Readers, I'm now going to tell you about purchasing books ... from an Author's perspective.  An author spends a great deal of their time developing stories, putting them together with words, motivation, and desire, along with the meager hopes they will be published.  This is a task, indeed.

But the majority of authors around the globe enjoy writing and should they ever become published, their dream has come true for them.  Now they can look forward to having you, the "reading" public, take a chance and purchase their work.  Along with the hopes that the public will enjoy their "toils", the author looks forward, normally twice a year, to receiving their royalty checks.  And I can promise you, the average author ONLY sells between 300 to 500 copies of their books...total!  This means that these authors are probably receiving royality checks that average around $50.00 to $100.00...twice a year, for the first few years their books are listed and being sold.

First of all, less then three percent of published authors will find their books sold in brick and mortar bookstores.  That's right!  Shocking, isn't it!  Seeing as how about 350 new books are released each day, the book store hasn't been built yet to hold every book written by all the authors of the world.  Book stores are reserved for the Stephen Kings etc, if you catch my drift.

The majority of authors throughout the world are completely unknown, as I am.  And for certain, we still have our "day jobs"!!  In order for an Author to be able to get their books "out there" in the eyes of the public, a publicist is required.  However, the vast majority of authors cannot afford the thousands and thousands of dollars required to retain a publicist to "push" their books.

So we rely on the internet and  our web-sites and hope we manange to sell a few of our books.  Isn't that awful?  An author who wants to sell their books??!!  My goodness, what IS this world coming to?  But here's the kicker...authors are discovering that those who desire to purchase their books are doing so by buying used copies.  Authors do not receive royalties from used book sales.  Let's face it, if you can buy it cheaper used, then go for it!

But there are ways to purchase new author's books at a good price by just surfing the net or purchasing directly from the publisher.  On this site, there is a direct line to each of my books at the publisher.  Just click on either one and it bypasses all the crap and brings you directly to my books.   Barnes&nobles is a good place to purchase books, and all that's required is to enter The Ninth Commandment of Tuffy's Heroes, and bingo!  There they are.

At Amazon.com, enter The Ninth Commandment and it will pop up there for you.  But for Tuffy's Heroes, you have to enter: Joe Tuffy Tofuri in order to find it.

Now here's the deal I have for all of you.  Order any of my books, and when you receive them, contact me through my web-site with your mailing address.  I will send you a personally signed book mark at my expense for mailing it back to you.  I can only hope you will purchase new copies of both my books.  My royalities are based on the book's selling price and my agent gets the first slice!  Well, that's only fair.  Author's are very lucky if they make $.40 per book sale...shocking, ain't it!!  My mother called me a few months ago and we talked about my book sales.  She thought I was making at least $10.00 in royalties from each sale!!!  I can only dream.

Anyway, gang, I just thought I'd let you know how the book business really works when it comes to book sales.  So hang in there, and enjoy my site!!

 

Tuffy

02-19-07

WOW!!  Ever since I posted the above article, I've received 22 emails from readers who not only learned and understand how the book-sale business works for us "Starving" authors, but they all ordered "new" books through my sight!!  This is great because they also sent along their home mailing addresses (which shall ALWAYS remain private), and I will be sending them each a personally signed book mark!

Thanks to all of you!!

 

Tuffy