Well, we have good news and bad news about “Soapstone,” my self-published novel.

The good news is that CreateSpace, the Amazon-owned publish-on-demand company through which I self-published the novel, now offers expanded distribution, meaning that for the first time the book can be offered by independent bookstores, libraries, and online book sites other than Amazon.

Because my book is already set up under CreateSpace’s “pro” plan, this expanded distribution doesn’t cost me anything.

But the bad news is that the profit margin on these new markets is low. Very low. So, reluctantly, I have increased the online price of the novel from $11.95 to $12.95, and even that gives me a very small amount per copy when sold through any of these new markets.

The nice thing is that when I order copies to sell in person, I will still be able to get them at the same price as in the past, and so I think I will keep selling in-person copies at the old price.

Speaking of libraries, the book has already been available for many months at the library here in Shelbyville, to which I donated a copy.

Kudos to CreateSpace for quickly and professionally addressing my royalty problem. They confirmed that I had, indeed, asked for direct deposit of my royalties, and so they’re crediting my account for the check processing fee which was deducted this month.

I got my first royalty check in the mail today, for the November sales of “Soapstone.”

The bad news is, I wasn’t expecting a check — I had signed up for direct deposit. CreateSpace deducts an $8 “check processing fee,” so I received just under $30 instead of just under $38, which is what I earned.

I’ve contacted customer service to see what the problem is and whether I can get it resolved.

The novel will not be available for purchase for a few days. I’d been saving up some corrections and uploaded a new-and-improved file to CreateSpace this morning. But CreateSpace requires that you take the book offline to make changes; they won’t just keep selling the old one until the new one has been approved. I will have to order a proof copy of the new version.

I’ll let you know when the novel is available again. It could be as early as tomorrow if I decide to take a risk and approve the new version sight-unseen. I’m supposed to wait until I get a chance to look at the new proof, and that’s probably the wisest thing to do. But I actually approved the book for sale the first time around before I had received my third proof.