Quote:
Originally Posted by chaley
When and where I grew up (50's/60's west USA), praise was to be avoided. I have never learned how to accept compliments other than to look at my feet, shuffle them around a bit, and mumble "thanks". So see me shuffling and mumbling. 
My goal with CC is to make it trivial to use for a casual new user and to satisfy to the extent possible people who really use the app (power users). The two goals are probably mutually exclusive. In the end, the power users must pay a bit because the new users won't. Thank you and many others for your patience with this conundrum. 
As for "criminally underpriced", that too is hard. Our current estimates are that some 40% of our users are running pirated versions of CC. Would they pay for the app if it was less expensive? Hard to say, but I suspect that those who pirate would never pay for an app no matter what the price, or can't pay for an app because of wherever they are. Would more people search out the pirate editions if we raise the price? Hard to say. If we offered a "donate" button, would people pay for the app and then donate more because it is so good? Hard to say, but I suspect that this number would be vanishingly small. But who knows? We will learn more when we release our free limited-to-10-books demo version that will remove the questions "what does it do?" and "will it work if I buy it?". I am not sure exactly what we will learn, but it will be more than what we know today. |
We may be able to take a lesson from the music industry. At the introduction of mp3 files, of course a large amount of (illegal) file sharing began. The MPAA was livid. However, the revenues over time of the industry were not apparently damaged at all, and in fact growth accelerated. Not just music sales but also other forms of music income (concerts, etc.) The conclusion that most analysts (meaning independent, not MPAA analysts) came to was that exposure was increased, and that led to growth in demand. Of course, the pirates don't pay, and as you suggested, probably never would.
So, I think your ideas (free limited to 10 books demo) are useful and should help you figure out what is most likely to drive your own exposure.
One comment though- I don't use Calibre or Calibre companion for books- I use it strictly for news and magazines. I'm not sure how you would implement the 10 books demo in this case... do you mean 10 sync'd items, or...? My point is 10 items might be one days worth, and therefore wouldn't help. I'd suggest something like 10 'real' books (forever) and/or 10 newspapers/magazines for a set period of time... like 2 weeks or maybe a month.
[edit: for books I use the Kindle app on my nexux and PC. I am very fortunate to live in an area with a huge e-book online lending library that Amazon 'manages'.]