Literary Housekeeping

Now that "Dark Returns: Tales of East River" has been officially released and published with Wordclay Publishing, I have been going over some of my earlier works and re-evaluating my publishing relationships with Trafford and Publish America. I have been a bit disappointed over the years with Trafford and Publish America with the lack of interest in my books and the raw deal I get with royalties. Although Trafford has provided the most services in my early career, and I have sold the most copies of my books through them, I have actually seen the least return on my investments through them percentage-wise. Also, two of my books through Trafford were neglected for I don't know how long from their online bookstore--preventing anyone interested in the follow-up to "Dancing with the Moon" from purchasing Book Two of the series. "Two Past Twilight", though it got good reviews, failed to sell a single copy! The same can be said for my award-winning "While the Wolves Cry"! Mainly because Trafford did nor post these books in their online bookstore when they underwent new management.

I also find Trafford has become too cost-prohibitive for me to do any real marketting with. I never quite understood why I needed to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy a single page ad in some catalog or to have my book featured on a table in some book fair. Shouldn't they do this for their own good as well? Don't they have a stake in selling the very books they publish? Why is it all on my shoulders? I thought there was a partnership here. But in the end, I write the book, pay them to publish it, pay them to promote it, pay them to market it, and in return I see pennies on the dollar in royalties?

With Publish America, though they have produced quality paperbacks, they have done the least for me. No websites for the books, "The Audition" or "Chasing Shadows: Tales of East River". Though I didn't have to pay them anything, they will not publish any future books until I chalk up some serious book sales. The only way I am enabled to do this is to pay them to market the books or promote them. Or... I buy my own books at more than cost plus shipping because they don't allow me to buy my own books unless it is through a representative as opposed to online.... As far as royalties go, I see pennies on the dollar for books that sell at almost twice what they should be sold at competitively. I think the biggest royalty check I ever recieved from Publish America was for $5.19. The biggest check from Trafford that I had recieved was for $344.00 or something like that because they realized I had overpaid them for a book order I placed.

Although I have yet to see any sales from my Wordclay books, I have had no hassles with seeing my books offered on their online bookstore. I have had no costs to me at all and the books published are high quality and exactly what I wanted for my books. Each book gets a webpage, and I cannot complain with the costs of book promotion. I just wish I had money for these options. I am hoping that as word of my books spread out and reach people, my books with Wordclay start to sell. I think they are reasonably priced and I am guarenteed a fair deal with royalties. I set the price of the books and give myself ample royalties to make it worth doing business with this company.

As some of my contracts expire in a few years or so, I will seek to re-issue my books either with Wordclay or with another publisher more suited to my needs to expand my readership at the least expense to me.