I’ve pondered my pricing for a long time. I did research long before I started formatting my novels for Amazon. One thing kept turning up. The same phrase again and again from people. At one point this phrase was even uttered to me:
“A .99 cent eBook means the author has no faith in the book.”
Well . . . that’s an interesting insight into the mind of the aspiring author. To think that someone brave enough to put his or her heart out into the ether would have no faith in what they’re doing. Personally, I find the sentiment rather cruel and belligerent to those that are trying to grab their personal brass ring. You know what? Screw the brass ring because this ring is pure gold.
So, why did I go the .99 cent route with my first novel? Simple. Contrary to my panic attacks, I do have the utmost faith in my writing. Sure, I write in present tense third person, which is about as popular as appendicitis. Yet, I still believe that my books are worth reading. They are entertaining stories with characters that I busted my fingers to bring depth too. If I choose to put my first book out for .99 cents then you better believe there is something else to it than low self-esteem. I have faith in my .99 cent eBook.
I don’t have faith in your average reader wanting to take a chance on an unknown author for anything more than a dollar. Keep in mind that I tried to battle through the rejection letters to no avail. I went vanity press and got crucified by high prices. I’ve taken my lumps and have learned that many people will not venture into a new author’s world without a little incentive. That incentive is the .99 cent price tag. For a dollar, you can take a chance on my book with less apprehension. For a dollar, you can find yourself loving a new author at the beginning of his career. For a dollar, you can be one of the first to enter a new world of magic. You know all those people who love to say ‘I was listening to that band before they were popular’ or ‘I loved that actress before she became A-list’? Well, you can take that risk and proudly claim that you read an author’s work before they hit the Times Best-Seller list.
Was I a little over the top? Definitely, but my point is that you never know what you’re getting with a new author. People are leery of such things, especially with news of there being more crap than good books. That .99 cent price tag eases the worry for a lot of people when they approach a new author. .99 cents doesn’t feel like a real risk. You can’t even get gum for that these days. So, do you feel better taking a chance on a new author for less than a pack of gum? Sounds a little more palpable to me.
This idea that the author doesn’t have faith in the book and priced it less is rather insulting if you think about it. At least to those of us that are doing this to help develop what we really need at the beginning. Personally, I’m not in it for the money right now. The money will come when I get the real power behind an author’s success: Fans. That has been my goal all along here. I want to make my book appealing to as many people as I can and gain a sturdy fan following, so I can price future books reasonably higher. That .99 cent book is an introduction to me, my style, and my world. It is the gateway into the literary amusement park I’ve constructed for those that wish to enter. Honestly, it sounds like good business to get people in the door. Come for the .99 cent introduction to a series and stay for the higher priced sequels.
Now after all that, does anyone really believe I did .99 cents due to a lack of faith in my own book? I didn’t think so.
Legends of Windemere 
Personally, I’d set mine at 2.99, just so I could reap a bit more money. I have seen readers willing to pay that much for unknowns. Honestly, writers don’t really care if you’re unknown or not. Only professionals in the publishing industry do. Readers care about a good story at the end of the day and so will be willing to pay whatever price for the book, so long as it doesn’t border ridiculous. Most self-pubbed books I’ve seen generally start at 2.99. I see very few .99 cent self-pubbed books anymore, unless people are selling their short stories on Amazon. And if readers find they’ve paid too much for a book they suddenly decide isn’t worth it, they can always get a refund. But let’s hope they don’t think that way.
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When I started, I heard the opposite from readers. Many people I know were saying they never paid more than 1.99 for eBooks or waited for the author to get frustrated enough to try a free period. The overall consensus that I was given at the beginning was that 2.99 for a first time author was grounds for disaster. For the next book in the series, I’m going to put it up for 2.99 without any fear. I’ve been seeing a lot of .99 cent eBooks that are the first of a series, so that might be where the price is more popular.
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It could be. It’s just for a lot of self-pubbed books I’m buying lately, they’ve been 2.99 and up. But I also buy a lot of YA too, so there could be a difference.
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Could be. Would you ever buy a .99 cent eBook or would the price make you cautious about something longer than a novella?
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I would indeed! I’m not too fickle about prices. If I love the blurb and it’s priced 2.99, I’ll swipe it up. If it’s priced .99 cents, even more perfect! I’ll even go so far as to pay 9.99 if this book has enough good star reviews to justify the pricing (and I have). But 9.99 is not an ideal price, no matter if you’re traditionally or self-pubbed. I buy those once in a blue moon.
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I never got my head wrapped around the 9.99 (or 14.99) eBook. 4.99 is my limit and I’m not sure when I would go that high with my books. I’m nervous enough about the prospect of putting my second book out at 2.99.
Do you read the samples that Amazon provides of the eBooks? I just noticed that nobody brings these up as a reason for buying a book.
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Sometimes I do if Amazon isn’t being fickle about trying to let me view the sample. Otherwise, the blurbs and reviews in conjunction can make me swipe up the book then and there. Now for a book with no review, but a stellar blurb, I will then read the sample, and if I love it, I’ll swipe up the book. And I don’t return books. I think that’s like returning food you didn’t like or a shirt you already wore. It’s not fair to the creator involved. I think consumers should take some responsibility for their choices–unless it was bought by accident, but I think there need to be time stamps for these kinds of things.
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I agree with you about the returns. I will say that a 12 or 24 hour return period would be smarter for those that do an accidental buy. The 7 day return gives people too much time to read and return like Amazon is their personal library. I just started reading eBooks and it takes me 2-3 days of casual reading to finish a 300-pager. That means a week is more than enough time for a hardcore reader to pull a ‘read and return’.
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Thank you for this post. I have three novels that are free digitally.It’s not because I don’t believe in them. It’s because I want to share them as widely as possible, and don’t expect to get rich from them.
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You’re welcome. I found a lot of the articles and posts I saw about the ‘.99 cent = no faith from the author’ idea, so I thought I should do a counterpoint. Maybe drum up some sales for all my low-priced allies. 🙂
I applaud you for going free with your books. I considered it for my first book, but I would have had to go Amazon exclusive. Didn’t like the idea of that.
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Well said … and may I borrow that t-shirt? 🙂
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Sure. As soon as I figure out where I can buy it. Yahoo Image search is my friend. A rather abusive, perverted, traumatizing friend at times, but my friend for pictures. 🙂
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I posted on facebook this question on facebook this morning, just out of curiosity.
Reporting answers only, nt my own opinions: The first answer I got was exactly what you want: she’s picked up one 99 cent book and been introduced to a new author she likes because of it, and read another of his books. Yay! Another one says she “turns up her nose” at 99 cent e-books because she’s been burned by too many (sloppy editing, bad stories/writing, basic crap that someone probably released before it was ready). A third said the tends to think that lower-priced books are priced that way because they’re too short, or wouldn’t sell at a higher price.
When it comes down to it, you can’t win ’em all.
As for me, you’ve convinced me to be more open to different pricing strategies and not make assumptions. Just because we’re used to paying less for low quality in material objects, that doesn’t mean it translates to e-books. Sometimes a good deal is just a good deal, but it might take time for people to understand that. I say that a first-time author doesn’t /have/ to price so low, but if it works for you, then it works. I do love the idea of pricing the first in a series lower; I think I personally would start out a little higher and put it on sale when subsequent books come out, but that’s me. I don’t expect huge sales right away, and slow growth seems like a realistic goal. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for publishing or pricing, and I respect your work as much as anyone who sells for a different price. Still leery of free, but again, that’s me.
I don’t think you should have to defend yourself for your choices, either. You’re an intelligent person who has done his homework. Screw ’em if they say otherwise.
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Definitely can’t win them all. I posed the question before I published and I got a lot of ‘I always buy cheap’ and ‘cheap means junk’. It was nearly 50/50 on that.
A way to think of .99 cents (making up as I go along here) could be the free sample in a supermarket. The author still has to recover advertising costs, so they can’t really go free. Also, free could make it difficult to raise the book to an actual price. So, a .99 cent book could be the equivalent of a free sample of a new product. Well, the sample Amazon has can count for that, but I’m realizing that not a lot of people look at those or even know about them.
The on-sale when new books come out is a tried and true method. I will probably do that with the books in my series when I get further along. I’m still not comfortable with raising my first one above .99 cents, but that’s only because I’m looking at the others as 2.99 books. If I go above 2.99 then maybe I’ll raise Beginning of a Hero to 1.99 or 2.99. Thankfully, it’s all fluid and changeable when I need it to be.
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Isn’t that fantastic? Seems to be a huge advantage for self-publishers. Nobody can force you to sell for more or less than you’re comfortable with. 🙂
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Nope. You can also adapt to the market changes quicker than a brick-and-mortar publisher. Though, I doubt they would have to worry about that too much.
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If you ever do plan to do the KDP free promo period thing Charles, check out bookbub.com
The ‘free’ books that get sent out daily by them are consistently hovering in the Top 100, if not Top 10 Free list on amazon and the resulting sales after the period are also quite high.
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Thanks. Amazon actually does different lists for the free ones and don’t count them in the overall sale count. I might toss a novella on the KDP free thing at one point, but I don’t think I would do it with my novels. Sacrificing Smashwords and Nook doesn’t appeal to me right now.
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Reblogged this on The Ranting Papizilla and commented:
Very valid points Charles offers here. Wonderful post, check it out people!
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Thank you for sthis post! I’ve been pondering prices for when my book is finally ready to leave the nest, and have been coming up with the same issues. Thanks again!
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You’re welcome. What kind of book is it? Is it a series?
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It’s actually a short story collection of some of my darker works. It’s actually been done about a hundred times over but then I decide a couple of the pieces don’t “fit”.
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If it’s a single book then you might want to either start at 2.99 and do a bunch of advertising or start at .99 cents for a month and the gradually build up as you increase your fan base. I have a page of links to various advertising sites that I used, which I recommend for new authors going the self-published route.
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Awesome! Thank you!
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You’re welcome.
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It’s actually a collection of some of my darker short stories. It’s actually been done about a hundred times over, but then I ineveitably decide that a couple of pieces don’t “fit”.
(Also, sorry if this is a duplicate reply. I *think* WordPress ate my first one.)
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Yup…dup reply. Sorry.
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*applause* I love this post! Very helpful. I do have a question though, I’ve been hearing that YA fiction sells for more, why is that? And isn’t that what your book’s genre is? Both my westerns (the one you read, 8-13 thousand words) are novellas, correct? And should always be priced at 99 cents, or eventually free, am I right? But for a longer novel, 35,000 word for example, why would be a good price?
And after you have a few books, I don’t mean a series, is it okay to ask a higher price for new works? I ask because I’ve been kicking around the idea of self-publishing my werewolf book (don’t worry, that won’t be until I’m done rewriting) and was wondering if I could ask $1.99 or $2.99 for it. I’d also like to make my new western book an eBook after it is published, but have no idea what to do for pricing.
You’ve taught me all I know about eBook pricing, so that’s why I’m asking you. You’re such a great teacher and friend. 🙂
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So many questions: 😉
1. I don’t know why YA sells for more. It might be because the target audience is less careful with money than adults or have the ability to convince adults to buy things that they really want. It probably has something to do with the YA demographic being willing to pay more for books.
2. My book is kind of YA, but would be at the older side of the spectrum in my opinion.
3. Your westerns could be short stories. I’m not sure about the actual rules. They shouldn’t go higher than .99 cents, but you could always make the shorter one free and see if that helps both of them sell.
4. I think you could try for 2.99 since you have the other stories out as introductions to your work. I didn’t have that luxury, which is why Beginning is .99 cents. You could always put it at .99 cents for the first month to build up a fanbase and raise the price by a dollar after it’s no longer a new release.
5. Yes. It’s definitely smart to get more money from newer books in a series because your main readers are more invested and you’ve proven yourself.
You’re welcome and I hope this helps.
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Yes, thank you! Now I have an idea in what direction I’m headed. It would kind of be nice if Amazon/Kindle gave you a price range idea list, something like 10,000 words=$.99, 70,000=$2.99 or fiction=$2.99-$4.99 etc.
Thank you again Charles!
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You’re welcome. I think it’s smart that Amazon stays out of it. They are taking a backseat on so much and it’s paying off for them. Gotta give them credit on their business model for this. If they ever decide to go into brick-and-mortar publishing or sign on popular eBook authors as their own then it’s really going to get interesting.
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Yes, that is a good thing, I just wish they would offer some advice to never-before published authors who are trying to get a handle on what they should charge for their new book. And personally, I don’t care if I’m reading a new author’s work or an author who has become so famous they are rich. If I like the look of the story, I’m going to get it. Because there have been times I was disappointed by books from well-known authors, and there have been books I’ve loved from first-timers (you!). So the 99 cents = no faith is soooo not right! 😉
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I think there are articles and information from other authors. Amazon might just be letting the author community teach each other since the authors probably know best from experience.
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They sure do! (Thank you again!) 🙂
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Reblogged this on When I Became an Author and commented:
A good question for anyone who has self-published an eBook on amazon.com
I’ve been wondering about pricing for some time, and this author has some very helpful answers to this very important/stressful question.
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I agree that the adage of authors not having faith in their own work is insulting. Its also unfortunate, but I do thing its a somewhat common misconception. Anyone who has put the effort into writing, rewriting, editing, and marketing a book would know its also grossly inaccurate (and yes, again, very insulting!)
But getting into the minds of our readers is what matters, and pricing has always been a game of psychology. Its why stores sell things for $.99 instead of $1.00.
At the end of the day, I think as long as you keep your books looking visually appealing (good covers), with interesting content (good synpopsis/blurb), then people will buy your book whether its .99 or 3.99. But they probably won’t go higher than that until they know you’re great. I think your strategy of why you’ve chosen .99 as your pricing route is a solid one, and you’ve done your research so you can feel confident about it.
And I agree- baffling at people who price their ebooks at the $10 range. I mean, my thousand page GRRM ebooks were only 7 bucks!
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Yeah. I wouldn’t want to push my lucky with higher than 3.99. At least not unless I get a massive call for it and I’m nearing the end of the series.
Maybe every self-published author should take a basic psychology course or read a book about it before jumping into the shark tank. It’s one thing to design personalities of fictional characters, but it’s totally different getting into the mind of an existing being.
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You said it exactly. Although writing and marketing both require creativity, marketing often employs a different part of the brain entirely. Its not always about what “makes sense,” because people often react viscerally and emotionally to things. When I think about how to market, instead of thinking about it from the writer’s perspective, I try to think of it from the reader’s. If a book looks appealing, but I don’t know the author, what am I willing to pay? What does the price say to me about the author and the quality?
BOOO, marketing.. I just want to write 🙂
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Great questions to ask. I’m learning all this marketing as I move along. As a friend said, I love the writing business until I have to do the advertising and then I lose my mind. He also said that it’s a bad idea to bite negative critics.
I don’t think people give cover art as much credit as it deserves. It’s the initial pull that a book needs to get readers. I think I’ve got my Wednesday thought post topic now. Thanks.
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Agree 100% on cover art. I have never read a book in my life that was not visually appealing, but I have purchased many that I would not have purchased otherwise simply because I liked the cover. This is why my covers is the one area I will splurge like hell on. I love the guy who does mine, and I’ll probably never stray.
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I admit to falling for the cover before reading the plot of the book. I think it was a series called Fablehaven that I loved the cover and bought it before reading what it was about. I figured it had a witch and was in YA, so I was safe. Thankfully, I chose well.
My wife’s cousin is doing my cover art and he’s very talented. I’m going to stick with him for as long as he’s willing to work with me. Really looking forward to my sequel’s cover art. Has one of my favorite characters on it.
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“Anyone who has put the effort into writing, rewriting, editing, and marketing a book would know its also grossly inaccurate (and yes, again, very insulting!)”
No argument there. But part of the problem might be that there ARE people who write something they love and worked hard on but don’t go to the trouble of rewriting, editing, and marketing their book. They put it out before it’s ready, and yes, they tend to price low. It’s terribly insulting for the vast majority of writers who take pride in their work and do all of these things, but the sloppy writers give the “cheap” books a bad name, just like they can give self-publishing an undeserved bad reputation (again, not the majority, but some people just throw stuff out there). When there’s no filter to separate the good from the bad, I think some people rely on price, not understanding that it’s a pricing strategy rather than an indication of quality. I was reading something recently (I wish I could remember where) saying that this is often stated as a reason some people avoid cheaper books. Most readers aren’t writers and don’t know anything about self-publishing. The more I learn, the more I understand how wrong these perceptions are. For many people, though, this is how it is. And I’ll admit, I was once one of those horrible people who judged a book by its price ALMOST as much as by its cover, and yes, I thought it showed… well, not a lack of faith, but a lack of confidence. I’m sorry. I’m reforming and spreading the word!
It’s not fair. Like you said, it’s a game of psychology. I’m not defending it, just trying to help understand it.
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I wonder if they even realize they’re writing need a lot more work. The biggest downside to the self-publishing through Amazon is that everyone can do it. Many people type up a bunch of crude novellas, slap a cover on it, and hurl it out there. They send out many of these books, so that a person might grab one and then look at the rest.
I read an article (I would need to find it) that said there were websites that had hundreds of pre-made stories that a person could download. You change the specific names of characters and places as well as the title then you put it out there. It’s a crappy, cheap book that they put .99 cents on. They have no intention of quality, but think publishing a book is an easy way to make money. Sadly, that is what people think of when they see .99 cents on an eBook.
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Exactly. I know that there are good, well-crafted stories at 99 cents. You know that. But when someone gets burned on a bad one and it turns them off, it hurts everyone: the writers who put good stuff out at that price, and the readers who are missing out on it.
I wish I knew how to solve that. For now I look at covers, and then blurbs, then samples. It’s all you can do if you don’t know the author and haven’t had the book recommended by someone you trust.
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I think the samples are the best way to avoid that. It gives you an idea of the overall style. It takes longer to get through that than a blurb, but if you’re really on the fence, it’s worth it.
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True. You just have to get them that far with the other stuff; like you said, it’s time-consuming. Can’t read ’em all.
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One can dream.
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Of course!
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OMG…I haven’t read all the comments, it was a long haul just to get to the bottom of the page…I’ll renew my renewalbe debitcard…I’ve got to read your book…and hope it or a sequel will come out in hard copy. I’ve never realized that e-books were often self published…I’ve read several on kindle this summer while i was at my sister’s. To me this is all still a very mysterious world. And how do you protect your rights…does the amazon people do that part once published?
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I have my books under copyrights before I publish. Amazon also has it in the contract that the author retains all rights to the books they publish with them. As for my book in hardcover, I can only achieve a paperback version for $10. That’s the best I can do through Createspace for physical books.
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I’ll have to look into the Createspace…might be a good Christmas present for a lad I know 😉 I read e-books on my netbook but seems it’s not the preferred reading by many.
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It connects to Amazon to, so your book turns up there and it might have the option of them making an eBook version automatically.
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Ok…sounds interesting!
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Copyright also automatically belongs to the writer as soon as the words hit the page/screen, even if it’s not registered (until they sign it over to someone else, of course). If Amazing screwed with anyone’s work, they’d be up you-know-what creek before they could blink.
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Yup. I think they’re being cautious about that. Though, part of me thinks they have something bigger in store for the future. Mostly, I wonder if they plan on making an actual publishing company using their more popular self-published authors as a beginning core. I’m also having a day of paranoia.
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Reblogged this on Andrew Toynbee's very own Blog and commented:
Charles Yallowitz pitches his reasons for selling a debut novel at a low price to gain followers. I set mine at $2.99 (£1.96) for the same reason. $0.99 seemed a little low for me. What are your thoughts on this (long-term) marketing ploy?
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Of course not. One would think that it should be the general audience that dictates the price they are willing to pay (the same audience that says the author has no faith) that ultimately decides the price of the book. If no one is willing to pay what I ask then I cannot complain about them not buying my work. I agree with this philosophy. All authors have the right, when they self publish, to decide what works for them. I would rather sell 10,000 books and get .35 cents for each than sell ten at ten bucks.
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Here, here! Now, how do I get to 10,000 eBook sales? 🙂
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You do what I did. You walk away for a while after making the book free on a busy weekend and go to yoga class and then f*ck it all up by going out for ice cream after. No really, that is what happened. Then the sales just kept going.
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I like the ice cream idea. So, you went free for a weekend and people kept buying after you priced it?
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I went for a free weekend on Memorial day, began it on friday and kept it free through sunday. I had 30,000 free downloads. The next week I had a ridiculous amount of sales and by the end of a three month period it was something like 85,000 downloads and it has been pretty steady ever since
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Interesting. Wouldn’t I have to join KDP Select and take myself off Smashwords? Also, I thought I would have to stay free for a full 90 days.
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You would have to take it off smash words but you can only be Free for up to five days
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So I could have it free this weekend while I’m at the convention. I’ve sold 18 copies on Smashwords and only 2 of those were for money. The others were free. Thinking of ditching it for the future.
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Exactly, I never saw that smashwords did squat to be honest
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Well, I’m off Smashwords. I can go back after the 90 day period. Time to give this a shot for a weekend.
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I was also in the romance category:(
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I’ll see what happens. 90 days without Smashwords won’t hurt and I’m going to set it for free Thursday night before I go to bed. Have the tweets set up for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday about the free sale. Probably use tomorrow to schedule my posts about it. Then Sunday night, I go back to .99 cents and see what happens.
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I thought at first it sucked to give away copies, but then it took off. I will help you advertise any way I can:)
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Thanks. I’ll be setting up a bunch of tweets and blog posts. Wondering if I should mention the sale starting tomorrow.
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Definitely –never too early!
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Heck, I’ll start tonight and get the ball rolling.
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I support your genius
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Thank you. Now to find a paper bag to hyperventilate into. A few Smashwords fans that I’m friends with have voiced their complaint. Apparently, pointing out that they only bought my stuff when it was free didn’t help my case.
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I’m sorry I’m a bad influence:(
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Nah. More like a kick in the pants because I’ve been thinking of doing it for weeks. Smashwords simply wasn’t working for me.
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Great post Charles! You could almost take the comments here and make a novel out of just this, lol. So many thoughts and opinions. I think the $0.99 route is the right way to go but that is just a gut thing, I have nothing to back that up, lol.
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Gut is typically the way to go. If one doesn’t have faith in what they’re doing then it probably won’t work.
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Harder than writing the book, harder than editing the book, harder than the self-publishing of the book — figuring out what to charge for it. I started at $4.99 for mine. Dropped to $2.99 now. Next up .99 when I’m ready to release my next novel. I now this about myself — I will try just about any book for a buck and in doing so, I’ve read things in the last couple of years I would have never read otherwise.
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Very true. I’m actually gearing up to attempt a free download weekend and then hop back to .99 cents. Maybe I can do the same when the sequel comes out since I’ll still be in the 90 day KDP Select period. The crazy schemes us self-published authors come up.
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Purchased your novel, because for .99, well it’s worth a try. right? 🙂 This is one of the things that bothers me about self-publishing and e-publishing. Publishers and established authors charge as much for an e-book as they do for a paperback, while people like you and I need to decide whether we’re happy with .99.
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I know. It baffles me that they can do that with a straight face. Guess fans will buy their favorite author’s work at any price.
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Great post! For some reason, I’m stuck on the $2.99 price. Like Devon Lynn, I’ll be self-publishing a collection of some of my darker short stories which I’ll price at $2.99. At the James River Writers Conference last fall, I attended a session on self-publishing and the members of the panel suggested $2.99 for self-publishing a short story collection and/or novel. We’ll see how it goes!
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I think 2.99 is coming out as a popular price due to the overabundance of cruddy .99 cent books. It also works very well for people doing single story books. The .99 cents seem to be more helpful to those of us doing series. That cheap first book can hook a reader for the more expensive later books. I figure at some point, I’m going to have to boost the .99 cent price, which will be another headache to figure out.
Did the panel members mention why 2.99 was a good price?
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They talked about how $2.99 (with Amazon) you’ll receive 72% royalty and anything lower is 35%.
They also mentioned that a lot of books are priced at 99 c so $2.99 should set you a part from the masses. Who really knows though? 😉
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I can see that. Most of the books knocking me down the top 100 lists are priced at 2.99 and 4.99. Those that are higher are all big name authors like Stephen King and Robert Jordan.
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I have no idea how I’ll price when I reach that point, but this post and the subsequent comments were invaluable. It’s important to keep in mind that there’s a difference between pricing at $0.99 because something is garbage and pricing at $0.99 because it’s part of a marketing plan. It’s important to have a plan, but don’t be afraid to adjust. Good fantasy is difficult to find.
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Glad to be of help. Adaptability is definitely important for self-publishing. Good luck with your book publishing adventure.
Seems most of the good fantasy of today is in the YA section. Not sure why. Maybe publishing companies think adults have grown out of swords, magic, and dragons.
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YA fantasy like Harry Potter and Hunger Games is more quickly paced and so is selling beyond imagining. Adult fantasy, far too often, is plodding, dull, and feels recycled. It’s no wonder readers are flocking to YA. And then there’s me writing fantasy for adult readers. Go figure.
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YA fantasy like Harry Potter and Hunger Games is more quickly paced and so is selling beyond imagining. Adult fantasy, far too often, is plodding, dull, and feels recycled. It’s no wonder readers are flocking to YA. And then there’s me writing fantasy for adult readers. Go figure.
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YA fantasy like Harry Potter and Hunger Games is more quickly paced and so is selling beyond imagining. Adult fantasy, far too often, is plodding, dull, and feels recycled. It’s no wonder readers are flocking to YA. And then there’s me writing fantasy for adult readers. Go figure.
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Write what you love. I doubt your writing is plodding, dull, and recycled. Besides, YA readers need fantasy when they’re adults and slightly ashamed about hanging out in the YA section. I swear, I get funny looks every time unless I have my son running around me.
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My children are grown and I’ve read YA. Good writing is still good writing and people will find it. Even so, if I switched to YA for readership it’d be a lie and people would know. Therefore, like you, I’ll write what I write and enjoy every minute of it. That, too, comes through in the writing. My apologies for having gotten off the topic, for your post was informative and invaluable.
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No problem. I’m always up for fun conversations. I agree with everything you’re saying. Several friends have tried to convince me to write other things or change my style. Best suggestion so far was someone telling me to read Twilight, choose a different creature, and copy the formula. I laughed until I fell over.
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A true writer would laugh and everyone else would say, “Hey, what about sparkly aliens that go to a school for wizards and must compete in an annual game that’s a fight to the death?” Your mind moves your pen, but if it isn’t linked with your heart the words are hollow and that’s an insult to the reader.
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Wow. I’ve never seen someone combine all of those before. I bow before your skills. 🙂
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I’m new to purchasing ebooks for my own reading enjoyment. To be honest, I never liked the idea of the ebook (even though I immediately made my own novels available in that form, cuz if not, I’d be an idiot). It took me a long time to finally buy my own reader and try it out for myself. What I tend to do is download the preview of the book I’m interested in, read it, decide whether I’m interested in it enough to make the purchase. It’s true that if the book is actually good and very cheap or even free I’ll snap it up happily — but ONLY after I’ve read the preview. Simply having a low cost book does not automatically open the gates for me. I have to know that I’ll remotely like it first. This also goes for ebooks that are over the crest: 5.99 and up. What’s funny, is that because I’m a REALLY slow reader, by the time I’ve finished reading the ebook, I couldn’t tell you what I payed for it. 🙂 All I’m left with is whether I liked it or not. And that’s really all that matters. That’s what will have me telling other people about it. I think on the side of the author, trying to set a price that is the most tangible for the most readers is a smart plan. I’ve priced mine at 3.99, because I do want some money for my work. I deserve that. But I am constantly wondering whether I should reduce the price to .99 for a short promotion.
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I’m with you on the eBook resistance. I didn’t get a Kindle until this month even though I self-published an eBook once I had a chance. I think you’re one of a handful of people that I’ve talked to about the book sample reading. I don’t think a lot of readers bother with it. They might not even know. It’s a lot like reading a few pages of a book in the bookstore to see if it grips you. Funny that you don’t remember the pricing, which tells me you really get absorbed into what you’re reading.
The .99 promotion isn’t a bad idea because people love a sale. I’m doing a free download weekend starting this Friday while I’m at a convention. Hopefully, it drums up some attention that continues when I go back to .99 cents. I still have issues putting it higher since the sequel should be coming out soon and it would force me to drop it back to .99 cents.
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I think it’s more likely that I’m an incredibly picky reader — which is true. I also (deep down) don’t care about what I spend money on. I’ve thrown away SO much money on paperbacks that I (1) never read or (2) didn’t like. So for me, paying .99 or $10 for an ebook that I’ve sampled (interesting how I’m the minority here) is still a deal as I don’t have to pay for shipping. Maybe it’s harder to sample ebooks on Kindle. I always use iBooks on my iPad and shop on the iBook store. Practically every ebook listed has a download preview for free option. I LOVE iBooks. It’s glorious.
Good luck on the promotion! I really wish you well with that. I’ve never done the free ebook promotion. I’ve done it with paperbacks … long story … don’t recommend. It’s so frustrating to try to find the path that WORKS as there are so many different ones. After writing my comment I decided to reduce my price by a dollar. Mine are now 2.99 — we’ll see how that flies. I’ve always wondered if our biggest trouble isn’t necessarily the price, but the lack of buzz, but then perhaps they go hand in hand. I’m going to be doing my first ever blog tour next month, so I’m hoping that with a slightly more tangible price and (hopefully) new reviews, I’ll see an upward climb in sales.
I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed for you, Charles!
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I’ve found that every Kindle ebook has a sample that you can open by clicking on the title. It’s probably 10% of the overall book. I’m surprised any eBook is put for $10, but that’s just me.
The lack of buzz is definitely a factor as is the pricing. It’s really trial and error for both. If you’re looking for some advertising sites for your book, I have a listing under my links tab with the sites that I used. They’re pretty cheap. I probably spent $70 overall when I used them.
Good luck with your blog tour and your sales. How does a blog tour work exactly?
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Honestly, I’m not totally sure how blog tours work. Like I said, I’m a newbie. 🙂 BUT — generally speaking, a blogger hosts the tour (mine is being hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer). She then broadcasts the tour to all of her following bloggers. There are usually prizes: amazon gift cards, free ebooks, etc. Bloggers who are interested in reading my book (they get a free ebook) sign up to be part of it. They then post a review of the book or guest post by me, interviews, things like that, onto their blog on a certain, specified date. The tour usually runs for two weeks, so what should hopefully happen is that for those two weeks, my book gets plastered onto lots of different book reviewing blogs (hopefully with positive reviews) with links to my amazon page. This was recommended to me by a friend who did it and was thrilled with the review results. And I am in serious need of reviews. She did warn me that the reviews are honest … so it can be a great thing or a really, really terrible mistake.
Something that I wanted to mention on the ebook pricing … the other big thing we should consider is the number of hands in the pie. Indie authors generally are the only individuals who are getting payed by their work. This isn’t true in the traditional publication world. There you’ve got the author, the publisher, the agent, the publicist, the marketers, the list probably goes on and one and all these people want their due, too. It makes sense to me that traditional published ebooks are generally more expensive than us indies because the circle of people who are intertwined with the book is much larger. Just because they aren’t having to pay for printing (which probably costs pennies anyway) doesn’t mean that they suddenly don’t want their percentage. It’s just a thought. Sometimes Indies and Traditionals seem like two very different animals to me.
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Didn’t think of that. Definitely makes them feel like two different animals.
Sounds like your blog tour came about the same as my free weekend. A friend told me how it worked for her and I’m giving it a try. It could go very well or blow up in my face by a flood of negative reviews. I’m also wondering if I could finally fall off the Top 100 Epic Fantasy lists that I’ve been bouncing around since early March. I probably will and then have to fight to get back on. Still, I think it’s worth the risk. Otherwise, I’d just be treading water.
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