I’ve read several articles about how digital sales will eliminate dead-tree (print) format. Most of my author pals sell more digital downloads than print.

I’m the exception, apparently. My print sales to digital sales are 4:1, where I will sell four print books for every digital download. Some months it goes much higher, such as my record ratio of 28:1 in March 2014 — with a measly 8 digital sales.

Not all of my titles have digital equivalents, and some of my digital titles do not have print equivalents. Most of the pulp reprints that I’ve written introductions to are not available in digital format.

So, for those folks who are wondering if it is worth the effort to produce a print edition, I would say yes. An additional benefit to having a print version is that you can sell copies at conventions, which usually means I get to keep about $4 a title in profit while meeting a fan (or potential future fan, if they like what they purchased.)

Anyone can learn how to produce a decent book interior, but if you don’t have the time, it’s something you can hire out. I recommend Chris Ficco, who does an amazing job with interiors. I saw one book he did for a family history that looked better than any of the hardcovers from the Big 5. The link for Chris goes to his pricing page, which is very reasonable.

So, sally forth and start producing more works in multiple formats. You can’t tell which one will take off, so you might as well keep as many fishing hooks in the water as you can muster.