Forrest, I am a pragmatist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Every day I deal with realities. They are saying on the blogs that you are making a lot of money on the sale of your 3 treasure chase books. I thought you were profit neutral in that area. Would you please explain what is going on? Joe Nosey
I would be glad to explain what is going on, and you are Nosey. The 9th printing of my TTOTC book is fresh off the press and today is on a truck heading for the binder in Phoenix.
The 10thprinting will start in about 10 days. The book is currently out of print with about 40,500 sold. The hang-up is the binding, and we won’t be back in print until the end of June.
I gave that book to the Collected Works book store, although the copyright belongs to me. I paid for the first printing and have never sold even one copy, nor have I realized any money from a sale. It may be unprecedented for one store to sell that many copies of a book. Amazon buys it at the retail price and marks it up. They sell so many of that large quantities are stored in the Amazon warehouse.
My TFTW book is in the 5th printing and is about go back on the press again. That book is owned by my grandchildren, and all of the profit goes to them. Although I paid for the 1st printing, I have never sold a copy nor have I realized any profit from a sale.
OUAW is owned by my book designer and project manager. I wrote the stories, but all of the production costs are theirs. I have never sold a copy nor have I made any money from a sale.
I have given copies of those three books to friends and some to people who could not afford to buy it. When I need one of my books I buy it from the owner at their cost.
So to answer your question, Mr. Nosey, I am out the cost of printing the 1st editions of TTOTC and TFTW. The argument could be made that I am a not a very good business man. I wish I was profit neutral, but in fact, I am in profit deficit. f
(Edit was made from original post. The TFTW is in the 5th printing, not the 3rd as initially stated)