This is a situation that a publisher should not be put in. My Print On Demand company tells me all sorts of things and I have to make all sorts of legal threats because all the problems are on their side of things.
I much prefer "Terry nice guy" to "Mr Bastard" the publisher but when you are told it is all your fault and you upload a new file to be less awkward and then that file gets rejected you have to get awkward.
Let me tell you a story: over 10 years ago I opened a store with an Indian POD company, Pothi. One day I made a mistake and I put two pages into the PDF (which is why I triple and quadruple EVERY page). Othi told me about this mistake and I apologised and said I woulds upload a new file. "No need" I was told. You see, a little Indian company over 10 years ago did what an allegedly slick BIG US company cannot do in 2020. It took Pothi less than a minute to adjust the file.
After trying to blame ME again -apparently page 95 was not the right size, which is a downright lie or else it could never have been printed at all since 2013- my POD then "adjusted" the file and it was "correct". What they did was what Pothi did over 10 years ago.
It has taken an hour to do (because the POD system was VERY slow. Iam still, one hour later, waiting for the book to appear on the store front. When it does The Complete D-Gruppe will be back on sale.
Before anyone complaints about the new £10.00 cover price: its 163 pp and you get all of the D-Gruppe material in it which saves you a lot of money -more-or-less all the books for the price of two. Here is how the POD decides on pricing -they want their share and the printers definitely want theirs so you cannot price below the bare minimum. Top tier below is the sale price while the second tier shows minimum print cost. Basically, out of the £10.00 I make £2.79.
List Price
USD EUR AUD GBP CAD
12.98 12.82 19.65 10.00 17.41
Print Cost
7.40 7.14 14.73 7.21 11.15
Profit
5.58 5.68 4.92 2.79 6.26
The POD Share varies, obviously. Also, anything sold in the US means even that small amount gets taxed -though I get no benefits from the US Tax system!
People see none of this messing about because they should not see it. I only highlight this because it warns any budding publishers out there that just having your book complete does not mean things will run smoothly. I've already lost sales because of the POD and my book. Will those original buyers order again? Statistics are against it.
People also see the cover prices and think I am "raking in money" -not how it works. A book can take months to draw and letter and then a week or so to go through the cleaning up, source file making and PDF upload. I'm not being paid while I do all that work -mummy and daddy are not supporting me (both are dead and would be in their 80s if alive!) and there is no "independent financial support". What I get back from a sale will not even buy me a drawing pad. Bear that in mind.
And I have nothing to do with postal charges! The online store offers different tiers of postage/service so unlike Ebay sellers I am not making profit from 'postage chargers'.
If I sold (I wish!) 20 copies of the D-Gruppe book that would makeme £55.80. Yes, just £55.80 which is not a lot for all of the work. As a scripter with Fleetway/Egmont I could earn £35.00 for each printed (in comic strip) script. At the time an artist could earn £130-£200+ per page. If a lot of books on the storefront sold then,yeah, it all starts adding up. But they don't.
All of this is "comic book reality" so before you leap in....THINK!
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