Found

I thought the Russian publisher of my book had gone out of business. I wasn't able to find them for a long time and my contact didn't answer my emails, so I just figured they were gone. But it turns out they are not.

Grevtsov is still there, and so is my book. And there are more reviews on the Russian publisher's site (9) than there are on Amazon.com (2).

I'm still trying to get it translated and published in Vietnam, as I'm writing articles for two different supply chain magazines in that country.

Golden Ox Update

Not a lot of news, but a few updates on the Golden Ox Publishing biz.

The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit is selling, though not yet like hotcakes, even before my first ads are printed. I'm starting with some advertising in some APICS Chapter Newsletters around the country. Pretty low cost and should hit a fair number of highly potential prospects. Advertising in the APICS Magazine is a little out of my budget at this point, and although the magazine goes out to at least 40,000 people around the world, for that kind of money I'd want to target a more narrow manufacturing niche. We'll see what happens when the ads start to hit.

I'm wondering about Amazon U.K. versus Amazon U.S. I went to the Amazon U.K. website and my book is listed, but I'm wondering about the connection between the U.S. and U.K. operations. The U.K. price is still at the higher price the original publisher was selling at, not my new lower price. Also, the content I updated was not updated there. I know the original publisher stocked books in the U.K., but I think that was at their own warehouse. I'm thinking the U.K. operation is totally separate and I need to work with them as a totally separate entity. I've contacted them, so we'll see what they say.

Still got plenty of other things I still need to do, like updating websites and such. Got to squeeze that in somewhere.

On another note, I'm evaluating my first real prospect for another author's book to publish. So far I like what I see, but there's a bit of work to do before I commit. I've talked with several other authors, but this one is the first real prospect. Meaning the author is well along with the writing and serious about looking for a publisher. It seems a lot of "authors" talk more than they write, or aren't as far along as they think they are. Still, I have a few potential books I'm keeping my eye on.

Stacked

My books arrive Wednesday. 900+ pounds on a pallet. I figure about 25 cases or so. I will be getting my exercise that day. Anybody want to exercise with me? For now they will be joining me in my apartment, which means I'll be making about 25 trips up and down the stairs. I'm tired already.

I'm still waiting to hear from Amazon regarding my application and all the particulars of getting the book on there, or transferred over from the original publisher.

I was also looking into getting it onto, or keeping it on, Barnes & Noble and Borders. Barnes & Noble has a program for small publishers to list and stock their books, but Borders only works through one of the major distributors. That got me thinking more about using a distributor or wholesaler or not. Here's what I'm thinking.

At this point do I really need my book listed on every possible book selling website? Or is Amazon, where it seems the vast majority of people go, and Barnes & Noble, as well as my own website, enough? I'm thinking that I'm pretty well covered with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, my website, and personal sales when I give presentations. Then, if sales are going gangbusters I can re-evaluate. If the book was brand new it might be different, but since it's a few years old already (though the material is no different than if it were written today) the distributors aren't going to put as much effort into selling it. If they would anyway. I suspect I'd have the same complaints I had with my publisher. They have much higher selling, and newer, titles that the smaller market titles get little, if any, marketing effort.


The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit







Golden Ox Publishing

Work, Work, Work

It's Sunday. Fired up the computer. Now where to start? Here's some of the things I have to do or think about:

I have to work on and finish the new book. That should be the number one priority, as it's been in progress way too long. I should have finished it by now. Right now I'm in the middle of a major overhaul. Not so much the content, but the structure. It just wasn't quite right before. But I got some great feedback from the writer's group I meet with, and when I put together a presentation based on the book I realized it didn't flow right. So, write.

I have to register and get everything set up on Amazon. The book already has a page there, but I have to more or less "transfer" it or take it over. Everything is there on the page, but they don't have any inventory and the price is still the original publisher's price.

I did update my consulting company website, the page where I show my book. That wasn't the top priority, but it was pretty quick and it needed to be done.

The inventory of books that I bought will be arriving any day now. What to do with them? By me estimate it should be about 25 cases. And heavy. I've got room at my place, but do I really want them there? Not really, but do I want to pay for a storage unit? Not really, but seeing as this is a startup operation, cash flow is a concern. Might be a good reason to do more purging of junk to free up some room.

Start planning the second printing of the book. I believe the book will sell at my new price, so I have to start planning ahead. Do I print it as-is, or do I "update"? As-is would be easier, I've got all the printer files, but what do I need to change since the original publisher reverted the rights back to me? I need to find out. But I'm more inclined to make some minor changes and publish it under Golden Ox Publishing. I'm planning on re-writing it (at some point) to make it appealing to a wider audience, but that's still down the road.

I'm planning on, or at least seriously exploring, publishing it in other countries and other languages. I've sent a copy to my magazine publisher in Vietnam and we've talked about the possibility of publishing it there. I'm also thinking about Korea and China, and am thinking about a Spanish edition for the U.S. market. There is already a Russian edition, but I think that publisher went out of business. France, Germany, and South Africa are possibilities. If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.

I have to look into shipping options and bone-up on the costs and advantages and disadvantages of each (U.S. Postal, FedEx, and UPS). It's not something I do every day, so another thing on my list.

Advertising and marketing. Hmmm hmmm... Got to do it, but what's the best bang for the buck with this book? My first thought is the APICS magazine. I'm guessing their ad rates are pretty much standard for the industry and reach, but it seems a bit high to me. Of course, that's probably just because I'm cheap. I'm going to contact some APICS chapters, the larger ones, and inquire about paid advertising in their monthly electronic newsletters. Other organization's magazines are possibilities too, especially ASQ and IIE, as they published good reviews when the book first came out. Which means that it's probably the right market/audience.

Well, there's more, but I've got to get working on some of these items, especially the writing. In between all this I have to write my articles for the Vietnamese magazine.

Year of the Ox

It's 2010 and it's the start of something new. It's the start of Golden Ox Publishing. I thought I'd try what many other blogger's have done before me and chronicle the start of this new venture. Where to start?

I've started a book publishing company - Golden Ox Publishing. I started it to publish my upcoming book, Deliver On Your Promises - Success Through Business Operations Excellence. I started it because I wasn't entirely happy with the publisher of my first book (The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit), a large, international publishing company. Yes, they were very good at some things, basically all the things involved with book production, but when it came to marketing and selling they fell woefully short. It's a good looking book, I have to say, but it was overpriced from the beginning and didn't sell well. Also, I learned one of the big secrets of publishing with the big companies. You, the author, is primarily responsible for marketing. Although they have all the knowledge and resources for marketing books, they are mostly reserved for the best sellers. As an unknown author in a niche subject, you get pretty much nil. Not completely, but it sure felt that way.

I kept telling my contacts at the publisher that the book was overpriced. I wrote it for a specific market, which I know pretty well, Small Manufacturing companies and the owners, managers, and others who work there. Priced at $79.95 originally, they were not going to sell in large quantities to this market. So totally ignoring my requests to lower the price, they actually raised it, to $93+. Can you believe that? I couldn't. I tried and tried to get them to lower the price, but to no avail, and sales were going nowhere. That meant that not only were the books not getting into the hands of the people who can really use it, I was not getting any royalty payments. I know the book is good, and useful, because I have gotten nothing but great feedback and reviews. The book had very positive reviews in three trade magazines; APICS - The Association for Operations Management, ASQ - The American Society for Quality, and IIE - The Institute for Industrial Engineers, who apparently have changed their name recently (I'll try to find copies and/or links and put them up on my website). And the feedback I've gotten from people who bought and read the book has been great.

Since I was getting nowhere with the publisher, I asked them if I could buy the rights back to the book and maybe the remaining inventory. Being a large buerachracy, there was a lot of back and forth with questions and offers and counteroffers, but I finally got it. I obtained the rights to the book (print version, not electronic) and bought all the remaining inventory. Now the fun begins.

I was planning on starting the publishing company to publish my next book, but it's starting now with my first book. I have the rights and I received the first couple of boxes of inventory. Now I have to market and sell and plan on what to do next. That's what this new thread of this blog will be all about. I'll lay out my plans and keep you up to date with my progress. Please feel free to let me know what you think. This is going to be what they call "a learning experience." And, of course, if you want to buy a copy just let me know (but as for now please check Amazon first). That will be the subject of another post...

Oh, and I will be lowering the price to a more appropriate and reasonable $39.95.

Save, Save, Save!

I suppose I'm like most authors of successful, but not best selling, books. I check my sales and ranking on Amazon.com regularly. I can always tell when a book is sold (note "a", meaning 1) because the book's ranking jumps from its usual 1.5 million position, up to 200,000 or so (once a couple sold at a time and I was up around 20,000 or so - woo hoo!).

My biggest jump in sales was when the price was discounted about 40% down to around $40 or $45. That was when I started paying more attention to the price of the book.

Personally, I think ("personally" and "I" are redundant, I know) the book is overpriced. I understand how the publisher priced it where it is, partly based on the expected market value and partly based on the cost to produce (small production run for a first time author), but I really think it would sell much better at a lower price.

The original price was $79.98. Sure it's a 400+ page book, but it's not a college text book (though it could and should be used college Operations Management courses), it's written for working people, specifically people who work at small manufacturing companies. I think it would sell like hotcakes at about $39.98. It has gotten nothing but good reviews, and everyone who's read it (OK, everyone who's commented to me) tells me it's great. It's even been translated into Russian. But people just aren't willing to pay that high a price.

But instead of lowering the price, I noticed that the price went up. From $79.98 it went up to $89.98. Huh? If it's not selling fast at $79 why would you increase the price to $89? But, then when the price was increased, Amazon discounted it down to around $71. I guess people just can't pass up a sale. Now I notice the price is $93.95 (on both Amazon and the publisher's website), and discounted 5% down to $89.22.

I've contacted my publisher asking about lowering the price, but I've gotten no response.

The worst part is that I can't even afford to buy my own book. Even at my discount I can't afford to buy them and sell them at a reasonable price. Maybe I should read a book about the publishing business and how to price a book... Maybe I can reinvest and buy some copies when I get my next royalty check.

Still, the book is very valuable and worth the investment if it's used as it's intended - to help improve your business and improve profitability. That's especially important in these tough economic times.

I do have a couple of copies left, so if you contact me I might sell you one at a better price.

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!

OK, so the Russians aren't coming (that's the title of a movie from the 1960's), but I'm coming to Russia. Via my book, that is. My book, The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit, has been translated into Russian and is being published by a Russian publisher (Grevstov Publisher). How cool is that?

I received a couple of copies of the Russian edition a couple of days ago. I can't read a word of it, but it looks good. Actually, the quality of the book itself is much higher than the U.S. edition. It's very well done, and I'm impressed. I'm waiting for someone to send me a plane ticket to Moscow for a book signing and seminar tour. Hey, I can dream, can't I? I'd love to go to Russia. I love to travel and visit new places.

So here's a picture of the book. I haven't received a photo quality copy of the cover yet, so I just scanned this in. That's my name in Russian up in the top left corner.

Now if only my publisher would lower the price of the U.S. edition (hint, hint), this valuable tome would get into the hands of the masses.

Oh, and I'll get back into regular posting on this blog. I've been extremely busy lately, so have been lax. As to whether I've actually been accomplishing anything, that's another matter.