POD distributors "ain't" what they're cracked up to be.

POD distributors "ain't" what they're cracked up to be. Let's take Ingram's Lightening Source for instance. Well, why not start at the top? Ingram is the largest distributor in the known literary world. They are the "big dogs" powerhouse distributor. So let's start there.


First off, why can't small publishers just use Ingram for distribution if Ingram is so grand? Because the qualifications are based on sales that small publishers can never achieve without Ingram's distribution. Oh my! You don't say? It seems that Ingram cares nothing about humoring small publishers perhaps because they know small publishers don't have the money that large publishers do. So to shut the whining small publishers up, so to speak, they created a POD arm and called it Lightning Source. 


The problem with LS and all the other POD distributors: It doesn't solve "the inerrant problem in the system." That blasted "industry" (non-industry) standard return policy. IN FACT, they still honor it which, if you choose to make your books returnable through any POD distributor including but not limited to LS, you are giving permission to have your POD books stolen never to be returned to you again.

I love how LS encourages publishers to make their books returnable according to an "industry" standard that doesn't work for the industry but only for a small (but loud) part of the industry. Here's how the return policy is laid out for POD publishers who choose LS:

A. You may choose to make your books returnable (which of course = death for any publisher other than the large ones.) They offer this option because this choice means a large bookstore can order your books if they want to (and will in some instances because even if your book doesn't sell they don't even have to return it according to the "industry" (non-industry) standard return policy. 

On this option is also the "Yes" destroy option. What this really means is that if you choose to make your books returnable by that "standard," LS will never get your book back because bookstores don't have to send books back. It's in that "standard" return policy. Don't worry LS doesn't destroy them because you can't destroy what you don't get back. And they of course aren't going to pay shipping to get the books back and it's too much trouble to deal with just one or two publishers who do want to pay shipping to get their returned books back.


B. This is a really fun one. You may choose to make your books returnable with a "no" don't destroy option. I chose this when I went with LS and was clearly upset when INSTEAD OF GETTING MY NON-DESTROYED BOOK BACK, I was offered to have the book reprinted for four dollars to cover shipping to me of a newly printed book? WT--! Yes. I asked about it and was told, "oh you don't want the actual book back. Why it's been through the wringer." My response: "Um . . . how is option B any different than option A? It specifically stays that you'll get your returned book back." LS rep. replied that the wording really does need to be changed. YA THINK!!!!! At t his point I told them I wanted the address of the location where they destroyed the books as I no longer believed they ever got the books back to destroy. The rep said, "oh we do. You can trust us." Still waiting for that address.


C. Make your books non-returnable. LOL Sort of defeats the point of using LS as a "distributor" now doesn't it. 


So there ya go. And you wonder why small press books aren't in bookstores. The large distributors are the ones pandering to the large publishers only and will do so until they die. Which hopefully won't be too long now. *Sue looks at the clock and sighs.*


BTW. All PODS operate like this otherwise the idiotic books that make it to the top of the NYT best-sellers list wouldn't 99.9% be from large publishers and based on what sells to large chain bookstores.

The Countdown as Started!!!

Okay, fellow authors! I told you about a month ago how to take advantage of Amazon and now I'm here to tell you that my plan is moving forward. Let me fill you in again. Amazon ordered 4 copies of my Black Bed Sheet Version of Never Ceese. Amazon typically does not keep POD books in stock and only orders them when one sells. When they say only (certain number) in stock, this means they actually bought some. Again this is RARE! But what's even more rare is when they order one of these books that is non-returnable as the Black Bed Sheet Version of Never Ceese is. Because once they order a non-returnable book . . . well . . . they pretty much bought it. LOL Hey! I like that!


Since they did buy my non-returnable book, they pretty much have to sell it now. Amazon gets a standard cut off retail price. A pretty big cut. When a non-returnable book doesn't sell in a predetermined time frame they apparently start cutting the price. They ended up selling the four they bought last time for under $3 and they sold them to ME because that's cheaper than I can get them from my publisher and I had free shipping!!! I was amazed that I got to take Amazon and thought to myself it will never happen again! 


Well guess what? 


It did happen again. They turned around and ordered SEVEN more of my non-returnable NEVER CEESE through Black Bed Sheet Books and true to form the price dropping as started. Now I'm going to post the link here and I'm going to start a challenge. The books have dropped in price to $9.43. Amazon will continue to lower the price and quickly as well if they do the same thing they did last time. Here's the challenge, when the books drop as low as they did last time, or a the very least, for less than I can get them from my publisher, I'M GOING TO BUY THEM ALL AGAIN! The challenge is to see if you can get them before I do. Bet you can't!!!! 

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Never-Ceese-Sue-Dent/dp/0976994747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332096198&sr=8-1


The only trick, fellow authors, is to figure out what Amazon looks at that makes them "buy" a non-returnable POD book in the first place. LOL I still don't know how that happened. My guess is they'll just keep buying mine because now it's selling (to me for less than I can purchase from my publisher) and so next time they'll order even more. Oh I LOVE IT when a plan (that I never though of) comes together!!!! This is wonderful at best!!!!!!


Hey Amazon, next time by at least a hundred. My fans really want to buy this book . . . they'll just have to beat me to it.

It really is important that Small Press authors "get" it.

It really is important that Small Press authors "get" it. And what exactly is the "it" that they should get? That no publisher, NOT ONE, can get their books into a chain bookstore or even into an Independent Bookstore IN NUMBERS THAT MATTER. The last four words are in italics and bold and caps for a reason. They're important words in this situation. If a book doesn't "flood" the bookstore shelves on the release date it's sort of doesn't make sense to infer that it will.


I see sooooooo many small pubbed authors, as soon as they get picked up by a publisher, run out and say that their books will be hitting the bookstore shelves upon the release date of their book. I feel so bad for them. They actually believe this is true. But it isn't true and it doesn't matter how many times it's said it ain't never gonna be true (unless things change in the publishing industry.)


The only books that "flood" onto bookstore shelves on a release date are books put out by the "big 6" or rather your large publishers and that's because large publishers worked a deal with "their" bookstores (chain bookstores of today and any other bookstore that can afford to pay the price they charge to participate) back in the day that states they are "bound by contract" to buy a "large" amount of any title when the book comes out in spite of not knowing whether that book is worthy or not. Oh and this is how books end up at the top of the NY Times Best Sellers list. That number is based on books that sell to bookstores.


No bookstore can afford to order large quantities of Small Publishers books due to this agreement with large publishers and so they don't. If your small publisher agrees to abide by that "industry" standard return policy (which isn't a standard return policy but one that works ONLY for large publishers who spit out millions of books a year) you may go to each and every bookstore and attempt to convince them to put one or two of your books on their shelf. But if your Small Publisher is smart and decides to sit it out until bookstores come up with a return policy that works for them and declines operating under that "Industry" NON-standard return policy, bookstores won't even humor you.


What's the solution?


Not an easy one that's for sure. For one, there needs to be a return policy for the industry that works for the industry. The entire industry.


So please stop asking me if my books are available through the larger bookstores. They better not be because if they are than that means the larger bookstores somehow stole them because I asked my publisher to make my books non-returnable. If a bookstore wants to carry my books in mass because perhaps they see them selling in numbers they themselves find appealing, they may contact my publisher to settle upon a return policy that will work for both parties. I don't do consignment either. It isn't worth my time or my publishers.


So no, none of my books will ever "flood" bookstores upon release date as that only happens with the "bully" large publishers but you can order them at large bookstores if you so desire. If you do order one of my books from a large bookstore I'd almost prefer you get them to mail it to you as I really don't want to think of my books being inside one of these venues EVER! I live for the day a large bookstore attempts to carry my books in mass. I'm gonna have great fun telling my distributor not to sell to them. And not because I won't make money (remember my books are non-returnable) but because large bookstores SUCK and do nothing for the rest of us in the publishing industry.


Actually while the scenario above would be a fun one, I actually can't control who my distributor sells to. Living for the day when the bookstores and publishers work together with one standard return policy that is truly standard. Here's to hoping I'm not dead before that happens. 

Never too early to start pimping!

Keep in mind that this is not the "official" cover AND I'll not divulge the official title to keep some other author from hmm . . . taking advantage of all the hard work I do getting my work out there. Last title was taken. Yeah. Like every author doesn't "google" a title before they decide on one. Good one, author! I wish you well. If you want this title, you'll have to wait until AFTER the fact.

Y'all! Y'all! Y'all!

Well, with Electric Angel out, with the help of cover model and Master of the Dark Realm Ron Fitzgerald and photographer extraordinaire Jim Sorfleet of SnSphoto.com and my wonderful editor Arlene W. Robinson and of course my publisher Black Bed Sheet Books--it's now time to knock out the third installment in my Thirsting for Blood series. And sorry to say I'm not sticking with the title Cyn No More as another author decided they'd rather use this as their title as opposed to being original and coming up with one of their own. Whatever. There are plenty of other titles in the sea. But because of this hmmm . . . coincidental accident, I've decided not to divulge the title of my third installment so as not to have this coincidentally happen again. I know, right?

But on with the news at hand.

As you know, I believe the cover of a book is as much a part of the story as the story itself. I believe that it's God awful the way large publishing houses have taken creation of the cover art away from the author to the point where the author doesn't even have a say. Black Bed Sheet Books not only lets me have a say but pretty much turns me loose, incorporating all my ideas and talking with me about what would work best. Then the fabulous Nicholas Grabowsky takes it to an entire 'nuther level by adding his own touches.

Just where is this going Sue?

Here. Let me show you.

  
 Jared Degado of Muscle Wolf Productions accepted my invitation to have him  represent the male werewolves in my novel as I've yet to find anyone who could do them justice. A special thanks goes to their new manager Francy Weatherman for helping to make this this happen. Jared will represent the werewolf Joachim in the novel-that-shall-remain-nameless until it's ready to go to publication. ;)

What do I have to say about Jared accepting my offer?

*Sue grins wickedly* 

I'll tell you what I say. Jared will be on the back cover to take advantage of the hmmm . . . total package photo. Let's see if e-books out sell print books in this instance. E-books don't typically show the back cover. That's what I say.

Oh and thank-you Jared for accepting.

Robbie Rodriguez of RockRadio 99.3 Interviews Ron Fitzgerald and Vincent Bilancio about the Dark Realm Project.

Robby Rodriguez of RockRadio 99.3 caught up with Gothic Illusionist/Actor Ron Fitzgerald and Horror Actor Vincent Bilancio to discuss their "Dark Realm Project." I was also a part of this interview as all three of us will be at the Chicago Indie Horror Film Festival to be held at the Portage Theater on March 23rd, 24th and 25th.

Click on the  Boombox below to go to the link then click on Ron_Vincent_Sue_Darkrealm_interview.mp3 from the On-Demand Content List. 

 That's all there is to it. :

The Link address to the Temple of Rock blog page and website is: www.rockradio993.vpweb.com and the blog page, www.RockRadio993.blogspot.com

A distributor hooks up with another distributor to distribute what a publisher could distribute themselves!

Ready, Set . . . Crash and Burn! Because it doesn't mean anything and it doesn't change anything. First here's the email:
 

BAKER & TAYLOR
________________________________________

We announced a distribution agreement today with Baker & Taylor, one of the world'slargest distributors of print books and ebooks, and a major supplier to libraries. The agreement has two parts:  1.  Smashwords books gain distribution to the Blio e-reading app which comes pre-installed on millions of personal computers, laptops and tablets manufactured by companies such as Dell, HP and Toshiba.  They also operate their own retail site at Blio.com.  2.  Smashwords books gain distribution to public libraries that subscribe to Baker & Taylor's Access360 service, which they launched last year.  Over a dozen public libraries use it, and many more libraries are preparing to roll it out. We will commence shipments next week, so if you don't want this distribution, you can click to your Channel Manager at https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/channelManager to opt out.  I don't recommend opting out.  Although these are both likely to be small channels to start, they have good growth potential in the months and years ahead, and will bring incremental sales.  Royalty rates are 60% list for Blio books, and 45% list for library sales.  Baker &Taylor will not discount the books.

So essentially what we have here is Smashwords, a distributor (not a publisher) taking a very small cut of your profit for their troubles, (btw, not doing anything a publisher couldn't do on their own with probably better success) offering a publisher's work to another distributor, Baker& Taylor who will also take a cut of profits for getting a publisher into places they can also get into on their own. Fascinating isn't it? Trust me Baker & Taylor isn't doing anything to help small publishers or self-published authors. Just like you have the "big six" publishers you have the "big dog" distributors who are only there to channel the gazillions of books the "big six" put out and sell to their large bookstores.

The biggest two are Ingram (with their silly little POD Lightning Source) and Baker & Taylor who managed to work a deal with libraries long ago (for all the good it does.) So now small and self pubbed authors merrily, merrily skip along believing something awesome is happening here. Really? Really? *Sue nods head slowly.* Sure. Whatever.

Are EBM's the Publishing Industry's Saviour?

Are On Demand Books, or rather ODB's Espresso Book Machines, the Publishing Industry's Savior? That answer comes down to whatever you want to believe. I personally like facts before I decide what to believe and so I've begun researching. Here's what I've learned so far. 


First I'd like to point you to this blog which I found very interesting and intriguing. It concerns a customer's first hand experience with this machine. Click Here for the link if you're interested in reading the article yourself.


One particular line answered one of my questions straight away. The writer of the article states:

"I’ll probably go back and do it again, simply because of how satisfying it is to have a print-on-demand book made in such an astonishingly short period of time."

Priced at well over $100,000 dollars with an almost $1000 dollar monthly "maintenance" fee, a quote I was sent by Xerox, the EBM is well out of most small bookstores price range which means the only bookstores that "might" benefit from it are the large chain bookstores. Sadly they are only around to promote their publishers, or rather large publishers. There have been a few out-of-print titles that some large publishers have decided to make available but nothing significant. Nothing that would make it worth anyone's while to purchase one of these machines. 


Until large publishers open up and make the books that readers have been brainwashed to believe they need to read available, this machine isn't anything other than a glorified small bookstore.  You can go to this link to see just what books are available on an EBM. I can save you some time however and tell you myself. POD books are the only thing available mostly, with Ingram's POD company Lightning Source being one of the main distributors. Go figure. I will go one step further and say that POD books from small publishers are actually the only books worth reading as more of these authors are concerned with quality and presenting something different while large publishers are only concerned with cookie-cutter stories and cookie-cutter edits.


A small bookstore stepping forward to buy one of these machines is sure to sink even faster than they're already sinking. There is a solution to the publishing industry's woes but buddy at this price (and with the "big dogs" holding out to keep customers coming to their sinking "brick &mortar" exclusive bookstores,) the EBM is not the answer. Plus it doesn't do color so all Graphic Novels are out and magazines too. So yes, it still goes back to those large publishers and their reluctance to let go of the past. They seem to be just fine dragging their bookstores down with them . . . the very bookstores they stepped forward to save during the depression. Sorry Xerox. I'm gonna have to hold off on my purchase.

What do you know, my books ARE returnable!

What do you know, my books ARE returnable! And any bookstore may contact my publisher Black Bed Sheet Books to get the details. Asking to make my books non-returnable according to an Industry standard return policy only means that I won't abide by an "outdated" return policy set up for an industry that no longer exists as defined back in the day.

In fact, I'm certain my publishers idea of a return policy will work very much the same way the current "industry" standard return policy works with a few minor changes. Significant changes would be that bookstores have a "set" period of time to retain books before sending them back for a full refund. Large publishers never gave bookstores a time frame for returning bought books when they set up that return policy back in the depression (to keep their stores from going under.) The reason was they didn't care to get the books back. In fact, they told bookstores to just rip the covers off and trash the rest of the books they couldn't sell as opposed to paying a huge shipping charge they'd be charged for shipping the entire book. You may recall the "don't buy the book without a cover" scandal back in the day. So yes, that's one change that definitely needs to occur. You'll return the books in an agreed upon time frame so my publisher will know when he can call the profit he made from the sale, "COMPLETE."

Also, you WILL have to pay for the shipping to send the books back or perhaps split that cost with my publisher depending on what works better for both parties. You will not SELL the books to "returned-from-the-bookstore" vendors just because large publishers who made the old "industry" standard return policy didn't need their books back.

One last change will be that if returned books are returned damaged (with damaged being outlined in the return policy agreed upon,) you will have to compensate the publisher for the damage according to the agreed upon policy.

For all you folks who think this is how the "industry" standard return policy currently works, guess again. The current "industry" standard return policy was put in place during the depression by Simon & Schuster originally and then the other large publishers when they realized they would fall under if they didn't offer the same deal. It was designed for an industry that doesn't exist anymore yet bookstores live and will soon die by it with the publishers who once save them now throwing them under the train.

Bookstores could of course save themselves by changing that return policy to work for "All" publishers but that doesn't seem to be their plan of action. No big deal. When they all fall under due to the blinders over their eyes, new and wonderful brick & mortar bookstores will pop up to fill the money making gap.

Y'all don't make me open a bookstore chain. I don't have the time. However, if I had some investors, as I currently have been approached, I might actually consider this. It would be sooooo easy to do and would monumentally succeed. Until then continue purchasing my books and find them at a lower price with coupons here for Amazon. And of course at Black Bed Sheet Books as well. ;)