Monday, February 20, 2012
Paper Book--Novella or Omnibus?
I talked a little bit last Thursday about preparing a paper omnibus edition of Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes once the second book is ready. Since paper books still dominate the market, I think it's important to have paper editions available. My main reason for combining the two in the paper edition is because the first book is actually a novella (about 36,000 words, compared to Twinned Universes, which is about 89,000 words). I didn't think a paper edition of a novella would be worth producing. However, after doing a little research, I found out that CreateSpace can prepare such a short book. I'm not sure yet what the pricing would be for that one or if it would be better for my reader to produce one thick book or two thinner ones. As a reader, what would your preference be? Please share it in the comment section. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to prepare the paper version, but I'd like to have at least one book ready for WisCon Memorial Day weekend.
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5 comments:
I think the shortest book I was willing to purchase in paperback was around 150pgs and I paid like 6.99 for it. I believe it was a romance. I think you should compare like genre/books/length with your pricing. Also, it's great to have both paperback and ebook available although I've sold way more in ebook this last year than paperback for my YA's.
Thanks, LM. The closest match to my book I can think of is Michelle Davidson Argyle's Cinders, which is 50 pages longer. I think that was $10. I've asked some members of BroadUniverse for their input too.
I have the print versions of my novellas at $6.99, and they do sell here and there at that price. They make nice books too...really, it's not as small/thin as you might think. I'd definitely do the two separately - the more pages you have, the more you have to charge, and 89k plus another 36k is going to be one huge, expensive trade paperback to try to sell.
Or you could do both - publish them both separately, and one omnibus as well...
All things being equal I'd prefer two separate books, but the selling point for the novella would be the biggest issue for me. If the print costs demand a higher price - more that $5 - then I'd probably feel a little unhappy with the purchase.
At the same time, I bought a novel from Charles Stross once and discovered it was really a short novel and a novella. I also felt a bit ripped off then as well. The only thing I could figure is that there is some psychological trigger that goes wonky when I'm reading a book and I know I've got 100 pages left and the story is over. It freaks me out.
Anyhow, my 2 cents.
Jamie, I like the idea of doing both an omnibus and two separate books. As long as they're clearly marked, the readers can decide which version they prefer.
Rusty, I think you make some good points. I don't want readers to think they're not getting enough pages per dollar.
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