I didn’t mention it earlier because I didn’t want to place hype where there might not be any. Late last month I received a phone call from Chapters/Indigo HO. They were interested in carrying Recipes of a Dumb Housewife as a regular stock item, would I send along a review copy. I did.

Received another phone call from them to discuss distribution problems: Ingram only offered 15% discount and no returns. (This is because of being printed through Lulu.) Did I have a Canadian distributor, or would I consider doing my own fulfillment? Yes to the latter, no to the former.

Yesterday received another phone call. Unfortunately Chapters have chosen to pass for the nonce on the cookbook. They are impressed with my sales and the content. The difficulties lie in the following areas:

Quality of printing isn’t up to standard, in that they felt the printing is blurred and almost looks photocopied. This is of primary concern to them. (The books are printed either through Lightning Source or BookSurge.)

1. Layout is not up to standard. (This is my problem.)
2. Typeface appears dated and needs to be made to feel more current. (This is my problem. I printed in Time New Roman and likely should have gone with something like Georgia.)
3. Cover unsuitable: they didn’t get the equation I have in the bubble. (This is my problem.)
4. Back cover is off-centered, and they would prefer it centered. (I used Lulu’s wizard, so should have designed my own.)
5. They require 45% discount. (This is Lulu’s problem which they will not be fixing, because of all the fingers in my pie.)
6. They would prefer a Canadian distributor. (This is proving problematic.)

So, for any of you who have purchased a distribution contract through Lulu, I’m afraid to say it’s pretty much a non-effective expense.

I feel that unless you’re self-publishing work that is part of a course or seminar, that your chances of being picked up by book-sellers is extremely remote. At this point I can’t help but feel self-publishing books of the type I’m writing is little more than self-gratification, despite my modest sales numbers. To have my work printed and distributed to the exacting standards Chapters, and likely others, require will cost. And indeed they should not lower their standards. I’m simply going to have to increase mine.

Am I giving up? No. Every problem has a solution. I just need to figure out a solution to this one. And for the moment that means more research and likely a return to the dreaded rejection arena and submitting to traditional publishers.

In the meantime, any of you who wander by here, wouldn’t mind your feedback through my little survey.