The old rule of thumb, as cited by the publishing industry, was that the price of a book (meaning hardback) should be about the price of a good restaurant meal.
As in, $25 to $30 for most hardbacks today.
Then came paperbacks. Then came book superstores and chains. Then came ebooks. Then came Amazon. Throw in libraries, used book sales, Internet piracy and electronic promotions of free titles, and sometimes a book is lucky to be worth the price of a cup of coffee.
My latest price on three early novels presently available only as ebooks on Kindle and Nook is roughly a grande latte, or $3.99. After looking at sales records, that’s a two-buck cut from an experiment closer to what I think I deserve, $5.99.
I was selling enough additional electronic copies of Ice Reich, Getting Back, and Dark Winter at lower prices that my net income was higher. So, readers once more get a bargain. At least I think so.
This is largely an academic exercise since sales have always been relatively modest for these older books – we’re talking pocket change, not mortgage money here, folks – but I plan to publish more ebooks of my own in the future, and pricing experiments give me a little insight on marketing.
Very little, I’m afraid.
Here’s what I know.
Bean counters have inherited the earth, and all industries, including publishing, are ruled by people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Algorithms – a mysterious term I thought I’d safely left behind in high school math class forever – now rule how things pop up on Amazon and other web search engines, and authors hunt for keys to influencing them like conquistadors after the Seven Cities of Gold. Algorithms! By Thor’s Hammer!
And Amazon et al has crashed through the cozy world of book publishing like a runaway logging truck through a cornfield. History will judge Jeff Bezos as either a liberator like Simon Bolivar or a despoiler like Attila the Hun, but meanwhile he’s inescapable. (Hey, I wrote about Attila in a novel called The Scourge of God. Good book. Please read.)
When I put on my reading glasses instead of gripping my writer’s keyboard, the disruption gives me cheaper books like everyone else. The problem comes in making a living writing them. It’s always been difficult, and now is even harder.
But serenity is accepting the things you can’t change. Like an acceptable price for an older novel. So if I shave two dollars off, maybe more of you will give them a try.
Ice Reich is a World War II adventure story based on a real-life Nazi expedition to Antarctica. Bio-terrorism, romance, war. “Rousing, Indiana Jones-style debut thriller,” Kirkus Reviews called it.
Getting Back is a near-future dystopian novel set in a depopulated Australia, a survival story and environmental fable. “An engaging read with considerable depth and twists,” said the Christian Science Monitor.
Dark Winter is a murder thriller set at the South Pole, inspired by my own visit there. “Tightly constructed, fast, and very real,” said the Austin Statesman-Journal.
Please read. They’re worth the price of a latte!
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I loved all the books mentioned here. They are all worth more than $3.99! You just need a better way to get the word out to potential readers. Perhaps there could be Face Book groups for authors and readers, organized by genre. (just a thought)