December 16, 2004

More news about the book publication

Well, y'all likely 'member the letter I made available for downloading' 'bout the proposal I received from the subsidy publisher regardin' the costs and such to get my book out. I was wonderin' how long it would take them to get back to me after I set such aside 'pon readin' ya'll's comments 'bout it. Today was that day:

via email

Mr. Russell,

I'm writing to follow up on the publication proposal we prepared for "Alien Attitudes: Alura Allen, Alien At Large". Do you have any questions qbout [sic] it? May I provide further information about the proposal or about our no-interest payment plans? Please let me know your thoughts. We would like to publishi [sic] your book so I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

David P. Braun
Author Relations Representative
Dorrance Publishing Co.
701 Smithfield St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

I actually have found this person to be very courteous and felt it was only fair to let him in on my current feelin's so I promptly responded thusly:
Hi David,

I have actually looked over the proposal, and, truthfully, it was not what I expected. Financially, my business has taken a severe downturn and I am unsure as how to proceed at this point. I am still considering your proposal, but, at the advice of friends, am also continuing to research other publication opportunities. I am going to put all thoughts about this aside until after the holiday period.

Tiger

He was quick to respond, and I have put such below the fold for your review.

OTBTJTB™

Mr. Russell,

Thank you for writing and letting me know the state of things. Just to ad to the mix we also have another publishing arrangement if the subsidy fee is just too much to handle. May I tell you about our RoseDog print-on-demand publishing programs? They are much more affordable and often allow authors to get their books into print when they would otherwise not be able to.Since there is no large print run of books to produce and no warehousing to pay for, the price is much more manageable. A book would be designed and be ready to print, bind and ship when someone actually orders it.

We have the RoseDog Basic Imprint for $1,400 (no promotion - can be paid in payments of $500, $500 and $400) and the Basic Imprint with Promotional Supplement for $2,400, which can be paid in four $600 payments over the production schedule of the book. In the second program the promotion we use is very similar to the one we use in the full traditional subsidy. In both cases your book gets individualized attention, including the services of our artists who will design a unique cover for you. The book will be published as a quality trade paperback equal in quality to the trade paperbacks found in any of the large bookstores, and it will be available for ordering from virtually any bookstore. We take and fill all orders, attempt to get the book reviewed by local newspapers, send publicity releases to appropriate media and bookstores and offer the book for sale on our website.

Note that unlike the traditional subsidy, the RoseDog programs do not include editing but you can have your manuscript edited for a one time fee of $25 plus $2.50 per double-spaced page.

Obviously there are trade-offs in comparing the two programs. If you would like me to prepare a RoseDog publication agreement for your review I would be happy to do so, and send a brochure detailing the program.

Regards,

David P. Braun
Author Relations Representative
Dorrance Publishing Co.
701 Smithfield St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

These figures seem to be much more reasonable, though, I already seem to feel it would take a bit longer to get the book to anyone actually orderin' such, I think the difference in the out-of-pocket costs to me is jes' too great for me not to investigate this new proposal and I promptly requested for him to forward the proffered proposal regardin' this RoseDog print-on-demand publishing program to me .

O' course, any of ya'll actually in the publishin' industry or familiar with people in the publishin' industry that have other ideas about how I can get this greatly admired book into print, please do let me know.

Oh, another idea: I was contemplatin' an idea on how to raise money to promote this venture: Books on CD. I mean, it would not really be all that hard for me to record myself readin' the book and burnin' it to CD. Once that was done, I would have a marketable product. So, how many of ya'll think that is a good idea?

Posted by Tiger at December 16, 2004 04:32 PM | TrackBack
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