Welcome back to another edition of-What You Should Get For Your Self-Publishing Dollars-Part 3. Today we are discussing the number of books that the writer should receive when using a self-publishing company. If you’ve been following this series so far, then you know about thecli ent that I had in here recently who was considering publishing with another publishing house. For almost $8,000, they were about to get the following services:
1) The service that allowed them to give up all rights to their book
2) Template designed book covers
and now….
3) They want to only provide them with 25 books

Maybe it’s just me! Maybe i’m the crazy one, but if I’m about to spend nearly $8,000, I better get more than 25 books, I better get at least 100 books. The other kicker for me though is that if they want to buy more books, they can at half the cover price.
What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You just got nearly $8,000 of my money and you still want me to spend more money! That’s crazy! Let’s look at it another way:
I know that when I go shopping at Walmart that $78 gets me a whole shopping cart full of stuff. I can only imagine how many carts I could fill for $7800. It absolutely boggles my mind how writers just accept this and spend money with publishing companies who have these standards. These publishing companies provide so little books for so much money. They do it because they know that most writers accept this as the standard and are so desperate to publish their books, that they will take any amount of books offered to them, regardless of how small or large the quantity.
Let’s do a little math:
312*25=$7800
an average book is $15 paperback, $20 hardcover
100 books*$15=$1500
200 books *$15=$3000
300 books*15=$4500
So on average, if you’re going to spend over $3000 to get a book published, you should get at a minimum 100 books and that’s if the publisher is charging you full price for those 100 books. Sadly, there are so many greedy self-publishers that only want to give you so few books because they are afraid that if they give you more and you sell them, that they won’t make a profit. If they give you 100 books and you sell those 100 books, not give them away but sell them, then that’s all money in your pocket and less in theirs. They figure if they give you a few books, then you’ll come back for more. They also figure that you’re not going to sell those 25 books, that your only going to give them away, so they think that they are doing you a favor in providing you with 25 books to give away. 25 books that you already paid for, so it’s not a favor, but you also paid for those 100 as well, but you’re not getting those.
The other issue is that some of these publishing companies also don’t believe in what the author has written. They publish for the sake of publishing and don’t publish the books because they think they are going to do well. In addition, because most writers don’t have marketing plans, these publishers highly doubt that an author has the capabilities of selling 100 books, let along the 25 they are being given. Thankfully, there are some self-publishing companies out there who are more honest than others and will truly give you your moneys worth. They may or may not care if you sell 25 books or 100 books but they will give you what you deserve for the money you paid, and have faith that you will selll all your books, regardless of the number.
As is always-Author Beware! Do your research and stay away from those publishing companies who are only out to get your money and provide you with 1) few books, 2) book templates, and 3) keep your rights. As I always so-Your baby deserves better than that!
Until the next one!