Alexis’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Alexis’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Talena wrote: "Dale wrote: "One thing to remember is that a product is worth whatever you can get someone to pay for it. If people are willing to pay higher ebook prices, then companies can price them high and ma..."

Indies at our level can’t affect the market alone. Unless some big publisher or big author or an entire huge group of indies decide to create a competitior that can match Amazon, then there will be no other baskets to put our eggs in. It’s not bad business to relay on Amazon, especially not at the beginning of a career as a writer; at this point it’s the only feasible option if you want to reach a huge market. Fact is Amazon owns a huge % of the marketshare and as a small group of low level indies, you’re basically powerless to do anything about it.

And I don’t believing in doing what the publishers do because it if was a sound system and they knew really know what they were doing most of their books would be bestsellers. Instead they have a couple of megahits which drag the flops along. Yes, hard work is needed, and you have to promote somewhat. But in the end.. it basically just comes down to getting lucky.

Theodore wrote: "Alexis wrote: "I can’t spell for sh*t today, LOL."

Ask our so-called president. He'll spell it for you."

Oh, Ted. :D
Are we friends on here yet? :D
Edit: Yesss, we are lol.

I can’t spell for sh*t today, LOL.

Denise wrote: "Alexis wrote: “It was only 0.99 so I bought it and OMG I’m glad I did because its sooo good” reviews I don’t think I’m alone in this. "

But not everyone thinks the way you do. I download free indi..."

I didn’t say everyone thinks the way I do. I said I don’t think I’m the only one.

There might be people who only read free indies, but there are also people who think free means lower quality and pass on the product. There’s plenty of empirical research done which have shown that when buyers are uncertain about product's quality, that the buyer often assumes that a higher product price indicates a higher level of quality.

Lots of research has shown that some people even have a minimum price. Like if the book is free, they might download it because yes FREE, but they won’t spend their time actually reading the books because they don’t really value it.

Not saying consumers all behave in the same way, some may only value free books, but lots of emperical research supports the “free can also backfire” standpoint.

https://books.google.nl/books?id=Dvwr...

Denise wrote: "Alexis wrote: "Or do we lower our prices (even more)?
That too is a possibility.."

Maybe for some Indies, but not for all. Lowering already low prices has little to do with someone buying a book. ..."

I disagree. I think lower prices do affect consumer behavior especially when it comes to indie novels.

I know from myself that when I first used to run into indie romance novels, I’d be like, ehh it’s 0.99, so even if it sucks, it would only have been a dollar. I wouldn’t have bought it at 2.99. After reading many “It was only 0.99 so I bought it and OMG I’m glad I did because its sooo good” reviews I don’t think I’m alone in this.

Alex wrote: "Another question is how indies react to this situation, do we raise our prices to something similar to those of the trads to avoid our very prices marking us as indies, or do we keep our prices whe..."

Yup.

Or do we lower our prices (even more)?
That too is a possibility..

Alex wrote: "All I can say is, I hope the stock market crashes (I don't want most people hurt, but a major stock market crash would do some serious damage to Bezos and I like that idea right now since most of h..."

That will only lead to another economic crisis though since other firms, banks, pension funds also own shares.

I can’t get mad at Bezos for doing exactly what a business man is supposed to do. I am annoyed as hell that he basically managed to create a monopoly position unchecked tho.

Dale wrote: "One thing to remember is that a product is worth whatever you can get someone to pay for it. If people are willing to pay higher ebook prices, then companies can price them high and make money off ..."

I agree with much of what you say but there’s also one other thing though, and this is why I would love to see some behavioural economic research done of readers who read my genre.. but my suspicion is that the higher prices will end up hurting indies.

I understand what you mean about supply and demand and how an equilibrum will ultimately be reached but I’m not sure whether in the end bookprices will lower as a result of a decreasing demand of trad books or if demand of indie books will decrease as a result of customers having to meet higher prices of trad books.

To just give an example. I’m not sure how bookreaders will react to all this. Take for example customer A who usually spent 20 bucks on books every month, and buys 1 trad book at 10 dollars and 4 indies at 2.50 bucks a month.

Now trad book rise to 15 bucks. She has to decide now where to spend her money. Is it going to be 1 trad book now and 2 indies or will she move to buying 8 indies instead?

So yeah, I agree with you that the working of supply and demand will ultimately lead to a new equilibruim. I’m just not sure if demand for trad books, demand for indie books, or demands for all books will be affected..

Alex wrote: "This is all just depressing me. I know I have the ability to make a living from my writing, but every fresh piece of news makes it seem like it will be that much more difficult to manage.
Why can'..."

Sorry.

I work for amultinational but I know that without regulation and watchdogs they tend to misbehave.. especially in America, a country without something like the European Commission like we have here.


But maybe I’m wrong! It happens :p

Denise wrote: "Traditional publishers have been pricing eBooks high for many years now. Sometimes a few dollars less than the paperback. It was to squash the competition and the digital craze.

Below are a few li..."

I found this:

“Starting from May to September of 2015 and continuing for many months thereafter, Amazon changed its strategy to discount print books more aggressively, using the promotional pricing margin they had been dedicating to increasing ebook share to instead increase print book share.
https://www.idealog.com/blog/agency-p...

Make ebooks more expensive so that you can sell more print books.
And while doing so, start to attack the marketshare of Createspace and that of normal bookstores as well.

(And buy Goodreads to get access to what type of books people read)

They are manipulating everyone.
Pfff

This is the book
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Fury-Bla...

The readers don’t seem to be particularly happy about the price though.

Pat wrote: "As a reader, that's why I stopped reading from the traditional publishers. I'm not going to pay $14 for an ebook, I asked an author once and he stated it's the publishers fault. I haven't bought hi..."

Actually, I think this is more on Amazon.

Buyers, including me, have very short memories, but eBooks prices used to higher than now, around 9.99 on average.

Around that time Apple and some publishers agreed to a deal that would mean lowers prices, so Amazon lowered its prices DRAMATICALLY to gain marketshare.

I am afraid that Amazon is now dictating a higher price for ebooks, now that the company has such a large digital marketshare and has basically gotten rid of its main competitors.

That’s why I’m worried about what they are going to do to indies..
Remember that Amazon, now that it has basically killed bookstores, will not be opening its own stores...

Higher ebook prices mean more people will again be looking for paperbacks to buy, and guess what, Amazon will be there offering new shiny paperbacks.


I think that’s where we might be going.

Remember when 3.99 or even 5.99 used to be the price for books by non-indies?
I just went on over to Amazon to buy a new romance novel by a favorite author of mine and you won’t believe how much it is.

$ 14!
For an eBook.

I wonder what the effect of this bump in prices by traditional publishers will have on the prices of indie novels and the market as a whole..

Will more readers turn to indies?
Will Amazon try to get less indie books published to shrink supply, forcing readers to purchase the more expensive books?

The times they are a changing.

Talena wrote: "Alex wrote: "My grrr for the day, yesterday I lost one of the 5* reviews on the UK version of Where There's a Will - annoying, but I didn't let it bother me too much, it's the way these things are ..."

So true. I actually preferred a 2,3 star reviews with constructive criticism than a fawning 5. Fawning 5 reviews make me veryyy sceptical.

I wish I had a writing buddy to bounce ideas off! But none of my friends in the group write the type of smut I write lol.

So what about you? Who do you bounce ideas off when writing?

R.L. wrote: "Feels like the sky is falling on authors. I just read in another author group that someone went to change the price on a book and amazon sneakily has a new rate set at 50% for books 2.99 and over. ..."

Good God, these &$$@ multinationals. They already have countries all over the @#@$;damn world lowering corporate taxation rates, whyyy must they be so greedy?

I trust you but I hope this is not true!

Benjamin wrote: "Have you seen Oprah's speech at the Golden Globes yet? I'm not trying to be glib; go watch it. You will feel inspired. Of course, feeling inspired is temporary. I suggest some concrete successes to..."

YES!!! I’ve seen it three times already.
Omg, I haven’t felt so inspired in ages.
I love her.
I adore her.
I wish she was here to guide my through life with her wisdom.
LOL.

Erhm so, yeah I’ve seen it. :)
Alright, I will check that out! Thank you

I have finished plotting out my book. Now I have to finish writing it. Wish me luck!

Carole wrote: "You can't ask for any review. If you give someone a book- it's with the expectation of no review and they have to state that if they choose to write a review. It's just stupid."

PFFFF. Well, this sucks.

R.L. wrote: "You’ve missed a lot my friend"

Apparently so!