Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion
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How Do Authors in this Group Determine the Price of Their Books?
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I feel that work given out for free in short form is best done on a site such as this one, Goodreads. Free at a site that is in the business of selling writing, is pricing authors to go out of business. Attracting readers that scan products for free are not the customers we wish to attract. Even 99 cents for a short story is a small price. Same as a coke, and the story will last longer.
I agree with Spike on the free/99 cents. I think you have to price it in a way that shows you value your work. Why should you give it away for free, except as a short term promo/loss leader? I originally priced my first book at $2.99, but have actually sold a lot more since making it $4.99. I have my first 2 books (different genres) on KDP Select for 1 90-day term each, to get the free days, because I'm a new author. My first book got to #6 in action/adventure on Kindle the first weekend I did it, and #2 the second time. That got me exposure to people on Amazon. My second book has had 1 free weekend and got to #12 in historical romance. The second free weekend will be in December. But I did the program with the express purpose of getting my name and books in front of people. Other than GR giveaways and things like that, I don't intend to do big free promos again on those books, and, depending on whether those drive sales to my latest, may not do it again at all.All that being said, I'm not sure any applies to short stories! I personally don't read short stories, in any genre, so free wouldn't attract me. But if I did, I'm not sure I'd mentally make the leap to paying the same price as a novel. Maybe you can put them together as a group, once you've found your niche? Good luck!
Thanks folks.Jennings, do you think there is a relationship between higher sales and a higher price? Do some people associate higher quality with a higher price?
Reader's Perspective:First: Make it as easy as possible to get the book. Going through Amazon seems to make the most sense as it is the largest distributor of e-books. Also there are a lot of people who don't want to have to go to one site get a file and then move it on to the Kindle via a computer. All of my in-laws, who all own Kindles, fall into this category. I've gotten some stuff from a few other sites but only when they've made it easy for me to get the book onto my Kindle.
Second: Price novels reasonably. You worked hard on your book but don't price it out of people's range and thus never see it get read. I see e-books of less than 200 pages from unknown authors going for $4.99 or more on Amazon, which seems too much. 200 or less pages: $1.99; each hundred pages, add $1.00. This seems realistic given you are a new author and the reader can pick up a used paperback from a known author for that cost or even cheaper. Once you've gotten say 10 solid reviews of the book, raise the price $1.00.*
Third: For short stories, set up a collection. Post say two short, but complete, ones for free. Post the rest individually at .99 but then price the whole collection as above. Personally, I've bought a few short story collections based on the reading one or two free stories first.
*: This reflects my bias but I am not alone in it. I will NEVER pay more than half the price of a paperback for an e-book version of a book. Example: I recently looked at the Sharpe books, which I would have loved to have read on my Kindle, but ultimately ended up buying them as used copies as it was far cheaper. The publisher lost my business by being greedy as with e-books they do not pay for the printing and shipping of the books. As a plus, I can pass them on when done, which I can't do with an e-book. (Additionally, the reviews indicated that the e-copy had significant typos. So the argument that publishers do editing is thrown out as they don't even check their own scans.)
Gamal wrote: "Thanks folks.Jennings, do you think there is a relationship between higher sales and a higher price? Do some people associate higher quality with a higher price?"
Maybe with some products, such as automobiles, but even there one often hears how luxury automobiles are not as good as well-made mid-priced cars. However, I think the closer model for e-books is music. There it seems that artists who often offer freebies and keep prices reasonable for products are fan favorites. One example, Radiohead released IIRC its last album as "pay what you want" and it did exceptionally well,in terms of both popularity and earning them money. (I might be remembering the album wrong but I'm positive I heard fans gushing over Radiohead's pay what you want album on NPR's Soundlab.)
Mod
Jennings, do you think there is a relationship between higher sales and a higher price? Do some people associate higher quality with a higher price?"
Maybe with some p..."
That is the same kind of thing I've heard that Wool Omnibus is doing and a cheap, kill the sexy teen-agers at a Rave, short, chapter by chapter story is doing.
They market free on Amazon/Kindle and, ask donations to keep the story going through their website in the junk-mail at the end of the story.
I don't know how successful they have been financially, but Wool has been a very successful Indie-pub in sci-fi genre popularity wise.
I wonder if it's kind of like Professional Sports here. In Sports like Football etc, it's not really about the amount of money, it's about the statement being able to demand lots of money makes. If you are good, then you can demand lots of money, if you are average, you can't demand anything, but might get a little more than the league minimum.
It's more complicated than adding up dollars, it's part how valuable to the team they are, how good they are individually (not always the same thing) and part recognition.
The "Show Me The Money" attitude isn't really about "Give Me The Money" all the time, sometimes it's about respect as a professional at his or her chosen profession.
So I wonder if some writers want more for their books because they believe that they are better writers than others (or maybe publishers believe this for them).
It seems the "Sports Model" might be more understandable and fair when applied to setting prices for books and authors. Just a thought from an under-educated-know-it-all.
Gamal wrote: "Thanks folks.Jennings, do you think there is a relationship between higher sales and a higher price? Do some people associate higher quality with a higher price?"
I don't really know... But I don't think it's hurting. I DO think that people associate very low price with lower quality. It's just human nature. Think of wine, steak, clothes (ie Walmart vs Macy's), jewelry, etc. Sometimes that's definitely true, and sometimes not, but the reason sales work (from a marketing standpoint) is that people feel that they are getting something of good quality for a cheaper price. They will almost always buy the sale item vs an item that is priced at that price-point all the time. So I think the indie has to price the book high enough (with accompanying professional covers, good editing, etc) to indicate a good quality product, but low enough to seem a better deal than a traditionally published book.
I come from the business world (my husband and I have owned a business for 20 years), so I guess this is just how my brain is trained to work!
Also, I do know that a LOT of people pick up free books and 99 cent books that they never read. People brag about it online. I'd rather have less "sales" if it means more potential fans for other books. Of my 4000 or so free downloads from my KDP select promo days, my guess is that less than half will read the book in the next year, if at all. That doesn't help me as far as actual sales of other books, or for referrals. I'd rather have a slowly increasing sales base of people who might actual read the book, since my goal is for people to read my other books as well.
Thanks in advance.
Have fun.
Gamal