(August 1, 2015 at 3:00 pm)ILoveMRHMWogglebugTE Wrote: Just so you know, the prices of those paperback novels cannot go down anymore than I already made them, it wasn't my fault. I wish I could bring the price of $40.00 one down to at least half as much. It had to do with the trim size I used and the fact the illustrations are in color and the page count. The illustrations were expensive by the way, and this isn't the same artist who illustrates my picture books.
Yes, it was your fault. You should have researched how much a full color book would have cost before you decided to go ahead with it. When the price came back at $40, that should have been your red flag, and you should have gone down a different route. You have nobody to blame but yourself; it's not Amazon's fault that printing color books is more expensive. You keep saying it's not your fault, but I don't see how it's anyone else's.
Quote:I suppose re-publishing the books in black-and-white might bring the prices down. Except I paid for expensive pictures in color and would prefer for them to be seen as such. And I actually didn't have these novels marketed to children, but to older young readers because of dark moments and mature themes and complexity.
Again, you should have researched how much the color images would have cost to print. This should have happened in the planning stages. Plenty of books use greyscale images for the inside, and that should really have been your clue. If you can't see how $40 for a paperback book is ridiculous, then I'm not sure how you are ever going to succeed.
This stuff will come up again during your crowdfunding campaign, because people will want to know that the project they are investing in is worth it, and has a reasonable plan for making money. Nobody in their right minds if going to support a project which didn't have the foresight to do some basic cost calculations, and instead thought that charging $40 for a paperback was acceptable.
