and quality of the art.

The cool news is I wrote a nice note on the inside cover of the very first one and mailed it off to that Pfc in Germany. Nate now has it in his hands. A birthday present. A book his father wrote for him while he went through Infantry training and joined his unit in the 3rd Infantry Division.

Frankly, to me, that marks "mission complete." I set out to write him a book. Many hundreds of hours later and a few thousand dollars and he has that copyrighted work in his hand. He will have it forever. I wrote in the note on the inside cover, but in the years to come when I no longer walk this earthly place, if he ever gets lonely for his dad, I told him to just open the book, and he will find me in those pages.

[oklawall]

Welĺ done sir, well done

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[dave945]

Good job Don!  This is exciting. I’m glad the final artwork worked out so far.


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[Flyin6]

Good job Don!  This is exciting. I’m glad the final artwork worked out so far.


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Yes, Dave, it has up to this point. The proof in the pudding will be to see if it transfers onto paper from the extensive print files at a high enough quality. Your daughter should be proud. Now she has something to add to her resume as she pushes forward to a career in this field.

[Flyin6]

Welĺ done sir, well done

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Thank you

[Atkinsmatt]

Good job sir. Great gift.

[JR]

 

[Flyin6]

As of tonight, the E-book is for published and available first, it looks like, on Amazon

The paperback will be available tomorrow, the 20th some time

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B72FXPF9/ref=sr_1_8?crid=3TGCA3N6XM07L&keywords=thoren+ebook&qid=1658282397&sprefix=thorne+book%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-8&asin=B0B72FXPF9&revisionId=be1f7030&format=1&depth=1

[dave945]

I think I’ve sold a handful of copies to Andrea’s aunts and uncles already once the paperback is available.


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[oklawall]

Outstanding

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[dave945]

Paperback is now available on Amazon.


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[Flyin6]

I think I’ve sold a handful of copies to Andrea’s aunts and uncles already once the paperback is available.


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Thanks Dave! I think your daughter will appreciate that. I have to think she must be proud of her work right about now!

[Flyin6]

Good job sir. Great gift.

Thanks Matt
I'm stoked by giving this to my son, but it turns out it blessed some others and actually blessed me as well.

[Flyin6]

Outstanding

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You'll have some new signed books for next year's race to give away!

[oklawall]

Outstanding

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You'll have some new signed books for next year's race to give away!

That would be awesome. Thank you

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[Flyin6]

Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Thoren-Don-Harward/dp/B0B6XDQP5V/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1658412020&sr=8-13

[Mrwoody]

Ordered a copy yesterday   I'll get you to sign it next time i see you!

[dave945]

I ordered one, should be sitting on the table when Andrea gets home from the conference.


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[oklawall]

Order mine today

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[Flyin6]

Folks on here, when you order one, do me a favor and let me know on this thread when you did so, assuming you ordered from Amazon

Here's why:
 Several folks are all saying the same thing, they ordered a copy

But, guess what?

My dashboard on Amazon shows 2 sales on day one and zero since...Ya, 2!!!!!!!!

I have heard this from many other authors, that Amazon doesn't tell the author how many they are selling and just keeps all the money for themselves. If I have a good tally on confirms and they say no, and you can prove it, I'll go after them.

I hate cheaters and liars and thieves!

[oklawall]

Order mine today

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Big brown truck delivered mine today

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[dave945]

Mine was delivered on Saturday and my sister received one on Sunday.


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[Flyin6]

Mind you, I have done zero marketing so far. but I am getting this from all over..."I ordered mine yesterday, or I just downloaded mine."

But my Amazon dashboard reports they have sold just 6 books!!!!!

So it seems to be true what many authors have said about them. Amazon allegedly will sell bunches of copies of an author's book and simply not report the sales to the author. That way they don't have to share the proceeds with anyone.

If I can prove this to be true, I will remove them from my sales queue and sell the book elsewhere.

[JR]

Sounds like a perfect case for class action suit. But is really worth it in $$ or personally?

[Flyin6]

Sounds like a perfect case for class action suit. But is really worth it in $$ or personally?

Not worth it from the $$$ aspect. But well worth it from the perspective of taking down a big bully who thinks he is untouchable.

Truth is that these big bullies...are...untouchable

[oklawall]

Enjoying the book and the art work is outstanding.  Well done

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[Flyin6]

Enjoying the book and the art work is outstanding.  Well done

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[dave945]

Just so you know, I hold these comments about her artwork back until she is in a less than pleasant mood or have a bad day. Then I read them to her and it perks her right up for some reason.  :)


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[Flyin6]

Just so you know, I hold these comments about her artwork back until she is in a less than pleasant mood or have a bad day. Then I read them to her and it perks her right up for some reason.  :)


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Dad psychology right there