This is a not-so-public page for authors of books published by Bequem Publishing (BP) imprints – that’s Truth Serum Press, Everytime Press and Pure Slush Books (and Zwischen Publishing, if applicable) – about the timetabling of paperback and eBook releases on POD services and various other online retail and wholesale platforms.

This is basically what you can expect … but please note there can be frequent variations, most of which are beyond the influence of anyone at BP.

Paperback and eBook

Day #1 – Publisher Matt Potter uploads the final version of your book to LULU and your book is now officially published and made available for anyone on the internet to purchase. This includes adding a retail price on LULU along with other publisher and copyright details, and blurbs, with links.

An icon is clicked and your paperback is now also in the process of being listed on Google search. (This approval process can take up to 8 weeks.)

Anyone can now visit the LULU website and purchase your paperback.

A shortened bitly link is gained. This shortened link is used when numbers of letters in a web address are rationed i.e. on Twitter, where shorter is better.

It is also listed (with links) on a number of webpages on your imprint’s site and the BP site – including your book’s page, your book’s taste of page, and your author profile – and a post is created announcing it is available to purchase, on both your imprint’s site and the BP site.

Your book is also registered for an ISBN (the ISBN would have been purchased months or even years before) but registration happens now … or this registration may have happened a couple of days earlier. This is usually when the eBook ISBN is also registered.

This is also usually the day (or soon after) when publisher Matt Potter orders his “proper” copy of your completed book, which flows on to later listing it on other retail platforms like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

A Facebook page is made for the book. This may have already been made by Matt, or by you as the author … unless the author expresses a desire not to have a Facebook page for his / her book.

Promotion online (on Facebook and Twitter by Matt) also usually commences.

Day #3 or Day #4 (sometimes sooner, sometimes later) – Matt Potter has converted your book into an eBook, and uploads this to LULU, where the original Word.doc is converted to an ePub. A retail price is added on LULU along with other publisher and copyright details, and blurbs, as per the paperback.

Anyone can now visit the LULU website and purchase the ePub eBook.

Various icons are clicked and the eBook is now in the process of being approved for sale on a number of other websites, including Amazon (Kindle), the iBookstore, Kobobooks, and Barnes and Noble (NOOKbook).

A shortened bitly link is gained. This shortened link is used when numbers of letters in a web address are rationed i.e. on Twitter, where shorter is better.

The ePub is also listed (with links) on a number of webpages on your imprint’s site and the BP site – including your book’s page, your book’s taste of page, and your author profile – and a post is created announcing it is available to purchase, on both your imprint’s site and the BP site, again with links.

Promotion online (on Facebook and Twitter by Matt) will now also include links to the ePub eBook on LULU.

Day #8 (or thereabouts) – Matt Potter now has his “official” copy of your paperback and checks it over for any issues (typos or other mistakes). If there is nothing to change – and usually, there is not – Matt then approves the book for further retail distribution on other retail and wholesale platforms. This approval process can take about 4 weeks, and is quite outside Matt’s influence. The only way to know your book is now for sale on these websites, is to check the websites yourself. Start checking at about Day #22.

Day #16 (or thereabouts) – Matt receives an email saying the eBook has been approved for distribution beyond LULU.  If the eBook has not been approved, then changes need to be made to the original Word.doc or to the cover jpg and uploaded again to LULU, and another 2 weeks is usually added to the timeframe.

(Once the eBook becomes available on these other sites, links are added to your imprint’s relevant webpages. This can mean daily website updates until all main eBook online retailers are listed and linked to.)

Day #22 (or thereabouts) – the eBook (as an ePub) is available to purchase and download from the iBookstore.

Day #29 (or thereabouts) – the eBook is now available to download from other websites, usually Amazon (Kindle) first, then Kobobooks, and Barnes and Noble (NOOKbook). However, this is not always the order in which these eBooks appear.

Day #36 – your paperback will now start appearing on other retail book sites. Usually, the paperback is available on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble at about the same time, with other retailers like Fishpond and Book Depository following. 

By this time, your book will also be available to purchase through wholesale book sites, like Ingram, Baker and Taylor, and Gardners. (The paperbacks usually arrive here before they arrive on Amazon.) What this means is that bookstores can now buy paperback copies themselves. Unless you are a bookstore owner or distributor yourself and have an account with these wholesalers, however, you cannot check on most of these wholesale websites if your book is available.

Other Dates / Things to Remember

Royalty payments – (see: The 17th of each month).

Every day – if purchases of your paperback and eBook are made via LULU, these are reported on LULU daily. There can sometimes be a slight delay with this on weekends, or if the LULU site is down for maintenance.

The 8th of each month – by this day all purchases of your paperback and eBook made on other websites other than LULU, during the previous calendar month, have been reported. Some are reported through the month of sale, though we are not sure how soon these sales are reported after the sale is made – Kobobooks, B & N NOOKbook and the iBookstore for example – but all sales from the previous month have been reported by this date.

The 17th of each month – this is the day when royalties are paid by LULU, via PayPal, for all paperback and eBook sales on all platforms, to Matt Potter as publisher. Author royalties are paid on to authors six-monthly, in June and December. So, later on 17th June and 17th December, or the next day, Matt distributes these royalties to those authors who’ve had copies of their books sell in the previous 6 months, via PayPal.

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