History on Two Needles WILL be available in shops, Cooperative Press will be distributing it through Unicorn (and any other distributors they use) and it will be available through Amazon, the CP website and my own website.

When books make it to Half Price Books they’re generally “remaindered“, meaning the publisher is no longer printing copies and those that remain are being liquidated. Remaindered books generally fall outside the author’s contract and no money is made on these books by the author.

Whether an author makes money on book sales is due in large part to their original contract, to how much they have agreed to earn per book on the “back end” – or after the book has gone to print. Most knitting authors make most of their money on the “front end”, or as an advance from the publisher, who then retains most of the rights so each book sale actually nets the author just a tiny bit of money.

It’s not so much the $$ per book I’ll earn which compels me to self publishing (although that definitely plays into it) but my ability to determine WHEN my book is taken out of print. A book that sells poorly for a publisher, not making a second printing or even paying for warehouse space viable, would be a GREAT seller for me, and would bring in a nice chunk of my mortgage.

Confessions of a Knitting Heretic would have been remaindered years ago by a traditional publisher, but because I publish it myself I can keep in in print and to date it’s sold almost 90K books (over 10 years – not a great return for a large pub house, but excellent for me!)

I have a question (been wondering for a while) on writers and book sales – do writers get their share of a book sale cut when we buy books (new books, not used) from places like Half Price Books or the clearance section of B&N etc., or do they still get their full share? I’m curious if the cuts are across the board when we see new books for 50-75% off the cover price.