Robin Spano's Blog - Posts Tagged "clare-vengel"

Hey - ECW Press just hooked me up with 2 nifty cover drafts for the 2nd Clare Vengel book - Death Plays Poker - due out next fall.

I would love your feedback to make the cover awesome. Which cover do you like better? What would you change to take it to the next level?

I don't know how to add images on Goodreads, so I'm linking to the image on Facebook!

Thanks for your help!

Robin

So maybe it's not the most genius business move to use your own book as a guinea pig, but I'm on a mission to find and prove the right price range for ebooks. By "right" I mean that sweet spot that's fair to everyone - readers, writers, publishers, booksellers. Where creators are paid & buyers aren't gouged.

My instinct has this price at $4.99. The publishing industry is keeping it up around $10.

In December, my publisher and I ran one experiment. Details and results are here.

Now, ECW Press has given me an exciting new challenge: they're willing to experiment again, and they're asking me for ideas about what kind of experiment we should run.

The purpose of the experiment is twofold:

1. To continue trying to determine the sweet spot for ebook pricing, and what direction the publishing industry would take on ebooks if it was smart. (Ha ha.)

2. To act as a promotion when Death Plays Poker (book 2 in the Clare Vengel series) comes out in October 2011.

As may be apparent, my primary goal is #1 & ECW's main objective is #2. But that's fine - people with different end goals work together to come up with awesome results all the time. (And it's not like our objectives conflict - they're also interested in experimenting and of course I'm also happy with promotion.)

So here's the question: Which of the following promo ideas do you think would yield the most interesting research results?

a. Lowering the price of Dead Politician Society to $1.99 for the month of September.

b. Lowering Dead Politician Society to $4.99 September through October, and starting Death Plays Poker off at $4.99 for October only.

c. Bundling the books so that when someone buys the Death Plays Poker ebook in October at its regular price (approx. $10), they receive a free ebook of Dead Politician Society.

d. Lowering Dead Politician Society permanently to $4.99 as soon as Death Plays Poker is released.

e. Giving a free e-book with the purchase of a print book. (Suggested by Jennifer Robertson Quirion on Twitter.)

f. Selling Politicians at the regular price and including a voucher for $5 off Poker for a limited time. (Suggested by Leeswammes)

g. Something else - I would love to hear suggestions.

We're taking Goodreads Giveaways to the next level - by throwing free poker tournaments where you can compete for a copy of Death Plays Poker, a fun, edgy mystery set at a world class poker tournament.

The first game is on Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. Pacific (10 p.m. Eastern). The winner will receive a signed copy of Death Plays Poker: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel mailed to them upon release. The top 9 finishers will win a pack of Death Plays Poker playing cards.

Games will take place on Poker Stars Home Games - free software that's smooth and glitch-free. To enter:

- If you don't already have it, download the free Poker Stars software
- Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
- Click the 'Join a Poker Club' button
- Enter our Club ID number: 496866
- Enter our Invitation Code: clarevengel

Once we've approved your membership request (which we will - this game is open to everyone), you'll be able to enter any or all of the scheduled tournaments.

More games will be added to the roster throughout September - and as a member of our Home Games club, you'll be notified and invited to join them all. The final game will take place on October 1st - the release date of Death Plays Poker

I think ebook prices are too high. It's not that I think a great read isn't worth $10-$15 -- it's worth way more. But I think lower prices will get books into readers' hands quicker. I think $4.99 is the right price -- the price that sells books and pays the people who work on them.

My publisher, ECW Press, begs to differ - they think the current industry standard is about right. But they've been cool enough to run experiments with me to see if the marketplace says differently.

We ran an experiment in December -- results are here -- that we both interpreted differently. (To me, it was clear that people would buy more ebooks if they were cheaper; ECW felt the success of the experiment lay more in the promotion.)

But ECW is an open-minded press. They publish books with an edge, and they watch the industry with an edge. They want to know what consumers want, and (unlike any other publisher I've ever heard of) they listen to ideas from writers, too.

So they're trying this new experiment -- a slower, less dramatic one. For the month of October, Dead Politician Society will be $2.99 across several platforms.

This doubles as a promotion for Death Plays Poker, the second book in the series that was released a few days ago. (The wicked plan is to get people hooked on the series by giving them a cheap first taste, ha ha.)

But -- like with the first experiment -- my excitement lies in waiting for and interpreting the results. I'm just so curious to find that sweet spot, pricewise.

It's up on Kobo, Nook, Sony Reader Store, iTunes & Kindle.


I'll post the experiment results as soon as they're in.

If you enjoyed reading Death Plays Poker, I'd love to mail you a souvenir pack of playing cards.

If you share your thoughts about the book - on your blog, Goodreads, Chapters, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Shelfari, Library Thing - or anywhere else online, let me know and we'll send cards.

Doesn't have to be a good review - I'm interested in honest reader feedback. (Though naturally I hope you love the book and Clare!)

This offer is good until the end of 2011 - or until supplies last, but we have lots - so no rush if you haven't started reading.

Just shoot me an email - robin@robinspano.com - with your mailing address and links to your online reviews.

BONUS: If you post your review on a poker blog or poker forum, we'll also send you a free copy of Ryan Wiseman's Earn $30,000 per Month Playing Online Poker: A Step-By-Step Guide to Single Table Tournaments. We have five copies of this book to give away, generously donated by ECW Press

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What should an ebook cost? Opinions are floating around everywhere. Some say $0.99, others say $12.99. There's a big school of thought that says $2.99. My gut says $4.99 is a reasonable price - it both pays the people who work on the book and acknowledges that an ebook is indeed worth less money than a print book. My publisher likes the price around $10.

It's my publisher's call how they price my books. And I'm fine with that - they're smart people with an eye on the changing industry. Like most traditional publishers, they like higher ebook prices than I do. But unlike most traditional publishers, they're entertaining the discussion - they're willing to play with the pricing of my books so we can do market research together.

The next step in the ongoing ebook price experiment with ECW Press and the Clare Vengel series: a 2-in-1 bundle from Kindle.

I'm excited about this one - it satisfies both my thinking that the price of an ebook should be approximately half of a print book, and it satisfies my publisher's position that to sell a book too cheaply devalues the book, makes it appear to be worth less. So for $9.99, both Dead Politician Society and Death Plays Poker are being bundled into one ebook - Clare Vengel Undercover Mysteries

This isn't a deep enough discount that people who aren't excited about the books themselves will buy it (like the $1.99 or even $2.99 experiments were), but it's what I'd call a reasonable price for a book you can't pass on to a friend or leave in your guest room.

I'll post results when they begin to make themselves clear. Still waiting on stats from the $2.99 experiment, but (IMO) the $1.99 results ring loud and clear in favor of lower pricing.