A reminder for when you are buying from small presses....

[alfreda89]

My small press just re-emphasized the fact that Amazon demands so much from a sale on their site that chapbooks and books sell for less than they cost to print. So if you buy small press work from Amazon, you are essentially costing the publisher money. It's PR, but that only goes so far when printing bills are due.

There's a reason the link from my web site to my chapbook goes to Yard Dog Press and not elsewhere. Not only do I make nothing from an Amazon sale of that chapbook? It hurts my publisher.

Not everyone knows this -- in fact, a lot of people think that an author gets a percentage of a used book sale. (No, they don't.) So -- this is your public service announcement for today.

Go forth and be an informed consumer. Render unto Amazon what Amazon does best, and use those PayPal/credit card links at your favorite small presses for books and chapbooks!

Comments

[originalkitsune.livejournal.com]

i had no idea actually that much money was lost through Amazon. I guess it's like Groupon but for authors. The last full price item i bought through Amazon was Lydia Lunch's book published through rizzoli. It cost $30 which seemed pricy for a small book. I hope that 30 actually covered the actual cost of the book.


.....sp paypal and credit cards can also keep stealing their cut as well. ... lol...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

If Rizzoli uses CreateSpace, then the book probably made some profit. But it's hard to do a trade paperback for less than $12 minimum actual cost, depending on number of pages, font size, interior art or photos, etc. pOD mass market paperbacks are generally not good quality, hence the trades and hardbacks.

So bookstores don't have a lot of incentive to carry them. Stores can't run sales like they do for a big publisher's book. Even for a big publisher, when a new hardback is half price? That's a loss leader.

[originalkitsune.livejournal.com]

thanks for the informative post! i had no idea what it really cost to make a book.

i don't know what rizzoli uses but the book was a cookbook with b&w pics and drawings in it, not just text.

i remember someone leaked how much do bands really get paid from spotify, amazon, etc... it caused such a ruckus,,, just so you know it's like .oo59 cents per each time you play the song. :( not as much as one would think. it's like Vegas, the house always wins.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Signal boosting on this message...

Kathareine Eliska Kimbriel on Buying From Small Presses....

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User deborahjross referenced to your post from Kathareine Eliska Kimbriel on Buying From Small Presses.... (http://deborahjross.livejournal.com/279376.html) saying: [...] Originally posted by at A reminder for when you are buying from small presses.... [...]