Monday, April 18, 2011

Soon ebook pricing will cease to be relevant

There has been more than a little freaking out buzz regarding ebook pricing. Specifically, this freaking out buzz is bi-directional. One side features authors and/or publishers pissed at morons who have lowered the value of ebooks by pricing them as low as $.99. The other side features consumers pissed at moronic authors/publishers who price ebooks higher than their dead-tree versions.


[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by evo_terra via Flickr"]Five O'Clock Shadow 50[/caption]


So who's right, and who's wrong?

Neither.

Welcome to the world where no one controls the price. No one. Not the author. Not the publisher. And not even the customer. That world is just around the corner, where a complex algorithm figures out the right price point for the book (e, audio, enhanced, print, holographic, etc.). And that price point will be different tomorrow. Hell, it might be different five minutes from now. It's demand-side pricing, and it's dynamic. And doable. And it's coming.

So keep buzzing freaking out if that is important to you. Venting is good for the soul. But ultimately futile.

Because number of books sold takes a back seat to number of dollars earned in a post-scarcity world. Would you rather sell 10,000 books and make on average two dollars profit, or 100,000 books and make thirty-cents each on average? Do the math. I'll wait.

The good news is that you won't have to figure it out. Someone will come along and create the Google Adwords analog that works for book pricing. Its job will be to maximize the bottom line. For the author. For the publisher. For everyone.

I, for one, welcome our algorithmic overlords.
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Friday, April 1, 2011

Self-publishing and big-publishing work together for one author

I'm a big fan of authors who work their way around the system. Take my friend and New York Times Best Selling novelist Scott Sigler. Even though he landed a sweet 3-book deal with a major publishing house a few years back, he didn't sit back and start smoking expensive cigars. Nor did he assume that the big publisher would be his meal ticket forever.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="It started with THE ROOKIE"][/caption]

Instead, he started working in parallel. Sure, three books were snatched up, but Scott has lots of books. And many of them just weren't of interest to his big publisher. That's not too surprising, since one of his series of books looks at professional football 700 years in the future. You know, when aliens play along side humans. Really, really big humans.

Again, it's kinda hard to fault the publisher too much for passing on that. I mean, what sort of road has been paved in that world? Will scifi geeks be able to handle the sports-talk? Will sports nuts be able to handle the scifi? And how can they get kids interested, when fans of either side at that age don't mingle all that much? So... they passed.

But Scott didn't give a shit. He already had tens of thousands -- no, I'm not exaggerating -- of fans already hooked on the first book, THE ROOKIE, released as a serialized free audio book. Many of them wanted to hold a copy in their hands, or to share it with a younger member of their family who more a reader of books than a listener.

So he did it. Though an ingenious system of pre-ordering, a dedicated team of pros to help him crank out a top notch product, and the business acumen to make it all happen, he launched his own publishing company and started cranking out limited edition hardcover books. And it's worked out. Big time.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="... and then there was THE STARTER"][/caption]

Is he selling NYT-best-selling numbers of these self-published books? No, no he's not. But he doesn't have to. When he sells 5,000 limited edition hard cover for a premium price, he gets a premium amount of profit. Way better than typical royalty rates. And this isn't some cheap, run-of-the-mill POD pulp. This is serious quality that you can stack against any new release hardcover in the bookstore. It smells like quality.

Today, he's starting pre-order for his third book in the series, THE ALL-PRO. Order your copy here and use the discount code EVO to save a little cash. Even with the discount, it's not the cheapest book you'll ever buy. Nor is it intended to  be. But it is intended to get you thinking about ways you could work outside the system, and start making the math work better for you, too.

Way to go, Scott. Keep cranking out great titles (I think I own them all, and I know I've listened to them all) and I'll keep buying them. So will others. Oh, and when you get my pre-order notice for THE ALL-PRO, write something inspiring about me, OK? Thanks, buddy!


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