The phrase
"author copies" refers to the books that an author receives as part of their publishing deal. These are copies of their book that the author can use to promote or sell themselves.
Full definition
The magic of receiving
author copies of a book never goes away, I love it, but that first time, it really is special.
And if you run a print giveaway, it costs even more, as you must pay
for author copies plus shipping and packaging.
Because I was ordering
author copies at the discounted rate, those copies did not count toward my author ranking, sales ranking nor did I receive any royalties for the sales.
One difference right now is the Beta doesn't let you
buy author copies at cost (though they suggest that will change sometime in the future).
I'm not sure why the extra security is needed since proof copies were the same price
as author copies and if a proof was good enough, more copies could be purchased.
Author copies don't cost much, but you still have to convince folks to buy a few.
Publisher Discounts: Before you sign with a publisher, be sure to ask them how
much author copies will cost you.
There is a trick you can use to sell one copy at a time
using author copies, say if you want to sell from your website direct.
When deciding which POD provider or self - publishing service company to use, be sure to calculate how much you will have to pay
for author copies.
I chose them not only because they are easy to use but because they are cheap when it comes to
buying author copies.
As one author handed out
author copies of his latest humorous book, he talked about what it took to become a successful, producing author.
Ordering
author copies from CreateSpace and having them delivered to Greece had proven to be a nightmare, as CreateSpace prints the books in the US and not Europe.
The $ 3.65 printing cost quoted above is, however, more expensive than the recently announced prices for
author copies through Amazon's KDP Print operation where a similarly specced book would cost $ 3.25.
As I continued my research, I began to see patterns of real abuse — companies that insisted on setting the retail price for an author's book low while charging 50 percent or more of the list price to
print author copies.
More worryingly, about one out of every 1000 of the
submitting authors copied the equivalent of a paragraph's worth of text from other people's papers without citing them.
Portfolio includes: Professional one - on - one support Custom full - color cover and interior design ISBN assignment Electronic proof Online distribution and bookstore availability
Complimentary author copy Insertion of up to 50 full - color images Copyright and Library of Congress control number Five free copies of the completed book Inclusion in Barnes & Noble's «See Inside the Book» Inclusion in Google and Amazon search programs Ten free copies of the completed book
I took a creative writing course years ago — the prof said «
Bad authors copy ideas from other authors.
down the road (think
expensive author copies like $ 8 - 10 or very low royalties — less than $ 1 on a $ 15 retail book...).
The trade discounted price of $ 11.96 minus the production
base author copy price of $ 5.36 equals $ 6.58, the «profit» of the book sale.
Most authors copy down a few paragraphs from their book's introduction and leave it at that, missing out on a huge opportunity.
Now Amazon has removed that concern and it is up to us to determined if the price of a
KDP author copy plus the difference in pricing and royalties are enough to make us jump from Createspace or other POD options.
I remember my editor Julie Crisp — now a fantastic literary agent, by the way — sent me a single copy before I received my box of
official author copies.
I've actually paid more than $ 119 for a Goodreads giveaway when it was FREE: I've spent over $ 50
on author copies and over $ 80 on shipping for several giveaways, which comes to over $ 130.
They're small enough that reputation is important... except there is so much information inequality that people still don't realize that
requiring author copies at markup is a bullshit way for publishers to make a profit.
On a personal note, I'm now glad I tried KDP paperback publishing for A Coffee Break Story Collection and will consider switching from Createspace when I need
more author copies of Bedsit Three.
Selling the same book on consignment works like this: You purchase
author copies directly from Ingram at the print cost ($ 4.28 each, in this case).
If you'd rather have the ability to negotiate your contractually obligated 25
author copies up to 30, and in exchange for that power give up ever being in control of your book again, knock yourself out.
Proof copies allow you to review a physical copy of your draft paperback before publication
while author copies are the live version of your paperback that you can order from Amazon.
They have to know, through experience with Createspace, that things like expanded distribution and proofs /
discounted author copies are critical offerings.
But when I discovered I could not
buy author copies at a discount I decided NOT to publish my book on KDP.