Tag Archives: print on demand

More Paperback Editions

Posted on by under Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, Indie Publishing, Medieval romance, Scottish romance, Urban Fantasy Romance

Bad Case of Loving You, book #6 in the Flatiron Five series of contemporary romances by Deborah CookeUntil about two years ago, I was creating two editions of each of my paperbacks. One was published through Createspace (an Amazon company) and made available to Amazon stores. The other was published through Ingrams and made available everywhere else. The two editions were the same, except that there were slight differences in the width of the cover spine, probably because the two print-on-demand outlets use different paper for the interior pages. (At one point, I also created editions at Nook of some books for B&N stores, which also have slightly different spine widths, but don’t see enough sales on those editions to justify paying the designer to tweak the spine, so I’ve stopped doing them.)

About two years ago, Amazon began merging Createspace (the POD publishing platform) into KDP (the ebook publishing platform) which made a lot of sense. Many indie books are available in both POD and ebook, and creating both through the same portal, with the same metadata, and reporting sales for both in the same place was a good plan IMO. Also the Createspace interface was older. The KDP interface was being updated, so the print update was rolled into that. Authors could migrate their titles from Createspace to KDP. There were some (inevitable, in such a big transition) hiccups, but ultimately, Createspace was closed to new content.

Unicorn Bride, a medieval romance by Claire Delacroix, 2019 new editionSince then, I chose to create my print-on-demand editions only at Ingrams, and have them distributed everywhere. Another variable was that I’ve been creating mass market sized paperbacks and during the initial transition, KDP didn’t support this format although Createspace had.

Recently, writer friends have shared that their Ingrams-print edition is showing a delayed delivery on Amazon – of about 60 days. Also, the Ingrams editions aren’t eligible for free shipping through Amazon Prime, which is a big deterrent to Amazon Prime shoppers. So, this week, I added KDP print editions for the books that didn’t have them before, just for the Amazon stores. They’re all going live now, and as they do, the Amazon edition will replace the Ingrams edition on the same link in the Amazon store. (This is because they have the same ISBN.)

So, if you’re an Amazon Prime customer and you’ve been holding off on buying print copies of these titles for your keeper shelf, now’s the time!

Under the Mistletoe, a contemporary Christmas romance and #4 in the Secret Heart Ink series by Deborah CookeBad Case of Loving You

Snowbound

Spring Fever

One Hot Summer Night

Under the Mistletoe

The Mercenary’s Bride

The Runaway Bride

Unicorn Bride

Maeve’s Book of Beasts

 

2018 Dragonfire Editions

Posted on by under Dragonfire, Paranormal Romance

Firestorm Forever, A Dragonfire Novel and paranormal romance by Deborah CookeI’ve been sick this week, which means that no writing is getting done. Being under the weather is a good time to catch up on other jobs, though, like formatting, and that’s what I’ve been doing. Updated versions of Kiss of Danger, Kiss of Darkness, Kiss of Destiny, The Dragon Legion Collection, Serpent’s Kiss, and Firestorm Forever are now available at all digital portals.

Serpent's Kiss, a paranormal romance and Dragonfire #10 by Deborah CookeThis included updating the series information. The series is now called The Dragonfire Novels, and numbers from 1 – 14, with every story having a whole number (no more decimals).

I also updated the print interiors for The Dragon Legion Collection, Serpent’s Kiss, and Firestorm Forever. Now there are dragons inside!

POD interior of Firestorm Forever by Deborah Cooke

 

A while ago, I found a fun display font with dragons that I wanted to use in my book interiors – now that I use drop caps, I knew that this font would be perfect. Here’s what it looks like on the page:

POD interior of Firestorm Forever by Deborah Cooke

 

Buying this font meant that I got dragon-y dingbats, too, instead of the stars used in the previous edition:

POD interior of the Dragon Legion Collection by Deborah Cooke

What do you think? I’ve very happy with these updates.

There’s more Dragonfire news, too, but I’m waiting on documentation before I can share. 🙂 Stay tuned!

New Paperback Editions

Posted on by under Medieval romance, Scottish romance

The Renegade's Heart, book #1 of the True Love Brides Series of Scottish medieval romances, by Claire DelacroixOne of the interesting things about indie publishing is that there are lots of experiments an author can try. Some work and some don’t, but having the option (and seeing the possibilities) is pretty exciting. So, this post is about an experiment that didn’t work, but two new options that just might. 🙂

When I originally started indie-publishing my titles, I made print editions available through Createspace, which is an Amazon company. That meant the print issues were listed for sale on the Amazon website. Theoretically, since I’d chosen the Extended Distribution option, they were available for other bookstores to order, but a lot of bookstores don’t like to order anything from Amazon.

The Highlander's Curse, book #2 of the True Love Brides series of medieval Scottish romances by Claire DelacroixSo, a few years ago, I made my print editions available through Ingrams as well as Createspace. This meant some tweaking to the files – the covers need to be adjusted because the interior paper is a different thickness – but was a good thing. Print editions of my books were available to libraries and also at chains other than Amazon. The less-good thing was that the cost of all that extra distribution makes the book prices a bit higher. My books are still all available from Ingrams, because I think wide distribution is a good thing, but I’m always looking for ways to get you a better deal.

The Frost Maiden's Kiss, a medieval romance and third book in the True Love Brides series by Claire DelacroixAbout a year and a half ago, I spoke to a publishing company that had a lot of ideas for improving distribution for print titles. I met with them at a conference to continue our discussion, and ultimately decided to license my two newest Claire Delacroix series to them in print. They took over the print distribution of The True Love Brides series and of The Champions of St. Euphemia series. Two of the Champions titles were only ever published through this company.

Companies change, employees leave and some experiments just don’t work out that well – like this one. This company and I agreed to part ways in December 2016, and control of the print editions of those books has returned to me. They are still distributed through Ingrams, but a very cool thing happened last summer—both Amazon and B&N created portals to publish print books directly through them. The Amazon option is a lot like the older Amazon option (Createspace) but I like that everything is tracked in one place when I publish through KDP. The B&N option means that B&N stores can more easily order stock of books. Both portals allow for better pricing on the books, because the distribution is exclusive to each company and not wide.

Simply Irresistible, a contemporary romance by Deborah Cooke and first in the Flatiron Five series.The first book I pushed through these two new portals was Simply Irresistible, which is also available through Ingrams. The cover designer has to do some modifications for the cover spine, but it’s a pretty easy process. So far this month, I’ve published The True Love Brides series through both of these portals—it means that the retail price is lower for the print titles at both portals. The Ingrams distribution ensures that the titles are available beyond Amazon and B&N.

The Warrior's Prize, a medieval romance by Claire Delacroix and book #4 in the True Love Brides SeriesWe’re trying to work out one glitch at Amazon with The Warrior’s Prize, but I expect that will be resolved shortly. The other three books in the series are available at Amazon in print and all four are listed at B&N—you’ll know which are the new editions because the retail price is $9.99 or $10.99US instead of $14.99 or more.

Next, I’ll be publishing print editions of the  Champions of St. Euphemia series through these two portals.

Since I now have the rights back, I’ll do a Collectors’ Edition of The True Love Brides series later this year, with all of the books in a single hardcover volume. (I don’t think I can do one for The Champions of St. Euphemia – with five books in the series, the page count will exceed the maximum. I’m thinking about that puzzle, though!)

The Mini-Books

Posted on by under Incendium, Indie Publishing

Wyvern's Mate, book #1 in the Dragons of Incendium series of paranormal romances by Deborah CookeI’ve had a couple of questions about the print editions of Wyvern’s Mate, so it’s clearly time for a post on them.

The Dragons of Incendium series has a different format than Dragonfire. It’s a different series, set in a different world, so can be based on a different premise—and have a different structure. The main stories in this series are novellas, and each novella is a romance. In between the release of each novella will be a short story. Because there are lots of characters in this world—twelve dragon-shifter princess sisters, to start with, never mind those eleven princes of Regalia—there are a lot of interpersonal relationships to explore. There’s also a fair bit of worldbuilding. So, my idea is that each novella or story will reveal a slice of the world, but that you’ll build an understanding of Incendium over the series, as well as see those interpersonal relationships develop and evolve. I’m hoping that this will be a very long-running series, with a novella published every quarter and a short story in between each novella.

This is the kind of storytelling adventure that is well-suited to digital publication, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to experiment like this. (I’m having a lot of fun writing the stories, too.) The trick is that many of you like print editions, so I had to consider how best to present these stories in print editions.

Many of you like the mass market format, but that is only available through traditional publishers, who have distribution relationships with bricks-and-mortar bookstores. The only option available to me right now is print-on-demand. The cost structure of POD is such that it works best in trade paperback format.  A full length book of 100,000 words, for example, can be formatted into a trade paperback of 300 pages or so. The POD book can be priced at $14.99US which is comparable to a trade paperback edition from a traditional publisher. Although there are smaller trim sizes available in POD, the costs are consistent—even when the size is closer to a mass market paperback (the exact size isn’t an option) the price is very nearly the same as for a trade paperback. I doubt that anyone would pay more than $10 for a mass market book, which is why I and many other indie authors favor the trade paperback size.

BUT Wyvern’s Mate is a novella, which opens an interesting possibility. There is a format available in POD called a mini-book, which has a 4″ by 6.5″ trim size. They are cute little books. One downside is that this size can only be distributed through Amazon and Createspace. On the upside, the pricing works out in a more appealing way, given the length of the story. For example, the mini-book of Wyvern’s Mate (which includes the short story Nero’s Dream) is 188 pages. The spine is a little less than 1/2″ deep. This book is priced at $6.99 US. I really like the look of this format—here’s a picture of the mini-book on top of a copy of Flashfire:

Wyvern's Mate by Deborah Cooke minibook print edition

There’s about 1/8″ difference in size in each dimension.

Here’s another shot, this time of the spines:

Wyvern's Mate by Deborah Cooke minibook edition

The mini-book is thinner. Wyvern’s Mate is a novella, so the work is shorter.

And here’s a shot of the interiors:

Wyvern's Mate by Deborah Cooke minibook interior

It looks as if I chose a font that is a little bit smaller than that used in the Dragonfire novels. The POD edition is printed on cream paper, which improves the readability, and the paper used in POD is also thicker. The show-through from the type on the next page is much less in the POD book than the mass market one.

Now, I know that this format won’t suit everyone, but it provides a way to have each individual story available in print.With mass market unavailable as a format, we must find alternatives.

I will also compile anthologies for the Dragons of Incendium: each group of three novellas, with the intervening short stories, will be bundled together in print and digital editions. The print edition will be POD in trade paperback format, the same size as Serpent’s Kiss. Because of the length of the anthology, the pricing will likely be $19.99US or less for this anthology in print. I’d like it to be closer to $14.99, but we’ll have to wait and see how it works out once the page count is finalized. This trade paperback edition will be available from all online portals. You can expect the anthologies to be available several months after the last book in the series is published, probably concurrent with the first book in the next trilogy of novellas.

The mini-book print edition of Wyvern’s Mate is available now from Amazon and Createspace. The digital edition is available for pre-order at all major online portals and will ship June 14—buy links are on the Dragons of Incendium site, right here.

A Tale of Two PODs

Posted on by under Dragonfire, Historical Romance, Medieval romance, Publishing

I told you recently about my quest to get print editions of my new indie-published titles listed on the Chapters/Indigo website. Part of the solution was to make those titles available through another print-on-demand portal. I was using Createspace, but now have made the True Love Brides available through LightningSource as well. This is a new edition, with a different ISBN#, but otherwise the books are the same.

The finished books don’t look that different from each other. The Createspace editions are on the left and the LightningSource ones on the right. (The Highlander’s Curse DOES look different but it’s not a fair comparison. My last copy from Createspace has the glossy cover but it’s now matte, and the LightningSource cover is matte. The photograph looks really different because the finish reflects the light differently.)

There are slight variations – The Warrior’s Prize is a little darker on the right book, and The Renegade’s Heart is a little more yellow, but this is within the tolerance of different print runs. They look pretty much the same.The Ture Love Brides series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix in print editionsThey do feel a bit different, though, and that’s because of the paper. The paper used by LightningSource is thinner, and I like the thicker Createspace paper better. I also like the Createspace cover stock better. Here are the LightningSource editions on the right and the Createspace ones on the left – see how that little bit of difference adds up over 300 pages per book! The Ture Love Brides series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix in print editionsThere is one other difference that had to happen for the books to be stocked at Chapters/Indigo – they had to have the retail prices printed on the back cover. Here you can see the LightningSource cover on the left and the Createspace one on the right. The Ture Love Brides series of medieval romances by Claire Delacroix in print editions

When you use the cream coloured paper for the interior pages at Createspace, it makes the spine wider because the paper is thicker. I hear through the grapevine that the cream paper through LightningSource is the same thickness as the white paper from Createspace. I’m giving that a try with the three Dragonfire books currently in production at LightningSource and will show you how that comes out. They’ll also have glossy covers, just like those Dragonfire books do from Createspace.

The first three True Love Brides books are already listed for sale at Chapters/Indigo and there have been some orders filled already. I’m curious to see whether any other booksellers make these editions available. Time will tell!

The Crusader’s Bride will be my first title to be published simultaneously at both Createspace and LightningSource. Those books are both in production now.