It has been a good few weeks for the relaunch of the Louise Miller novels. All the Ebooks are now available for the first three novels (DIRTY LITTLE SECRET, FROM SORROW'S HOLD and CUT AND SHUT). Each one is also in Kindle unlimited.
The paperback and hardback for DIRTY LITTLE SECRET is now live and I'm just waiting on the proof copies for books 2 and 3 to arrive, check and then press the publish button. I had planned on releasing a book a month across March through May, but I've tweaked that plan - more about that later.
Creative Vs Business
But during this process, I became very aware of a need to find a compromise between my creative freedom as an author with that of the practical business needs as an indie publisher, and that has been a little tough. While I may have the desire to write a long manuscript (the current one was around 300 pages), I have learned that when that is formatted for physical books, it has a huge impact on the costs involved, from printing to final RRP.
Each book from the first has being longer than the last. DLS was 215 manuscript pages (around 77'000 words). In paperback that is 380 pages, with front and end matter added (copyright page, tease for other books, dedication etc). That comes at a minimum price that the book can be set at in order to still make a small profit. The larger the final book, the higher that price needs to be.
Sadly I am not a huge publishing company that can print thousands of copies of a book, thus reducing the cost per book due to volume. Not yet, anway 😉 I have to be really conscious of what the RRP of a book will be - too high and no one will buy it. The digital side I don't have to worry about and can set that at a competitive price. The physical books - there's lots to take into consideration.
How many pages of another book do you tease? How long should the story manuscript be? What size font should you format the inner pages at?
All of these drastically affect the final size of the book.
An Example
Cut And Shut, the third book, comes in at 259 story pages, with a final tally of 279 manuscript pages. This becomes 446 pages in the paperback after formatting. This means the minimum I can set the RRP for this book is £13.99 and still get into expanded distribution meaning book stores and libraries can order it. The royalty per book sold is also still at a level that is profitable for me as an author. The same goes for the hardback (which has always been a dream of mine, to see my book on a shelf in hardback form).
I could forget about book stores and libraries and set the price lower, closer to the £9.99 mark, but that would cut out a potential huge audience. I've only three books done, with the fourth on the way, but I have nine books planned, with the potential for many more, so I have to think long term as opposed to short term sales. This is the part most authors don't like to discuss, but it's a harsh reality. This is a business and I need to be able to provide for my family through the sales of the books, and so I have to be very conscious of the size of those books.
Now one factor which will be greatly affecting the page count is the size of the font. In the first two editions of the books, the font was a little small I thought, not so small as to be unreadable, but certainly not the same size as other books in the genre. During the formatting and layout process, I increased the font by 1 point, taking it from 300 pages to 380. This then is a huge knock on affecting cover design, pricing etc.
But £13.99 is higher than the usual price for a book in the same genre. Again, I say that is mainly down to the fact that publishers print thousands of copies in a run which reduces the cost-per-book. Mine, for the most part, will be printed on demand.
Where I can get the price lowered is by offering direct sales at events or through my website. I can buy author copies (at a lower price) and sell them below RRP to a certain point and still make a profit, and that is where I think the vast majority of my physical sales will be made.
But this is again warring with my creative expression, putting artificial constraints around how I conceive and write a new book. Already I am now doing very hard edits on the manuscript of book 4, 'TIL IT BLEEDS, to whittle it down from the 300 pages it currently is to 260 pages. Certain subplots are being condensced or even thrown out entirely. That will allow me to set the paperback at £12.99 and the hardback at £17.99 - which are really the highest I want to go with them in terms of pricing.
I've started work on outlining book 5 and set it at a maximum 260 pages for story. I was hoping to write an even longer book with this one - as there's a lot potentially going on - but as a business I have to be realistic. I can't just write long books and hope readers will pay the higher prices - certainly not in this current, and seemingly never ending, chaotic economy.
The good thing about setting a limit to the story though, is that it keeps me focused. Word choice, sentence structure, story structure. I mentioned above about throwing out certain subplots from book 4. This was a hard choice, but knowing I needed to cut to hit a page count meant I could look very harshly at these things and really decide how important they were. Could I do the same thing, achieve the same emotional beats without these 10 pages scattered through the book?
It all plays into the final book and will help create a "brand". When you buy a Louise Miller novel, you know it's going to be of a certain length (just look at books by Rachel Maclean or Lin Anderson - they are roughly the same length in the same way that thriller movies are usually at the 105 to 120 minute mark).
It's a fine balancing act, and one I'm getting better at with each book.
You can buy the paperbacks and hardbacks now direct from me - see the link above.
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