How to know your book is taking off

[Steven Lake]

I've got an original printing of my novel, "The Oort Perimeter" which I did through Amazon. Since my time with them was generally a flop (never, ever publish with Amazon. They're epic level putzs.) I ended up switching over to my current publisher, who has done an awesome job getting me noticed and books sold. Ok, they're all print books at this point as we only recently got to the whole ebook thing, but still, I'm selling books.

Anywho, in regards to the printing that Amazon did for me, there's only 207 of those original "blue" cover Oort Perimeter copies in existence. (I've still got some left if anyone wants a couple) Well, since that's all that were ever printed, and will ever be printed of the blue cover edition of the book (Oort Perimeter will continue to be offered indefinitely through my new publisher. This only covers the ones originally done through Amazon) the "in the wild" market value of the book has already gone up quite a bit. It started out at like $39 a few months ago (and this for a book I'm still selling for $16 a copy till my supply of blue oorts is gone) and is now ranging between $99 and $165 market value for collectors.

And this is merely based on my current popularity, rarity of this edition of the book (ie, the 207 total copies), and popularity of the book itself. I'd say that's not bad. If I've only been actually publishing my works since August of last year, and it's now 7 months later and that particular limited edition printing is already worth that much, that's a good sign that both I as a writer, and my books, are both taking off.

[nomesque]

WOOHOO!

That's great to hear

[neilmarr]

Good going Steve. Neil

[lene1949]

WOW! Well done!

[TC Beacham]

Very interesting - congrats Steve!

[Joebill]

Congranulations !

[Steven Lake]

Thanks guys. BTW, I know all of you are into ebooks, but if anyone wants one of the limited edition blue covered Oorts, I've got a couple left.

[dadioflex]

Edit.

[Steven Lake]

Nah, it's not shady in any way. Just an observation on what the book is trading at in the collectible books market. Now it's a far cry from what some mainstream books are trading for, but it certain beats the $5 it was trading for when it first came out.

[ImogenRose]

Who are you publishing with now?

[lene1949]

Where can I buy the collectors item for $165 or less?

[Steven Lake]

ImogenRose, I'm publishing through a small house publisher called 2 Moon Press. I really like them. They treat you like a human being, and not cattle to be exploited like the big houses do.

lene1949: Books-A-Million, a collectible book site, was the one that had it for sale at $165. But that was a couple days ago. I just checked again and they don't have it anymore. And no, I'm not trying to weezle out of showing you the link. I just don't have it anymore. Yeah, I admit I probably should have saved the link as proof, or did a screen shot, but alas, I failed to. I guess on less believable subjects like this, I should likely include such a thing for the doubters.

However, I do have a consolation prize for you. While the one that shows the $165 copy is gone, here's an amazon page showing 3 out of 4 sellers offering it for higher than list price, with one asking as much as $75 for a copy. I hope that's sufficient proof.

[dadioflex]

Edit.

[Steven Lake]

Actually, the blue cover oort is out of print. But not the regular version. There was only 207 of the blue cover version made because I originally had that published with Amazon and it went nowhere. So when I switched to 2 Moon, my current publisher, I got a new layout, new ISBN, new format (6x9 instead of 5x8), new cover, etc, and within a few weeks the book began going places in a hurry. So the previous version *is* out of print, and since I can't get anymore copies of that version made, and since only 207 exist, the old blue covered version is collectible.

Now, as for 2 Moon, yes, you do have to pay to get in the door, but after that they're no different than a big house publisher, other than the fact that they don't treat you like cattle. And they also don't take just everyone. He's actually rejected quite a few manuscripts that were either too low a quality to produce, too controversial, etc. He only charges to publish your book because he's a smaller publishing house. On top of that, he offers very personalized service. I really like how he's worked with me and others (I've seen this first hand myself) on our books.

Yes, it's not a big publishing house like Bantam who just walks in and throws a million dollar advance check at you, but at the same time you have full literary freedom and you're not told to rewrite your book based on a formula or some jacked up BS like that. And after seeing how the big houses screw both the writer and the customer (DRM, insane contracts, etc), I'm hesitant to ever bother going with one. I at one time thought I wanted a big publishing house. But after getting an inside glimpse of who they really are, that whole idea has changed drastically.

[dadioflex]

Edit.