Monday, April 18, 2011
Are You Dense?
J.A. Konrath has one of the most useful blogs on the internet. I check in just about every day. He’s really been on the indie publishing bandwagon as of late with an emphasis towards self epublishing. What, with the current state of the industry, I think he has a point.
Ebooks overtake paperbacks and hard covers? If you thought that was a foregone conclusion, we suggest you check this out. Ebooks topped in sales in February. Sounds surprising for sure, but ebook sales have touched $90.3 million during the month, recording a 202 percent increase compared with the same month previous year.
This is a particularly entertaining post of Konrath’s
Part of Mr. Konrath’s paradigm includes what he feels is an optimal price point for self publishers being at between .99 and 2.99 per title. He’s really big on the .99 price point regarding Amazon and he has some very sound reasoning to his argument. I suggest perusing his blog to understand his P.O.V.
Of course, there are those who feel differently.
Advocates for 99-cent e-books claim the low teaser price helps them gain new readers. But opponents worry that if readers come to expect the 99-cent price, it will no longer be effective as bait. Then what? they ask. Will authors start doing penny promotions in order to get their books noticed?
“Ask anybody who sells anything for a living: no business wins in a price war,” Cronin warns. “And that’s what we’re looking at right now.”
Or put another way, if authors don’t value their work, will readers?
To be honest, I embrace Konrath’s argument much more readily than the above. Again, I suggest perusing his blog and listen to his sound reasoning.
