To give you an idea of where I'll be spending my wife's money, I'll break it down. But before I do I want to make it quite clear that I am not running an ad for these Createspace people. They are simply the company I intend using at this point. Certainly by the end of November I should be able to give a very personal view about their service and quality of product. If it turns out they're living up to their end of the bargain, I'll sing their praises, but if it all turns to mud then I'll scream it from the heavens.
So, I intend for Createspace to do the following services for me:
Prior to printing, or submitting for printing, I want an evaluation of my work and confirmation that I'm aiming at the correct market and genre.
Editorial Evaluation $399
Then I want someone with smarts to check for spelling, grammar and sentence structure, because I ain't real gut at me words.
Comprehensive Editing Plus $2400
This is perhaps my single greatest expense and the one I toss up cutting out to cut costs. But also the one I can least afford to do without.
Then I'm having them do up a custom book interior, so that the insides are nice to look at, with Fleurons and stuff. It's all smoke and mirrors, but if I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to do it right.
Custom Book Interior $499
Next I'll be ordering a LCCN. What is that? I have no rightly idea. All I know is that I need it if I'm to sell to libraries in America. Well I think I know that. It's more possible sales and it's cheap compared to everything else, so I'll take it.
LCCN Assignment $75
Once my book is printed Createspace send out information to 1000 media outlets. Now I'm not stupid. I know most of these will be ignored. But I figure if just 1 out of the 1000 does something with the information, besides wipe their bums, then it's worth it. Remember, I'm working without a public relations department and established distributors. Plus Australia isn't a quick skip across the border - it's 23 hours to get from Brisbane to Seattle, and Brisbane is two hours from where I live. I need all the help I can get.
Press Release With Distribution $598
Next, I'll be having Kirkus Discoveries & Forword Clarion Reviews done on my work. Apparently, despite the money they're asking, there is no guarantee they'll write anything nice, but again, if they do it'll be worth its weight in sales.
Kirkus Discoveries Review $399
Forword Clarion Review $399
You may have noticed that a good chunk of my cash is going into these 'dubious' marketing services. I think it goes to show the good people at Createspace know how desperate us self-publish authors are to have our work seen by someone. And we are. We really, really are.
Then there's a nifty little way to increase royalties on all those sales, and lower the cost of books I order myself to sell. More on that later, but I will definitely be taking the Pro option.
Upgrade to Pro $39
All this is before I even get one stinking book into a reader's hands.
Now Createspace do give a nice discount for bulk buying of services and I was excited when it seemed I'd save 15%. My joy was shortlived, however, when I realized the exchange rate to Aussie dollars snatched most of that back.
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