Riyria Revelations #4 Sign-up

 

Polldaddy

As a hybrid author, I'm always looking for new an innovative ways to share my storytelling with others. Traditionally, writers and publishers have sought to have wide distribution meaning the books are immediately available in as many bookstores as possible (including online and brick-and-mortar). Unfortunately, that comes at a high price. About 75% of the list price goes to various middle men (55% to the retailer, 15% of the warehouse and 5% in shipping, returns, and books too damaged to be sent out again. That means just 25% of the reader's money makes it into the hands of those who do the work of creating the book. When you consider that the publisher keeps 92.5% to 25% of what's left over, that leaves very little for the person who actually wrote the tale.

I have a long history of self-publication, which has helped me earn more income per book, but with my next Riyria Chronicle, I plan to try something really crazy and go a step further. I want to cut out the retailer middle men for at least the first half year of the book's publication.

To find out how selling direct effects the amount of money I get to retain, click here to learn more about the economics of publishing and how a book's sale price is divided among the various players.

Here's the plan.

  • Write, edit, and produce the 4th Riyria Chronicle novel.
  • Pay for a print run to get the cost per book as low as possible.
  • Utilize Audible Studios for the audio version. This ensures quality production and mastering and the continued use of the amazing Tim Gerard Reynolds as the narrator. They've also provided a good-sized advance to make this buy-direct experiment possible.
  • Hold a Kickstarter where people can buy the print, ebook, and/or audio versions directly from myself. I'll use a fulfillment house to ship the books as they can process them much more quickly than when we ship ourselves.
  • After six months or so, the books will be put into the standard retail chain and people can buy them as they always have. Yes, the "cut" on those sales will be lower, but the hope is that the "core fans" will get the book as soon as it comes out, and more of their money will go directly into the pockets of the guy who creates the product.

While it is likely that the roll out of this book won't happen for another 10 - 11 months, it's worth starting to prepare now. Which brings me to the point of this survey.

By signing up here, you'll be notified when the Kickstarter goes live. Usually there are a number of bonus perks for Kickstarters, things like bundled ebooks with print copies, getting your name printed in the book, added short stories, screen savers and much more. There will also be a number of "early bird" and "limited edition" items so people will need to jump in quickly.

For those who aren't comfortable with Kickstarters, they'll get an email letting them know when the book is available for sale so they can buy their copies through my author store.

Well that's the whole ball of wax as they say. I hope you'll join me in this little experiment and we'll see how it plays out. It might be a total disaster, but if it works it may provide a model to pursue more frequently in the future.

As always, I thank you for your support.

Q.1
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Q.2
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I will never sell or share your email with others. Providing it will be used exclusively for notification regarding the publication of the 4th Riyria novel.