Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Bette's avatar

I know nothing about publishing print books, so I'm intrigued by this piece. Two questions, maybe for a Part II. You said "friends had plans for their paperback editions scrapped because not enough of their hardcovers sold," which leads me to wonder why hardbacks are published in the first place. I never buy them, and I much prefer the lighter weight paperback for holding and reading. Second, for print on demand books such as yours, do you retain control over the quality of the paper, the ink, and the cover? I've rec'd many substandard books lately that appear to be printed on very cheap, thin paper, with plasticized paper covers, which I hate.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Louden's avatar

I’ve done most of my books with publishers except my last one - indie but with support from Page Two (expensive lovely) for a bunch of reasons including distribution because I had a track record with bookstores. I printed 9000 copies and ended up having to pulp a 1000 which hurt so bad. Never had that happen. I’ve sold almost 12k of the book in ebook, audio and print but having to lose those print books made me want to never do a print run again. So thanks for writing this !!

Expand full comment
36 more comments...

No posts