Sea Gull too expensive for you?

Don't buy it!
But if you can do with a few less fancy coffees, read on...

Over the months, we have had some people unhappy with the price, but Leading Ladies never wants unhappy customers, so if the price makes you unhappy, and stopping you from buying, my all means, don't buy the book.

We don't want anyone to go into debt buying a book, but on the same turn, Leading Ladies can't afford to go into debt selling a book.

We are only a few individuals selling this, and not a publishing company with build in discounts and budgets. And we would have been still waiting if we waited for a publishing company to pick up our book.

Some people never publish, because they are still waiting for that letter or call, or they never follow through on doing a book on their own, for many reasons. Some of those being, not having the skills to do so. And that is a tough place to be in.

We had the right team in place, and decided to do it. And we have many happy customers very happy we pressed on with this publication, and enjoying their books, very much.

As for the price, we are offering this book at a price where we don't go under, and pays for all costs including:

• *Fully colored printed book, shipping and extra fees to Leading Ladies ($31.40 each per book at current rate UPDATE JANUARY 2009: Our book price increase has gone up to about $41, with a recent large increase in printing). We do this to make sure you don't have to deal with any poorly printed books directly from the publishing house (which can easily be the case.)

Honestly, an author has no idea what any Print on Demand house is shipping. Could be great or could be crap, very easily. And you (as the author) may never know, unless someone told you. And you (the customer) sorting the bad order out, can be a real pain. I know, for I deal with all the seconds, so you don't have too! But that adds to the cost, but it also adds value to your experience of just enjoying a well printed book.

And these are well printed books.

On top of that we have pay pal fees, Internet fees, banking fees (priced a package of business checks lately?), packaging materials (shipping such materials to our office is expensive these days and the only way I can get mailing materials at a cost best for you), printing cost of bookkeeping (all part of running the business), fees for lawyers and accountants (that uses up profit quickly in just one visit, and we had several this year, alone), trips to the post office mailing books (sometimes several trips to sort out special orders), and many other cost that add up eating into any profit.

Personally, I received no money from this book, unlike many of you authors that do. All the money goes into the Leading Ladies company fund to keep the business going. And so far, we have stayed out of the red. It is not a huge profit by no means, but we have been able to keep the business going.

So if price is the thing keeping you from buying one, don't buy it. Going into debt is not something I would advise anyone to do, ever.

As for the price of this book going down? Forget it. We are not Amazon, with deep discounts, because the only place we could discount to, is into debt. (And there have been authors going into very deep debt doing a book. I would never advise that.)

But if you can do without another pair of shoes on sale, or a few fancy coffee drinks, you might be surprised what the difference really is, from the price you would buy it, from the price it is.

And if you do happen to get a copy, maybe you will feel like this reader:

"...really is a remarkable production, engagingly written and beautifully designed. It does more than give self-publishing a good name - it makes it something imperative for anyone with the knowledge, vision and ability to write. It's a real contribution to film history." - Luke McKernan

So don't buy anything, unless you really want too. But if you really want it, you just might enjoy it...

*If you are wondering, why not go black and white, like most of these type of books?
The black and white printing option on print on demand is frankly, very bad on reproduction for photos. The paper quality is also poor. We had the team to put together something on scale of a nice hardbound glossy printed book, so we did it. But the hardbound binding is still uneven with print on demand, so we decided not to do it that way, after the test book with one company looked very poor. Right now, no plans on hardbound. And no plans on black and white version, unless the printing improves.