A few months ago we were super excited to announce that you could now order and purchase 'The Legend of the Knightwatch: The Bear's Tale' from all good bookshops, including Waterstones. How amazing! This was what we had originally planned and this was something we even factored in to the design of the original book by purchasing a non-amazon ISBN number and barcode. Not that we were unhappy with Amazon, but with the intention of getting as many kids picking up the book and reading (or parent reading to their little ones), we wanted the book to have the widest possible spread.
However, this week Amazon Publishing announced an increase in their printing costs. This cost would see the printing of each copy rise by over 50%. I appreciate that in today's current economical situation, costs are rising and to say I shouldn't expect this to happen would be naive, yet, I was surprised it had been increased so much. With Amazon publishing it is worth noting that the creative team pays for the printing of each book once Amazon and the Extended Distribution catalogue have taken their percentage of the sale. With their price increases we were informed that our sale price would no longer cover all expenses and would require us to raise the sale price to a minimum of £8.13 per book.
Ian and I create Knightwatch in order to tell a great story and although we are proud of the book and know that children and parents love it, we also believe that children's picture books should feel special and of value, whether bought as a gift or moment to share - I've been there as a parent myself, I know how this feels!
So, what have we done? Well, first off, we've been put into the situation where we have had to move our distribution arrangement back to an Amazon Exclusive book. No more purchasing from the high street stores! The price is now £6.99 for the paperback version of the story and has allowed us to keep the book as low in price as possible. We still have copies of the book available at the Art Place in Chelmsford and will be hoping over the summer finding some other great independent shops who will stock it.
But that's not all! After Ian and I spoke last night we have decided to challenge the trend and reduce the cost of the kindle version of the book to £2.99 permanently. With no printing cost rises (although Amazon do charge delivery - oh yeah, that's a thing!) we felt that allowing parents to pay less for a digital copy of the book would keep it accessible and keep children reading, even when money is tough!