Rollback dustjackets
Today's mail brought some copies of the dustjacket for Rollback, my novel that comes out in 26 days. Of course, I'd seen a JPG of the cover before, but that doesn't prepare one for the impact of the actual finished product. I must say it's gorgeous. The cover has a lovely matte (as opposed to glossy/varnished finish), with my name and the title embossed, and my name in a blue metallic foil.
Also, the prices are now set: US$24.95 -- and Cdn$29.95, which is a nice improvement (thanks to shifting exchange rates) over the Cdn$34.95 of my recent hardcovers.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Posted by Rob on Thursday, March 08, 2007
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7 comments
7 Comments:
After the GST here in Alberta Rollback will be $31.75 before any in store markup. Rollback will be considerably more in every other Province. The most expensive Rollback copy will be for those folks in Winnipeg where they have to pay GST, PST and the Entertainment tax. Another part of The Alberta advantage. “Don’t hate the player hate the game.” Sorry, I couldn't resist:-(
Jim, there's no such thing as an "in store markup" on books. None, ever. If you want to comment on the game, you really should learn the rules of it before doing so.
I'm hate the GST on books, too -- and rather that grousing about it online, I've written to my member of parliament; have you?
If price is your sole concern, even with GST ROLLBACK is just $20 from Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca right now (base price $18.87 at Amazon; $18.77 for Chapters iRewards customers), and you'll get free shipping on orders that total Cdn$39 or more.
Hi Rob,
I didn’t mean to touch a soar spot and I was referring to the taxes we have to endure here in Canada. I haven’t written my MP about tis yet although I think I should. Alberta as you know has no sales tax. It’s not my fault we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country (for now) any more then it’s your fault hard cover books are priced the way they are. Rollback is the only hard cover book I’m buying this year because I like you and enjoy your writing. I prefer paperback books because they are easy to carry around town while your waiting for a train and take up less space on my dialer at work. If price was the main concern I’d join SFBC and Rollback would probably be even cheaper to own. If I didn’t want to own Rollback, I’d wait until it comes out at the library and scan it into a word document (I’m a slow reader.) The point I was making is that Rollback will be less expensive here in Alberta then in any other Province in the nation.
As far as in store mark up how else do independent brick and mortar stores stay alive? I’m usually in Audrey’s once a week buying a book. I like the store the staff and the convince of shopping there. I’ll be in there tonight book buying, they’ve been in business a long time and probably are the oldest independent bookstore in Edmonton. How they stay alive in good and bad times is amazing and probably a success story in it’s own right.
My comment about “Don’t hate the player hate the game.” Should be obvious. It’s not your fault/problem hard cover books are priced the way they are. It’s a fact of life no big deal. The game is the publishing industry and I was mentioning this to my wife the other day that a book comes out in hard cover before paperbacks. I love books. SF mostly and even though I’ve never kept a library (just starting now) Rollback will be my first hard cover SF book. Matter of fact from now on all my new RJS book purchases will be hard cover. I won’t wait until they come out in paperback. I’ll buy hardcover RJS books because I know what I’m getting. The price of a book isn’t the issue for me it’s the convenience of a paperback book. It’s hard to carry a hard cover book around town and I have a bad back with two metal rods in my spine and just so much room in my backpack. I barely have room to fit my thermos for coffee and my sandwiches when I go into work at night. A hard cover book would be hard to carry around. Sorry for rambling. I’m not out to make friends in this business and I’m out to make enemies even less. Your a nice fellow and gracious enough to humor me although I don’t know why. I can’t wait to finally meet you in May.
Sorry for any typo’s
Stores buy books at a discount (usually between 40 and 44 percent) off the cover price; that's their markup, Jim. The cover price for ROLLBACK is Cdn$29.95, and no one will sell it for more than that anywhere in Canada.
You said they would charge more than the cover price (saying the book was $31.75 with GST "before any in store markup), and that's just not true.
But thanks for buying my books, Jim! :)
Speaking of dustjackets, Rob, have you seen the dustjacket chapters.ca has for your book ROLLBACK? It looks different from the picture on your blog.
That's an old placeholder version of the dustjacket that Tor put togetehr early on; it used to be on Amazon, too. And, indeed, the one on Amazon isn't quite up-to-date, either; note that the version there has a very plain typeface for the title ROLLBACK; the actual dustjacket is as shown here in my blog.
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