Normally, it works like this: As an author, you publish your paperback and the first thing you want to have, is the printed copy in your hand. That’s what every self-publisher is advised to do. If you’re publishing a paperback, order a sample copy before you publish your book. This way you can check if the final product looks exactly as you imagined it. The colours, the size of the book and the font, and any spelling errors (that slipped through during all the revisions).
However, that’s not how it was for me. I’ve now published two paperbacks, and I don’t own my own books as hard copies.
Not because I’m not interested in them, or because I want to save money, but for entirely different reasons.
The first attempt
I published my first novel, The Colour of Sari, in German in May 2019. At this time I was on my world trip and had no address to which I could have sent the sample copy. For a little over a year I have settled down now and theoretically I could have bought my own book. But then my boyfriend bought my book and because he doesn’t speak German, it sits around unused in our house. So I borrow his book regularly and until today I had no reason to buy my own book.
The second attempt
In November 2020 I published my satire “For Devils sake” with the writers and collectors in our anthology “Dazwischengeschichten” (In-Between Sories). This time I wanted to own our book and I placed an order with our editor who organized a collective order. Already in November, the first pictures reached me from Germany that my fellow authors had received their copy and were diligently posting photos of it on social media. Shortly after I got the email that my copy is also in the mail to New Zealand.
Meanwhile, it’s February and my copy of “In-Between Stories” still hasn’t arrived. There are just a lot less planes flying because of Corona and so the mail takes forever from Germany to New Zealand.
The third try?
At least I can say “I tried.” And just because I don’t own my own books to this day doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Maybe someday the mail will arrive from Germany. Right now, I’m waiting again. On 01 March 2021 I will publish “The Colour of the Sari” in English. For weeks the mail has been on the way for this as well and I hope that it arrives in the next 2 weeks.