Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Formatter's Forge [Public] => Topic started by: Post-Doctorate D on August 06, 2022, 02:37:15 AM
-
What size do you use for your paperbacks?
According to Amazon, 6" x 9" is the most common size (U.S.) but that seems weird to me. The 5.06" x 7.81" is the closest to the mass market paperback size of 4.25" x 6.87" which I would think is the most common size because paperbacks that size seem to be everywhere.
The larger 6" x 9" size seems more like a textbook and, I don't know, do readers want to be reminded of typically boring textbooks when the package arrives with your book?
So, I lean towards the 5.06" x 7.81" size but wanted to see what others are doing.
-
I use 5x8.
That's the normal here in Australia now as far as I can tell. Unless it's mass market coming out of the US.
Personally I find it big, but mass market size is not available on Amazon.
It's nearly an inch higher and half an inch wider than all my mass market books.
-
Well, formatting for paperback is a lot quicker than formatting for the eBook.
-
I used to go 5.06" x 7.81" size but I'm switching to 6 x 9 for a few reasons.
- It's a common size that all the printers offer. For example, Lulu Express doesn't offer the 5.06 x 7.81 and now I'm looking at a cost and hassle to rebuild my wrap covers for a new printer.
- It's an overlap size with the hardbacks offered by Amazon, so you can make hardback covers without too much extra effort. (i have yet to do this)
- It allows for easy-to-read print without making the book too fat, and fat books tend to drive up the print cost.
- the 6 x 9 paperbacks match my e-book cover dimensions perfectly, so I don't need to rejigger elements on a cover to fit a narrower height/width ratio.
I agree they look a bit big but they're still comfortable enough to read and carry. Anything that standardizes production and makes my job faster/cheaper/easier is a bonus these days. :)
Wonder
-
5.25 x 8. I went to a bookstore and measured other trade books and decided that was the size I would feel comfortable reading. To me, 6 x 9 for paper is unwieldy. Also, my 50k books would look like pamphlets.
-
5.25 x 8. I went to a bookstore and measured other trade books and decided that was the size I would feel comfortable reading. To me, 6 x 9 for paper is unwieldy. Also, my 50k books would look like pamphlets.
This...
R.C.
-
Well, formatting for paperback is a lot quicker than formatting for the eBook.
:icon_think: :shrug
I only ever formatted 1 eBook. My first. After that, I uses/use the same file as the last book as a template, resaved to the new book and the old book deleted out.
Formatting for paperback I've found impossible. I use D2D for that. I'd like to do 3 colour books, but D2D don't support colour, so I can't.
I've no idea how you could consider paperback formatting quicker.
The only use I have for 6 x 9 is when either the images in the book are too big for anything smaller, or the book is so long you need the extra page size to fit it into the page limit. I have 2 6x9s as a result. And 1 9x11. But they're not novels.
Back when 6x9 started coming out, I got several because I was desperate for the books. They caused me all sorts of pain to read. Now I have them on kindle, and the books are basically doorstops now.
-
I've no idea who you could consider paperback formatting quicker.
I took my Pages document, changed the document size to the paperback size and redefined my styles to the fonts and font sizes I wanted. Then check the page count and adjust margins as indicated in KDP's specifications. Tweak as needed. Boom. Done. Just need to export to PDF.
Didn't even need to lay it out in InDesign like I did with a previous book that I printed myself.
-
I took my Pages document, changed the document size to the paperback size and redefined my styles to the fonts and font sizes I wanted. Then check the page count and adjust margins as indicated in KDP's specifications. Tweak as needed. Boom. Done. Just need to export to PDF.
You lost me at adjust margins.
The whole left right gutter thing is totally beyond me.
Ebook is modify normal style for indent and paragraph gap, and modify heading 1 for center and font size. Done. Use the same file as a template forever.
-
You lost me at adjust margins.
The whole left right gutter thing is totally beyond me.
Just be glad you don't have to calculate the margins based on each page's location in its signature.
Ebook is modify normal style for indent and paragraph gap, and modify heading 1 for center and font size. Done. Use the same file as a template forever.
I do the HTML myself so it takes longer. I have my styles set in Pages but I export from there to HTML, then I need to clean up the HTML and then I manually make the ePub. Upside is that apparently I no longer need to create a .mobi file anymore. But that all takes a while. A couple hours or more, I think.
-
I do the HTML myself so it takes longer. I have my styles set in Pages but I export from there to HTML, then I need to clean up the HTML and then I manually make the ePub. Upside is that apparently I no longer need to create a .mobi file anymore. But that all takes a while. A couple hours or more, I think.
I honestly don't get that.
I write in Word. I upload docx.
I do a quick set of changes to the doc for the paperback (mainly removing things which don't print well), upload to D2D, then download the pdf, upload to Amazon.
No time at all for the eBook, and about 2 minutes for the paperback, once I get things like images set properly if there are any.
If I had to spend a couple of hours formatting paperbacks each, they would never have been done.
The longest part of paperbacks is the cover, and I've got that down to a well used method now, at about 15 minutes each. (Except when I get something wrong and have to redo it.)
-
My paperbacks are 5.5 by 8.5; except my omnibus boxed set which is 650 pages, smaller print, and sized at 6 by 9.
I don't like 6 by 9. It's a personal preference. There's plenty of books in my genre that are 6 by 9, but I like the feel of a smaller book on the shelf and in my hands. 5.25 by 8 and 5.5 by 8.5 are just more comfy for me.
There's an advantage with 6 by 9 though. It can save money because printing costs can be cut down. Also, my books average 250 to 300 pages. Some of you write larger books in the 400-500 page range. For that, 6 by 9 makes more sense (that's why my collection is 6 by 9).
Genre is a consideration too.
-
The paperback I think I can get down to a half hour or less. Yesterday was my first attempt to do it in Pages so took longer trying to find where the various settings were.
When I did one in InDesign a few years ago, I don't remember how long it took. I don't think it took too awful long but I don't remember for sure.
The eBooks take me longer. I've never timed it though. I follow the instructions that someone had on their website ten years ago. They may have been a member on the other forum. I've modified the routine since then and have written scripts to make it faster. Goal is to write something that would actually automate much of it. I've been doing it partially wrong anyway, so doing it right ought to speed things up a little. Maybe I'll time it when I do this one.
-
I follow the instructions that someone had on their website ten years ago. They may have been a member on the other forum. I've modified the routine since then and have written scripts to make it faster. Goal is to write something that would actually automate much of it. I've been doing it partially wrong anyway, so doing it right ought to speed things up a little. Maybe I'll time it when I do this one.
The smashwords guide to styles? https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/52/1/smashwords-style-guide
-
I follow the instructions that someone had on their website ten years ago.
:icon_eek:
You're following instructions from 2012?
But everything has changed since then. Literally everything.
Back when I started in 2015, you had to convert the docx into html, then zip it up, to upload it.
Now you just upload the docx.
The last change to docx was the contents instructions, which create the dynamic contents for the kindle top menu.
As I keep telling people on Quora, anything older than 6 months is out of date.
Instructions 10 years old? OMG :eek:
-
I one of Joel Friedlander's inexpensive templates and, w/the proper license, reuse it so I don't have to think about anything tech for ppbk. I prefer not thinking tech.
-
I use 5.25x8 for all of my pbooks over 250 pages on both Amazon and Ingram. If it's anything less wordwise, I use 4.25x7 on Ingram.
Amazon's templates don't offer a 4.25x7. If I do an Amazon custom size, will it cost more?
-
I follow the instructions that someone had on their website ten years ago.
:icon_eek:
You're following instructions from 2012?
But everything has changed since then. Literally everything.
What I create is an EPUB file.
The EPUB 3 specification was released in 2011.
EPUB 3.1 came in 2017 but broke backwards compatibility. Version 3.2 came in 2019 and restored backwards compatibility. Version 3.3 came out this year.
So, basically, everything I'm doing is fine. EPUB 3.3 appears to standardize the format for better accessibility options so I'll need to see if I need to make any tweaks to my process to bring it up to 3.3 but that's probably not a big deal.
EPUB is basically a package for HTML and HTML isn't complex. A lot of my process is cleaning up all the unnecessary HTML crud generated when word processing documents are exported to HTML. That way, I get smaller files.
Previously, I would take my EPUB and convert it to .mobi before uploading to Amazon. It now appears that I can skip that step. So that will be the only major change in what I've been doing.
-
Why do you need an epub for Amazon?
Just curious.
-
I use 5x8 because my books tend to be around 50k words and the spines would look too skinny in 6x9. Also because I've used the same size for a dozen years now and like to keep consistent across my catalog.
-
Why do you need an epub for Amazon?
Because evidently I don't need to create a .mobi file anymore?
-
Why do you need an epub for Amazon?
Because evidently I don't need to create a .mobi file anymore?
As far as I know, you never needed to in the first place.
Mobi was the end result from Amazon's end, not what you upload. I used to download that file for side loading.
-
Why do you need an epub for Amazon?
Because evidently I don't need to create a .mobi file anymore?
As far as I know, you never needed to in the first place.
Mobi was the end result from Amazon's end, not what you upload. I used to download that file for side loading.
I've never downloaded a .mobi from Amazon. I used KindleGen to create the .mobi file that I uploaded.
-
Given everyone's responses, there doesn't seem to be a standard answer so I'm going to stick with my original inclination of 5.06" x 7.81".
Is there a recommended resolution? I did my cover at 600 dpi, but my original art is ridiculously large, so I can up that to 1200 dpi if need be. I have one black and white image for the inside. Is 600 dpi good there or do I need to go higher?
-
Given everyone's responses, there doesn't seem to be a standard answer so I'm going to stick with my original inclination of 5.06" x 7.81".
Is there a recommended resolution? I did my cover at 600 dpi, but my original art is ridiculously large, so I can up that to 1200 dpi if need be. I have one black and white image for the inside. Is 600 dpi good there or do I need to go higher?
Is it black-and-white as in a continuous-tone greyscale image, like a photo? Or is it black-and-white as in pure 100% black or completely white, like line art? If it's the former, I'd go 300; if it's the latter, I'd go like 900+.
-
Given everyone's responses, there doesn't seem to be a standard answer so I'm going to stick with my original inclination of 5.06" x 7.81".
Is there a recommended resolution? I did my cover at 600 dpi, but my original art is ridiculously large, so I can up that to 1200 dpi if need be. I have one black and white image for the inside. Is 600 dpi good there or do I need to go higher?
Is it black-and-white as in a continuous-tone greyscale image, like a photo? Or is it black-and-white as in pure 100% black or completely white, like line art? If it's the former, I'd go 300; if it's the latter, I'd go like 900+.
It's a photo.
-
Given everyone's responses, there doesn't seem to be a standard answer so I'm going to stick with my original inclination of 5.06" x 7.81".
Is there a recommended resolution? I did my cover at 600 dpi, but my original art is ridiculously large, so I can up that to 1200 dpi if need be. I have one black and white image for the inside. Is 600 dpi good there or do I need to go higher?
Is it black-and-white as in a continuous-tone greyscale image, like a photo? Or is it black-and-white as in pure 100% black or completely white, like line art? If it's the former, I'd go 300; if it's the latter, I'd go like 900+.
It's a photo.
I wouldn't bother going higher than 300dpi in that case. You'll not likely see any benefit in 600dpi for a grayscale photo on the inside.
-
Well, fingers-crossed, with any luck, I might be publishing a book tomorrow. The eBook first. Just need to do the final ePub compilation, generation and validation then that's done and hopefully Amazon accepts it. If not, maybe I can sneak the .mobi in.
The paperback is formatted. Just have to export it to a PDF. Cover is done too unless I do some final tweaks tonight. I'll have to get a proof copy and all that before the paperback can go live, so there will be a lag between the eBook going up and the paperback going up, but I think that's okay since none of my other books have paperbacks at all.
-
Well, fingers-crossed, with any luck, I might be publishing a book tomorrow.
Congrats! :banana:
-
Well, fingers-crossed, with any luck, I might be publishing a book tomorrow. The eBook first. Just need to do the final ePub compilation, generation and validation then that's done and hopefully Amazon accepts it. If not, maybe I can sneak the .mobi in.
Well, it took longer than expected and at times I feared this book might never be published, but the ePub is finally done and validated and Apple's Books app opens it without issue. Next step will be to see if Amazon accepts it.
And I might decide to replace the JPEG and GIF images with PNGs first because I don't like how they show up in dark mode.
-
Well, fingers-crossed, with any luck, I might be publishing a book tomorrow. The eBook first. Just need to do the final ePub compilation, generation and validation then that's done and hopefully Amazon accepts it. If not, maybe I can sneak the .mobi in.
Well, it took longer than expected and at times I feared this book might never be published, but the ePub is finally done and validated and Apple's Books app opens it without issue. Next step will be to see if Amazon accepts it.
And I might decide to replace the JPEG and GIF images with PNGs first because I don't like how they show up in dark mode.
Amazon does not support PNG images, and just converts them to JPG if they exist in your ebook.
-
And I might decide to replace the JPEG and GIF images with PNGs first because I don't like how they show up in dark mode.
Amazon does not support PNG images, and just converts them to JPG if they exist in your ebook.
Instructions 10 years old? OMG :eek:
Amazon doesn't support a format that's been around for 25 years? OMG. :eek:
:icon_rofl:
-
And I might decide to replace the JPEG and GIF images with PNGs first because I don't like how they show up in dark mode.
Amazon does not support PNG images, and just converts them to JPG if they exist in your ebook.
Instructions 10 years old? OMG :eek:
Amazon doesn't support a format that's been around for 25 years? OMG. :eek:
:icon_rofl:
Correct. Also the EPUB3 spec debuted around ten years ago, EPUB2 (still in very wide use) more like 15. Things don’t change all that quickly in this area.
-
The eBook is in "Publishing" status while the paperback is "In Review" status. The paperback is going to be ridiculously expensive and even at that my royalty is paltry. I'm guessing Amazon is making money off what they list as the print cost so they make out pretty good.
-
Well, shoot. Now I am probably going to have to redo all my eBooks. The ePub I uploaded for my space opera looks good in the "Look Inside" unlike the "Look Inside" for all my other books which displayed wonky even though the Previewer showed them fine. And the cover shows up so much crisper than all my other covers despite having used high resolution versions for all of them.
Will probably redo the eBooks one at a time as I do paperbacks for each one.
-
Oy. I had the bleed set 0.033" (which is about 1/32") too small on my cover, which the Previewer showed as fine yesterday, so it got rejected. That amounts to 1/64" top and bottom which basically means it would never have been a problem because if the cover was trimmed that far off for it to be a problem, that cover would have looked off-centered or crooked as heck.
Anyway, fixed now. So, back to "In Review" status.
At least the eBook is available, not that anyone's buying. But I haven't sent to my list yet either or put in on my website. Plan on sending to my list once the paperback is available, not that anyone will buy that expensive thing, but it will make the eBook look like a steal.
-
Oy. I had the bleed set 0.033" (which is about 1/32") too small on my cover
Err, why not use the templates?
I use them as an assembly background, then hide it when doing the pdf. As long as you put everything in the right place, and use the right template, you don't get that sort of problem.
-
Oy. I had the bleed set 0.033" (which is about 1/32") too small on my cover
Err, why not use the templates?
I use them as an assembly background, then hide it when doing the pdf. As long as you put everything in the right place, and use the right template, you don't get that sort of problem.
I did use the template. But the line marking the edge of the template shows up about the same size as the tiny 0.0165" gap in the background image on the top and bottom.
-
I did use the template. But the line marking the edge of the template shows up about the same size as the tiny 0.0165" gap in the background image on the top and bottom.
I use a background image which can be dragged out in any direction. Makes it easier to fit.
Then I fit the actual images into the slots, within the white areas. No loss of image to the book cutters either.
-
I use 5 x 8 because anything else looks too big and too skinny (my books are about 60-65,000 words). Unfortunately the smallest Amazon hardcovers are slightly bigger, so I have to re-format for those, but it's not a big deal. Because my books all tend to be about the same length, I have a trusty template that I can use over and over. Same goes for the cover, which I do on Canva.
-
5.25 x 8
This is what I've chosen to go for. It used to be the recommended size, not sure when the 6 x 9 stuff came in. I've gone back and forth on going smaller, but I had to make a choice. lol My books tend to be about 55K words, so don't want to be too large and have them look skimpy.
-
Same here. I also use glossy covers, which I believe hides a lot of imperfections and reminds readers that these are genre books. The genre mass market paperbacks I grew up reading were all glossy.
-
I've been using the 5.06" x 7.81" size which I've been happy with. It's the closest to the mass market paperback size of 4.25" x 6.87" that Amazon doesn't offer.
I have been using the matte covers though. It's a nicer feel. It does show fingerprints but I've found they can be cleaned off.
-
Same here. I also use glossy covers, which I believe hides a lot of imperfections and reminds readers that these are genre books. The genre mass market paperbacks I grew up reading were all glossy.
I also like the glossy covers best, as a reader and a publisher. :)
My current size for paperbacks is 5 x 8 but I have a pen name where I use 5.5 x 8.5 and I like it so much better. If I ever redo my paperbacks, I'll go with it for everything. It handles both fatter and thinner books well. The 5 x 8 was great for the 50k word long books I intended to write (and I do have a few) but it is a terrible choice for all the 90k+ long books I've ended up writing. I like comfortable margins, leading, and text that is 11.5 to 12 pt. That puts my longer books in the 400+ page range and forces me to occasionally drop down to 11 pt.
-
I leave my size the same for my 50k and my 100k books. The women's fiction readers expect a fat book. Sweet romance readers are used to much skinnier books since most sweet romances are short reads.
I haven't experimented with my couple of freebie novellas as paperbacks yet. Those might come across as pamphlets at the 5.25 x 8 size. I haven't been in physical bookstores enough in recent years to know if trad pubs still occasionally hand out freebie shorts, and if they do, if these sample books still are in mass market size as they historically have been. Anybody seen any?
-
Silly question, but I can't get my head around it. If your cover is 6 x 9, is the 3.2mm bleed area placed inside or outside that 6 x 9?
-
Silly question, but I can't get my head around it. If your cover is 6 x 9, is the 3.2mm bleed area placed inside or outside that 6 x 9?
Outside. The bleed area extends past the intended print size. That's to allow for any movement of the paper through the press. Without the bleed, you'd run the risk of uneven white edges or borders if the image printed slightly off on the paper or if the cut was slightly off.
-
Silly question, but I can't get my head around it. If your cover is 6 x 9, is the 3.2mm bleed area placed inside or outside that 6 x 9?
Outside. The bleed area extends past the intended print size. That's to allow for any movement of the paper through the press. Without the bleed, you'd run the risk of uneven white edges or borders if the image printed slightly off on the paper or if the cut was slightly off.
Ah! Now I get it. Thanks!
-
Silly question, but I can't get my head around it. If your cover is 6 x 9, is the 3.2mm bleed area placed inside or outside that 6 x 9?
Outside. The bleed area extends past the intended print size. That's to allow for any movement of the paper through the press. Without the bleed, you'd run the risk of uneven white edges or borders if the image printed slightly off on the paper or if the cut was slightly off.
That's why I use the downloaded template.
I use a solid colour background which gets stretched to the edges, then the images placed over the top in the correct places.
When there's printing error, it's usually in that solid background colour section.
-
I feel as if I've said this in another thread, but size is mostly a matter of preference. We should each do what seems right to us.
Personally, I'm a 6 X 9 guy. Aside from one book (which no longer has a paperback), the works I have in paperback are all long enough that the size doesn't seem odd to me.
I've had a lot of experience with print books. I've accumulated at least seven thousand of them--don't judge!--and I have them shelved mostly by size to avoid wasting space. In the old days when I still had room and used to reshelf once a year to incorporate new purchases, it was hard not to notice that 6 X 9 was by far the most common size. It is true that the total includes various genres, including nonfiction, as well as hard covers, Still, 6 X 9 was big even in the genre in which I write. The second biggest were the mass-market paperbacks of old, which were smaller. In the days in which I bought a lot of them, they were literally pocket books--they fit in your pocket.
It's also worth noting that the print costs are determined by number of pages, not size of pages. That means a slightly larger print size is slightly less expensive to produce.
-
I'm a mass market girl myself, having realized early on that (a) I didn't have the money to buy hardcovers and (b) my reading tastes ran to original paperback fiction or cheap classic reprints. I enjoy the fact that my Agatha Christie collection is of many different publication eras and origins. I have mapbacks and foreign editions and books by multiple publishers and they're all mass market but slightly different sizes. (Dell always did a shorter book than the standard until their Candlelight series, for instance).
The sizes don't matter; it's the amount of space they take up that's the issue. I know more than one person who keeps many thousands of books--in fact, we all probably do if we know lots of writers. Many of us never met a book we didn't find fascinating. One friend even has a separate building for his collection, all the shelves neatly organized. The only episode of the Bob Newhart show that I ever watched was about a bookcase someone had built in--whose shelves were too close together to accommodate any books standing upright. That's an issue with 6 x 9 books, not so much with 5.25 x 8.
-
Good point about shelves. I always buy bookcases in which most of the shelves are adjustable and/or fairly spacious to begin with. However, I also shelve most of them on their sides because, with the right shelf sizes, it can be more space efficient.
I turned my open-air patio (which I never used) into a room some time ago, and most of my collection is stored there.
-
Good point about shelves. I always buy bookcases in which most of the shelves are adjustable and/or fairly spacious to begin with. However, I also shelve most of them on their sides because, with the right shelf sizes, it can be more space efficient.
I had my shelves custom made for a maximum size of 6x9. They hold them, smaller books, and dvd cases very efficiently. Bottom area was larger for large hardbacks.
-
I have a variety of bookshelves and bookcases, but the mainstay for many years has been Hirsh metal shelving bought at the hardware store and utterly adjustable. Not the newer stuff, which is weaker and not particularly versatile, but the older. I've reconfigured them in a million ways and taken them completely apart for storage many times.
The truth is I no longer collect books. I'm slowly getting rid of my large collection of genre romances. Eventually, even Agatha Christie has to go. I have held onto hers with the fantasy that they're the perfect books to leave in a beach house or forest cabin or other seldom-visited locale where some entertainment might be welcome if it rains. Alas, I do not have a beach house or forest cabin. I should write about one.
-
The truth is I no longer collect books. I'm slowly getting rid of my large collection...
Me, too. I only buy books I expect to reread and shed anything not read in a long while. With the goal of keeping just 100 books on my shelves (well, maybe 200) that I will reread until the universe flips my switch.
-
I have to correct what I said about print prices. Amazon's announcement of printing cost changes, effective on June 20, differentiates between regular print sizes and large print sizes. Interestingly, 6 X 9, which Amazon always advertised as the norm, is now a large print size. That means a somewhat higher fixed cost and cost per page. It's hard to know exactly how much of the difference the cost per page will cause, as 6 X 9 would have somewhat fewer pages than smaller time sizes.
Amazon is offering a bulk price update for people who want to make the same royalty after the change as they did before. You can find the link to it and a link to the table showing the new print costs near the top of your bookshelf page. Particularly if you have a lot of titles, it would be good to do the bulk update. As KDP says it may take several weeks, and the price change is only a little over a month away, I'd suggest initiating the process now if you're going to.
I selected the bulk update, but I'll see how it turns out. If the prices end up being outrageously high, I'll tinker after the update is finished. I don't sell many paperbacks anyway. They exist mostly as a convenience for my readers. I'll just have to see how it shakes out.
-
Amazon's announcement of printing cost changes, effective on June 20,
What announcement?
I've seen nothing from them on this.
-
The announcement is near the top of the bookshelf, right below the link to view your quality issues dashboard.
Unless the announcement itself is rolling out gradually, it should be there.
Actually, I noticed it by accident. If you're used to the same basic announcements being up there, it's easy to miss.
-
The announcement is near the top of the bookshelf, right below the link to view your quality issues dashboard.
Unless the announcement itself is rolling out gradually, it should be there.
Actually, I noticed it by accident. If you're used to the same basic announcements being up there, it's easy to miss.
I wasn't due to go in there again for another couple of weeks. Haven't been in there this month at all.
-
Well, now might be a good time. I suspect a lot of people are going to flip the bulk update switch at the last minute and bog down the system. Do it now, and the prices might be correct when the printing costs go up.
What I'd like to do is go back in time and make all my paperbacks a slightly smaller size. Unfortunately, doing it now means adjustment costs for all the covers and some time fiddling with the manuscripts (but not much, thanks to Vellum). I'm not sure it would be worth it. I'm not sure how fast my cover designer could do it, anyway.
-
Actually, I like my paperbacks being round .95 numbers.
Looks like I'm going to have to redo all of them manually one by one. Erk.
-
When I first started, I copied the layout of other books. So I used prices on my back cover. I have been planning to redo some covers for a while to get rid of prices so I can make price changes when I want. Guess that time is now.
-
Actually, I like my paperbacks being round .95 numbers.
Looks like I'm going to have to redo all of them manually one by one. Erk.
I like .99 myself. But it might be worth waiting until Amazon does its automatic update and then make what fixes are necessary. Otherwise, you're going to have to do all the price calculations manually to get to about the same amount. If I were you, I'd let Amazon do that part for you, leaving you to have to do only the rounding.
-
Got an email just now.
I think the bulk change is the way to go, and then after the date, manually re-tweak all of them.
-
Thanks for the information. I chose the bulk update.
A long time ago, trade paperbacks were all even dollar prices. The hardcovers were the ones with the odd numbers, like $12.95 (I did say a long time ago). I've been pricing my paperbacks starting at $12.99 and always ending in 99 cents, but maybe it's time to revisit that paradigm. KDP's automatic worldwide pricing results in very odd numbers as it is. I usually have to manually adjust them for the English-speaking countries where I get 99.9% of my sales.
-
It used to be said that having uniform prices (like always ending in the same number) was attractive to prospective buyers. I wonder if that's still true.
-
Most people mentally round down from 99 cents even though they should round up. My prices ending in 99 cents are meant to take advantage of that error, since Amazon is the bargain basement of ebookstores and customers want to see low prices. They see a mirage of their own making.
It would be interesting to price the books higher on other bookstores by a penny in order to look classier, except I don't think anybody makes that mental distinction anymore--not since NYTimes best sellers routinely became discounted at most big bookstores.
-
When Amazon said the the bulk update would take several weeks, that was pessimistic. Mine was done yesterday, though it may take a little longer to show in the stores. I haven't yet looked this morning.
My prices all end in .24 or .75 now. Oh, one is .00. And the prices are the new ones in the US store. Now I have to think about how I want them to look.
-
I just opted for the bulk price update too. Got paperbacks and hardcovers at very odd prices also. Like $23.24 :shrug. There goes the "_.99" thing.
I'm gonna leave it because my prices tend to get weird from price matching anyway. Not to mention, if you set it as "_.99" it will only show up as such in your originating country after converting to foreign currencies internationally.
-
I just opted for the bulk price update too. Got paperbacks and hardcovers at very odd prices also. Like $23.24
Can you give some examples of old price - new price?
I've not had a look at it yet.
-
It appears to be only a tiny mark-up so it might not be worth it for you to bother. As far as I can tell, it appears to only by an increase in about $.25 USD. The Guardian was set at $8.99. Now it's $9.24. This is a novella. But my larger books were also only increased by .25: Broomstick $14.99 to $15.24 for the paperback; $22.99 to $23.24 for the hardcover. If I had known it was such a small amount, I wouldn't have done it.
Like I said above, I'm not going to change anything because the price drops from Amazon's price matching anyway. Broomstick, for instance, was selling on Amazon for $11-something. So keeping it at _.99 is a hopeless endeavor.
The only positive from the bulk price increase is that it raised the very low-priced paperbacks that were dropping some of my ebook prices. For now. Until it's price-matched again. Those of you who are running into that algorithm AI mess might want to do it just to fix that alone.
-
I just rounded the new prices on a couple of my books. Made the EU a flat 14 euros, and so on. But then I hit the KDP button that said "Publish my books" and that means--I presume--that my books will be reviewed all over again. Should I just save as draft? Or back out? Or close the tab?
-
I just rounded the new prices on a couple of my books. Made the EU a flat 14 euros, and so on. But then I hit the KDP button that said "Publish my books" and that means--I presume--that my books will be reviewed all over again. Should I just save as draft? Or back out? Or close the tab?
I'm not sure how to advise you. In the US, I just checked off "bulk price update". I wasn't given any prices until it was done.
-
I just rounded the new prices on a couple of my books. Made the EU a flat 14 euros, and so on. But then I hit the KDP button that said "Publish my books" and that means--I presume--that my books will be reviewed all over again. Should I just save as draft? Or back out? Or close the tab?
It also says that, but if you're just changing prices, I've seen no evidence that the book goes through a complete review. In any case, price changes post very rapidly, at least when Amazon is having a good day.
-
Mine went up a little more than .25 because they're 6 X 9, so there's a little extra charge for that. Even so, I think it's only about 1.25. Considering that shifting to a smaller trim size would increase the number of pages, the net increase from the size is probably not that large. Anyway, I can certainly live with it.
I think--because with Amazon, there's no way to be sure--that Amazon automatically changes prices in international stores (those other than your home store) when exchange rates change. Every time I go to do a price drop for a BookFunnel sales promotion, the EU prices are different than they were before. (I know because the EU regular price is part of my BookFunnel page, and I have to make a small change to reflect the Amazon price change every single time.) I'm sure the other international markets shift as well. That suggests that trying to even out prices in international markets really is futile.
-
Ah, size changes the rate. That makes sense. The ones I was looking at are 5.5 by 8.5.
-
I did receive the notifications very quickly from KDP that my book was published, so maybe it doesn't go into full review when only a price change is involved.
I like to manually even out the prices for some of the international markets, and for the U.S. market the only advantage I see of leaving it at an odd number is customers might think that's a discounted price. But they might also think it was a third party offering, with all the attendant negative possibilities.
Guess I will go through and update the rest of the bulk-changed titles.