Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Paperback now available

It took me longer than expected, but I managed to edit the book for a paperback version. Mostly that involved taking out a lot of the links -- useful in an e-book, pretty worthless in a paperback. The new version is now available on Amazon here.

The big advantage to the paperback format is that you get a "real" book to read, annotate, dog-ear, or whatever. I'll probably always have a personal preference for this form even if I can see value in e-books. You also get a really great cover courtesy of The Passion of the Nerd, to whom I'm very grateful for this and other reasons. Go watch his videos (here or here) -- they're really good.

As I said, the big change is that I took out lots of the links. If, for example, you don't know who Sherlock Holmes was, you'll have to look him up rather than click on a handy link. I honestly don't think that's much of a disadvantage, but it could be in some cases. If you find you want those links, feel free to buy both versions. :)

Another benefit of the e-book is that it's easy to update. You can get an updated version for free by asking Amazon for it. Be warned that downloading the updated version will cause you to lose any bookmarks or annotations. That may become a non-issue if you annotate the paperback.

I've made updates fairly regularly since I first published the e-book, and in fact made a few more changes while I was fixing the text for paperback. The changes are pretty small at this point; I doubt you'd notice unless you read obsessively or tried to access a broken link. The fact that the changes are now so rare made me think that a paperback would work. Still, I may make changes in the future and the e-book will always be easier and cheaper to work with. 

That brings me to the final point, namely cost. The way these self-published books work is that Amazon prints each one as it's ordered. There's a minimum cost, below which I can't price the book. The actual price is a bit above that, but not much.

12 comments:

  1. Hooray! This is so exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let me know if you see any issues with the book. I want to be able to fix things ASAP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My copy arrived today! Looks great! I'll let you know if I spot anything.

      Delete
  3. Hi, really enjoy your writing, have you considered doing a similar book for the Angel series?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! People have asked about AtS before, but I never got obsessed with that show and I don't feel like I have anything to contribute.

      Delete
  4. Hi! Different Amanda here :)
    I was wondering if you might continue your analysis of Buffy into tne comic books? I would love to get your insight into how or if the themes and metaphors you have described in the tv show continue through the comics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I stopped reading the comics after S9. They just weren't grabbing me the way the show did. I'd have to go back and pick them up again. I should never say never, but I doubt it.

      Delete
    2. Well you have my vote if you change your mind.
      Thank you for responding!

      Delete
  5. I just received my copy of the paperback. Wow! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the quality (and size of the book) were both greater than I thought. I would definitely recommend others pick it up while they can. It's really nice having a printed copy that I can read without turning on a screen and/or make notes in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have the ebook and would love a physical copy, now the difference in price strikes me, as I've also published a book with amazon and the paperback gave me the same proceeds but cost almost 6x as much. I'd hate to give amazon all that money if it means you still only get 90cts per book sold... If your margin on the physical copy is better, please do let me know. I would love to add it to my shelf in a supportive manner!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, most of the price does go to Amazon. I could improve my margin but only by raising the price, which I don't want to do. So while I really appreciate your concern on this, and share the annoyance with you and other authors, you might as well go ahead. Thanks.

      Delete