How Long To Keep The Poetry Pages Books In Print?

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Berlie
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How Long To Keep The Poetry Pages Books In Print?

Post by Berlie » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:01 am

A few days ago I received the yearly bill for keeping the first two volumes of the Poetry Pages books in print. The first two books were published via a subsidy publisher which wants to charge $20 per year, per title to keep the books in the distribution channels. For the books I published since through my own publishing company the charge is only $12 per year per title.

So it will be $40 to keep Vol I and Vol II in print through this publisher for the next year.

I looked through their sales records and it shows that there have been no sales on both books in the last 2 years or so. So we have put out $80 in the last two years with $0 return.

Do we want to continue paying this money every year if no one is buying the book anymore? Should we have a LAST CHANCE TO BUY announcement and then let them go out of print? How many years do we want to keep any of the volumes in print?

I have until June to make a decision on this and wanted your thoughts.
Last edited by Berlie on Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Long To Keep The Poetry Pages Books In Print?

Post by preston » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:30 am

Berlie wrote: Should we have a LAST CHANCE TO BUY announcement and then let them go out of print?
Good idea ... keep it in the pipeline until the next payment is due and then let it go out of print.

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Post by heinzs » Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:19 pm

I'll second that.
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Post by thief of dreams » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:57 pm

:crying:
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Post by Berlie » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:16 pm

I have decided at the very least to keep Vol II this year, still not sure about Vol I. I don't want to see them go out of print. Right now its just a cost issue. The more books we put out, the more it costs me every year and I am not sure I can keep them all in print.

I should be able to offer an eBook edition on the site of any book that goes "out of print" as an option. I don't think I can do that with Vol I though since I wasn't the one who put that together and don't have the Word doc or PDF. Maybe I can contact AuthorHouse to see if they can provide me with a PDF. :shrug: Worse case is I can scan one of the copies I have and make a PDF of it somehow.
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Post by gordy » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:24 pm

how bout a special fundraiser telethon type deal each time the fee comes up..........if we raise the money then they stay in print, if we dont then they go out of print and become collectors items :mrgreen:
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Post by Berlie » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:35 pm

In the past the "royalties" made from all the book sales through the year would cover the cost of keeping all of the books in print, even the ones that were older and not selling. However with every new book that comes out the balance has slowly been tipping. It doesn't help that the publisher used for the first two books overcharges for the distribution fee (and doesn't pay much royalties for any that do sell).

I will need to take a harder look at the total sales this last year to get a better idea where we stand.

What I could really use is some help in promoting and marketing all of the books to boost overall sales. I don't have the spare time to devote to that part of it.
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Post by heinzs » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:39 pm

I also like the idea of a "fundraiser" to keep the books in print. Creating E-book versions is also a keen thought. If scanning vol I is an issue, it is possible for us to re-create it with your book editor... even if it means someone types out the text for items not still in storage.

Just a thought.


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Post by Berlie » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:22 am

I am going to keep them both live for now. I will reexamine again next year. I would like to see us promote the books some more, somehow and try to boost the sales however.
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Post by Ven » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:16 pm

Berlie wrote:I would like to see us promote the books some more, somehow and try to boost the sales however.
What about an Ebay shop ?

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Post by Ven » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:35 pm

Never mind ... I didn't realize there was a monthy fee involved :shrug:
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Berlie
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Post by Berlie » Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:38 am

The publisher of the first book very kindly sent me the original word .doc that was sent to them as well as the original galley PDF.

So now I have the original documents, book covers and PDFs of all of our books if we ever need them for any reason. I will be backing them all up to a dvd today for safekeeping.
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Post by bags123 » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:06 am

Damn,.... and I thought my words would be left for posterity! :mrgreen:
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Post by secluded_refuge » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:25 pm

So the books will be okay for this year? I would hate to see them go. I haven't gotten them yet. Just the Dark Side and Ravyn's book. I will go buy one of each. Will that help at all?

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Post by heinzs » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:05 pm

Every copy purchased returns a percentage towards the upkeep of the publication rights. Thanks Liz.

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