Buckingham Palace Chuffed Over Albert Square & Me
By Larry Jaffee
Albert Square & Me: The Actors
of EastEnders features a cover photo of
Queen Elizabeth II flanked by Wendy
Richard and Barbara Windsor (both MBEs). I thought it would be a
courteous gesture to send her over a book, especially since she met both
actresses, who gave Her Majesty a grand tour of the EastEnders set in
November 2001. At my urging, the New York British Consulate made
sure the Queen received her own copy of the book, and I soon thereafter
received the gold-embossed stationery letter from Mr. Christopher
Geidt, Her Majesty’s Private Secretary.
Book Update
On Sept. 1 UPS delivered 29
boxes of 500 books to my second
floor Manhattan apartment. The
delivery guy was not happy about
all the trips he needed to make. I
told him, “But I’ve been waiting
for this delivery my entire life.”
He said, “Okay when you put it
that way….” Here’s the good news,
less than six months later, as of
Feb. 19, I have only seven boxes
left. Thanks to everyone (you
know who you are) who has purchased
Albert Square & Me: The
Actors of EastEnders.
To date, I’ve sold about 600
copies in total, half of which have
been sold directly by the Walford
Gazette or through public TV stations
using it as a thank-you gift at
the $150 level (I make only $5
profit per sale, but please buy it
through your host stations if you
can afford it); and the other half
through e-commerce sites, including
Amazon, (from which I make
only $2 and change per book!).
Depending upon how you do
the math, I still have a long way to
seeing significant profits when taking
into account all the money I’ve
spent on buying the books, production,
marketing and promo copies.
Self-publishing this book has
been an amazing learning experience,
and it’s true in this economic
downturn that the book publishing
industry is fraught with intricacies
that make it difficult for all publishers,
but especially independent
authors.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment
has come from my so-called
“publisher,” an Indiana company
called iUniverse, which specialises
in self-publishing. I went with
them because they assured me the
book would have no problem in
gaining U.K. retail distribution, as
long as I paid $699 for a return
program (I did). While iUniverse
does have a relationship with a
British printer, which fulfills U.K.
orders, and two distributors there,
none of these companies inexplicably
last fall or this past holiday
gift-giving season wanted to get
behind the book since its release –
a strange reaction to say the least
considering that EastEnders’ 25th
anniversary was looming in the
near future.
I soon ascertained that part of
the problem with the book is that
it’s digitally printed, which is the
only kind of book that iUniverse
produces. The main problem with
that is retailers like Borders in the
U.S. (and U.K.) and Waterstones in
the U.K. as a matter of policy will
not stock digitally printed books in
their stores, and Barnes & Noble,
which owns iUniverse, generally
does not either and told me that
they viewed as a niche best sold
through bn.com.
Hence, I’d appreciate if would
buy the book directly from me, if
not via your stations. Thank you!
Click Here to order!
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