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| Books By G.B. Miller |
About a month ago, a writer friend of mine (Rebekah Raymond) said she was sponsoring a table at a local festival up in Calgary and did something of a cattle call for any and all indie writers to join. I was one of the chosen few (yay me!) so I started what I thought would the easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy part of the process, which was gathering a few books together and ship them up to her.
HAH!
The first inkling that I had that this was going to be as smooth as two day old razor stubble was that I found a few typos in the aforementioned book (the horror!). So, after contacting the formatter, I sent my manuscript off to be fixed. Two weeks later I got the PDF file back and uploading I went.
The second inkling I had was when it came to time to ordering the book. Originally, I gave myself enough time to order and have shipped the normal way (standard shipping, roughly 2 weeks). But because the time frame got shortened, I had to upgrade and have it shipped priority mail, thus doubling the outlay of funds for the books.
I proceeded to spend the five days stressing out because the expected delivery date was November 1st, and my dashboard said "Processing Transaction". After firing off an e-mail to customer service (say what you want 'bout Amazon, their customer service is pretty good), I was reassured that everything was still going to plan. Sure enough, the books arrived this past Friday (10/28).
We then spend the better part of three hours gathering 15 copies of my books, plus postcards of same, plus business cards, plus a priority box, plus packing tap, plus bubble wrap, plus customs form, and putting a nifty package together for shipment.
Overall, the outlay of funds {$64.45 and two free e-books} and the 80-20 split of total sales makes this technically a loss. But, I'm looking long term here. I'm normally a semi-introvert kind of guy (seriously) and pimping myself or my writing doesn't come naturally or easy to/for me, so the opportunity for greater exposure for me and my writing was simply too great for me to pass up.
Short term, I have the sticky issue of ordering more copies of this book, because while I was gather product for this shindig, I discovered that I didn't have enough copies to offer. I had five, but since one was in so-so condition, I had to offer up one copy of the original version for sale.
So, this is why I spent the past few weeks frazzled to the point where I decided to spend even more money I didn't have by creating bookmarks at VistaPrint.
The post title asks the proverbial question. Do you have an answer to share?
(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.
Don't you hate it when a simple plan turns into multiple projects just trying to reach the goal? Glad you at least got the books out on time. The exposure will probably gain a few more sales online and then it won't be a loss.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. This one drove me 100% slug nutty. While a few sales, either there or online would be a huge plus, I'll shoot for the minimum of good exposure for myself and my writing.
DeleteGreat looking book...heavy topic. You seem to have no problem tackling anything do you?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI don't think the topic is that heavy. It's just the four seasons of nature compared to the four stages of life. It was actually pretty easy to come up with the stories for the twin themes.
"What is life?" is a heavy duty question that could encompass volumes. "Why I became a writer" is a smaller part of that bigger question, I suppose, and it likely relates to that bigger question in some big way. Our pursuits of passions can lead us down some strange roads at times and after the twists and turns we just keep finding more roads to travel. I'd say that is part of the bigger question as well.
ReplyDeleteYour long term picture is a wise way to look at things in my opinion.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
That is very true.
DeleteI have traveled some very twisty and bizarre roads to get here, none more important than being laid off from my current employee in 2003. Without that catalyst, I sincerely doubt I would be here today.
Sounds like every similar "opportunity" I get. :(
ReplyDeleteI get them so few and far between that whenever I do decide to pursue one, it always blows up in some small way.
DeleteI have an old friend who started live performing with an original songs band leader who spent so much travel, equiptment, recording funds he named the band Mark Pollack and "The Big Spenders" because they all lost money to go to gigs. Sad, because I really like the music- n I have the cds so I don't ever see them live perform anymore! Last I checked the website he'd upgraded to the name to "The Expenders" because it costs too much to do.
DeleteYour experiences remind me of that-
Now that's very interesting in a peculiar sort of way.
Delete