Seeking Publisher - Here we go again

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Malcolm wrote:

So far, in the vastness of the internet, I've found it exceptionally difficult to attract prospective readers to blogs and websites, much less gamble $19.95 on the book.

Something has to be done to reduce that 19.95 number. I won't pay 19.95 for a book even if the book is the next Jack Reacher book and that is the only way I can get it. I will not shell out more than the mass market paperback price (these days I'm too stingy for even that because I get whatever books I want for free thanks to the website - but If I didn't have the website my max payment for a book is 6.98 for a book that I would deem to be known exceptional before buying) and I'm guessing that is what other people feel too.

I try out new authors by buying books at library sales and other cheaper avenues and if I like the book, I will invest in more by the same author. There are hundreds of thousands of books to select from and getting someone to pay 19.95 for an unknown book obviously will be hard.

I say put 90% of the book online for free and if people like it and really want to read the rest, they might shell out something to get the paperback.

From my experience, the price doesn't seem to matter. If people want the book, they'll buy it and if they don't, they won't -- irrespective of the price.

When Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine was published in 2005, the dollar was fairly strong against the pound. The book was priced at $19.95 on amazon.com and £12.50 on amazon.co.uk.

By 2007, the dollar had fallen dramatically and Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine was available on amazon marketplace for £8.64 but, even though I advertised the fact extensively, I saw no significant rise in sales.

The reason that POD books do so badly is very much linked to library sales. If libraries don't buy the books, it is very difficult, and probably impossible, to build a fan base. This is a point I will be addressing later. I have written an article that should be out by the end of this week. I will post a link and start a new discussion about POD publishing.

When I was researching about book prices, I found the same thing that Shelagh did - it's not price that is the issue, it's getting people to pick it up and open the cover to peek at what is inside. It takes a lot of royalties or individual private sales to recoup the costs of a book: proofreading (had to buy all my friends dinner and wine, and even then they left mistakes in the manuscript), editing and marketing efforts are not cheap whether you publish yourself or not. I cannot make a living at this if I am bound to teeny royalties or discount book sales.

I love having my books in libraries, it's amazing, and great PR for my local market. But I need copious copies of them to be on people's bookshelves (wood shelves or virual ones), alongside their other dogeared favourites have been paid for. I don't advocate the starving artist lifestyle; not that I need to be filthy rich or anything, but I sure as heck don't want to go back to working in someone else's office because I only make 40 cents a book.

Pam wrote:

When I was researching about book prices, I found the same thing that Shelagh did - it's not price that is the issue, it's getting people to pick it up and open the cover to peek at what is inside. It takes a lot of royalties or individual private sales to recoup the costs of a book: proofreading (had to buy all my friends dinner and wine, and even then they left mistakes in the manuscript), editing and marketing efforts are not cheap whether you publish yourself or not. I cannot make a living at this if I am bound to teeny royalties or discount book sales.

I think Shelagh is doing a great job with publicizing her books online. She is everywhere But even at £8.64 the book is as expensive as Hardcovers from popular authors. It's like an indie band trying to sell a CD for more than the price of the latest sensation without having the potential buyer listen to the music. So I think one of the two has to happen.

1 - You need to get lots of spectacular reviews at lots of major popular sites, blogs etc. and price same as the big guys.
2 - Get spectacular reviews at a few sites/blogs etc and price < big guys. Put the first half of the book online. Maybe reading that might get some more readers interested.

I'm a thriller reader, and say new author X has convince me to buy X's book. For that I need to know
1. It is good (reviews/social networking/general buzz/quality of the cover/great blurb)
2. It costs as much or less than other books that I deem good (= price of book by famous author Y in same format).
(Unrelated: My personal favorite format of books is the same size as this book - http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Pitchfork-Derek-Stillwater-Novel/dp/0738708836/ref=pd_sim_b_1_img)

Pam wrote:

I love having my books in libraries, it's amazing, and great PR for my local market. But I need copious copies of them to be on people's bookshelves (wood shelves or virual ones), alongside their other dogeared favourites have been paid for. I don't advocate the starving artist lifestyle; not that I need to be filthy rich or anything, but I sure as heck don't want to go back to working in someone else's office because I only make 40 cents a book.

Random Idea: Maybe self published authors can promise to send a signed card to anybody who reviews their book on a site of their choice and put this fact on the back cover of the book, randomly put copies out in the wild.

I wish I could just run ibookdb.net and quit my day job too But I can't charge thousands of $ in advertising yet because the site doesn't yet deserve it. I only charge from $50 onwards. If you look at Myspace their tiers start at 3k - http://www.myspace.com/modules/common/pages/sales.aspx . But one day, hopefully ibookdb.net will pay me enough to quit and move to Honolulu

ibookdb wrote:

Random Idea: Maybe self published authors can promise to send a signed card to anybody who reviews their book on a site of their choice and put this fact on the back cover of the book, randomly put copies out in the wild.

That is a fabulous idea Siddharth! Especially in this day and age where people get bills and junk in the mail, there is nothing better than something that comes to you hand writted (as a thank you card should).

One of the first people who ordered a book of mine on-line was disappointed the book was not signed and someone mentioned that she mailes readers a bookplate with her signature. If you incorporated that thank you with a book plate, you might have the best of all worlds. You could use a card that includes a `sticker book plate`that they can stick in to the front of their copy of the book if they like. What a darned good idea! I am SO all over this!

Pam wrote:

That is a fabulous idea Siddharth! Especially in this day and age where people get bills and junk in the mail, there is nothing better than something that comes to you hand writted (as a thank you card should).

Thanks!! I've also been trying to suggest to authors that they have a forum somewhere and put a link to the forum in the book encouraging them to discuss the book with the author. If authors can't operate one on their own site, they can use one of the free forum sites or the ibookdb.net author forums. The advantage of using third party sites is that users do not need to create a new account just for one author's forum. But if you do get famous, you should host your own (e.g. http://www.taramoss.com/phpBB2/index.php). Sometimes great things happen in Author Forums e.g. when Barry Eisler and Lee child posted to a Reacher vs. Rain thread at Lee Child's forums.

We do host several author forums on ibookdb.net but not many go through the effort of linking to it from their sites prominently (they do link but the link is all but invisible) and nobody links from their books. I'm thinking of booting a few of them out because the authors never log in or post anything at all.

Wow another great idea-I kind of like blogging though personally. I checked out Tara`s site too-she has some tremendous endorsements there.