May 18, 2008

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Why should I be interested in purchasing SYOP?

Purchasing SYOP will allow you to control retail prices to a much greater degree than was ever previously possible. In many cases, authors with SYOP will enjoy much lower retail prices than Xlibris has ever offered in the past.

Authors will also be able to set their royalty amounts to any dollar amount they desire, starting at one dollar. There is no limit to the dollar amount you may set your royalty amount to.

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Can anyone take advantage of SYOP?

Yes! All authors may opt into the SYOP program. Picture book and Short book authors may want to note that doing so though may result in higher retail prices of their existing titles.

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How does SYOP work?

SYOP pricing works on three main factors, Your book’s final page count, the type of book – is it a trade book or a picture book, and finally whether it is a paperback or hardcover version of your book. If you do not know how many pages your book is that is ok. Based on the number of pages within your manuscript, we should be able to estimate your book’s final page count. Before a book is published, someone will contact you to confirm your book’s final page count, retail price and royalty amount.

Royalties will always start at 1 dollar earned per book sale. This is true no matter where the book sale is made, whether it be through the Xlibris bookstore or online in the “channels” such as Amazon or Borders. For each extra dollar an author wants to add per sale, their retail price goes up by two dollars.

Let’s look at an example. An author has just ordered a Premium service package for a trade book and it is determined their book is going to be 299 pages long. The author wants to know how much their book will be to begin with. A 299 page paperback with SYOP will retail for 15.99 and a hard cover for 22.99 with base royalties of one dollar. If the author wishes to raise their royalty amount to two dollars for each book sold, their new retail prices would be 17.99 for paperback and 24.99 for each hardcover.

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How much does SYOP cost?

249 dollars.

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How often can I change my SYOP book price and or royalty amounts?

As often as you like. One very important thing to note though is that each change will immediately reflect on the Xlibris book store. It will however take up to 6 weeks for any changes to books available through online retailers such as Amazon or Borders. As such it is not recommended that you change your pricing more than once every 6 weeks to guarantee that your book is always being bought at its desired price.

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Do my hardcover and paperback royalties have to be the same amount?

No. You are completely free to set royalties earned for each book type independently of one another. Want to earn 5 dollars for each paperback sold and 3 dollars for each hard cover? Feel free to set the royalties for these amounts.

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