Book Business 101 (Or Rather, 2.0)

I never took an economics class. I thought that was just for budding investment bankers. (I knew we had crossed a generational divide because when I arrived at college everyone wore sweats and wanted to talk philosophy and when I left everyone had suits and talked of careers in finance.) So of course it makes sense that now I'm writing more on local currencies and grappling with a business strategy.

The predictable distribution hurdles of selling an alternatively-published book are now staring me in the face. The Therapist's New Clothes will soon go up on a large online site, but with a surcharge. I lowered my percentage as far as I could, but it's still much more than buying at the Northshire. This online site's parent company has a POD program, which might make economic sense, but that would undermine the local alliance that I am committed to. A national distributor also has a POD program that would allow me to sell to independent bookstores and folks at the Northshire are looking into that. Then again, if more venues adopt the Espresso Book Machine the distribution question will be moot. And I haven't even mentioned the confounding matter of sales tax...

This is the challenge of using a model that's still being developed. I'm just figuring it out as I go along (or, more accurately, after I've already gone along.) I'm taking a brief break, so I'll leave you with an image of one of my loyal readers.Makes it all worthwhile!