Re: Need Input Please! LONG

> I have some alternatives, because I've been a small press publisher for
> about the last 10 years. It *is* a moneymaker but it is a bit time
> consuming. However, it's perfect for a stay at home person who doesn't
> need to instantly make the rent money.

First, thanks for your response. As you said, a stay at home person, (which
I will probably be even more so as time goes on) has the time to market.
I am not afraid of the time commitment, as much as I am leary of trying
to understand and learn NEW things.,website building, ebay postings, etc.

> Any chance you can partner with someone to do the crafting or part of the
> work while you do the poetry and finishing and order processing? Is your
> daughter interested in this (for a percentage)? As busy as you were, it
> looks like you might be able to afford some help.

Daughter has been wonderful but is dealing with her own "stuff" right
now and trying to expand her own jewelry business. She is 30 years old
(I'm 49) and family has been telling me for years that she is too involved
in my life, to the point of it interfering in her own. We could have wrote
a book on co-dependancy.
As far as others, I have tried this before, and I have to say,
(somewhat embarrasingly)that I hated having to put my name on other
people's work when they helped me. I am one of those souls who is just
never satisfied with the way THEY do the work, and wind up re-doing it.
Made a few people angry over the years!!

> I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope that you have good MDs and good
> therapists around (and that you've had luck getting Social Security
> disability.)

Just getting around to some better MD's than I started with.
Going to Hershey Medical, which is quite a distance, but they seem
heads above the rest. SS is pending. That's a whole other story...
and even warranted my creating a "Disability Angel".
I have to admit I sold a lot of them once people read the
poem!

> Sounds good. I know from experience that "how to" books are a
> good moneymaker.

From your lips to God's ears! I know I invested much money during the
course of my life on such things. No novels in my bookcase. They are
all How To books actually.

> Okay... now this is where you stop and take a deep breath. How big are
> your books (size-wise)? I could do a run of 20 of my booklets at Office
> Depot for $1.00/book... and they'd fold and staple them. If your books can
> be formatted to "digest size" (5 1/2 x 8 inches) and if they are
> less than 24 pages (not counting cover) then go with xeroxed booklets. By
> the time you have them printed at Lulu and delivered, it could have been
> done several times over at a local printer.

The books being planned are each between 100-200 pages. (6x9) At Lulu.com, a
book is $4.58 plus 2 cents per page, no matter
how many pages or what binding you choose. (.15 for color) Then you add
your royalty, and they take 25 percent of the PROFIT of the book. They
handle the orders and shipping charges. IF you order your own book they
pass on the royalty and their profit and you pay a straight $4.58 plus .02
per page. And...no shipping to the author. Bulk discounts when an author
orders their own books start at 26 copies, and increases accordingly.
They have quite an impressive
page that you can send people that shows your book, and gives you a
place to list your other selections and speak about yourself. They also
provide you with an ISBN number and put you on bookstore lists if you
desire. By going through them, my customers could choose their payment
method without my being directly involved with credit cards, etc.
My website would serve to direct them to lulu.com, and list other things
of poetic nature.

> Do NOT print up huge quantities until you know what sells and how quickly
> it sells. I would sell 200 or so of each of my books each year, but in
> order to keep my costs reasonable, I would only print up 10-20 at a time.

Do you think that a print store could do better price wise for the books?
Again, I proably would have some here for occasional shows I might do,
or for local folks who request it...(once I contact the local paper)
but I don't need to have hundreds.
I do have a huge mailing list of past customers to refer to a website.

> Write the book first and ask locally how much it would cost to
> "make" the book (including folding and stapling.) Get several
> bids. You want to be able to deliver the book to them and have them run it
> off and hand you finished product.

> Look at several kinds of bindings.

The binding I am leaning to is PERFECT.

> I put up a website and frankly got rather poor results. The books sold
> like hotcakes at conventions, but only a handfull sold through the
> website. This might have changed in the past 3 years... and with this next
> item I'm thinking of doing a website for it.
> (IF I can ever get loose of some of the other things I need to do.)
> You might forego the website and instead do auctions on Ebay until you
> build up a clientele. It's loads cheaper and you get TONS of eyeball
> traffic. In fact, you could probably set up an Ebay store much more
> cheaply than you could get a SBI site up.

Ebay scares the beejeebees out of me. Not even sure why. Guess because
I see Ebay as a joke (I hope no one gets mad at me). I have yet to see
a good deal on there once the ridiculous shipping is added. From what I
understand, Ebay has gotten greedy and ebayers are now adding a lot to
postage to avoid paying the additional percentage to ebay for the
actual product. I have not seriously looked into ebay as a seller,
but as a bidder, I have to say I am not impressed.
(keep in mind though that I have been retailing so long that I hardly
ever pay retail for much of anything...before craft venue, there were
years of retailing different things, so my wholesale contacts are numerous!)

As a seller, I worry about nasty winning bidders,
and having to keep up with shipping and paperwork, and
ratings, blah blah blah. Too much of a learning curve and
keeping my wits about me on bad days.
(for die hard ebayers, don't take offense)

> Sounds like good plans, and I wish you the best!

I really appreciate your input and look forward to keeping you up to
date on what I decide to do.

Theresa PoetryByHardy@aol.com