Fine, I’ll Sell Paperbacks
My Love/Hate Relationship with Physical Copies
My first three books were written on laptops, then edited on papers provided by my local Staples (usually in a binder, or spiral binding), then edited again as a mock-up paperback provided by Barnes & Noble’s print-on-demand services. After months of typing into a word processor, I needed a change of pace; I needed to run a red pen through a line that I didn’t like, or scribble an idea over a paragraph, or move a passage to another section using an arrow.
I needed to make the editing process feel different, and working on a computer just felt like more of the same. Plus, the nostalgic sap in me wanted to make these original edits with pen and paper so that, one day, I could go back and admire my babies in their infancy.
The problem with this process, however, became overwhelmingly clear to me when I was editing the behemoth that was Friends of the Fallen. It was my longest book yet, and the editing process was torturous (still is, by the way — I’m doing the third round of edits now). When I finished using my red pen on the first draft of the book printed and bound at the aforementioned Staples, I was faced with the overwhelmingly depressing realization that I had to transfer all of the edits I made on those pages to the document that I had saved on my computer.
This may not sound all that bad, but think about spending months meticulously dissecting every sentence in a 100,000+ word manuscript, only to spend another month going sentence by sentence, plugging in every little change you made, down to a missing comma or apostrophe. I realized I’m going through this brutally tedious process without actually making any progress on my book. I’m literally just spending weeks moving the progress I made from the page to the computer. That is why I made the decision to never edit my books on paper ever again.
Simultaneously, but seemingly not connected in any way, I was growing increasingly frustrated with the quality of the paperbacks that Amazon was manufacturing for Penny. This prompted a long period of contemplation about whether I even wanted to make paperbacks available for my novels. Independent authors usually make more money on the Kindle versions anyway, so I figured I wouldn’t be losing out on too much if I went ahead and removed the paperback option for Penny, never to sell another paperback for my novels again. At some point, not too long ago, my frustrations with Amazon’s print-on-demand services had me flirting with the idea of ordering a ton of paperbacks from Barnes & Noble’s service with the intention of selling those all on my own.
The former idea was genuinely bad for business, whether I like it or not. The latter idea was dead on arrival, because that is far too much work for far too little reward. I already make pennies on the dollar for paperbacks through Amazon — I’m not about to make pennies on the dollar AND put more work on my plate, just so I could provide higher quality physical copies of my novels for people who want to see them on their shelves.
So, here we are, one week into the life cycle of my second published novel, Wardens of the Warlock, completely and utterly ready to be rid of all forms of physical copies of my books — for revision and for consumption. But just because I don’t like the quality of the books Amazon prints out doesn’t mean everybody else shouldn’t be given the option to read my books the way they want to. Just because I read most of my books on a digital device these days doesn’t mean that’s how everybody should read their books.
It was selfish of me to even consider not providing everyone with the option to read the books I’ve spilled my blood, sweat, and tears into however they see fit to do so. And like I mentioned before, it was incredibly stupid of me to even consider selling the books I’ve spilled my blood, sweat, and tears into in only one form — a form that most people that I know (still the majority of my audience) don’t even use. People still like to read books in their physical form; black ink on cream paper, washed out images on the cover, and all.
It is for these reasons that I have officially released the paperback version of Wardens of the Warlock. You can purchase it right now on Amazon, along with the Kindle version. Click on any of the images in this blog post to get sent straight there.
I’m sorry it took a week for me release the hard copy. I want to thank every single person that purchased the digital copy this past week — special shoutout to all of you that preordered the eBook.
Although the paperback, in the long run, won’t take my career as an independent author to the next level, I’m happy that everyone who otherwise wouldn’t have read my book will now have the option to. A sale is a sale, a read is a read. All I ask from each and every one of you (eBook readers and paperback readers alike) is to leave a review on the book when you do finally receive it. If you read it and you hate it, please let me know why. If you receive it and feel compelled to rate it early, under the overwhelming assumption that you’ll love it, please follow your heart and do so. Every little bit counts, trust me — and every little bit is wholeheartedly appreciated.
