It's Not All Gone Pete Tong

Last night saw me back in Borders, dropping off copies of 'Maranatha'. Now on display (and sitting next to Alasdair Gray, of all people) on a nice big table full of interesting books. A happy conclusion to a rather cold Monday.

The unexpected task of the night was in penning (literally – with a big fat felt-tip) a bit of blurb for the nice friendly recommendations that Borders slip around many of their books. Feeling distinctly on the spot, my mind went almost blank before I managed to concoct some lumbering tag line along the tracks of “…a twisted conspiracy of magic, murder, religion and madness!” Well, let’s say I’ll never laugh again at another TV game show contestant who blurts out some ludicrous answer while in the spotlight. I guess this is why so many writers hire PR agents to do their publicity for them…

I didn't know beforehand how Borders' pricing structure worked, so was quite pleasantly surprised when we managed to haggle their commission rate as 15% (normally 30-50%, apparently). That left me in the position of wondering what to charge for copies, but we settled on 6.99 – though I get the impression this was considered to be a bit low. I don't mind breaking even on this project - it should teach me the essential hows and whys of pricing and negotiation for any future releases. (And speaking of future releases...the second release from Fenriswulf, the local writer anthology, ought to be out in Borders, and online, before the end of this year. More info on that in the next post!)

The truly great thing about POD (Print on Demand) is that one need never have to put up with stacks of books cluttering up the house, the toilet, the garden shed, and unlike G P Taylor, doesn't require a home remortgage and the sale of a prized motorbike to cover the print costs (plus, I already sold my old Yamaha XS 650 last year...). So, in the event that Borders sell out and request more, I just hit the appropriate button at lulu.com and order up another bunch. And if they don't shift, then I don't have to worry about debt collectors kicking my door in next month, and I still have some books I can punt off elsewhere.

Sold a few more copies online too, it seems. This time in the US. Blimey, it hasn’t gone all Pete Tong yet…what’s going on?!