I’m not happy with the amount that I have to charge for the paper version of my latest Hike with Me book. It’s long, and therefore costs more to print with the full color interior. I could print it in black and white and reduce cost considerably, but that’s never appealed to me. The photos are just so much more striking in color. Sure, an ereader might not be in color, but someone who buys the ebook has the option of opening it with a device that does do color, such as a computer.
The other option for reducing page count, and therefore cost, is to create regular size print versions. Now, since the originals were created as large print, the photos were placed in it to correspond with the story as closely as possible that was going on in the text. Shrinking the text means that there are suddenly a lot more photos compared to the amount of text I have to place them between.
In the past, I’ve considered this, even started the project, but turned back because it didn’t seem like it was worth the effort. I felt like it wouldn’t be the same book, because the pictures would be presented in a different style. And, in redoing this most recent book with smaller print, I’ve ended up with three and sometimes four pages of just pictures in a row in order to keep each picture at least in the same chapter/day where they belong.
I’ll leave it to my husband to decide whether or not it should be made available for sale. I think getting the cost down to a reasonable price would be a great boon for all the Hike with Me books, because part of the fun of them is in holding them and seeing the printing of the pictures. And it would increase the number of sales channels, which is a good thing business-wise.
After my husband gets a look at it, I’ll either put the project to rest for good or get cracking at the other books in the series to make each one a normal sized print edition.