My Father's America - Volume One - The New World

[JLorenz]

Greetings to all readers and writers alike -

I've had the thrill of releasing the first of my late father's writings on amazon and smashwords. Dad spent a good portion of his life writing about American history and wrote over 3000 pages. When he died in 2001 I decided to try and get them published, without much luck. Although, admittedly, I probably could have been more persistant.

So I decided to publish them as eBooks and proud to say the first one is out!

My Father's America - Volume One - The New World

You can check out more of the backstory to his writings on his author page at amazon.com, which is the foreword to Volume One that I wrote:

amazon.com Author Page

It's also available on smashwords.

I'm looking forward to learning about some book promotion here and hopefully find a few books for myself!

Thanks for reading this...check out a sample of my father's book...or buy the whole thing!

[orange!]

James, this is a wonderful and honorable project.

I think you'd have more success with a pricing model in the, say, $3 - $5 range instead of $8. Maybe it's better to start out a little lower than where you really want to be, just to get some copies out there, get some reviews, get some word of mouth. Then you can up the price later when you've got 1000s of people hooked!

But maybe that's just me. Anyway, best of luck with your project!

[JLorenz]

Originally Posted by orange!

James, this is a wonderful and honorable project.

I think you'd have more success with a pricing model in the, say, $3 - $5 range instead of $8. Maybe it's better to start out a little lower than where you really want to be, just to get some copies out there, get some reviews, get some word of mouth. Then you can up the price later when you've got 1000s of people hooked!

But maybe that's just me. Anyway, best of luck with your project!

Thanks for the reply and advice orange!
It's only been a week but I definitely am thinking along those lines. Is it better to just decide on a price and stick with it or start low and jack it up after a while? I've seen argument that support both options and did have a hard time settling on a price.
Still just learnin'

thx!

[frquixote]

Sounds quite interesting. Guess I'll check out the sample on Smashwords this evening.

[orange!]

Originally Posted by JLorenz

Thanks for the reply and advice orange!
It's only been a week but I definitely am thinking along those lines. Is it better to just decide on a price and stick with it or start low and jack it up after a while? I've seen argument that support both options and did have a hard time settling on a price.
Still just learnin'

thx!

Besides $$, you want to sell lots of books because (a) you'd be building name recognition, and (b) more people would be reading your father's work, which is the point, right?

So, if you could sell twice as many copies at $4 as you would at $8, you make the same amount of money, but twice as many people have read your book! Depending on the price elasticity of demand for your product (and my guess is that it's fairly high), you might sell *more* than twice as many copies if you halved the price.

But I'm not an author, so I don't have any experience pricing books. Maybe you'd get better advice over in the writer's forum.

Anyway, keep us posted on how it's going, and like I said before--best of luck!

[JLorenz]

Originally Posted by frquixote

Sounds quite interesting. Guess I'll check out the sample on Smashwords this evening.

Thx!
Hope you like it!

[JLorenz]

Originally Posted by orange!

Besides $$, you want to sell lots of books because (a) you'd be building name recognition, and (b) more people would be reading your father's work, which is the point, right?

So, if you could sell twice as many copies at $4 as you would at $8, you make the same amount of money, but twice as many people have read your book! Depending on the price elasticity of demand for your product (and my guess is that it's fairly high), you might sell *more* than twice as many copies if you halved the price.

But I'm not an author, so I don't have any experience pricing books. Maybe you'd get better advice over in the writer's forum.

Anyway, keep us posted on how it's going, and like I said before--best of luck!

Some great points orange!
I'm definitely going to give it some thought. I tried to be competitive with other similar books and thought I was actually a little lower than most in that range. I thought I would rather come down in price than raise it at some point.
Thanks again for the advice.

[frquixote]

Originally Posted by frquixote

Sounds quite interesting. Guess I'll check out the sample on Smashwords this evening.

I just read the first 30 pages of the sample at Smashwords and all I can say is "Wow!"

Your father had a terrific talent for writing, made all the more remarkable by the fact that he spoke (and, presumably, wrote) no English when he arrived in the US. The writing is both fluent and fluid, reading more like popular fiction than the geology/paleontology/anthropology/history encompassed in just the small portion of the sample I read. It is also immediately evident that he had a passion for his subject and the depth and breadth of knowledge that came from the kind of study such love engenders. Combined, his writing style and knowledge will make this series a pleasure to read. This book has jumped to the head of my TBR list. I hope we will see more in the very near future.

I've added this volume to my shopping cart to buy tomorrow night because its already well past my bedtime.

[JLorenz]

Originally Posted by frquixote

I just read the first 30 pages of the sample at Smashwords and all I can say is "Wow!"

Your father had a terrific talent for writing, made all the more remarkable by the fact that he spoke (and, presumably, wrote) no English when he arrived in the US. The writing is both fluent and fluid, reading more like popular fiction than the geology/paleontology/anthropology/history encompassed in just the small portion of the sample I read. It is also immediately evident that he had a passion for his subject and the depth and breadth of knowledge that came from the kind of study such love engenders. Combined, his writing style and knowledge will make this series a pleasure to read. This book has jumped to the head of my TBR list. I hope we will see more in the very near future.

I've added this volume to my shopping cart to buy tomorrow night because its already well past my bedtime.

Wow, you've given me chills. Thanks for taking the time to download and read the sample. I was hoping readers would relate in some way to my reaction that I described in the foreword.
I've gotten a great response to the backstory of my father's life and it's obviously intentional on my part. There's a lot more sadness involved but I try not to focus on it. My hope though, is for his writing to stand on it's own, because I believe it does.
Yeah, Dad didn't speak much English when he came over. He did have some classes as a kid in Germany and I remember him saying that he would love to find his old English teacher who told him he would never learn the language since he was so bad at it.
Thanks for your kind words. I hope you enjoy the whole book and maybe would consider a review somewhere. I'm working on editing and formatting Volume Two - The Colonies.

[orange!]

Originally Posted by JLorenz

Some great points orange!
I'm definitely going to give it some thought. I tried to be competitive with other similar books and thought I was actually a little lower than most in that range. I thought I would rather come down in price than raise it at some point.
Thanks again for the advice.

I'll just add one more comment about pricing. After all--it goes without saying that it's your hard work and you have to do what you feel is best, all things considered.

So here's the problem with *lowering* the price--it tends to tick off the people who bought it at the initially higher price. Why punish your "early adopters"? The reverse obviously isn't true. If you price the product low, then are flooded with demand, you can raise the price repeatedly until the market tells you that you've gone too far. The people who buy early feel smart for getting a good deal.

[JLorenz]

Yeah, that's a definite fear I have of lowering the price at this point. It's not like I've sold hundreds yet but there have been enough that I'm sure some people wouldn't be happy.

[SteveK]

James - Personally, I don't get angry at an author simply for offering a lower price than the price I happened to pay. I might wish I had waited to buy the book, but I don't get mad at the author. After all, items go on sale all the time, and there are bound to be some items you buy at regular price today that go on sale tomorrow. Or items you buy today at full price that were on sale yesterday. If it's only a few dollars difference, I really don't believe anybody would get too upset over the price reduction.

I downloaded the sample of the first volume, and I agree that it reads more like a novel than a history. I'll certainly consider buying the book soon, especially if they happen to go on sale soon as it seems to be an entertaining and informative read.

Good luck with your father's books!

SteveK

[JLorenz]

Originally Posted by SteveK

James - Personally, I don't get angry at an author simply for offering a lower price than the price I happened to pay. I might wish I had waited to buy the book, but I don't get mad at the author. After all, items go on sale all the time, and there are bound to be some items you buy at regular price today that go on sale tomorrow. Or items you buy today at full price that were on sale yesterday. If it's only a few dollars difference, I really don't believe anybody would get too upset over the price reduction.

I downloaded the sample of the first volume, and I agree that it reads more like a novel than a history. I'll certainly consider buying the book soon, especially if they happen to go on sale soon as it seems to be an entertaining and informative read.

Good luck with your father's books!

SteveK

Thanks for downloading and reading the sample Steve! I can understand dropping a price after having it out for a while but this is only out for less than two weeks now. I think it would show indecision on my part if I dropped it so soon.

I actually did spend a lot of time researching pricing before I made the decision. I've done some more since the discussion came up in this thread and I think I'm sticking with it. It seems to be on the low end of other books in the genre and noted authors price their books at double what this is.

Again, I'm probably being a bit biased and maybe a little stubborn like my dad.

[basschick]

the similar books at that price range tend to be by known authors.

Originally Posted by JLorenz

Some great points orange!
I'm definitely going to give it some thought. I tried to be competitive with other similar books and thought I was actually a little lower than most in that range. I thought I would rather come down in price than raise it at some point.
Thanks again for the advice.

[SteveK]

James - one more comment on pricing. Although $8 for a book is certainly not a big deal, if you price all the planned 8 volumes at $8, it will cost approximately $64 to read the whole work. Frankly, I hesitate to start reading ANY author if I know it's going to cost me $60+ to read a series of books.

Since you're using other works of history as a pricing guide, for that same $60 or so I can buy at least 6 volumes of the highly-respected Oxford History of the United States series, each by noted historians and published by a prestigious University press, and each volume would be 700-800+ pages, not 300-400, so obviously those dollars would buy me more pleasurable reading time.

I do plan to buy the first volume and will then be able to decide if I want to buy future volumes, but I'd be much more inclined to buy the entire series if it didn't cost nearly $65 to do so.

Just a thought. I wish you well with your father's books.

Thanks.
SteveK