Book Sampler, Box Sets, and Pricing
It finally feels like spring, and I finally have time to get back to writing-related activities.
Book Sampler
I’ve put together a sampler of my books. You can download samples at the bookstores, but they usually cut off mid-chapter. In my sampler, I’ve included the first three chapters of Threaded Through Time, The Missing Comatose Woman, Rymellan 1: Disobedience Means Death, and The Salbine Sisters. The sampler also contains the first four chapters of The Atheist.
The samples are longer than the bookstore samples, so it’s a great way to try out my books. You can download the sampler here.
Box Sets
I’ve been thinking about putting together a box set for the Rymellan Series. If you’re not familiar with box sets, they usually include several books from the same series, or in the same genre (in the case of multi-author sets). Buying the box set is usually cheaper than buying each book in the set separately.
Unfortunately, some bookstores, including Amazon, penalize authors who price an eBook greater than $9.99, and the penalty is hefty–the royalty on each sale is cut in half. They do this to keep the prices low, but the policy doesn’t take an eBook’s length into account.
The same problem occurs at the lower end of the scale. Price an eBook lower than $2.99, and there goes half the royalty. That’s why you’ll often see short stories priced at $2.99. Readers bitch and sometimes blame authors and publishers, but the bookstore’s policy is the problem.
Since I’d want to price the Rymellan box set higher than $9.99, it wouldn’t be available at Amazon or any other bookstores that have punitive pricing policies. There have been whispers that Amazon might change its tune on this point, which would be great. I don’t think it considered box sets and short fiction when it put the policy into place.
What do you think about box sets? Do you see them as bargains? If you’re considering a new author, would you take a chance on a box set, or would you rather just try one book, to see if you like it?
Facebook has recently changed the way it handles posts on Facebook pages. Let’s say you like a page. You used to see everything (or most items) the page admin posted, but that’s no longer the case. Facebook wants page owners to pay for visibility. People who spent a lot of time (and perhaps money) building an audience on Facebook are now finding that unless they pay-to-play, their posts are seen by less than 5% of their fans.
When I like a page, I’m saying that I want to be kept up to date with what’s going on with the company/person/group/whatever. But unless the page owners are willing to pay to reach me, liking pages is no longer an effective way to follow what interests me.
I’m also a page owner. When I post to my page, hardly anyone sees it. For that reason, I suggest that if you want to follow me on Facebook, you friend me. I used to avoid talking about my writing and books on my personal profile, but I’ve had to change that. I’m trying out lists. I’ve created a Writer/Reader list, and I’ll occasionally post about writing and my books to people on the list.
You can friend me here (or go onto Facebook and search for me–I’m the only Sarah Ettritch). Be warned that I like to post funny cat videos, and I’m also a sucker for animal rescue videos. I’ll still post to my page, but the chances of you seeing those posts aren’t good. Some authors have already given up on their Facebook pages.
Have a great weekend! 
Book Sampler, Box Sets, and Pricing is a post from: Sarah Ettritch
