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Flying Chipmunk Comic Press

Comic/Manga Book Pricing
for Self-Publishing Authors

All interior paper is acid-free archival-quality
Cover stock is acid-free archival-quality and laminated.
 
Number of Pages
(even numbers only)
Retail Price = The discounts are for Amazon & B&N  (30%)
 and Bookstore sales (>55%).


 Book Interior Pages For definitions of terms, see below.
Black-and-White
Standard color
Premium color
Small Paperback Author's PROFIT
Please see Flying Chipmunk Comics Press small paperback page and cover specifications below. 30% discount
off Retail
after discount PROFIT
55% discount
off Retail
after discount PROFIT

Large Paperback  Author's PROFIT

Please see Flying Chipmunk Comics Press large paperback page and cover specifications below.  30% discount
off Retail
after discount PROFIT
55% discount
off Retail
after discount PROFIT

Definitions:
Pages vs Sheets

A common mistake for publishing novices is page count; that is, the confusion between sheets and pages. Sheets and pages are NOT the same. 

Paper is manufactured in sheets. When you hold a blank piece of paper you’re holding a sheet, not just a page. A sheet of paper has two sides — the front side and the back side. When you print on paper you have two pages — the front is page one, the back is page two. In printing, by definition, a page is always one side of a sheet.

If you draw 24 pages for your book then you need to order a 24 page book (which will use 12 sheets of paper — one drawing for each side of the sheet of paper, and thus two pages).  If you intend that the back-side of each drawing should be a blank page, then you have to order a 48-page book.

Don’t count the front and back covers. The cover is a separate issue as it is always a single double-wide sheet of paper with full-color printing on one side only.

Retail Price
What price should it be? There is no cut-and-dried method of pricing, it all depends on the intended market. The best gauge of pricing is to go to a bookstore and examine similar books. Select books as close as possible to the physical size and type of your proposed book (page count, black-and-white, color, etc.), and use that as a starting point. If there are any doubts, ask the bookstore owner for advice: explain your proposed book (number of pages, color or not, physical size) and ask him/her what they would expect such a book to be priced at given their experience with their customers. This might also be a way to get the books directly into a local bookstore when they are printed. Buying directly from the author with a 30-40% discount is better than dealing with Ingram or other distributors for some bookstore owners. If you do deliver books to the bookstore, offer to autograph them — Signed books are more valuable, plus bookstores understand that signed copies are not returnable!
Retail vs Discounts

Your profit is always the difference between what you sell your book for and what you paid for the book. Reducing that profit, though, are the costs of getting and delivering the books to the final customers. As a result, you should always try to anticipate your direct fulfillment costs (things such as shipping costs to get the books, and then the cost of shipping envelopes/boxes, packing materials, address labels, packing slips, and the time it takes to prepare and send the books to the final customer--these, all told, can easily add up to $2.00 to the cost of the book to you--assuming the customer pays for shipping charges).

Flying Chipmunk Comics Press offers the services of selling the books through other channels, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor; as well as supporting direct bookstore purchases. These secondary services require that the book be sold to them at a discount from the normal retail price offered by you. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., will not list a book unless they have a 30% discount off the Retail price. While this does reduce your profits, being able to sell your book everywhere through Amazon and Barnes & Noble adds a convenience to customers that can add substantially to your sales.

Bookstores purchase their books from distributors like Baker & Taylor and Ingram Distributors. If the book has only a 30% discount available, B&T and Ingram offer the book to bookstores with only a 5% discount. This low profit means most bookstores will purchase the book only if a customer specifically orders it. B&T and  Ingram will give a 30% discount to bookstores only if they themselves receive a 55-65% discount first. So, if you want to have bookstores carry you book, you will have to make it available with a minimum 55% discount. This is not a split discount between Amazon and B&N, and Ingram and B&T, the discount is the same to all of them.

Page Specifications
Black-and-White Books
Small Paperback
Sizes available are: 5x8, 5.5x8.5, 6x9, and 7.5x9.25
Interior pages are printed on #55 white paper
Cover stock is #90 white laminated
Large Paperback
Sizes available are: 7x10 and 8.5x11
Interior pages are printed on #55 white interior paper,
7x10 cover stock is #90 white laminated
8.5x11 Cover stock is #80 white laminated
Standard Color Books
Small Paperback
Sizes available are: 5x8, 5.5x8,.5 6x9, and 7.5x9.25
Interior pages are printed on #50 white paper
Cover stock is #90 white laminated
Large Paperback
Sizes available are: 7x10 and 8.5x11
Interior pages are printed on #50 white paper
Cover stock is #90 white laminated
Premium Color Books
Small Paperback
Only 5.5x8.5 is available
Interior pages are printed on #70 white paper
Cover stock is #80 white laminated
Large Paperback
Sizes available are: 7x10 and 8.5x11
Interior pages are printed on #70 white paper
Cover stock is #80 white laminated
Copyright © 2012 by Terry Kepner, All Rights Reserved

 



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