My last post was a little heavy. Elie Wiesel. The holocaust. God on trial. I decided today I would be a little more of the light-hearted self and talk about book pricing. Nothing heavy or controversial about that. Ahem. No, but take my wife…seriously.
This was just after Wilt's 100th, uh, date. In grammar school.
By the way, before we get started, I missed my 100th blog post. I don’t mean I missed it as in I tried to shoot at it or I ran past it or I forgot to post it (which is kind of a conundrum or something); I just looked the other day and I was approaching 100 and then today I saw I was at 107. Well for me, I met a goal. Less than a year after beginning my blog and I hit 100. I just wanted to thank the man and woman in the back who are always here, reading, chuckling (but strangely never at me). You’re the best. Every reader.
SO {sniff, sniff} I am going to attempt the unattempted, attain the unattainable:
Talk about eBook pricing and keep it light and funny (and also try to keep my blood pressure from rising to the point of blowing the top of my head clean off).
Recently I raised the cost of my books off the despicable 99 cent price. Wait, despicable’s not a funny word. Hmm. How about this:
"Laughing face" by jezkah008 (who was banned permanently from Deviant Art)
Recently I raised the cost of my books off the HILARIOUS 99 cent price. K, that’s going to have to be good enough. Specials, discounts, and dementia aside, I figured I owed more to my books (as did the consumer). So I went to $3.99. Doesn’t look like I just grabbed desperately at $2.99 to get the higher royalty—gives me the appearance of having put some thought into my pricing while still charging less for my NOVEL than a gallon of gas, a box of decent bakery cookies, or a copy of Juggs magazine.
Well, that hurt. From a sales perspective, at least—for a while. Then sales slowly picked up. And I started doing the math and realized though I am still a million bucks shy of being a millionaire (done in my best John Candy “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles impersonation—a movie that should be required watching for the humor-challenged; it could just bring them back from the humorless dark side), the change made financial sense at a ratio of about 70:1.
Then the new book. Dark Prairies. (Sorry, but I’ll be slipping that little lady in my blogs for a while. Think of it as much less annoying than YouTube’s ad you have to watch for 5-6 seconds before you have the option of dismissing it—P.S. if you are the type of person who allows the ad to keep running for a minute or two, please don’t stalk me and shoot anyone from a bell tower or book repository.)
Anyway, back to my new release, Dark Prairies. What to price it? It needs to be more than the other two. It’s better. Much better, I think. But I still have to placate the world that thinks an author’s labor is worth less than a pittance a month. (Not sure exactly what a pittance equals, but lets say it’s some fraction of a fraction of a fucking PENNY, okay?) Sorry, not funny—that was way too “Later-Life-Angry-George-Carlin“. Angry, angry man in his last ten years (but still HILARIOUS and even running on fumes perhaps the funniest human being that ever lived).
I decided, $4.99. Still under five bucks. Still within what the analysts call the “impulse buy” zone. A buck higher than my other books so I don’t look like I’m trying to put anyone over a barrel or that my head is too big for my body (like an author I thought was my good friend who recently told me I fall into the category of people she won’t review because she’s afraid their talent is so awful she’ll hurt their feelings with an honest review. No, I’m not kidding, and I don’t care how unfunny it is, that true statement stays in).
Well sales have been slower than expected. Is it the $4.99 price? In some cases, yes, but I said before (and meant):
1. My time is worth more than a pittance.
2. My time is also worth more than a latte.
3. I don’t price my novels so that they’ll be picked up permanently by the Dollar Store.
4. My book is worth more than a comb (even John Locke’s comb).
5. I want a class of readers willing to pay in dollars rather than cents for a book.
I’ve said repeated, if you are homeless and the only possession you kept is your Kindle and you use the wireless at places like Starbucks where you just have enough time to download a book before the bourgeois barista threatens you with steamed milk worth more than my book, I will gladly gift you a copy of every one of my books. I understand true poverty. I will help—I’ll be honored to help. But fuck that barista, because she refused to buy my book, touting that I’m an “Indie” (which she spits like phlegm when she says the word), refusing to even read a sample.
Sorry, too much angry George again. (I just realized something you probably put together a long time ago. I am destined to become just like Carlin when I hit my sixties or so. Still funny but mostly motherfucking ANGRY. God I hope not.)
So, $4.99. That’s what I picked. I’ve yet to sell enough copies that I could even match up with the closest of the close of my own writer friends, so I’m going on a limb and saying I need a new class of friends. Kidding (though I’m starting to think I might run into a few of them stealing wireless Internet at a Starbucks near you)! Now come on, that was funny. Maybe not twenty-nine year old Carlin funny, but pre-veins-popping-out-of-his-forehead-as-he-raged-funny. Right?
By the way, I’m not honestly comparing my comedic talent to George at all, just the anger part. Really. I mean YOU’RE welcome to say, Rob, you’re kidding me, you’ve got it, babeeee! I’m just saying, I know I’m nowhere near as funny as George Carlin at any point in his life. And while we’re on the subject, if you haven’t seen Louis C.K. doing stand-up, and you have a pulse, you haven’t actually lived yet. (Follow the links in this particular blog, by the way, because I am sharing some treats of comedy with you).
Back to helping you decide where to price your book.
Wherever you think you should. There’s too many damn voices out there for me to tell you what your book should be priced at. I’ll say this: look at other books in both your genre and others, compare quality, be honest, price accordingly and competitively. In other words, Econ 101. Sorry. Not knowing your book and not wanting to start an Internet battle here in the comments section, I’m not going to presume to tell you what to charge for your book.
But if it’s 99 cents, it better be really shitty.
Grrrr.
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The blank page is dead…long live the blank page.
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Author known to use spontaneous satire, sarcasm, and unannounced injections of pith or witticisms which may not be suitable for humorless or otherwise jest-challenged individuals. (Witticisms not guaranteed to be witty, funny, comical, hilarious, clever, scintillating, whimsical, wise, endearing, keen, savvy, sagacious, penetrating, fanciful, or otherwise enjoyable. The Surgeon General has determined through laboratory testing that sarcasm can be dangerous, even in small amounts, and should not be ingested by those who are serious, somber, pensive, weighty, funereal, unsmiling, poker-faced, sober, or pregnant.)
What, a reviewer really said that to you? Can I say, which I probably should have said earlier, one afternoon a few weeks ago I started and ditched three indie books in the space of 5 minutes. No kidding. Black Beast was the fourth book I started – and I finished it. Obviously I have fairly high standards, but yours made the cut!
As far as pricing goes, I agree with you 100%
Not a reviewer, a writer friend who used to tell me how impressed she was with my writing and has asked me many res for support of her book (which I’ve always given). Please, BTW, read Dark Prairies, my recent release. I’ll even gift it to you; I love Beast, but that’s not my best writing. 🙂
Oh, and to be completely fair, she didn’t say my rioting wasn’t up to snuff, she implied it by stating her rule was never to review an Indie because what if she had to be honest and hurt their feelings. I understood her point (I, frankly, have a similar policy—I think most busy writers with a lot of writer (and Indie writer) friends have similar dilemmas, if not policies. But I thought she and I were far beyond that, and frankly her balsa wood-thin characters, who I’ve lauded because of my caring to support her (and her book that is doing VERY well, clearly on the backs of others agreeing to do promotions for her) are done getting my support. BTW,, I could be mistaken on this, but I think this is one of the first times I’VE asked her for any significant support of my books. Ironically I don’t have much to worry about as far as her even jumping in the fray (which would be fine by me if she did) because I’m doubting at this point she’s ever even read my blog.
It truly is mad Rob that people drink 2 or 3 coffees a day from Starbucks at $3 or $4 bucks a pop and yet when it comes time to get a book. People think $10 for a kindle book is expensive.
I was reading reviews on a well known author, the publisher priced the kindle version higher than the hardback . $13 for the kindle and someone complained and gave him a 1 rating for price lol.
What an earth is this world coming too.
I mean i have my 1st book coming out this year and its taken me months to write this, a lot of blood, sweat and tears and yet most would think 99 cents is what people should pay. That’s the value.
I long to see the day when all indie authors are pricing kindle books at $9.99 minimum.
All I seem to be able to muster in reply, Jon, is “can I get a freakin’ AMEN?” 😀
I think $4.99 is the perfect price. It has the Walmart feel – under the $5 mark, which is good psychologically. But the price is still high enough for a reader to believe he or she is buying a good book. I know I have been brainwashed over the years, but if something is priced too cheap, I move on by, figuring it’s not worth buying. By the way, as an aside, and I know it gives my age away, but I worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper when George Carlin was a DJ at KXOL radio in Fort Worth. He was brilliant then.
Honey. Honey, honey, HONEY! I might actually be in love with you. No, really, hear me out! OK, here goes. Scary pic of angry infant (because infants are just effing frightening, right?): check. Obtuse Wilt Chamberlain reference: check. George Carlin (funniest human ever, natch) reference: check. Elie Wiesel (by the way, have you read that book by that guy who wrote that thing about Anne Frank is really still alive and living in some dude’s attic in Stockton?) reference: check. Funny, snarky, hilarious witticisms galore while still managing to be the oddly charming anti-social/everyman: check.
Seriously, my ovaries are TWINGING! (Twinge-ing?) You, sir, are a genius. For some reason I picture you with a large, rather impressive moustache, a la Neitzsche, Twain, and that cashier at 7-11 who looks at me from the corner of his eye and mutters something unintelligible about “freaky bitches.” Sortof unintelligible, anyway.
But I digress.
Loved the post. LOVED IT, in all caps. You sir, I reiterate, are a genius.
Thank you for your (more than) ringing endorsement. See, you’ve reduced me to bumbling cliché. Unfortunately my moustache is far more “cheesy eighties” than Twain, but my buzzed haircut is considerably less crazy-looking than him OR Neitzsche. BTW, your attraction to and admiration of such individuals is, at the risk of sounding illiterate, way cool. Tom Cruise get down off that couch and step the fuck aside. The 7-11 guy just sounds militant and creepy.
Seriously, though: kindred spirits and common senses of humor are both as rare as sightings of the Himilayan snow leopard and some of the only possibilities left that make this spinning rock a worthy ride. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your comment. It was a shoe-in for the “classic” category and if I had a “best comment ever” contest, you surely would have won AT LEAST second runner-up. 😉
My book is priced at $0.99, but only because it was my first novel (really a novella, it is only 90 pages long), and it was written by a 10 year old boy. Once I write a novel that is reasonably long, (and when people can trust my writing abilities), I will raise the price point. But I agree, books are worth more than the 20 minutes of enjoyment from an overpriced Starbucks drink. Great post Rob, and congratulations on hitting the 100 blog post mark! 🙂
First, Spencer, thanks for reading and commenting. Second, I feel more than a little regret for allowing myself to sometimes lean more toward an R-rating than PG-13 realizing you’re out there. If I ever offend, you feel free to call me on it. Third, and this is just my opinion, but nothing I’ve ever seen you write deserves to be measured, priced, or treated as anything other than the words of a talented, full-fledged writer. The day you took your age out of your blog title I silently applauded you. There is no reason to know how young you are except so that we may be amazed by it. Cheers, bud. 😀
Your blog is perfectly fine, if your blog is R, youtube comments are NC-17 (or worse)! Thanks for the compliments Rob, you made my day 🙂
Ha! And amen to the YouTube point. You made MY day! 😀
Haha!
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First time to your site and loved the article. Found it via twitter and clicked…because I, too, have been debating how much to charge for my upcoming ebook. Worse–my book is about “money” and how to stop making Wall Street rich and start making yourself rich. I mean that HAS to be worth at least $9.99, right?
But I’m not Robert Kiyosaki or any financial guru. In fact, I’m a nobody who simply has lessons to share. So I decided on $8.99. Then I saw the average price was $4.99 but (oddly) that seemed more expensive than if I had just claimed it all and demanded $9.99. So I decided to go with your price–$3.99.
But, then that makes a book about money seem “worthless.” So I’m still in limbo. If you do have the time….I would love to know if you believe word count has anything to do with it. I once bought a book from a well-known author for around $8 on my Kindle. It ended up being “a pamphlet” and I was TICKED.
My book should end up around 25,000 words. Fiction standards seem to like 50,000. Realizing my genre is technical–should I factor length into my pricing? Thanks and looking forward to reading more of your site. And your inexpensive book 🙂
An interesting topic. I haven’t yet published anything (for profit anyway). I’ve thought about it as a buyer though. So, I’ll share my personal data with you in the hopes it is helpful.
If something is free, I’ll definitely download it. I read so much that I’m always “running out.” That is NOT to say I think anybody’s work is worth nothing. However, it’s a no-risk situation for me, especially when I don’t have a lot of time to go researching a book or even read a sample (2 young kids). If I make it through the book (I haven’t always), I’ll review it now that I’m blogging.
That said, I don’t tend to look at the 99 cent stuff. Maybe if it’s a short collection of poems or something. I do have a couple things at that price. One is my husband’s, but the other is a short story from a series I read.
I *think* most fiction tends toward 75k or more words these days. If it’s going to be significantly shorter, I expect to know up front. I will be disappointed otherwise (I expect a certain amount of plot/action/twists/reading time). Length alone is not a reason to change price. However, if a novel is coming in as a really long short story, I’m not paying $20 for it unless I’ve got a recommendation from a source I trust. Similarly, if the book is long (print over 450 pages maybe), I’ll pay more – especially if it looks good.
I just checked my personal records. The most we’ve paid is $17.85. I can’t speak to that one, because it was something my husband wanted. The second most expensive ($14.99) was from a series we both read. It was when the book just came out.
The most common price appears to be $7.99. Now, I know pricing has gotten a bit more competitive and most of these books are in series, so the author is both established, not indie, and already has proven the characters/concepts/etc.
I am more likely to TRY something if it’s not expensive. That said, a year or two ago I was “trying” things by buying the physical book, which is nearly always more expensive. I *do* get irked when the e-copy is much more expensive than the physical copy (except with an anticipated new-release, in which case it’s a get-it-at-midnight-or-without-going-out convenience fee).
I don’t know if this is at all useful, but I hope it is.