What's a fair price for a 500-page trade paperback?

[grumbler]

A couple of nits (take them for what they are worth, which is little):

"undone by lethargy and corruption" should read "undone by indolence and corruption," IMO. The words are similar, but lethargy is more individual and transient. Indolennce implies a character flaw, which seems to be what you are implying.

"Into this volatile situation steps Yunise Columabb" implies that she has been somewehere else and just now has stepped in. Maybe "Into this volatile situation is born Yunise Columabb" would be better?

As I said, nits. Just trying to help.

[Elok]

Indolence gives me consonance with "undone," so good call.

Hmm. Trying to publish to Kindle now, and it says, "Your original book file was submitted to CreateSpace as a PDF which is not an optimal format for Kindle. You can transfer your PDF file, but for best results we recommend that you upload a separate interior file on KDP." I want to make this thing accessible for eBook types, but I haven't the foggiest how, especially since my PC (with the final pre-PDF files) is going to the shop and may not be salvageable. And I'd have no way of knowing what the final file looked like, since I don't have a Kindle. Any of you guys know about this kind of thing?

[Elok]

www.facebook.com/author.brayton.cole is up.

[Bereta_Eder]

Any of you guys know about this kind of thing?

I just know that pdf is a drag and very cumbersome to have to read on an e-reader. To the point of giving up books.

Epub (or likewise formats) is the *only* way to be sure that the reader will be ok and comfortable in reading the book on his e-reader...

[Elok]

I'd be converting from pdf to Kindle format, not just putting the pdf up. It also asks me whether I want to have DRM, and I honestly have no clue. I know DRM had a terrible reputation ten years ago, but it might be a different critter now.

[Aeson]

I wouldn't use DRM. The number of people who would pirate and read a 400 page novel by an unknown author is likely close to zero. And if anyone wants to do it, it's not that hard even with DRM.

[rah]

Agreed. But if you ever get famous...........

[Elok]

Fair enough. I'm guessing I'll have to convert from PDF, then find some way to assess the quality of the resulting files without having a Kindle of my own.

It's gone up on Amazon already, several days ahead of when they said it would go up. I make half as much in royalties on every Amazon sale; HOWEVER, I think this is because the book is eligible for free shipping on orders over $25, which would effectively lower its apparent price to customers by five bucks or so. So I lose some profit, only to gain some appeal. I think I can live with that.

This is not a book with huge amounts of built-in audience. Not everybody is a big fan of immensely complex immersive-world sci-fi. If any of you happen to have friends who are, please do let them know.

[rah]

https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Life-Brayton-Cole/dp/1537163191/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497530553&sr=8-1&keywords=brayton+cole

Just added it to my cart. Next time I total over 25 for free shipping, I'll include it.

[Elok]

Awesome!

I'm going to take it as a positive sign that this book came out a day after Neal Stephenson's latest.

[Dinner]

As someone who would like to publish a book some day, about how much can a new author expect to make on his first book and how does one go about trying to sell it to publishers?

[Elok]

Too many factors to give a good answer. I didn't even try to submit this to publishers; they tend to be snowed under with queries (and unrequested manuscripts), and to take months or years to even get back to you. So this'n is self-published. Of course, this'n is also a very large, very complicated sci-fi novel aimed at hardcore nerds. If you're writing nonfiction targeting a more specific audience, you may have better luck and a more obvious means of promoting it. I'm in the planning stages of a history of Byzantium for children, and when that gets done I plan to go on a PR bombing run of Orthodox homeschooling groups, who have been seriously jonesing for such a thing. If you plan a book about geology or something, you may have a similar avenue. By comparison, just posting HEY BUY MY CRAP on sci-fi and fantasy sites seems like a great way to collect permabans.

So far, I have made $9.99, according to CreateSpace. I think all of those are friends buying it because Elok Wrote a Book. We'll see if word-of-mouth gets me anywhere.

[rah]

Does createspace also list number sold by media?

[Elok]

I sold one on my eStore and three on Amazon. $4.68 + ($1.77 * 3) = $9.99. I need sales more than cash, so it's cool. Probably more convenient for most people to buy on Amazon even leaving out the shipping. I'm not sure if you need a whole separate account to order on CreateSpace directly.

[Lorizael]

I bought it on Amazon because I've got Prime and get free shipping on basically everything.