Saturday, May 26, 2012

A Question of Cost

This whole "taking control of my writing by self publishing" thing has presented me with a brand new set of questions and problems. Finding the right publisher who is fair and truthful has not been an easy task. While there are plenty of good independent publishers out there, finding one I can afford has caused me no small amount of frustration.

Then there's the pricing of the book. While some e-book publishers will allow me to set my own price, there are others who have a minimum amount you can charge for your own work. Am I the only one who thinks that's a little strange? Shouldn't authors be the ones who decide what to charge, at least for e-books? Personally, I balk at paying more than three dollars for an e-book (and even then, my eye starts twitching). How about you? When does your inner accountant start screaming when you're browsing the e-books?

Unfortunately, the other common glitch I'm running into is the price for print books. This is the retail price I'm talking about, not my wholesale cost. They want 14.99 (USD) for a 250 page book. Maybe I'm just part of a minority of people who think that's an exorbitant price for a book, but I do have a hard time paying that much.

Am I just cheap after living on a public school employees salary for so long, or is that really a lot of money? It's a matter of perspective, and mine is a little skewed so I'd love some input from others.

1 comment:

  1. I think it is a lot of money and I think it affects the sales of many self-published writers. Something around the three dollar mark is perfectly reasonable for a writer who has published their first e-book but anything more than that could prompt people to not buy the book. It's a fine line.

    Just to give you some perspective on the print book - in Australia our paperbacks are usually over thirty dollars and our hardbacks over fifty (for new releases.) At the moment the US and Aussie dollar are pretty much on par, so you can see how expensive it is to be a bookbuyer here. Some of it is to do with sales tax problems at the wholesale end but most of it is to do with price gouging by the publishers.

    Unfortunately, you're just going to have to try it and see how it goes. Price sensitivity is a real issue in publishing at the moment. I'm not sure if it is going to be addressed in the future as it should, either.

    Don't give up though, you have a good product and there is no reason it shouldn't sell. I would like to help you promote it (if I may.) I'll send you an email soon.

    ReplyDelete