This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
This is my 25th blog post and I decided to make it a collection of my five most liked posts. Most of you cannot like posts. You need a wordpress.com account for that. That’s just the way wordpress.com does it to incentivize people to get an account. I don’t like that, so I am not going to ask anyone to get an account. However, everyone can comment, and I like both likes and comments. So what do you think about these five posts?
A young Bronco at the dog park. Our Labrador in the background. Bronco is a gangly adolescent and hasn’t filled out yet. Later he would start looking the way you expect a Leonberger to look like. He was still very big and very brave at the time. He was probably 120 pounds in this photo. Click on the image to see the “A shocking walk” story.
Bronco our Leonberger standing in front of the Hallway. Bronco loved greeting people. However, the head in the lion mouth circus trick is not how you greet people, something Bronco needed to learn. Read this story and how to teach Leonbergers not to jump up on people by clicking on the photo.
The front and back cover of the second proof of the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”, stories and tips from thirteen years with a Leonberger. Click on the photo to read about this proof and the book release.
Here is the second proof version of the book. This one might be it!
Proof version of the book The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle.
I received the second proof for my book The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle. All the content looks good, the front and back covers seem to be ready. This might be the final version. Even if we go (me and my editor) with this version, we have already decided that the book will be released on July 3rd, 2022, which would have been Bronco’s 15th birthday. The book will be available on Amazon, including many international Amazon websites, Barnes and Noble, as well as many other bookstores.
The ISBN number for the print edition is 978-0-9980849-5-4
The ISBN number for the e-book edition is 978-0-9980849-6-1
Endorsements for the book
I will add more detailed information about the book and the links to places to purchase the book at this location. Which is the same as clicking “The Book” menu item at the top.
Front cover of The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger.
Yesterday I received the first proof version of the book I’ve been working on. It will be released on Bronco’s birthday July 3rd (he would have been 15 years old). There are still some fixes that needs to be done including that the two endorsements I got both need to go in the back. However, it is getting close to being done. Therefore, I am writing a brief post on how this came about.
Page example from The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger.
I just started writing about our beloved Bronco and his crazy and amazing adventures and I added lots of color photographs. Little did I know that creating a real book is very different from writing a long essay and then printing it at Kinkos. For starters, printing a book in color is very expensive and unlike Kinkos you cannot print some pages in color and some in black and white. Amazon has three choices; the entire book in black and white, the entire book in standard color, and the entire book in premium color. That’s it! The cost per page for 206 pages 6X9 inch book is 1.2 cents for black and white, 3.6 cents for standard color, and 7 cents for premium color. Then there is an 85 cent costs for every book. Printing a 206 pages book in black and white is $3.322, standard color $8.266, premium color $15.27.
Black and white: X = 0.85 + 0.012 * 206 = 3.322
Standard color: X = 0.85 + 0.036 * 206 = 8.266
Premium color: X = 0.85 + 0.036 * 206 = 15.27
In addition, Amazon wants 40% of the price of the book and they leave the rest for you as royalty to the author. In my case I am donating all of that to the Leonberger Health Foundation International. So, if the price of the book is $10.95 the royalty to the author is
Black and white: Y = 0.6*10.95 – 3.32= 3.25
Standard color: Y = 0.6*10.95 – 8.266= -1.70
Premium color: Y = 0.6*10.95 – 15.27= -8.7
So that did not work out unless you choose black and white. Let’s say the price of the book is $19.95
Black and white: Y = 0.6*19.95 – 3.32= 11.97
Standard color: Y = 0.6*19.95 – 8.266= 7.02
Premium color: Y = 0.6*19.95 – 15.27= -3.3
This time standard color leaves some for the Leonberger Health Foundation International but premium color still does not work out. There is no printing cost associated with the kindle e-book so in that case you can choose whatever price you like, and Amazon gets 40% and author royalty is 60%. It is not possible to have a negative royalty with the e-book. I should also mention that if you work with a real publisher as opposed to self-publishing or working with a publisher you pay for, they will take care of all of this for you. However, the vast majority of author’s today, especially unknown authors, self-publish.
This is information I did not know before I wrote the book that would have been really helpful when planning the book.
Front and back cover
Printing cost and royalty calculations are not the only things you need to worry about. You also need to consider the size of the book, how the cover should look like, the type of paper you want to use, and you may want to get endorsements. Unless your English is perfect you probably need an editor. If you are first time author you most likely need help with book design, buying an ISBN number, creating the bar code, creating an author page and book page on Amazon, etc. Book design is when you take your word document, preferably written in Times New Roman 12, and turn into a pdf file where paragraphs and photos are laid out to fit together nicely on a rectangle corresponding to the book size you picked (6X9 in my case). Then you need to upload your files to Amazon and other bookstores. I wrote my book and then I considered all of this. If you are writing a book for the first time you may want to plan for all of this before you write your book. This blog post was focused on the price. I will post more about the concerns another time.
Leonberger Life 