FAQs
What does TANSTAAFL mean?
TANSTAAFL is an acronym popularized by Robert Heinlein in the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It is short for “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” indicating that anything you get for “free” you probably paid too much for. Or one could generalize this even more saying “value for value.” You must give value to get value.
Why do you use a teddy bear with an M16 as your symbol?
For our first three years we used a brass cannon as another tip of the hat to our favorite author, Robert Heinlein. Over the years we’ve brought the bright purple bear, with the M16, as our mascot to shows to promote Toy Wars, by Thomas Gondolfi. This has prompted TG to be given the nickname of teddy bear man. People know we are at a show by finding the purple bear. It makes a great rallying point and EVERYONE looks for it (even if they might not yet be true believers of our writing). We can’t fight the tides, cats, or spouses so we gave in. The purple teddy with the assault rifle now represents us more obviously than did the obscure brass cannon.
I submitted an excerpt of my work to you for review and haven’t yet heard back. How soon should I expect a response?
If you have not heard back within the month, you may not hear a response back. We receive many submissions of work from prospective authors and currently our editors are very busy. If your work does not meet the qualifications of our genres, or your submission failed to comply with our submission guidelines, the work would automatically be rejected and no notice would be provided to you.
I’m an author interested in publishing with you. How do I do this?
All information can be found on our Publishing page.
I have published works in my name. What is the submission process for me?
Your mother must be very pleased. However, unless you have been published by TANSTAAFL Press, the same submission guidelines still apply.
Can I order a trade paper back through your website directly, or do I need to go to my local book store?
We currently do not sell in bookstores or directly through our website as the costs are just too high. At this time, we refer all purchases to Amazon.com. If you object to this, you may email us at tgondolfi@tanstaaflpress.com with the subject “Book Purchase”. We will send you an invoice through paypal and mail the books directly once payment is received.
Who do you work with for your editing / typesetting / printing?
You can find this under “Professionals” on our Publishing page. With each professional’s approval we will add contact information for them on that page.
Why do you charge the price you do for your books?
We are not gouging the paying public. It goes back to our company name, TANSTAAFL Press – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Roughly any book requires the following costs. We’ve shown the approximate costs assuming printing 1000 books. If that cost is a one time cost or variable we’ve estimated its cost spread across the 1000.
TANSTAAFL Press doesn’t use the cheapest bid for any job, as you get what you pay for, but rather journeyman quality (e.g. someone who is good at their job but who isn’t so good that they command top dollar).
| Cost | Amount |
| Editing | $1.00 |
| Typesetting | $0.35 |
| Cover Illustration | $0.80 |
| Cover Layout | $0.25 |
| Physical Printing of the book | $5.50 |
| Storage | $0.05 |
| Marketing | $2.00 |
| Author Payments | $1.00 |
Sales options:
| Mode | Cost | Total Costs to TANSTAAFL |
| Distribution (Big Box Store) | $12 | $22.95 |
| Retail Markup (Independent Bookstores) | $8 | $18.95 |
| Convention Sales | $5 | $15.95 |
| Amazon | $6.00-$5.50=$0.50 | $11.45 |
Big box stores are obviously completely out as it is a percentage that will go up and we’d have to price our books at about $27.50 just to break even. That also doesn’t count RETURNS which could sink you faster than anything.
Retail markup is also out and also a percentage. We did do this in the early days, but the cost in time and energy to go to each store to get them to carry the books, restock, and losses because of book damage. Ended up pushing the costs and making it infeasible.
As most of you know, convention sales are our normal method of engagement. This amortizes all the convention costs, travel, and more into this $5, so technically we would be making about $4 per book in profit.
To sell a physical book through Amazon, we have to remove the cost to print the book and ship it to us because we don’t have to buy it first. This would be our preferred method of purchase.
As bleak as these numbers seem, it shows that the first 1000 print books are at a loss, but when you factor out the one-time costs for a second print run you start showing a profit. Even this wouldn’t be good enough at our stated retail price were it not for the income of E-books. This allows us to hold down the cost of the print book.
Adding up all these costs will give you a quick look into the reality of print books. While some authors go electronic versions only, many readers are still traditional enough to want to hold a book in their hands and we cater to both traditional and E-book readers.