On Pricing Comics

I have just finished editing and have now uploaded a 20 pp book on lulu.com ready for publishing but I’ve just hit the big snag.

Pricing.

See, I can buy a copy of the book for myself at £1.55.  Not bad?  Well, the postal service lulu uses means the cheapest rate is £2.99 so the book will actually cost me £4.54.

Now, if I want to sell the books at a mart or expo and I need, say, 20 copies that will cost me £31.00 on top of which I have to add postage of £16.49.  So those 20 copies will cost £52.99 so I have to work out how how a copy I can charge.

So, say, £53.00 divided by 20 and that’s £2.65 a copy. but you cannot guarantee selling every copy and there are travel expenses and table costs to consider.  So, if I charge £4.00 a copy that’s £80.00 if I sold the lot.  Now £80.00 – £53.00 equals a profit of…£27.00.

The annoying thing is that lulu.com’s printer is about 25 miles from where I live and I could get a train there to pick up books but no, NOT ALLOWED!

Just bear in mind when you see Indie comic prices that they might look steep but Disney ain’t paying their bills!