Ruth’s Bonded: Print Copy

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Ruth’s Bonded is now available as a paperback, with a snazzy new cover! Look!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1521099170/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1492888311&sr=8-2&keywords=ruths+bonded+vc+lancaster

I edited the text, to hopefully get rid of all the typos (though realistically I don’t think I could ever get every single one) and to make RB cannon-compliant with the rest of the series. When I wrote it, there was a lot I didn’t have figured out, and I didn’t know it was going to be a series. I’m happy to have this revised version out there. All the plot points are the same though, nothing’s changed as far as the story is concerned, so you won’t be left out if you don’t buy it.

Let me tell you, the process of formatting a book for print was a nightmare. It’s taken me at least six hours, spread over three days. All because of the image quality of the cover, placing it exactly to the right milimeter, and that’s not even the text itself! I have since learned about trim size, gutter margins, section breaks on Word, bleeds, DPI…. and page numbers! Page numbers alone took me about three hours to get right. And Amazon won’t let you publish with anything they consider an error.

I’ve set the price to $6.99, £5.99, and E6.99. I don’t want to charge more than that, and I wanted to charge less, but I earn 60% of the royalties on a print copy instead of 70% like on ebooks, and the print costs are almost half the price. The print costs are a little over $3, and around £2.55 I think, and that’s incorporated into the price of the book. If I charged $5.99/£4.99, then I would have received less than a dollar per copy sold, and 25p from GB sales! So I put it up a little so that I now get a few pence/cents over a pound/dollar per copy.

I don’t expect to sell hundreds of print copies, but I only intended the print copies to be a nice little extra, not my main source of income. I’m excited to get my copy! Another reason I didn’t want to charge a lot, since I’m going to have to buy one out of my own pocket 😛

What do people think about me updating the text and cover of the ebook version as well? I think the text and cover of the print version are better, but people might have sentimental attachment to the e-versions. In a couple of months, it will be two years since Ruth’s Bonded came out. It might be time for an upgrade. I’m pretty sure you won’t have to pay for the new version if you’ve already bought the old version, and I think it won’t update automatically if you want to hang onto it, you can just not download the changes. Let me know how you feel.

 

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5 thoughts on “Ruth’s Bonded: Print Copy

  1. I love Ruth and Gron! I am interested in the print copy but since shipping to Australia is always expense I might wait to see if you publish more print copies and order in bulk. Also, I was wondering if down the track you would be offering signed copies for purchase?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I know, the shipping turned out to be a lot! I was originally going to try to get all my books available in print relatively quickly, one a month or something like that, but to be honest the returns are nothing compared to the work that goes in, so for now I’m focusing on getting a new book out 🙂 Gron’s Fated in print might follow after that.

      As for signed copies, I would have to buy a load of my own books (for about £9 each with the P&P, getting £1 back in royalties), sign them, and then sell and ship them out myself. I would have to set up an account as an independent seller on Amazon, which I know nothing about, and it would be quite an investment with no guarantee of returns. I could easily end up with ten signed copies sitting at home I can’t get rid of. I have been asked about signed copies before, but to be honest, it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t know how I would connect the independent seller’s page to my author page, I don’t know if people would think it looked legit enough to buy, and they would be quite expensive to cover the cost of me buying the copies in the first place. They could easily end up being £15 with P&P and I’ve sold less than ten copies as it is.

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  2. Niiice. I love your new cover! It’s super sexy.

    I know all about formatting woes. That branch under my chapter titles for the Omega books was a goddamn nightmare because it had to extend into the bleed. Ugh. And page numbers… geez, you’d think a thing like not number the title page and numbering from then on would be easy. Like, click of a button. But noooooo, that shit is like a level 80 quest or something. Haha.

    Anyway! I don’t keep print books since my place is so small, but I love your design. I’d say go ahead and update the ebook too, just because you want new readers to get the improved version. Sadly, Amazon almost never publishes typo fixes to kindles that already have the book. Weird, isn’t it?

    They *might* just because you changed the cover too, but to even be eligible users have to turn on a setting in their profile (that’s disabled by default I believe–can’t remember for sure). And even if it’s turned on, it almost never works. I’ve tested it. I’ve asked others. It’s been like this for years, lol.

    Also, OMG I just got your new book!! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks! 🙂 It’s gratifying to see how my cover making skills have developed, though my idea for The New Guy is going to be a challenge.

      Amazon’s instructions are not good enough! Especially their little tutorial about the dotted lines on the cover creator, that you can never bring back up after you’ve dismissed it the first time. I immediately forgot what they were and spent the rest of the time guessing.

      Page numbers!! Three hours on page numbers!!! I know more about Word than I ever thought I needed to. For me it was missing out the title and copyright pages, and getting the numbers to start on 1, and then having them different on alternating pages so that the numbers would always be on the outer edge of the page. Oh my god… In the end I caved and let the numbers start on 3 and it seemed happier with that. Level 80 quest is right.

      I’ll leave the ebook as it is now, as an incentive for people to buy the print book <..> I’ve had a really expensive couple of months and need every penny right now. But I’ll update it before I publish Gron’s Fated (book 2) in print, which I want to do next month.

      I guess people don’t want Amazon changing their books without their permission, which is fair. I heard of an author who published a book, then published an update with a new character in it who affected the ending and everyone was really confused before they figured it out, and people with the original preferred it and didn’t want the update.

      I’m glad you got the new book 😀 I hope you like it, let me know what you think. Fox Furry is bought and paid for on my Kindle.

      Like

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