Start thinking about pricing your books so that they’re competitive with the paperback versions, not the hardcovers. Give you an example: I’m trying my best to get back to The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. The hardcover goes for eighteen bucks and the paperback nine and a half… and the Kindle version is eleven. I’m discovering that I’m more likely to finish nonfiction books on my Kindle than otherwise – don’t ask me why – but pegging the price as a discount on the hardcover is maybe affecting my cheapskate instincts. Which is why the darn book is on of the piles scattered about the house.
Obviously, a new book is a new book; but if you’re bringing out softcover reprints, maybe linking the new Kindle price to that will help with sales? – Or not. This thought just occurred to me.
Moe Lane
PS: Downloaded and read Confessions of a D-List Supervillain this morning. Overall: well worth the three bucks. Started strong, good character development of the hero/protagonist, action and plot maintained up until the last ‘chapters,’ which unfortunately did come across as slightly rushed (the book was originally a novella, and it still slightly shows). The book probably could have used another two chapters or so of development, but It Did Not Suck. Of course, I admit to having a certain weakness for books that have chapter headings like “Like I Need Another Reason to Invade Branson, Missouri” and get away with it…
Good point. Not gonna happen until they think they’ve squeezed all available cash out of the early adopters, though. Were I to venture I guess, I’d give it about two years…
Wow. I must use this power wisely in the future.
Thanks for the link to the Supervillain book. I looked it up based on your comments and other reviewers decided to buy it and give it a try.
The cool thing is that Amazon recommendations then linked me to a new e-book by an old favorite author – Michael Stackpole – who apparently is getting into the direct publishing game. So I grabbed that one as well. It is another superhero type book, so here is the link if you want to check it out yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/Hero-Years-Dead-Deluxe-ebook/dp/B004BDOU4E/ref=kinw_tu_recs_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
$4.99 new a-list material
$2.99 other new material
$0.99 back catalog
This will be the model. Just a matter of time.
Here’s the thing — I wouldn’t mind paying more for an e-book if I knew the author was getting most of the cash. I mean, I’ve bought some decent e-books for $0.99-2.99, and I know the author is getting most of that. Then I see a Terry Pratchett e-book and they want $12.99 for it… Is PTerry getting most of the $10 difference? If so, then I’ll cheerfully pay that much. I get the feeling, though, that he’s getting as much out of it as the self-published authors, and the book label is pocketing the difference.
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(And don’t say editing makes the difference. I’ve seen books from major labels where the editing was atrocious, and the rate of “it passed spell-check; ship it!” seems about equal in the self-published and label-published books.)