IS YOUR LIFE BETTER NOW?

I have no regrets whatsoever. My book sold very few copies and that's the reason PA agreed to give me my rights back. I have never received a "tone" letter or email and all my correspondence has been polite and professional.

I could not have produced a book to the standard that PA did by self-publishing. My book has been serialised on radio. Last weekend, I attended a wedding and one of the guests asked me to sign two brand new copies of Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine that he had bought on Amazon.

Currently, my book is doing very well on Smashwords. Many of the troops in the E-book Drop programme have downloaded the book to Kindle and e-readers.

I work very hard to make these small things happen. Some PA authors would say that they work equally hard with no results. Other PA authors, like Betty, have sold far more books than me. That's life. We cannot all achieve the same with the same amount of effort. Each circumstance is different and we have to accept whatever comes our way.

2007. PA said that it would be in my best interest to share printing rights. They also agreed to give me full rights if another publisher wanted to re-publish the book. This has worked out well. Last week, I received an email from an Australian author asking if the book was available to buy in Australia. I was able to send half-a-dozen links to Australian online bookstores. The two books I signed last weekend were PA books bought on amazon.co.uk.

The book is also available on Lulu.com (paperback) @ $9.89:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/mr-planemakers-flying-machine/6134857

and in hardcover @ $21.58:

http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-book/mr-planemakers-flying-machine/7258501

It is available as an ebook on mobipocket @ $5.99:

http://www.mobipocket.com/EN/eBooks/eBookDetails.asp?BookID=78501

and Smashwords @ $5.99 (FREE for troops):

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/4103

The book can be ordered from any bookstore.

The book is available to buy all over the world from bookstores and online stores in softcover, hardcover and e-book format. It has not cost me a penny to make the book available to anyone who would like to buy it with prices ranging from $9.89 (LULU) to $23.95 (Amazon.com).

Wonderful!

"... editing and proofreading is standard." Free?

I am still basically satisfied with my relationship with PA. The quality of the product is high. I have yet to find an error in it. I did quite a bit of proofing before I submitted it, and had a very anal retentive friend go through it to find what I missed.

It is selling again on Amazon, now that the "buy" button is back.

I could have, and could still, do a better job of marketing. I let the PA naysayers get to me, I'm afraid, and haven't pursued my options as I should have. But that's about me, not PA. I have been hesitant to explore the local book market, which is probably foolish. This is a military town, after all.

I have relied on a small but devoted group of Audie Murphy fans. They haven't let me down. I got an even smaller but enthusiastic group of Joseph Campbell followers interested as well. The book has done well on line. It reached # 11 in PA books a couple of years ago, for a brief time. And the other day, when I checked, it was back up to #35. It has often ranked #1 at both Amazon and B&N in books about Audie Murphy (There aren't all that many available).

I don't know if I would use them for a fiction book. I had quite a few people who were eager for anything on Murphy. The books I'm working on now wouldn't have that pre-set market. But I still think it was a good choice for that book at that time.

Ann