Why I'm Putting My Price Up From 99 Cents

The toothpaste I came away with from the 99p shop in my home town was not quite right. The actual toothpast was fine, but there was something wrong with the tube which meant it only delivered a tiny blob of paste, and that after much coaxing.

Was the tube priced cheaply because it was a defective lot, I wondered?

I wld certainly not buy another bargain tube again.

So, too, I always avoid the cheap 'value' range in a certain supermarket because I know that they will be second rate in quality, preparation, and presentation. In short, they will be the opposite of value. They will be a false economy. Or something that someone who is really short of money has to buy because they have no choice.

And that buy-one-get-one-free pair of jeans that I really didn't want but got in a sale, what of them? An ill-fitting, baggy, styleless, disappointment.

There is a lesson in all this which may apply to ebooks.

I know that it is a tactic to go free to amass downloads in the hope of winning a reputaion which than spreads by word of mouth and can be cashed in on.

I am also told by some who have done this that they do get lots of downloads, but that these seldom produce reviews or a ripple of purchases once a price is reinstated.

One author told me he thought that people merely squirrel ebooks away because they are free but never actually read many of them.

He cld just be bitter and twisted, of course.

But his view chimes with me instinctively. If something is free I tend not to want it because I probably didn't want it in the first place and, well, 'no free lunches', right? I know some people will scoop up anything for free. But I am not one of them.

I tend to avoid stuff I don't want or need. I tend to only want really good stuff that pleases me, is useful, or will last forever. I suppose it is about quality.

I know that some might say that it is elitist to look for quality, anti-democratic in some way even. But my instinct is that it is natural to make choices in favour of quality. Given the choice an intelligent, cultivated person will mostly opt for the best in life at every opportunity. There will be reasons and times when this may not be true, but mostly it will be true, given, choice, opportunity and the ability to do so.

That is to say, you get what you pay for.

My enovella has Watching Swifts has been priced at 99 cents on Kindle for a while now. I have always had misgivings about this, mindful of the dodgy tube of cheap toothpaste, unhealthy value food, and ill-fitting free jeans. Is the 99 cents cage fight really where my story belongs.

It is not a genre story. There are no vampires, zombiess, gone wrong cops, alien wars, or YA archetypes in it. Only poetic prose, and 14 sonnets. This makes it a tricky read, not to everyone's taste. But to those who favour litary fiction I believe it will prove nourishing.

And so. I am quitting the 99 cents genre cage fight and heading into the less crowded environs of the $2.99 yeomen and women.

Henceforth, I will only look for readers who are themselves in search of quality.

There is no point selling a piece of literary fiction for 99 cents to 20 readers who want sex, death, and devils. They will only be disappointed. They will not read it. No one will be happy. No work of mouth ripple will happen.

No. It is far better to win the eyes of two appropriate readers who will be more likely to appreciate art for beauty's sake.

Anyway, we shall see. And so farewell, 99 cents cage fight. I was never dirty enough to rip the eyes from my neighbour.

We shall push out punt into the gentler ox-bowing waters and and rich artistic meadows where there be minds of rarer diversity and eyes, oh such wonderful eyes to win with writing of a certain distinction.

Your poet *bows* Watching Swifts