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by Angela Hoy, editor of WritersWeekly.com I am often asked by authors how many free copies of books they'll receive if they publish with Booklocker.com, which I co-own. I then have to explain to authors that, when a POD publisher offers "free" copies, those copies are anything but free. The cost of those copies are usually grossly inflated, and they're built into your setup fees without your knowledge. They may even be priced higher than if you'd purchased them separately! Here's how it works. When a POD publisher signs a new author, they offer a bunch of bells and whistles up front, hoping to lure the author into their clutches. Offering "free" copies may look like a great deal. But, what you'll likely find is that not falling for that "free copies" deal will probably save you money later. The POD publisher hopes you'll fall for the "free" copies offer because, while they HOPE you'll buy copies from them after your book is published, there's really no way to FORCE you to do so, other than to offer "FREE" copies. If they offer 5 "free" copies, or even 40 "free" copies, they've built the cost of those "free" copies into your setup fee, thus forcing you to buy those 5 or 40 copies.
Here's my take on this "free" copy business. If you want to buy copies of your own book, that's fine. If you don't want to (or can't afford to) buy copies, you shouldn't be forced to do so by paying inflated setup fees. At Booklocker.com, we don't force authors to buy copies of their own books by masquerading them as "free" while inflating the setup fees. We just don't do business that way.
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