Discounts and Distribution

At one time, we were able to sell our print books directly through our distributor at a considerable discount from the price of books distributed to retailers (Amazon, B&N, etc). Then, alas, this option was dropped and books cost just as much at our store as they did elsewhere. Were we to drop distribution and sell direct only we could knock at least a third off the price of most. With smaller books, such as poetry collections, this comes closer to half off.

So, we have already removed the poetry from distribution and now plan to do the same with the rest of the catalog. In the world of online book-selling, distribution may not matter much—and we recognize the books are not going to show up in physical bookstores.

So expect us to roll out new editions and new pricing at our store, and for the print books to disappear from other sites. For now, this will be at the Arachis Press store at Lulu (https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/arachispress). Every print book we offer is at our site and linked to the store. Every ebook version is also at arachispress.com and they continue to be free to download.

There will continue to be occasional discount deals, which we will post here at the AP blog.

Update on Distribution

We have worked out a future distribution plan for our ebooks (print will remain as is). First, we are able to announce that Stephen Brooke's CITY OF WIZARDRY is now available as a Kindle offering at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VTZW4JV 

We had been attempting to get this straightened out with Lulu's distribution since August! We chose to finally place it at Amazon directly, using their desk top conversion software. It does not allow as much customization as creating an epub (with Calibre and Sigil) but it looks perfectly good and the process is much more straightforward than most. We will do this with all future offerings and, eventually, go back through the rest of our catalog. There is no great hurry on the latter, and books already in distribution can continue so indefinitely.

And, to be sure, we will continue to sell direct from our store at Lulu, in epub format (linked from our own site, of course). That and Amazon may be our only two ebook outlets in the future; dealing with Google Books, Barnes and Noble, etc seems more trouble and time than is practical but we'll see about that. There are three advantages to this streamlined approach. First, the simplicity of just getting the books out there. Second, Lulu will no longer get a cut of the ebooks they distribute for us, and Third, we do not need to invest in an ISBN for the ebook editions. All this is to the good. Expect our next release, WHEN MAN WAS YOUNG, to appear at Amazon on schedule, by March 20.