#264: Welcome!  I know there are some new readers visiting this blog.  If you’re one of them, welcome!  This post (it appears on most Fridays) is for writers and readers of books, but many come here more for the op-ed.  To the old-timers (I’ve probably never said it, but better late than never), welcome to you too!  There are many blogs on the internet, so I feel privileged that you have added mine to your reading list.  (If you have access to an RSS feed, you can RSS this blog.  I was surprised—it was the one thing that was easy to do on Goodreads.)

Many blogs are for-profit in the sense that you will see multitudes of ads floating on your screen cajoling you to be a good consumer.  That’s their choice, of course.  In my blog, I try to keep things non-commercial.  If it is commercial, and I mention it, it’s because they offer services to readers and writers I applaud—especially to indie authors and publishers.

That said, I do need your support.  My costs are minimal (generated by maintaining this website plus paying for ebook formatting and cover art), but I can’t operate at a loss.  So, please help!  Tell your friends about the website.  Read, buy, and review some of my books if you can spare a café latte or two and a wee bit o’ time.  Tell your friends to do the same.  And I’m just one indie author.  Try to help the others too—if you resonate with their writing.

#265: Prices for my ebooks.  Steve Jobs in an email to Harper Collins’ James Murdoch: “Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99.”  Recall that the Big Five joined forces with Jobs in their attempt to fix ebook prices.  This was an attack on Amazon but the Justice Department brought a lawsuit against Apple et al, which they lost—an implicit win for Amazon.

Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the publishing room that some people love to hate.  While I think it’s dangerous that they don’t have a major competitor, I’m satisfied with what they do for me as a writer.  In fact, I’m surprised traditionally published authors aren’t leaving traditional publishers in droves considering the latter’s business model.  All my ebooks are priced less than $9.  I get 70% in royalties; traditionally published authors get much less (I don’t know if the Big Five adjusted their ebook royalties to keep their authors from revolting).  At any rate, here’s the price list for all my books:

1.  The Midas Bomb*, $7.69 (also available as an Infinity trade paperback)
2. Angels Need Not Apply, $3.99
3. Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java, $2.99 ($0.99 for many months—you had your chance!)
4. Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, $4.99
5. The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, $4.99
6. Full Medical*, $2.99 (also available as an Xlibris trade paperback)
7. Evil Agenda*, $2.99
8. Soldiers of God, $17.95 (only available as an Infinity trade paperback)
9. Survivors of the Chaos*, $8.95 (also available as an Infinity trade paperback)
10. Sing a Samba Galactica*, $3.99
11. Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!*, $3.99
12. The Secret Lab*, $2.99 ($0.99 for many months—you had your chance!)

Note: Most of these are reduced prices!  Starred books are available at ALL online ebook dealers, the others only on Amazon.  Future prices are subject to change without notice.

#266: Coker on ebook prices.  Some of you might have noticed that the above price list reflects some of the results from Mark Coker’s Smashwords study of ebook prices.  I’m always in the process of re-assessing my own prices because I want to generate more readers.  The usual way of doing this is to sell more books, of course, and my prices reflect that philosophy.  But I really don’t care how I generate readers—if you can figure out how to lend my ebooks to friends, go for it.  Or, borrow them from the library if your library has an ebook-lending system.  Or, bootleg them somehow.  (I won’t tell because I don’t care—it’s your conscience, not mine.)

By the way, I don’t know how Coker came up with his numbers.  He seems to imply they all correspond to Smashwords sales integrated across the retailers they distribute wholesale to—my sales figures on Smashwords and their retailers (B&N, Sony, Kobo, etc) have been abysmal.  Of course, there’s a natural bias here because Amazon with its various Kindles is such a giant in the industry.

#267: Result of my targeted ad campaign.  You’ll recall that I made a targeted ad campaign associated with the Montclair Film Festival.  I’ll make a candid report about the results on Karen Cioffi’s “Writers On the Move” blog.  Watch for it.

In libris libertas….

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, May 17th, 2013 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.