The Chicken Little Effect
Okay, so the Author Earnings report came out. From what I read, it's good news on the indie author side and bad news on the traditional published side. Which, of course, led to arm-waving, and snottiness, and misinformation being bandied about. Which led, of course, to my posting the following on FB:
Ebook sales are falling! Ebook sales are falling! - Chicken Little 2015
:shrug: It amused me. Think about it. One chicken getting hit on the head by a falling acorn does not mean we're all going to die. In fact, 1200 chickens getting hit by a semi-load of acorns still doesn't mean we're all going to die. It basically means those chickens should probably stop standing under oak trees.
As far as I can tell, ebook sales overall are increasing - not declining. Please pay special attention to the word 'overall'. It's the word that really matters. Because, yeah, ebook sales are falling at the traditional publishing houses. When they price their ebooks so freaking high even the secondary characters are getting nosebleeds, it really isn't any wonder sales are falling.
People are being careful with their dollars and, as such, they're being incredibly choosy about what books get to make it onto their shelves (or ereaders as the case may be nowadays). And sales of high-dollar books are taking a hit because of it. It's the market, man. A reader is offered a choice - an ebook for $13.99 or an ebook for $3.99. They both have nice covers. They both have interesting blurbs. They both have good reviews. You do the 'look inside' and see both are edited well and either would hold your interest. Unless you're already in love with the writings of the $13.99 author, which one are you going to buy?
For September, my sales were off. And I still don't think that bit of information means the industry as a whole is crapping out. It means I haven't done much in the way of advertising recently, maybe people aren't grooving on Wish in One Hand the way I expected them to, and perhaps I'm reaching a saturation point with the readers I have managed to connect with. What's to do about all that? Write the next book. Reach into my tightwad wallet and spend some more advertising dollars, and continue to be my sporadically witty self on social media.
The thing to do is not to run around shouting about the sky falling. It just gets others whipped into an unnecessary frenzy and none of us needs extra frenzy right now.
And if Chicken Little staggers by, hyperventilating over prophecies of gloom and doom? Consider the source, look at the facts, and settle back with your ereader and a cup of joe. It's all good, baby.
(To underscore my point - after I'd already written this, I saw this article from Forbes yesterday.)
Ebook sales are falling! Ebook sales are falling! - Chicken Little 2015
:shrug: It amused me. Think about it. One chicken getting hit on the head by a falling acorn does not mean we're all going to die. In fact, 1200 chickens getting hit by a semi-load of acorns still doesn't mean we're all going to die. It basically means those chickens should probably stop standing under oak trees.
As far as I can tell, ebook sales overall are increasing - not declining. Please pay special attention to the word 'overall'. It's the word that really matters. Because, yeah, ebook sales are falling at the traditional publishing houses. When they price their ebooks so freaking high even the secondary characters are getting nosebleeds, it really isn't any wonder sales are falling.
People are being careful with their dollars and, as such, they're being incredibly choosy about what books get to make it onto their shelves (or ereaders as the case may be nowadays). And sales of high-dollar books are taking a hit because of it. It's the market, man. A reader is offered a choice - an ebook for $13.99 or an ebook for $3.99. They both have nice covers. They both have interesting blurbs. They both have good reviews. You do the 'look inside' and see both are edited well and either would hold your interest. Unless you're already in love with the writings of the $13.99 author, which one are you going to buy?
For September, my sales were off. And I still don't think that bit of information means the industry as a whole is crapping out. It means I haven't done much in the way of advertising recently, maybe people aren't grooving on Wish in One Hand the way I expected them to, and perhaps I'm reaching a saturation point with the readers I have managed to connect with. What's to do about all that? Write the next book. Reach into my tightwad wallet and spend some more advertising dollars, and continue to be my sporadically witty self on social media.
The thing to do is not to run around shouting about the sky falling. It just gets others whipped into an unnecessary frenzy and none of us needs extra frenzy right now.
And if Chicken Little staggers by, hyperventilating over prophecies of gloom and doom? Consider the source, look at the facts, and settle back with your ereader and a cup of joe. It's all good, baby.
(To underscore my point - after I'd already written this, I saw this article from Forbes yesterday.)
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