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.