Writing

One of the tougher tasks is attempting to figure out the right price to ask for your book. I personally believe my books are worth the same price as any traditionally published paperback currently in the bookstore. Then I have moments when I simply freak out and, based solely on the fact that I’m self-publishing, think they should only be $2.99.

There does not appear to be any type of standard in pricing, which only makes coming up with the right amount more onerous. I finally had to think of pricing on three different levels and then weigh my novels against the others in those areas.

Traditionally published vs. self-published. It appeared to me that most traditionally published novels (paperbacks) range in price between $7 and $13. The eBook version of these novels are the same price range. Self-published novels by previously published and known print authors seem to be priced at between $4 and $9. Most self-published authors who are new to the publishing world are well under $5, and the bulk of them are under $3.

Example:
Barry Eisler is a well-known author who left traditional publishing and went his own way.
Hard Rain by Barry Eisler (Kindle Edition) $7.99 pub’d 2003 – traditional publisher.
The Detachment by Barry Eisler (Kindle Edition) $5.99 pub’d 2011 – self-published.

Content/Volume. Most writers are avid readers. We know what we are willing to pay for certain books. I’ve mentioned before that I’m annoyed as hell when I buy a book for $4 and it turns out to be a damn novella. By the same token, I’m ecstatic when I get a well written novel for that price. I’m not a Harlequin reader, but I’m conscious of the fact that Harlequin sells their 45,000 words or less novels for $6.99 and up. They are a good example of that “known quantity” that I mentioned. Harlequin’s readers know what they are getting and are willing to pay for it.

However, I’m an unknown. So even though my volume/content is greater (70-90k), I can’t charge that much. I still need to stay under $5 so readers will take a chance on me.

Perceived Value. We’ve discussed this before. If I don’t value my work then you won’t either. Most of my friends have the perception that anything under $2.99 is probably not well written and unlikely to be edited properly. But, they are also unlikely to pay more than $5 for an author they aren’t familiar with.

So where is the sweet spot?

I think I’m worth more rather than less. I may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I tell a decent story and my editors work hard to make sure that story is readable.

When you sit down with one of my novels, you are going to spend a minimum of several hours consuming that book. Surely, I am worth more than the thirty minutes and $5.89 that you are willing to spend for a Wendy’s single with fries and a drink. Am I not worth the time and money you would spend for a white mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks? Should I consider myself to be worth less than an Oreo Blizzard? Okay, maybe I went a step too far with that one. But the reality is that while those things might be momentarily satisfying they will leave no lasting impression on you except for the inches they add to your waistline.

I believe my novels are worth more than a cup of coffee or a meal deal from a fast food restaurant. And dare I say it? Yes. Yes, I do. My novel is worth more than an Oreo Blizzard.

Lord, help me. I am so attached to my words and commas… even the bad ones. I’ve finished the first really ugly round of edits for Saving Emily. Trust me – it really was ugly. And not just for me. I actually felt sorrier for my editor than I did for myself. I’m betting she’s wishing she’d opted for the week in Kandahar without body armor instead of agreeing to be my editor.

As always happens, I had to go through the five stages of grief in the editing process. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. I moved through some of the steps faster than others, but at one point I’d stalled out.

Okay, I stalled out at Anger. I admit it.

I was angry with myself. There are days when I think I might actually be getting the hang of this writing thing, but then reality sets in. That reality is usually in the form of a butt load of red ink from either Marcia or Arwen. In this case, it was Marcia who had her hands full.

I’m not sure why I am still incapable of recognizing the subject and the verb, but I know it still happens because I occasionally (Okay! More than occasionally, but certainly not frequently!) insist upon separating those two things by a comma. Or is it with a comma? By, with, whatever! Apparently, choosing the appropriate one of those words is yet another deficiency I must work on.

The point is, I still have issues with grammar, including (more than occasionally) misplaced modifiers. Also, much to my chagrin, I apparently am not always able to properly identify the individual components of language on any given day. This week it was what is and isn’t a preposition. My editors both lovingly point out those things to me. Lovingly means they are giggling and pointing.

My failure to grasp the subtleties of the English language is frustrating to me. Okay! It’s really a failure to grasp the BASICS of the English language. I admit it. Are you happy now? This failure has led to a long pause in the Depression stage. Did I mention my pity party? I swear that I passed that eighth grade English home schooling session. It seems to me that the more I learn, the less I actually know. I’m sure this sounds familiar to many of you. I really do get it – when I see it. However, that does not mean that I can actually apply the things I know when I write. Which is why I need the editors.

I have finally moved on to Acceptance – this is the point where (as I mentioned earlier) I feel worse for my editors than I do for myself. I’ll keep plugging away at it, but I cannot guarantee that the annoying, comma, fairy, won’t, appear, at, unusual, moments, or that I will be able to rationally discuss a problem with a sentence using the proper terms. Sadly, I believe that both Marcia and Arwen will be pointing and giggling for some time yet.

As a buyer/reader I am offended when I spend a big chunk of coin only to find out that I bought a novella or short story. EBook sellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble need to do a little better job in providing the information to the buyer. Page count is not the industry standard for categorizing books. Word count is.

Why is the category based on words and not pages? There was a time when the cost used to be in the typesetting, so more words equaled more expense. Writers used to be paid by the word. As I mentioned in a previous post, editing costs are still based on the word count. The other reason is that font style and size can affect page count, as can format. Big print equals more pages even though the word count doesn’t change. If the book is in print format than the actual paper size affects the count – a traditional 6×4 paperback will have more pages than the “flat style” 6×9 soft cover.

There’s a wide variety of views on the number of words that constitutes a novel – and it is words not pages that are counted by publishers. The category based on count actually varies by genre. However, the averages seem to work out at about:

Short Story = Under 10,000 words
Novelette = 10,000-19,999 words
Novella = 20,000 – 49,999 words
Novel = Over 50,000 words
Super Novel = Over 100,000 words

Young adult books often fit in the Novelette or Novella category. Harlequin shoots for a target of 40-50,000 words for a novel in most of their lines; although, some of their lines are a maximum of 35,000 words placing them in the Novelette or Novella ranges. The sci-fi and fantasy genres consider 40,000 and above to fit the novel category, while several of the mystery and suspense groups say 60,000 is the minimum to meet their requirement of a novel. National Novel Writing Month requires 50,000 words as a minimum for novel status.

Most readers are not familiar with this so all they have to rely on is page count. Here’s another breakdown. There is anywhere from 300 to 400 words on about 35 lines per page. (35 being the industry average on a traditional 4×6 paperback.) Romance books, which are characterized by lots of quick dialog and short paragraphs, will be on the low side of that number. More line returns means less material per page. Many romance novels are also utilizing an additional line between paragraphs much like my blog, hence even fewer words per page. A suspense or mystery novel will generally be denser per page due to the background and descriptions, so those will average on the high side.

I average 380 words per page with no additional line spacing.
One of my favorite romance writer averages 310 with the additional spaces.

My book of 80,000 words (according to Amazon) is estimated 215 pages. My friend’s book of 35,000 words is estimated at 140 pages.

When I see the book in a brick and mortar store, I can tell by the thickness and font size what I’m getting.

How does Amazon come up with the estimated page count they list? It’s based on the number of times the page needs to be turned on the Kindle. The utilize the file size uploaded, the word count, the number of line returns, and page breaks. I don’t have a problem with that, but once again, the style and spacing can vary greatly, so the estimate is not overly helpful.

I’d really like to see Amazon and Barnes and Noble require and post the word count so the buyer can make a better informed decision. What would be really nice is if they would flag the size clearly so the buyer knows what they’re getting.

Let me just bitch for a moment. I know, I said I was trying to lay off, but sometimes I find things annoying and have to vent a little. Anyone can create an email account at Yahoo or Hotmail, sign up with Amazon, and purchase a single book for 99¢. And as long as they have made that single purchase, forty-eight hours later, they are allowed to drop their precious words of wisdom on anyone and everyone. That’s right, as many reviews on as many books as they want to write. The price of admission to the reviewing party is one item.

A very small (miniscule really) part of me wants Amazon to stop letting people post reviews on books they didn’t pay for, unless they acquired them under the Prime program. At least under that program, the reader has paid an annual fee, and if the book is downloaded, the author sees some return.

It falls under, “If you don’t pay for my book, you shouldn’t have the privilege of commenting on it.” Paying for the book earns you the right to bitch and moan. One of the common complaints among authors who have offered one of their books for free is the bad review from the idiots. Most of whom appear to have downloaded something outside their normal genre. These are the folks who got something for free and then bitched that it wasn’t something they ever would have bought anyway.

I love these rubes and their comments.
About a Sci-Fi:
“I don’t read Science Fiction but thought I’d give it a try. This is awful, I didn’t get it, and you won’t either. It wasn’t even worth one star.” (Looking at the reader’s other reviews makes it clear they were outside their genre, but I love that they think no one else will get it.)
About an espionage thriller:
“Well, I normally read romance, but thought I might try this. Who wants to know all about that city and the political stuff? It was just way too much to take in. I quit in the second chapter. Boring! (Well, yeah! We didn’t see Jason Bourne’s rippling abs and dark passionate gaze in the first two chapters. And nothing else in the world matters but short paragraphs and snarky prose.)
About a paranormal (a book with the word vampire right in the title!)
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about with vampires. I found this book to have entirely too much sex and it’s not even Christian! The description should say that it has graphic sex and lots of it. I finished it, but I can’t recommend it to my friends.” (If you’re worried about the Christian aspect – what the hell were you doing with a vampire book??? As soon as I finished that review, I downloaded that book. I also found the contact info for the author and sent her an email, telling her to post that review in the product description and raise the price!)

Thanks, folks! Appreciate your participation in the review system. Not!

The only drawback with not allowing someone to review without purchasing the item would be that the so-called professional reviewers couldn’t post since most of them are supplied with the books by either the author or the publisher. Perhaps they need to be registered – like lobbyists.

Amazon has now added something that says “Amazon Verified Purchase” next to the review. You will notice that most reviews do not have this beside them. This is also a fairly new feature so I’m doubtful they went back too awfully far in their records to verify purchases. Amazon encourages people to post reviews about any book they’ve read, whether purchased from them or not.

I’m not sure what the answer is, but the validity of the really good and the really bad can always be called into question when it comes to reviews. I have heard about one author (and no this is not a joke) who has created separate accounts and posted reviews on her own books under different names. She at least purchased her own books so I suppose that gives her the right. It’s beyond shallow and base, but some of these folks are desperate and needy beyond belief.

The one thing that Amazon really MUST put a stop to is the ability to post a review on an item that has not yet been released. Not too long ago, I popped on to look at an upcoming release for one of my favorite authors and found that two weeks before the release the book already had over 100 five star reviews. It was just a bunch of happy fans talking about how excited they were. Three months later, when there were only 200 total five star reviews and several hundred more that were significantly lower, the overall rating was still up in the four range. Those chatty pre-release people had definitely skewed the numbers. Let those fans talk on the message boards and fan sites, not in the review section of a bookseller site. The review capability should only be turned on when the book is actually released for sale and not before.

Lastly, Amazon, I need a DISLIKE button. You have an unqualified like button (sort of a waste in my opinion), but you should be fair and provide a DISLIKE. It couldn’t be any more useless.

Okay, I’m done bitching for the moment, and I will now return you to the regularly scheduled blog.

When I began my drafting business, one of the architects who trained me gave me a piece of advice. “A failure to value your creative work will lead others to believe that YOU have no personal value.” I thought that was a little extreme, but of course he was right. If you don’t value yourself, no one else will.

When you walk into your local bookstore and you make a beeline for the rack with your favorite author on it, you have already decided you want his book based on the quality of his other books. You have an expectation that you’re going to get a great read and you are willing to pay the asking price for that good read.

Perceived value – this author is worth the $18.99 for his new book.

Now what happens when you see one particular book by that same author in the bargain section and the book that sold for $18.99 is now marked down to 99¢? Not just down to that price, but with multiple other price stickers showing that it has been reduced several times. Once you are over your initial excitement, don’t you really think it must be a dog of a book that they couldn’t sell. Tell the truth. You do don’t you? I do. You’re pretty sure that this is the one that’s not as good as the others. If it was that good, there wouldn’t be an overstock. They’re stuck with it and it’s been reduced ten times and there’s still a stack of them. They can’t seem to give this one away. I may buy it, but I know that it’s not going to be as good as his other books.

Perceived value – this book is not going to be great because it’s only 99¢.

I’m going back to something I mentioned earlier about my friends with eReaders. They take the free stuff, but, “when they want a decent book, they buy one.” I did an informal survey of my friends and family and you of course won’t be surprised to know that almost every one had a perception that the free or 99¢ book would not be very good. Most figured they would be dealing with mediocre stories, writing, and a complete lack of editing. In fact, almost all of the people I talked to felt that the 99¢ book was just another version of free. Is that true? Hell no it’s not true. There are great books out there at that price, but that’s not what the perception is.

Perceived value – 99¢ is just another version of free and is of low quality.

I conducted another informal test. I raised the price of my stand-alone books. My books average 80,000 words, so they are definitely in the novel range. I had originally priced them at $3.99. With a fairly decent period of time and an established track record, I raised the price to $4.99. There was no change in my sales – there was no drop in sales at all. What there was though was an increase in reviews.

Would I sell more at $2.99? Maybe. But once again, what do you consider the value of the book to be. I’m still under $5.00 and that’s where I’ll stay. Maybe I would sell more if they were less, but then I’d have to sell more to make the same amount of money. I’ve heard of other authors who raised their prices and actually sold more.

Perceived value – The higher the price, the better the quality of the book.

I’ll be discussing pricing in a future blog. For the moment, let’s just say that I am a firm believer in the idea that an author must value their own work while being realistic in pricing.

I ain’t no cheap trick, baby!