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by ghaff 2044 days ago
>The publisher probably will get your book in the hands of a larger absolute number of people,

Maybe. On the other hand, the publisher sets the price which may be higher than you'd want to set it to maximize readership. For that matter, if you really don't care about bringing money in, you can even make a digital version (or a subset of one) available for free--which I've done in the past.
1 comments
forrestbrazeal 2044 days ago
well, yes and no.

On the one hand, if maximizing eyeballs is really the only reason you want to write a book, maybe it should just be a blog post.

On the other hand, the publisher can and does negotiate price to do volume deals with retailers. Barnes and Noble buys in bulk at a price we can assume is optimal for them.

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ghaff 2044 days ago
I think there is some value (for the right project) in longer form works that aren't just a series of independent articles. Of course, nothing wrong with publishing excerpts. There's also nothing wrong with writing a shorter book if that fits the subject matter. Just because the economics of the publishing industry tend to force length to 250+ pages doesn't mean you can't do a 75-100 page book on your own.

I'm not sure how important physical books are outside of Amazon at this point.

But YMMV of course. I'm in a situation where my books are about gaining credibility and visibility. The money is very incidental.

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