The deadlines have been rolling by and it suddenly occurred to me today that it is (gasp!) six weeks to anticipated lift-off aka publication day.
(looks around desperately for a paper bag to breathe into...)
With that realization now a conscious thought instead of an 'in denial' thought, marketing the book has been much on my mind.
I know a lot of people are like me - they want to have technical books on real, actual paper. I know this because about 60% (or more - I've lost track) of the sales of Magic in the Water via the Blurb website have been print-on-demand rather than the pdf download.
As I wove this afternoon, I thought about that fact and also that I will have a booth at the conference where I could sell actual print copies. The conference will have an author signing event, so they could even get a copy signed.
Then I thought about all the people (I hope!) who might want a paper copy but won't be able to attend the conference. And I thought that I could possibly order in enough copies to sell actual books - signed for those who want that - starting in January. Because I rather suspect with uploading the file on Dec. 2 that it might be impossible to get printed copies in any quantity prior to Christmas.
So I'm going to set up a poll (if I can remember how) and see how many people might be interested - sight unseen, which I know is a bit of a leap of faith - in either picking up a copy at the conference, or who would be willing to pay shipping on a signed copy in the new year.
I'm getting very nervous about this whole project. I know there is still much work to be done, but I've already bought my tickets to go to my editor to do the final edits. So I'm sweating bullets until I hear she has finished and turned the ms over to the beta readers who have agreed to read it and see if they feel ok with providing a cover blurb.
(where is that paper bag...)
Saying you are interested doesn't mean you are committing to actually buying. I'm just trying to gauge interest and see if it is feasible to bring in some copies to sell...
OK - I have spent 20 minutes trying to get a poll set up. The gadget Blogger used to provide apparently no longer works, and the alternate poll site doesn't seem to want to open an account for me to set one up and embed into my blog.
Sooooo....I tried several different things and finally found a site I could navigate without spitting nails.
Survey
8 comments:
Please can you give an indication of the book's price in order to answer the survey?
thanks for the opportunity to respond - looking forward to ordering my copy from you! :)
I answered on the survey, but I’m a “yes” to having it mailed. I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time!
I'm trying very hard to keep the price under $50 Cdn (about $32.50 US at the current exchange rate). The pdf download will be less but until it's finally finished it's hard to say.
Like I say doing the survey does not commit anyone to actually purchasing. I don't ask for contact info from anyone - it's completely anonymous. All I'm trying to figure out is how many I might realistically need to purchase. No point buying 100 if only 10 are even remotely interested.
I think that your pricing structure is not an issue. I order imported weaving books, and I've seen the prices for the books coming out on Echo weave in the past few years. Weavers who collect books and read and use them think (I hope) more about the value of the teaching and what it will do for their own education, rather than determine what they will learn according to the monetary value. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. IMO. Plus, if I can't pay several hundred dollars to see you in person, I'd rather have my "under $100" book that I can use forever :)
Thank you for the pricing information - on that basis it will be a yes from me on the survey but whilst I don't doubt the quality of the content I am still on a budget when it comes to my hobby purchases so it would not have been fair to answer your survey without knowing more. Thanks.
What kind of book will it be?
A 'real' or some sort of binder. The reason i ask, is I would like to know the difference between this and buying the pdf, print myself and save the shipping. If it is a 'real' book, i am probably interested.
And i am sorry, if you already have writer about this somewhere else, that I have forgotten about.
The publisher has several options for format, soft and hard cover. Once the file is complete Ruth and I will work out the best options.
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