Robin Spano's Blog, page 4

New E-book Experiment - Ideas Please

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.

Toastmasters for Writers

***The meeting time for Saturday, June 18th has been changed to a 9:45 a.m. start time.***

Hey writer friends,

Are you looking to become a more compelling speaker? Would you like to learn how to pull awesome interview answers from your head on the spot?

Toastmasters is opening a club in New Westminster, BC that is all about writers.

The writers club will be the same concept as regular Toastmasters, but instead of the structure being prepared speeches and business meetings, we'll focus on author interviews, readings, panels, speaking to media exercises - the kind of speaking we do in our real world careers.

This club is open to everyone. (You don't need to be a writer.) You're also welcome to come check the club out and watch a few meetings before committing to joining.

Dues are usually really cheap - cost-covering only. (My Richmond club is $72 every 6 months, and we always end up with money left over at the end of the year.)

Here are specifics:

New Writers Club - This club will meet every 2nd Saturday morning at the Justice Institute in New Westminster (715 McBride), from 9am - 11am. For more info, contact Gene Vickers (604 230-8030) or genevickers@hotmail.com First meeting 9:00 am, June 4th.

I've been a member of Richmond Toastmasters for 2 years, and they've taken me from paralyzed with fear to loving my time on stage. My personal learning curve is best expressed in this blog post: Word From The Street

Hope to see you there!

Results Are IN

Last December, ECW Press and I ran an experiment. For one week, they dropped the price of my mystery novel to $1.99 (ebook versions only).

They ran this experiment mostly to indulge me. My gut said – and still says – that the industry standard price of $10 for an ebook is too high. My proposed ideal ebook price was $4.99. I think that's a fairer price (relative to print books), and I think people would buy more ebooks if they were cheaper.

ECW Press disagreed, but they ran the experiment anyway. They're an innovative press – they're interested in experiments; they're interested in what the book buying public has to say. They're also good to their writers – I had a question, and they were willing to help me answer it.

So for one week, Dead Politician Society was $1.99 on iBooks, Kobo, and Kindle.

During the Experiment

The blogosphere was amazing. Word caught on, and lots of people helped me spread it. Comment sections were alive with debate and support, and these bloggers were kind enough to host me as I talked about the challenge in its various stages along the way.

Ebooks & the Industry On Chrisbookarama
Dialogue on Deadly Letters
Conversation with Leanna
How ebooks are revolutionizing the industry
Passion & Statistics on Coffee and a Book Chick
"The Great Ebook Debate" on Bella's Bookshelves
Preliminary Results Report on A Novel Source
Listen To The Voices

The Results
(If you hate math, skip ahead to the numbers in bold.)

Kobo – no change
Kindle – sold 35x as many books as the rest of the month combined
iBooks – sold twice as many books as the rest of the month combined

Adding actual book sales from all 3 sites, 5.5 times as many books sold during the promotion period as they did in the rest of the month. Since the promotion period got inadvertently extended to cover 9 days (both Kindle and iBooks had the price lower for an extra day on either side) here's the math I'm going with:

5.5 times as many books in 30% of the month = 18.33 times as many books per day, on average
$1.99 per book as opposed to $10.99 = 18% of the regular price in revenue
18 times as many books x 18% of the revenue = 3.3 x the revenue of a normal week

* I should note that because of the blurry edges of the experiment dates, we were forced to do some estimating re: Kindle and iBook sales. We think we got it right, but if we made any errors it's in favor of the lower price.

The Interpretation

Me: Awesome. More people are reading the book (which is great for a new writer – I care way more about readership than sales). And if sales dollars are up, even better – no skin off the publisher's back. My conclusion is easy – price matters, and lower is better.

ECW: We think people are buying the books because of the promotion, and not because of the price. We really don't know what the e-book market looks like, but we know a few things: Market surveys show that most readers agree that $10 is a fair price. A lower price doesn't get us very good placement on the sites. Under $7 is not sustainable for publishing books in any medium.

Other Factors Brought Into The Discussion

* Dead Politician Society was recommended by the CBC Mystery Panel as a holiday read. Immediately afterwards, Canadian sales spiked noticeably for a few weeks. Both ebooks and paperbacks sold at about five times their normal rate – for an increase in sales revenue of 5 times the norm (more than during the experiment). (Point in ECW's favor: promotion, not price driving sales.)

* Statistics show that books bought for under $5 are far less likely to ever be read. (Point in ECW's favor: Since the whole goal is increased readership, that negates the benefit of selling more books.)

* Lower pricing can devalue a book. If the industry standard price for an ebook was lower, that would be one thing. But to lower the price of Dead Politician Society to half while other new releases are being sold in the $10 range could make it look like it was cheap for a reason, thus deterring potential sales/readers. (Nobody's point – this is speculation.)

* The blogosphere really got behind this challenge. People were excited to help me prove my point. (Point in my favor: A lot of readers find ebook pricing unreasonably high across the industry, and they voted with their wallets and word of mouth.)

The Conclusion

While ECW Press is happy that the experiment went well – it got a bunch of people reading and interested in the book – they don't want to lower the price on a permanent basis.

I'm cool with that. If it was my call, I'd lower the price to $4.99 – mostly because I think keeping prices high isn't good for the industry as a whole, and I love that line from Ghandi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

But I feel like ECW has listened to my questions and given me way more leeway than any big publisher would have. And they're probably making the right call from a business point of view: Lowering the price of my one book (or even their entire list) would not cause the industry to roll over and change their pricing – it would only make their books look less valuable. I understand ECW's decision not to sell their writers short. In fact, I appreciate it. I'm working with a phenomenal team of people who value the written word and will do everything in their power to make it thrive.

That doesn't mean my quest for lower ebook pricing is over – I'm just looking at it as a longer term challenge. In the meantime, I've ordered an e-reader - a Sony. I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail.

Artistic Opinions Wanted

Thanks so much to everyone who shared feedback during round 1 of the cover art search for Death Plays Poker. Your reactions helped select a concept and hone it in the right direction - and now it's time for round 2.

The artists at Cyanotype worked with the pink card image and came up with this:

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I love it. I think it conveys the sinister yet fun tone that the book is going for. But I'd love to hear feedback before moving it through to the next stage. My publisher, ECW Press asked me to get as many opinions as possible.

So if you're sitting around with your relatives over the holidays, and you feel like pulling out your laptop instead of having one more family argument, I'd be into hearing how your Aunt Ethel and your 2-year-old nephew and your drunk brother-in-law all react.

Does this cover hit you/them in a good way? Does it make you curious to see what's inside? Would it make you set the book down and keep browsing for something more interesting-looking? And if you have any ideas for tweaking it, I would love to hear them.

Thanks!

Podcasting Dead Politicians

I've been having fun with my new microphone. It helps that it is totally phallic looking. [image error]

But seriously, I was inspired by Terry Fallis, who has podcasted his two novels, The Best Laid Plans & The High Road, free for anyone who wants to listen. It's kind of like a free audiotape, but it's released chapter by chapter. (I'm reading The Best Laid Plans now, and it's even better and more hilarious than I expected.)

Dead Politician Society is completely different from Terry's 2 novels - it's a lighthearted murder mystery - but I think it could make a fun podcast. Worst case scenario, this is great reading practice for when I have to read in front of audiences. Best case, people like it, and want to keep listening.

I've made 4 chapters into podcast episodes so far. Come on by and listen if you like:

Chapter 1: Clare & Cloutier

Chapter 2: Matthew

Chapter 3: Laura & Susannah

Chapter 4: Poli Real World

Preliminary Results

Today is the last day of the ebook challenge. It's been a really fun ride through the blogosphere - lots of amazing discussions in comment sections that have made me rack my brain and conscience, and lots of people voting with their wallets in the Kindle, Kobo, and iBooks stores.

If this is the first you've heard of this challenge: Dead Politician Society has been $1.99 at Kobo, Kindle, and iBooks for the past week, instead of its usual $10.99.
This post explains why.

I think the results have been telling. I don't have access to sales figures yet - the experiment is still running until midnight tonight - but the Kindle rankings have spoken volumes. Dead Politician Society was hovering in the hundred thousandth section before this week began - and now it's been consistently under 10,000th. It fell to 30,000 over the weekend - not sure why - but bounced back again late Sunday night (it's #8034 as I type this).

I'm ending this week feeling more solid about my original position: ebook prices should be lower than they are. It's time for big publishers to lose their fear of the electronic revolution - which is happening with or without them - and go confidently into the future by pricing ebooks competitively and fairly.

I'm not sure what ECW Press will conclude. I'm sure they'll be happy with the results, but will it be enough to change their mind about pricing going forward? Will I get my wish, and have a $4.99 ebook? Will they try another, longer term experiment - say $4.99 for 6 months, so we can really crunch some numbers?

Over at Listen To The Voices, Clarissa Draper has been hosting a wrap up discussion - head over and weigh in if you're interested.

And if you'd like to cash in on the cheap deal - it's still on for a few more hours (until midnight EST):

Dead Politician Society on iBooks
Dead Politician Society on Kindle
Dead Politician Society on Kobo

Thanks for everyone's support this week. I'll post more results as they come in.

The Game Is On

The Dispute
ECW Press thinks $10.99 is the right price for an ebook. I think $4.99 is better.

The Reasons
They think to charge less devalues literature. They also think buyers don't shop based on price - if they want a title, ECW thinks they'll buy it.

I disagree with both points. There are so many reasons an ebook should cost less than a print book, value-wise. And of course people shop based on price.

The Cool Thing
ECW is a cutting-edge publisher, and they're willing to listen to what the book-buying community has to say.

The Challenge
For one week (from now until Mon. Dec. 13, 2010), Dead Politician Society will be available for $1.99 from Kindle, iBooks, and Kobo.

ECW has run similar promotions for other books, and there's been no spike in sales. They're expecting the same results this time.

But I think they're wrong - Dead Politician Society has already jumped from being ranked over 150,000 in the Kindle Store to #7749. I think we're starting to make our point heard.

What The Results Will Say
If ebook sales stay strong this week, my publisher will see that price is a factor in people's buying decisions - and theirs might be too high.

If sales stay static - or if they don't continue to be higher than usual - I'll concede that price isn't a huge factor in ebook sales - and they might not be out to lunch.

How You Can Help
The most direct way is to buy the book for $1.99.

But if you don't have an e-reader, or you've already read Dead Politician Society, or it's not really a title that appeals to you but you'd still like to help make this point, you can link to this post - or any of the guest posts below - on Facebook or Twitter. The more people who see this challenge, the louder our voice can be when we show ECW Press that lower priced ebooks are a good thing for us all.

Dead Politician Society on iBooks
Dead Politician Society on Kindle
Dead Politician Society on Kobo

Fun Posts In The Blogosphere
Preliminary Results Report on A Novel Source
"The Great Ebook Debate" on Bella's Bookshelves
Passion & Statistics on Coffee and a Book Chick
How ebooks are revolutionizing the industry
Conversation with Leanna
Dialogue on Deadly Letters
Ebooks & the Industry On Chrisbookarama

iBooks & Kindle both up now

I guess the e-world is excited, too, because Kindle has their price lowered early just like iBooks.

Yesterday's post describes the challenge - my publisher and I have different ideas about ebooks.

Here are the updated links:

Dead Politician Society on iBooks

Dead Politician Society on Kindle

Kobo will join soon, too. Let's show this industry that price does matter. With the publishing industry changing so rapidly and dramatically, people's voices speak louder than ever. I think we can make a difference. Ha ha, maybe I'm naive.

Up & Running on iBooks

One day early - Dead Politician Society is now $1.99 on iBooks.

Tomorrow at midnight, Kindle and Kobo will join them.

For those of you joining the challenge now, here's what's happening:

My publisher, ECW Press, thinks the value of an ebook is $10.99 - and that's where they've priced Dead Politician Society. It's the industry standard for new releases, and they think that to price it lower is to devalue the work of the writer.

I think an ebook should cost less, like $4.99. I disagree with the industry standard, and more than that, I think the industry could use some shaking up. Ebooks are cheaper to produce, they can't be loaned or autographed, and as a writer, I would not feel undervalued if ebooks came with lower price tags.

Since my publisher is cool, they didn't tell me to shut up and go away. Instead, they're running this promotion. Starting now with iBooks, and tomorrow night with Kobo and Kindle, Dead Politician Society will be $1.99 as an ebook. For one week.

At the end of the week, we'll analyse the results together.

Here's my call to action:

If you agree with ECW Press, and you think ebook pricing is good where it is now, don't do a thing. If sales stay relatively static during this week, I'll concede that price is not a major factor in ebook sales, and I'll leave them to set prices as they see fit.

If you agree with me, and you think ebook pricing is too high right now for new releases, you can help me in 2 ways:

1. Buy the ebook this week at one of the places where it's $1.99. This option is good if the book sounds like fun and you have an ereader.
2. Spread the word about this challenge by linking to it or posting it on social networking sites. Maybe you don't want this particular book, or you don't have an ereader, but you'd still like to help me make this point.

This is a funny time in the book industry - ebooks are changing things fast. Together, we can help make that change happen in a good direction. (Which for me would include a less expensive standard for an ebook.)

For updates, or to join the conversation as this challenge progresses, come join me on Facebook.

And Kindle too!

And Amazon is in too...

So this coming week - from Tues. Dec. 7 - Mon. Dec. 13, Dead Politician Society will be $1.99 at Kindle, Kobo, and iBooks.

Why is this exciting? Because I'm trying to show my publisher that price DOES matter.

He thinks: People buy a book because they want to read it, and price won't be a deterrent as long as it's not prohibitively high.

Man, I'd like him to take me shopping.

I think: Sure, people only buy books that look interesting to them - something they'd actually like to read. BUT maybe a low price would make them buy it sooner rather than later. (I'm pushing for the regular price of my ebook to be lower, like under $5.)

Next week will show us both - me and my publisher - if price is a factor in ebook sales.

If you think price IS a factor, please help me by publicizing this challenge - I'm excited to be working with a publisher who's allowing me to try to change his mind. And I'd really like to change it by having tons of books sell when they're cheap.

He'll never price it at $1.99 permanently, but if we can show him that price matters, he might rethink his position and bring it down from $10.99.