Eldon’s Comments (group member since Jan 05, 2017)

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

Alex wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Alex wrote: "I have 2 books out at the moment, and 10 more in the pipeline. If I could get regular sales at $2.99 I would need less than 5 sales per day per title to make a living, th..."

Hey Alex, I'm in Canada actually. To give some perspective, and please forgive these numbers for being a little old, in Canada the after tax income that counts as the poverty line was $18,421 in 2009. That's after-tax and 8 years ago. So honestly, $32k here is not making a decent living at all.

I too am surprised that the difference is so great between our countries. Perhaps our tax rates are too high here or our dollar value exchange is too low. Who knows...?

Carole wrote: "So, speaking of this, I just saw a book I would have purchased. "YOu Don't Look Your Age and other Lies" or something or other. It happened organically- I saw an ad on GR and moved to Amazon- The K..."

I'm in the minority here but I hope Amazon continues to raise prices. The market for ebooks as it exists today is undervalued and a correction is long overdue.

Carole wrote: "It's an old-fashioned kind of thing, Eldon. I have a library in my home filled floor to ceiling with books. I love the smell, the weight of a books in my hand, sitting in an armchair or sinking int..."

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree Carole. For me the experience of reading is all about the words and getting immersed in the world the author creates. Regardless of the format the words remain the same :)

Alex wrote: "I have 2 books out at the moment, and 10 more in the pipeline. If I could get regular sales at $2.99 I would need less than 5 sales per day per title to make a living, that is perfectly reasonable."

I appreciate your position Alex but have to say that we differ greatly on the definition of making a living. Using your numbers of 12 books and 5 copies sold of each would give you 60 sales a day. If you make $1.50 on each sale that means you gross $90 a day. If you could earn this every day annual income would top out at $32,850 which I would deem as far less than making a living from writing.

To each their own though I suppose.

Great discussion so far :)

I have to say I'm a little surprised though by the sentiment that an ebook is just a data file; especially in a group of primarily authors.

I recently paid a few hundred to a cover designer for my next book and received...essentially a data file containing my cover. Did I pay that money for the file? No, I paid for his time and expertise to design it. How is an ebook any different? We're not buying the digital file - we're buying the story that took skill and time to craft. That's worth money to me no matter the form it takes.

I can understand print copies being priced higher because of the costs of production but I don't begrudge anyone trying to make a living at writing. I've paid double digits for ebooks without regret because of the hours of enjoyment they provided me with.

Let's face it, we all know even $2.99 doesn't provide much of a living to an author. So why, I wonder, as authors are we so reluctant to spend more on ebooks? If we're not willing to spend more than minimal amounts - and we understand the work that goes into a book - then how can we expect readers to be willing to spend more on our books?

Whether you read in print of digital, let's remember what you're buying; no less than the hopes and dreams given voice by an author.

What could be more valuable than that?

Julia wrote: "I'm reading Under a Dark Star by Anna Faversham; a story of smuggling and wrecking on the Isle of Wight. I read the first book One Dark Night and enjoyed it very much. I'm halfway through the seque..."

I read Anna's book too; it's quite good :)

Erin wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Awesome idea Erin :D Should be informative!"

can give one on taglines ;)"

I'm game for whatever :)

Awesome idea Erin :D Should be informative!

R.L. wrote: "Sent you a message Eldon"

Got it and I'd be delighted to write the article :D

Alex wrote: "It is an incredibly unfair situation, and if I'm honest, the only way I see it changing is if Amazon actually champions indies, like it claims to do, and sets a minimum price, which would encourage the other sites to do the same. "

Alex is right. If we are ever to overcome the blight of free books that is eroding all of our profits, then every Indie author needs to stop giving their hard work away.

Failing that, Amazon supporting a minimum price would go a long way. However I don't see that happening since it's Amazon that encourages free books for their own reasons...

Alex wrote: "Carole wrote: "Count me in!! Let's do an article about it for the magazine!!!!"

Great idea, I'll let someone else write it, though.

And now I'll leave the thread for a while so someone else can ..."

I'd love to contribute any way I can for the article.

R.L. wrote: "Lol love the hashtag!"

Thanks!

R.L. wrote: "Exactly! .33 royalty is insulting and i get needing to get your name out there, but I have bills. That's not gonna work for me. It's always gonna a be a readers market, but at what point do we as a..."

Amen to that!!

I've been preaching for awhile now to end free books too. We as authors have enabled an entire generation of readers to grow up expecting free books! Why should I pay for a book they say when I can get it for free?

The problem though is as you state, we need to make a living too and no one makes a living at free. Although I've heard readers say they believe we still get paid when you give our book away. Go figure that one.

$0.49 books could happen but so could only accepting free books if we let it. Our work is just like anyone else's in any other profession; it has value. If we want readers to realize that the first step is to realize it ourselves. #endoffree

R.L. wrote: "I don't understand why every company only does promos to discounted books. I get readers want a deal, but for goodness sake, NO ONE can run a promo if it's not discounted to pennies or cost almost ..."

You know what R.L. once again Goodreads needs a like button!! I couldn't agree more with your sentiment. The fact is a book for $0.99 is a deal whether it's a sale price or not. The main reason author's can't recoup their costs on promos is because we have to discount so much that we make pennies on a sale.

Alex wrote: "I like what I've heard of Book Gorilla but they have a minimum review requirement that I don't meet yet and they preferred discounted books so books permanently at 99c may struggle to get a placement."

Yeah, I think the listing does have to be discounted in some way.

If anyone is looking for a promotion alternative to the expensive BookBub that gives results I'd recommend trying Book Gorilla.

I had my best all time day of sales Saturday which allowed me to reach as high as #30 in my category (Thrillers/Suspense/Mystery/Medical) on Amazon. I did not recoup my cost largely due to exchange from USD to CAD but still feel like it was worth the investment :)

Carole wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Currently reading The Circle by Dave Eggers. A previous book I read - The Blockbuster Code - rated this book the highest out of all the books they studied so you know I had to find ou..."

I've heard that before about it but we'll see what I think of it :)

Currently reading The Circle by Dave Eggers. A previous book I read - The Blockbuster Code - rated this book the highest out of all the books they studied so you know I had to find out why!!

So far it's been pretty good; thought provoking stuff ;)

Carole wrote: "We talked about doing this- I think it's a great idea. In other words people should post what they are reading and what they think about it?"

Exactly!

I have a suggestion for something we might try here. How about a book club? Now we all know about Book of the month clubs but I'm thinking of something a little different.

Instead of voting on one book how about we each choose what we want to read and then post in the thread why other people should or shouldn't read it! I think this could help expose a lot of author's to new readers.

Thoughts?