Paperbacks on the Way!

I received the paperback proof for Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice from Ingramspark this morning. After one last check, I approved it and ordered 90 copies.

90!

I normally don't sell a lot of paperbacks, so I was a little shocked when Kickstarter backers bought nearly 300 paperbacks of the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse series.

Granted, they got a little bit of a discount compared to the retail price, but not that much.

I hope all these books find good homes and don't end up in landfills. That would make me very,very sad.

The Latest Publishing Crises

Nope, it's not another merger or anything Amazon has done, but these two huge issues are affecting everyone in the publishing chain. And they are all thanks to the global pandemic.

1) The first issue is the supply shortage. All companies are suffering this, but for publishing, the printers are having trouble getting paper.

We went through a similar paper shortage in the '90's. That coupled with the collapse of a major distributor triggered a rise in prices.

This time, the companies producing paper are looking at their own supply shortage of raw material thanks to lockdowns, illness, and death from COVID-19. Then they have their own problems staffing their facilities.

Unfortunately, shortages drive prices up. I use Ingramspark for printing my own books. The CEO of Ingram sent out a notice that they are initiating a 6% increase in printing costs because they're having to pay extra to get paper. This means I, as a publisher, have to increase the price of my books to cover my overhead. It sucks the big one for my readers. Since I use POD printing, the cost is already higher than a Big 5 paperback.

2) The second issue is staffing. Just like the factories that produce pulp for the paper mills and mills themselves, there's a major shortage in employees. There's a combination of factors: deaths from COVID-19, people with health issues thanks to long COVID, quarantines because of sick family members, employees forced to find other jobs do to shutdowns, etc. Ingram is facing the same low staff problems as every other company, which was why the CEO told his own customers to get their orders in early.

Ingram isn't the only printer having these issues. The shipping companies are also having staffing issues. Ports don't have enough people to unload ships coming into the U.S. There's a shortage of truck drivers, warehouse workers, and delivery drivers.

The Big Five are especially sensitive to these problems. As a result, even if an author's book is selling like gangbusters, the major publishers aren't bothering to reprint those books. So if a bookstore owner has a zillion requests for whatever book is the new, hot thing, they can't get it!

In a way, I'm lucky being a small cheese publisher. I have some print sales, but not enough to start fretting about the shortages. Yet.

However, I will have to adjust my calculations for my proposed Kickstarter in case the paperbacks become a big reward item that backers want.

More on Covers

It took a couple of tries, but I finally got Ingramspark to accept the paperback cover for Revenge Served Hot. While my formatter did the majority of the work, I needed to add the company logo and the bar code to the cover. And therein lies the problem. I spent a couple of hours figuring things out with JPGs and PDFs I could have spent writing.

It's a catch-22. Do you spend the time learning new things? Or would you be better off writing?

That's a question every indie writer needs to figure out for themselves. Most of the time, the money I spend on covers and my cover artists' time is worth the time I save in not creating the covers from scratch.

But on the other hand, I want to develop that skill set so I know what to ask for from my cover artists. So cover time is actually time I'd spend watching TV.

For example, I sprint in the evenings with a friend until 11 pm. Then I watch Colbert or Family Feud until bedtime because these days, I need the laughs. So I can listen to monologues or trivia questions while fooling around with PAINT.

The other problem is I usually don't understand stuff unless I am doing it myself. That hint of tactile learning in me is one reason I was able to homeschool Genius Kid who is 100% a tactile learner. So spending the couple of hours learning how to do paperback covers has been super beneficial for reasons that have nothing to do with time constraints.

Next week, I'll do an entire paperback cover from scratch. I'll let you know how long that takes and show you the results.

The Print Book Shuffle

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how interconnected we all are, whether we like it or not. My paperbacks from my July release finally arrived yesterday.

 

I can't blame anyone. COVID-19 has slowed everything down. The shipping companies are overwhelmed by the increase in the number of packages and the new safety measures, plus their own people getting sick. And that's not taking into account the new Postmaster General attempting to sabotage the Postal Service.

 

The printer I use is overwhelmed. Their orders are up, thanks to another major book printer going under this year. Their own personnel are sick, and the remaining folks have to do the PPE dance. On top of everything, they are starting to have trouble with their suppliers.

 

The paper and inks suppliers are having the same shipping problems, their personnel are getting sick, and their remaining employees are doing the PPE dance.

 

And so on. And so on.

 

It's an ugly cycle, but it's not going away any time soon. But later today, I'll do my part to keep the Postal Service in business. Because no matter if it's rain, sleet, snow or gloom of night, readers need their books.

CreateSpace Is Shutting Down

I know I've been kind of quiet lately.

First of all, everything's fine. The new drug regimen hasn't been a problem, other than a couple of odd side effects. My taste buds have definitely changed. Salt seems unnaturally amplified, so I'm using even less than usual in cooking. Sweets similarly have an unusual punch. I can manage five or six grapes before it feels like I'm swallowing an entire cup of sugar. Other foods I love have an off taste, like fresh steamed broccoli or pepperoni pizza.

So while I work on finding healthy foods that don't taste weird and exercising, I've been writing my ass off. I finished the first draft of Hero Ad Hoc two and a half weeks ago and jumped right into Hero De Novo.  I hit the twenty percent mark last night.

What does any of this have to do with CreateSpace?

Well, my forward momentum on writing will have to come to a grinding halt. Amazon is folding Create Space into KDP Print. From the notice on the KDP website, CreateSpace will shut down in a few weeks. That could mean the end of this month or the end of December. There's not  a definite date on the page.

It also means I need to shift my print books from one website to the other.

The bigger problem is that I'm partway through the process of two paperbacks going live.

I had received the proof copies of A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed shortly before Easter. I think I was fifty pages into AMoT before the stuff hit the cancer fan, so they are both sitting on my desk, waiting for me. I planned to pick them up again once I finished all three first drafts of the 888-555-HERO completed.

Alas, I need to rearrange my schedule yet again.

So I will continue to work on the current wip while I peruse the directions for transferring this week. Then I'll have to spend the holiday weekend proofing and typing up my notes of changes for my formatter.

Then it's crossing my fingers that I can get everything done before Amazon pulls the trigger.

So why don't I go with Lightning Source/IngramSpark instead of Amazon?

Because LS/IS charges $49 simply to upload your book to their program. I have twelve paperbacks--so far. I'd rather spend that $600 on formatting and covers than simply making my paperbacks available to other retailers.

I know there' some folks wondering why I even bother with print copies. Ironically, the Justice series is being stocked in a few independent bookstores. I want to do everything I can to encourage indie bookstores to stock indie authors. If that means I need to drop everything to finish a print book project, then by gum, I'll do it!