The new print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror should be out within 72 hours at a much reduced price of $14.95.
The current print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror has been prohibitively expensive from the start. I recently decided to change that. Producing a new edition also gives me a chance to come out with an improved cover design. I was new at publishing with Amazon when I first published ATOH and my cover design came out as less than exciting.
One of the mistakes I made with the original print edition was that I chose the option for full color printing thinking this applied to the cover. Full color printing is always expensive, so I wasn’t surprised when the price came out at $53.99 and didn’t know any better. However, as I came to find out later, that option was for color interior pages. Amazon bases the printing cost on number of interior pages and whether the interior is in color or black and white. I found out that the cover can be color without affecting the printing cost so long as the interior pages are B/W. For example, when I published Click in print, its cover was in color, but the price was very reasonable (and still is).
I have been working on a second edition to bring down the price to something reasonable. Republishing it also gives me an opportunity to expand the distribution to brick and mortar stores by using Amazon’s expanded distribution, which I did not take advantage of initially. However, the important changes for the reader are that the price will be reduced considerably: down to $14.95 from $53.99 and finding a print edition should be easier. Note that A Tale of Hell… is about 300 pages long, so $14.95 is not unreasonable for a book of that length.
The new cover will be similar to the Kindle edition (as I just love that painting by Adolphe Bougereau) but modified slightly to conform to the limited formats available for Amazon print books. If the cover comes out hideous, I will just change it and produce a third edition.
On Friday evening, I submitted the final draft for publication within 72 hours. It can go live at any minute. Frequently, I have been pleasantly surprised when my new book came out well in advance of the predicted publication date, so I hope this will be out very soon. I will put up a link to the print edition as soon as it is out.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 