The Golden Oaks Bookstore: Let's Assume That's Not a Copyright Violation, Y'all · 2:39am May 7th, 2019
I mean, it's technically different. Gotta be good enough for the government (to not bug us about it, at least).
Anyway, I suppose the title of this blog is the first announcement: pending final approval from BronyCon, our bookstore has its unofficial title as determined by a plurality of the votes from the previous survey I sent out: "The Golden Oaks Bookstore". For what it's worth, "Barns & Stable" narrowly took the proverbial silver medal, so just in case the current name doesn't fly, that'll be the second-stringer.
Second, more survey results, and fortunately this was a pretty clear consensus. Regarding pricing, the most popular option was for there to be a small markup, so that's what we'll go with as a guideline. Two things to note, though: first, I realized in retrospect (and also had it pointed out to me by a couple folks) that it may have been a bit unclear whether the parenthetical after each pricing option referred to the markup after production costs or the total cost of each book. When drafting the question, I did so with the latter interpretation in mind, so to be clear, I'm interpreting these results as meaning that a price range of $20 to $35 per volume is ideal for most people. Please let me know either in a comment, PM, or email (bronybookstore@gmail.com) if that wouldn't work for you.
However, the second thing to note may help assuage any concerns there further, because said thing is my intentional usage of the word "guideline" up there. Originally, my idea behind having a standardized price was to avoid a situation where people who could easily afford printing at cost without any financial concerns ended up undercutting people who needed to make a profit to make printing make sense financially.
As has been pointed out to me by another couple folks, though, there's really not too much I can do as the person running the booth to really make good on my Starlight-esque paragon of communistic equality ensuring everyone sells the same number of books. So, with that in mind, I'd like to establish that price range as the standard to follow, while also allowing individual people to price their books as they see it. As such, if you want to sell your books at a different price--whether higher or lower--than the recommended range, please let me know when you email your manuscript to me for confirmation that it's ready to be printed. Barring any other instructions like that, I'll just assume you're okay with the standard price range and price your books accordingly at the con.
Finally, I've turned everyone's submitted email addresses from the initial interest survey into a set of what I hope to God are functional mailing lists, which I'm going to test out as soon as I publish this blog. I'll of course continue to check FIMFic PMs and post a couple more deadline reminders as blogs here, but going forward, I'll be using that email as the primary method of communication for bookstore-related stuff, including specific instructions about what exactly to submit to me for participation confirmation, when to submit it, and how we'll organize volunteer shifts and other such fun stuff. If you don't receive an email about either bookstore or volunteer participation in the next little bit and you would like to, the same ol' comment/PM/email-me request applies.
I've actually got three now at the "Can hit Lulu and have a pile of books delivered to my house" stage. I just need an electric shock prod to poke me once in a while to get The Lazy Dragon to that stage and I'll be as prepared as I have ever been for anything. (which is a low bar, if you know my character habits)
Checking in to say that the email lists seem to have worked!
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Same with one book. Gotta finish formatting a second, and if the third one I'm doing a ton of re-writes on doesn't work out, there's a third one I'm formatting.
Yep, the thing worked! Hype is got!
I'm on the fence about whether or not I'll go through with this. I think you said July would be the deadline, yeah?
I got the email. I’m down to volunteer!
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YOSBATGOBO*
*You Only Sell Books at the Golden Oak Bookstore Once
Got the mail. Happy to provide my services... though I'm really going to need to knuckle down on getting the hard copies ready for prime time.
I’m still adamant that selling cheap is the way to go—especially for less-known authors. I might pay $35 for a story I love by an author I know, but I’m guessing there’ll be a fair few less-known books by less-known authors where I might be willing to risk $5-$10 but not a ton more. And for those books/authors, the only real marketing options available to them will be their book’s physical appearance & price point at the con itself. So pricing low isn’t about undercutting others; it’s about trying to use a way to make a product with less established appeal more appealing to the market.
Mare, I'm exclusive.
God in heaven above I am going to spend so much money at this thing.
Looking forward to volunteering, if I can!
A thought occurred to me... shouldn't the books have an agreed-upon disclaimer in them somewhere along the lines of 'this is fanfiction, pones belong to hasbro, you can read this shit for free on fimfiction'?
Softcovers on Lulu cost a lot less---I think they're about half the price? I don't think making a softcover is unfair competition; most people like hardcover better, and will pay more for it. Can we sell softcover books at softcover prices?
As someone who is interested on the buying side of this endeavor, and also as someone who had too much on their plate to keep up for the last several months, might I ask if there's a list somewhere of what will be on offer? I know of a select few that I'm interested in getting, but several more that I've never read, so I'd love to be able to dig into them before Bronycon to see if I'd like to buy a copy.
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Once we get closer to the con, I should be able to put out a list of what will be available at the store. I'm planning to make a catalog to be readable at the booth itself as well.
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I'll keep an eye out, though I'm not a particularly fast reader. Here's hoping I can find enough reading time before the con to read over everything that catches my eye.
In regards to 5061211, friendly warning that many of the authors I've spoken to in the last few days while trying to assemble a survey of participating books intend to offer both paperbacks at around $10 and hardbacks at around $20. In my own informal market research, there are people who prefer paperbacks and people who prefer hardbacks, so offering both isn't cannabalizing or competing, and the survey will hopefully help authors get a feel for how many of each to bring.
Also wanted to repeat my suggestion for anyone using Lulu or another POD service: reserve one copy to act as a display copy for if the title sells out, so people can see the book in person and then go order a copy online if they missed the IRL inventory or don't want to have to lug books home.
5067401 I'm wondering how to mark a book "FOR DISPLAY ONLY" so that I can remove the mark later. Masking tape?
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I'm planning to bring a hardback copy of each book protected by one of these, and label the protector.
5067494 Odd and inconvenient fact: Lulu won't redistribute any hardback books unless they're mass-market paperback size.