Seems to be the glitch in the order form. It asks for U.S. state for any country and doesn't allow a blank field. Should I send the book to China, Alabama?

Can the book size be changed larger or smaller during the process of creating / writing w/o starting over ?
ed

When using the print cost calculator, there seems to be a maximum page limit. What is the limit? Is this limit the same, or does it vary, for different sizes or bindings? Thanks.

Greetings!

First let me just say what a pleasure it is working with your site! Tried with another POD and it was like getting a root canal. Unnecessarily complex and difficult. For someone, like me, who is non-techie, I thought it was easy breezy..... Well, except for the spine and I chalk that up to user error.

I just uploaded three books with covers. While I make the front covers 6 x 9 and use the spine calculator to determine placement of author and book name, I keep messing it up! Frustrating!! I would appreciate ideas for idiot-proof spine placement.... :-)

Thanks,
Jo

Books published under Mystery/Crime; Joanna Carroll; Getting Mad....and Even; Fibs, Lies and Alibis; Nagging Doubts. Thanks much!

I have to disagree with sm85 and not because I am the founder of TheBookPatch.com but because the steps he offers will get you nowhere.
An ISBN wither it’s free or not will not get you into book stores or into the hands of readers. An ISBN is a serial number like a license plate on a car, it will help someone identify a book if they are looking for it.
Your task is to make them look.
As for Amazon, we do not tell anyone not to sell their books on Amazon, but remember that they want you to send them books so they have them in stock. They take up to 55% of the cover price and you pay for the printing and shipping to them. Registering your book with Amazon and sending them a copy will not sell books. They have several million books on their list and your job again is to get people to your book.
That is why we created TheBookPatch. If you are going to get people to read your book, might as well retain as much of the money as you can.
The steps to a great book and success in the market (take it from a #1 New York Times bestselling author) is a well structures story, a good edit and exposure.
Send copies to your local media try an independent book store and author events. Tell friends and push it on face book and tweeter. Be active; build a website with a link to your book in our book store. Promotion is hard work and shamelessly flogging a book is what a good author does.
As a result of this dialog I have decided to start a blog on this subject in the coming days, look for it on TheBookPatch.com.
Victor Ostrovsky
TheBookPatch team
sm85 wrote:

I thought I saw a message that the price of printing a large qty of copies was going down. Was I just dreaming?
thanks!

Sherlock Holms – the one based on the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - is already in the public domain and can be used

My daughter's book (I'm thinking of getting copies printed for her) includes come characters that are based other characters. (Yes, I know that this sounds awful, but really as she has progressed and rewritten several times, there are more of her own characters than these others). It is actually very very good writing (but of course you don't trust my judgement in this.) In particular there are characters that come out of two BBC television series. The characters come from Dr Who and Sherlock Holmes (the latter, of course, are already derivative of older work).

If she wished to make her book publicly available, does anyone know how we find out what restrictions there are on using these characters? I don't anticipate the book being "sold" (though I could see making it available to anyone at cost).

Really, it is much much better than the bulk of fan fiction, but that isn't my question anyway. My question is about copyright and the ability to use these characters in her own work.

Cheers,

-j

For color printing, does colored text cost the same as a full color illustrated book?

It seems like if I have no illustrations, but simply the occasional blue or red text, there should be something in between the pricing for b&w and full-color illustrations.

Hello, my name is Catie. I have been writing poetry for many years now and my mom found this website for me and it sounded like a great idea. She said there was a button saying I could make my own bookstore or something along those lines. The point is the bookstore thing is confusing me.

How my mom explained it is- I can write a book and advertise it so I can sell it on this website (I'm assuming with the "Buy it here' buttons?) and when I sell a book they'll take out the money for the printing costs and I'll get whatever other money came from the book.

My questions are:

1. How do they receive the money for printing costs? Do I mail it to them?
2. How does the person receiving the book, receive the book? Does the person buying the book receive it in the mail?
3. How do I get the extra money (what's left after printing costs are taken out)? Is it mailed to me or does the site need my bank info or do I need a credit card?

I'm sorry if this post makes no sense but I'm so confused and I don't want to write my book on here and be forced to order it too or have to pay for anything when it's said everywhere that this site is free.

Sincerely,
A very confused newbie.