Christmas in July for LuLu

I can't believe how often LuLu is sending out coupons. I think it is to make for, and compete with, major bookstores who have a monopoly and force us little people to charge so much for our books. Stick it to the man by buying an earth friendly, organic book from an author who wasn't corrupted by the machine!

Read Chapters 1 & 2 to see if it is a waste of your money to support a starving artist, and then buy my book at a publisher who will only kill trees when someone is actually buying the product.

Use coupon code SANTA305 at checkout and receive 20% off your order. Maximum savings with this comically early holiday promotion is $50. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. Sorry, but eBook purchases aren’t eligible. This great offer ends when Santa gets back from his vacation - on July 31, 2010 so don’t miss out! While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so.

Coupon code

Use coupon code BEACHREAD305 at checkout and receive 15% off After Eventide. Maximum savings with this promotion is $10. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on August 15, 2010 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate! While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so.

Gremlins, like seriously

I got this email from LuLu this morning that says my book had problems when people tried to purchase it.

"The short of it is the gremlins got us. Fortunately, we found them - big, hairy devils with beady red eyes and the complexion of toad - and dispensed with them. (We'll spare you the details). Our systems are back to the Lulu standard and all books in our catalog now appear in our search results."

I am torn between loving the creativity and annoyance that people were having problems. But mostly I am tripp'n cuz I even have this problem. What a strange life this is. Hope you take a minute and read chapter 1.

Why does it cost so much?

LuLu says- If you wanted your book to be available through other online stores - to go into 'distribution', in other words - all of those costs are doubled. You can reduce this by reducing your royalty, which is what most people wind up doing, which also reduces Lulu's commission and therefore the whole cost of the book.

The extra double costs goes to the retailers as their profit margin. Usually they reduce this so that your book may not actually sell at that full price - the retailers can offer 'special offers' etc simply by reducing their profit margin. You'll find some dealers in the Amazon marketplace do this quite quickly (while others seem to add outrageous amounts to the price of your book - they won't sell any, but hey, that's capitalism for you.) Your book on the online retailers will start to show a reduction in price that makes it more competitive, but you will always get your royalty, whatever price the book is sold at.

The cost may seem expensive, but don't forget that traditional publishers print books in hundreds and often thousands, which means the cost of manufacturing is reduced per book. Print on Demand is earth friendly which means higher costs.

Buy this story at LuLu.com

They had a problem at first with purchasing my book, but that was fixed like instantly. If you read Chapter 1 and want more, please buy my book. And LuLu is an earth friendly publisher, so the books are not printed until you buy it. Please forgive the extra time until you get it, it is really worth the wait.

And if you are thinking about self publishing, I do recommend LuLu!

Love ya Allison C.

The paperback is good

I got the proof copy of the paperback book and it is good. It can be purchased from LuLu, but will take 6-8 weeks for Amazon.com to offer it.

Not what I thought

Ok, so figuring out how to charge for a book is still controlled by the bookstores. So, get this. If I want to make $1.34 off of every paperback book sold in a book store then I have to sell my book for $18.65. Let me say that again. $1.34 per book for years of writing, a bazzilion edits, all of the cost with publishing. Damn good thing I absolutely love my own story.

Buying books from my online publisher, LuLu, will allow me to keep $6.39 per book and I am pretty sure that includes shipping costs.

Keep in mind that I am using an earth friendly publisher, so books are only printed when ordered, but that means a longer wait time for the buyer. It took 3 days for the printer to print and ship my proof copy. And another 3-4 days for the post office to deliver it.

I had to pay two different companies to make my book files eBook friendly. $199 to get quality iBook files & $100 to get Kindle friendly files. I thought I could do it myself cuz I am pretty savvvy with files. Um, no. Pay people.

in a modern age???

Ok, so everything is set. Physical books are on the way, right? Well, that depends on your definition of 'on the way'. The paperback books take 6-10 days to print and ship and the hardback books take 10-15 days to print and ship.

I think I might not make it. I really hate to feed the whole 'writers are far too over-dramatic' rumors, but holy cow! I would hate to live with me until then. AND the winds have shifted in the gulf of Mexico so the oil will be back on my clean white beaches in no time at all. I am going into my room and will write the sequel to After Eventide and I advise everyone to stay away. Oh, and I could really use a maid. My husband would appreciate that, seriously.

: ) : ( : ) :/

Wow, I am a published author!

Holy crap LuLu makes everything so damn easy! I am done and kinda tripp'n alot.