The Indie Bubble - Will It Burst?

[Patricia]

I'll match your bad memory and raise you one that's ten times worse...

The trouble with the KDP agreement is that you have to click from the first page of legalese to another page to get all the details.

[Sharon]

Patricia wrote: "Sharon, you need to worry when you start thinking I'm making sense."

If the shoe fits...

[Patricia]

LOL

[K.A.]

Patricia wrote: "I'll match your bad memory and raise you one that's ten times worse...

Is it a contest now? LOL

[Patricia]

Maybe. I can't remember.

[Sharon]

LOL.

Count me in to this elite group...

[Andre Jute]

Er, did anyone tell me about it yet?

[Andre Jute]

Er, did anyone tell me about it yet?

[Mhairi]

Welcome, Mr. Jute!! I was just about to let you know...

[Andre Jute]

Heh-heh. I used to drive the Revenue crazy by writing them letters starting, "Further to my letter of the 5th instant..." when there was of course no such letter.

Andre "And this is my wife...uh..." Jute

[Sharon]

Andre Jute wrote: "...Andre "And this is my wife...uh....."

And the man still lives...

[Katie]

I was going to say something really clever...but I can't remember what it was.

[K.A.]

Does anyone remember what we were talking about?

[J.A.]

Magic ferrets, I think.

[Amos]

Something about bubbles.

[Katie]

Magic ferrets blowing bubbles?

[Andre Jute]

This was our silent time. I know, because I wrote it down.

[Patricia]

When I write things down, I forget where I put the notes.

[Athanasios]

It might burst but I don't see it as such. I see what much of the web is touting as the indie publishing bubble as overblown. Much of media's, both web and traditional, take on indie is that it'll make regular books obsolete. That's impossible.
Many people will still want to have a book in their hands and many more are not comfortable in learning new ways to do what they're happy doing their way.
So to answer the question, in my view, the bubble that has been artificially manufactured will burst but it'll mostly affect the speculators who thought this will change ALL of publishing.
I'm hoping for a way to be able to wake up every morning, sit at my computer and write, or promote my work and have a comfortable living. I don't think that'll burst for anybody but those that are expecting JK Rowling or Stephen King status will be burst because they were being unrealistic to begin with.

[K.A.]

I agree that paper books or DTB will always be with us. Maybe as works of art? That would be SO COOL!

I think that the 'gold rush' bubble on the Dollar Dreadful has popped.

Although there is another Christmas season - things might just get crazy for another 3 months (January, February and March) like last year.

But the days when someone could toss out a Dollar Dreadful and make big bucks on it are over. That market is saturated.

[Mhairi]

K.A. wrote: But the days when someone could toss out a Dollar Dreadful and make big bucks on it are over. That market is saturated.

I agree with you on that. There are just too many books out there at that price point now. However, my friend Patrick Reinken, just upped the price of his thriller Glass House from free to 99c. He's built quite a following with the freebie and Glass House is currently in the top ten of the paid Legal Thrillers list. In his words, he's "making money. Not a lot of money, but still..." So it is possible for that price point to work for you, but you have to work at it. Or something. I don't know if even he knows how the book has got to where it has. Who knows?

Er... So. Not exactly a scintillating conclusion... I'm going to get some chocolate now...

[K.A.]

I've got a short story out for free with the blurbs for the other two books in it. That worked for me this summer - until the Smashwords Sale.

Everytime I'm forced to drop my prices to $.99 I get cranky about it. The books don't sell well at that price. I do better just over $3 for some reason. Maybe I'm just stubborn...LOL...or my ego has a cow when I turn my novels into Dollar Dreadfuls.

[Andre Jute]

Mhairi wrote: "Or something. I don't know if even he knows how the book has got to where it has. Who knows?"

"Nobody knows anything." -- William Goldman, novelist, screenwriter

The mistake is to think that he knows what happened, and to get too clever for his own good. He should just continue the same way.

There's no reason, though, not to see if the same thing won't work for you.

K. A. wrote: "I do better just over $3 for some reason. Maybe I'm just stubborn...LOL...or my ego has a cow when I turn my novels into Dollar Dreadfuls."

Perhaps readers just recognize that's the natural price for your novels. Perhaps when you misprice them, readers think, Those are three buck novels, far too good for us dollar dreadful readers.

You want to watch that cow, Cow. In gingerhaired peeps, justified pride in achievement is *always* mistaken for a temper tantrum.

[K.A.]

Ah yes - the legendary Irish Temper - guilty as charged.

I've mellowed with age, few people realize how much. LOL

[Andre Jute]

Maybe if you died your hair blonde and simpered a little, you'd get credit for mellowing.

There's money in them thar stereotypes!

[K.A.]

You are determined to make me a blonde -- why is that?

I'd look washed out - not at all like Marilyn Monroe.

[Andre Jute]

I once heard the writer and director Billy Wilder wonder aloud why people made such a fuss of Monroe, saying, "She was just another fat-ass blond."

I piped up, "It was suicide chic."

Somebody said, "Shush, boy, Wilder will steal your joke."

And Wilder, unable to resist putting down even a kid, said, "I wouldn't dream of stealing a joke in such bad taste. Are you playing cards, kid, or are you nattering?"

A couple of guys who laughed with him nudged me; not a lot of people ever made a better crack than Billy Wilder to his face.

I took three hundred dollars and change off him.

[Thea]

K. A. wrote: "LOL - not a bit.

I am trying to get a new cover for 'Swallow the Moon' with the artist Andre recommended.

There has to be SOMETHING I can do that will make that book take off. It's so much b..."

You know, i really love the title: Swallow the Moon. Very evocative. Just wanted to mention that

[K.A.]

Thank you.

The cover is really cool, too.