How much would you pay?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Justin Nemo

I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the comments here, but one thing that has stood out from everything else is the amount of crap that is available for sale. Now I know this is a dodgy subject, because one man's crap is another man's gold, but shouldn't the publishers/distributors of this rubbish be saying “Hold on this is drivel, we don't want it”? Wouldn't that make space for serious writers and give you, as buyers more confidence to buy new untried authors.

It may be profitable for the likes of Amazon (and I'm not pick them out particularly) to sell this stuff, but is it cost effective in the long run and don't they have a duty to weed this rubbish out?

The weeding out is what the major publishers do. That's exactly why I buy from them--I expect that there are going to be certain minimum standards of quality.

[latepaul]

I'd be prepared to pay as much for an unknown indie author as a mainstream known author BUT only if I've decided that it's a book I want to read which means it's got to have received positive reviews/recommendations from people I know and/or trust.

It's not about price, it's about quality.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Justin Nemo

How can a download be part of the way to a read if it is not read?

I don't download things in order to not read them. I hope to get to them one day, it's just that I have a lot to get through.

[spindlegirl]

Production costs are a huge consideration for me. With me paying a premium for the e-reader, I am paying for the ability to turn pages. I'm supplying the "reading potential". A printed book is a self contained "reader" they supply the pages with the ability to turn all in a bundle. I don't need a special gadget to read a printed book. They've supplied the self-contained gadget.

So the whole RE-production costs, to me, should be a no brainer when it comes to price. To an extent pre-ebooks I didn't think much about "factory and printing press" works, but I knew I couldn't just pick a paper book off a tree. Someone had to physically create it. A whole staff of people had to physically create it.


If I were a hot supermodel and sold huge prints of myself, I'd charge a lot for the print, I'd charge a few bucks for a digital photo and even selling at $2 a buyer, a few thousand fans of my hypothetical supermodel body and I'd make a couple grand in an hour with 100% of the profit after having paid the photographer for his services, and one file = millions, billions of stock.

[inkyness]

A lot of the costs to produce a book come from the labor involved in writing, editing, proofreading, and formatting, as well as sometimes advertising. I don't think publishers save as much money as many people think with ebooks.

Admittedly, I wouldn't really pay more than $12 or so for an ebook even though I've paid $25 for hardcovers in the past. But I think ebook prices are reasonable in general, as long as they don't cost more than the print edition - especially for newly released books, where the hardcover price is usually much higher. I don't think it would be practical to demand that all books are 99 cents.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by inkyness

A lot of the costs to produce a book come from the labor involved in writing, editing, proofreading, and formatting, as well as sometimes advertising. I don't think publishers save as much money as many people think with ebooks.
.

I've seen different figures for the printing, delivery, warehousing, etc costs but they're all around 10% to 15%. The biggest "cost" for a real book would be in distributor and retailer discounts, those are about 60% of the retail price. Assuming corporations get the same deal as independents, the standard cut for ebook distribution is 30%. Nobody has ever said how much, but there will also be a percentage of real book prices to cover the losses from 2nd hand sales. Ebooks have no 2nd hand market, but you could probably argue that the figure to cover piracy would be about the same.

[morriss003]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

Honestly, $0.00. My experience with new, independent authors so far has not been good. If the author was recommended by somebody I trust/respect and if the author provided a free book (not sample) and I liked it, I'd be willing to pay "regular" MM paperback prices, $5-10 for more of their work. I would assume, for that price, that it was also proofed and edited in a reasonably professional manner. Its not so much that I'm cheap, though I am, its just that there are already enough, good and well-established authors out there to last me a lifetime. Or ten. Life is too short to waste time reading nine crap novels to find the tenth one that is worth it.

I often read nine novels issued by the big publishers that turn out to be crap. Big names are just as capable of writing crap as indies. I tossed aside novels by Niven, Kleypas, Coulter, Weber, Nora Roberts, and other popular writers last year.

[Nyssa]

E-books: $9.99 max. (for a well known author) $7.99 preferred (will take a chance on an indie author, especially if its a series where the first book is free or discounted).

I usually do not but Non-Fiction in any format unless it is for my husband, or a specific gift for a friend.

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by morriss003

I often read nine novels issued by the big publishers that turn out to be crap. Big names are just as capable of writing crap as indies. I tossed aside novels by Niven, Kleypas, Coulter, Weber, Nora Roberts, and other popular writers last year.

Therefore, we can conclude that, at a minimum, 90% of fiction available "out there" is crap, established or independent authors alike. With so much crap available, a really good author, with some hard work and a bit of luck, should be able to rise to the top. I'll always give a new author a chance for a few chapters, if I don't like the work I'll stop reading it.

For those new authors out there, I'll give you an idea of how I might come across your work and purchase it. There will be nothing profound or original in the process. These are the things that matter to me and me only.

Before we even start, though, I want to stress this. I never buy a book from a new author based on the blurb and the reader reviews in the web store alone. Never. I might dl a free sample or book but buy? Uh-uh.

1) Reading recommendations. A trusted friend or family member, whose taste you are familiar with and largely agree with. Blogs with similar tastes to mine and recommendations on the web by authors you like and trust. A good review in a trusted newspaper or magazine. Lots of trust involved here.

2) Genre. I used to read just about everything, from Camus to Crichton. I no longer seek something profound and life-changing, though I still enjoy good literary works and good writing. Now I prefer SF & F, a good escape and a bit of fun. I am far more forgiving of the "literary" aspects of what I read when I enjoy the genre. While you don't have to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, you still have to be able to write well and tell a good story.

3) Editing. Its just not enough to ask a friend to proofread and edit your work, unless they really know what they're doing. If you have enough faith in your work you'll pay a professional. If you don't have that faith, why should I?

So step 1, somebody recommends you. Step 2, you happen to write in a genre I like or have a weakness for. Step 3, you have a free sample (at least 30-50 pages worth) available somewhere and I have access to it. You have talent, your book is well edited, and I like your style.

After all that, I'll buy your book, like I said before, for the same amount of cash I'd spend on an established author. If I really like it, I will in turn recommend it to so...

Even with the rise of the internets and self-publishing becoming affordable, I'm still convinced that if you're the next Charles Dickens or Stephen King, you will get noticed and find a following. If you're not (and I don't mean you personally) you will most likely toil away in obscurity, where you belong. Just because established writers can get away with occasional crap, doesn't mean you can or even should.

[RHWright]

Originally Posted by Justin Nemo

There is a lot of chatter in the writers section about how much we think our efforts are worth and how much we should charge etc. I would be interested to hear what readers and buyers of ebooks think on the subject. So how much would you be prepared to pay for an ebook written by an independent author that you weren't familiar with?

Well, I'm a bit heterodox in that I don't believe in the absolute $9.99 ceiling, don't hate agency pricing, and don't get much into the production costs of a DTB vs. an ebook debate.

If I want to read a book, I want to read it. Many, many factors will go into how much I'm willing to pay. Some of them mean that, even if it's free, I still won't want to read it.

To your question, essentially, what figures in to giving a new author a try (independent or not)?

First, they must pass the bar of something that catches my interest. I'm a pretty omnivorous reader, so that's not too hard; but, I don't read an awful lot of romance, "christian" lit, or non-fiction besides science, history, or cooking.

Being in my "interest zone" as a given, what can you do to stand out:

1) Don't be obnoxious in your self-promotion. Seen too many spam-style, "try my book" plastered over the other boards I frequent. (Folks on mobileread are pretty good about this, actually.)
2) Make some sort of sample available. This assures me that you're serious about customer-friendly marketing and gives me a chance to assess the level of quality in the formatting, editing, and writing.
3) Except for promotions, steer clear of selling yourself short. My eye tends to glance over the $0.99 and less titles; experience has just shown me too many non-professionals at that end of the pool.
4) Make sure any descriptions/marketing copy are clean, professional, and free of basic grammar, spellings, and punctuation errors. If you can't handle a paragraph, I'm not inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt on a whole book.
5) Multiple platforms. I'm a NOOK owner. I'm more inclined to chance something on the B&N site due to one-click ease than to hunt down something at Smashwords or another site that I then have to download. It never hurts to play on my laziness.
6) Pricing. I'm inclined give more of a chance to unknowns in the $2.99 - $5 range. Unless I know your work or it gets really stellar reviews from sources I trust, I'd keep it below $8.99.

I'm coming at this from a reader's perspective.

If I put my (aspiring) writer's hat on, I have to say I haven't reached the level yet to have an honest opinion as to what mix of standard pricing, promotions, and marketing would hit the sweet spot.

I total snowball guess would be around $2.99 - $3.99. Once you build enough of a following, maybe hold the prices on backlist and put out newer books at $5.99. Of course, always throwing freebies and cheap deals out there as a way to hook more new readers.

If you can develop a loyal fan base, I see nothing wrong in theory with charging in the same range as the mainstream publishers. My gut says you wouldn't need to, but could build and hold an audience by staying just a bit less expensive, without having to stay at $2.99 forever.

[Marbles]

With Indie authors I would like to get one for free but will pay 2-5 if the blurb interests me. If I like that book then I will pay up to $15 for more books from that author. What I would like to see is that the publishers quit with the agency pricing because I will also pay a bit more if that authors publisher is not in the agency pricing as I can use Kobo coupons to read more. We all like to get deals.

[inkyness]

I guess I never really answered the original question.

I buy self-published books very rarely. The most I've spent is $5.

Theoretically I would pay the same price as something from a big publisher, but the self-published work would have to do more to prove itself, since it probably wasn't edited professionally (from what I've heard there are often a lot of different stages of editing that the publisher does, and I think that often shows in the finished work). There is also a perception, whether or not it's true, that many people self-publish because their work isn't good enough to be accepted by traditional publishers. So there would need to be things like an amazing sample chapter, a large number of almost universally good reviews, and/or a topic that I'm extremely interested in.

Although, to some extent, the same is true even of $2.99 or 99 cent books. At that price I might be more inclined to buy something that looks interesting impulsively, but it still has to be something that I think I'll like.

[katlb82]

Indie authors that I've never heard of, I'll pay somewhere up to $3 if the blurb grabs me (and I also look at reviews on several sites), the cover-art is professional and the sample grabs my attention and is well formatted. I can overlook an occasional typo, but if the formatting is rubbish I'm outta there.

Indie authors recommended to me, my maximum is about $7.

I buy far more Indie ebooks than traditionally published, because I love discovering something new to rave about, and traditionally published ebooks are, in my opinion, incredibly overpriced in the majority of cases. If it's going to cost me about the same amount or more than the paperback, I'm most likely just to skip the whole thing.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Exactly.

You'd have to pay me to read the unknown indie book.

Same for me. And since I do not have time to read the books I own that I know is good it has to be a reasonable amount of money.

[Justin Nemo]

Well let's look at this logically, if no one wants to pay for books any more, what incentive does an author have to write (I'm leaving the ego out of the equation)? So if there is no new material around, you'll pretty soon get bored with what is.

Yes there is a lot of crap around, so maybe it's time for something new. How about next time you pay for a book and don't like it, you complain to wherever you bought it from. Don't expect to get your money back, but if enough people complain, maybe they'll take the book down. If you do this enough maybe the decent independent writers will get found.

I don’t expect for one moment that anyone will do it. After all there are so many books around right?