Should the availability of a sample affect the price of a book?

[ficbot]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I have included the URL of this thread in my reply to her. And here is part of the rest of what I wrote, explaining why I thought her book was over-priced:

>>>I am not saying the book is by default worth less just because it is self-published, but to say it is AS POLISHED a product when it by definition is not---those publishing houses pay their editors a salary for a reason---is not fair. What you are offering is a self-published title, not a commercial title. It therefore costs less to produce. Take off $2 for the paper/shipping/warehousing that does not exist for your book, and take off another $2 for the salary you are not paying to an editor, marketing department, art department etc. and your self-published book is worth $4 less right there, no matter how good it is. And readers know this. If you check out your competition on Smashwords, most sell their books for $0.99 to $1.99 (and at $2, there is your $6 mass market paperback price minus the $4 I accounted for above, and this is therefore a fair price).>>>

If she's reading this thread, I just want to reiterate that I wish her well and am by no means trying to be unfriendly. She asked, I am explaining

[SensualPoet]

OK, so I'm too late to this party but, what the heck!

I can't imagine the marketing contortions one goes through trying to equate charging paying customers to cover the costs of the free chapters to everyone else: at least, the sounds like the proposition to me.

One of the best things about Amazon's Kindle is that virtually every title has a sample that can be sent via 3G directly to the reader. So, browse around on the website bookstore and click here and there. If you try the sample, and enjoy it, a couple of clicks from the reader itself let's you carry on without interruption.

Should we place a price on that? Well, maybe in a broader sense of choosing Kindle or Kobo: but certainly not at the individual title level. Or relative to the size of the sample. If the author makes free samples that are 20%, does s/he add $2 to the cost of the book? If the free samples are 50% of the book, does s/he add $4 to the cost of the book?

My feeling is that if an author can't grab my attention with story line or style or characterization in a chapter or two, I am grateful not having bought the thing. Surely every author (and publisher) is willing to stand behind their work at least that far. It's the equivalent of a deep browse at the local bookshop -- and last time I checked there's no "added value fee" attached to those books tied to the privilege.

As for pricing the work of indie authors: I see no reason to detour from the path of established authors. New works command higher prices than back-list; and e-books for $4.99 or $7.99 potentially sell more volume than e-books at $12.99 or $15.99. You command the highest prices by being in demand which is driven being known and talked about. If a new author creates barriers to being read, that buzz is unlikely to appear.

[RyanMWilliams]

I don't see the sample has having anything to do with the price. If I walked into a bookstore I could pick up a book and read enough there to decide whether or not I wanted to buy it. Would I pay $7.99? Sure, even more if I was hooked and just had to read the book right then. But if I'm on the fence then the higher the price the more likely I'm going to go check it out of the library or skip it in favor of something else.

[SameOldStory]

I'm going to say that there is a reverse correlation to "Free chapters".

Being able to read 1, 2, 3 (or even 10) chapters doesn't add anything to the price.

If I looked at the book today with NO free pages I'll probably not buy it for $8.

If I look at the same book, with free pages, in a few months time I may read a few pages decide that I like it, and buy it for $8.

So the free pages increase the likelihood my buying it irregardless of the price.

She could be from the UK, Canada, etc. They all speak an odd version of English. And they pay a higher price.

Knowing nothing about her book I would say that, until she builds a reputation, she should have a lower price.

[FizzyWater]

Would the fact that there's a substantial sample make me think a self-pubbed book (that wasn't a re-release after an author got rights back from a publisher) is worth $8? No way in hell.

However, I think I understand what the author was trying to say...it's not so much that she believes the sample MAKES the book worth $8. I believe she felt the book IS worth $8, and that her enticement to the buyer to make it worth taking a chance on her unknown story is the longer-than-normal sample.

Personally, I believe the average paperback's only worth $5 or $6, so I don't pay $8 unless I've got some kind of advantage (gift certificate, for example) or I know and LOVE LOVE LOVE the author's work.

The Agency cartel's pricing deal has really made a dent in my normal ebook buying...since many books I would have happily bought for $5-6 are now priced $8 (or more, at Sony).

[DaringNovelist]

I think the reasoning is backwards here - the size of the sample does not raise the value of the book. However if she feels the book is worth a higher price than others of its kind, then she does NEED to have a longer free sample.

Your job as a reviewer is not to consider the sample, but say whether you feel that the WHOLE book (since you read it all) is up to the higher price. The sample may be relevant to her pricing decision, but not to your review. IMHO.

Camille

[mike_bike_kite]

Surely the availability of a sample is a benefit to her in selling more books and not something that the reader should be charged for. Personally, I don't see much point in providing more than the first chapter as a sample - if I'm not caught by then then I'm not going to get caught.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

A big sample suggests *to me* they're not sure the story will grab you with a smaller sample. And if the sample is a significant chunk of the total product it would lead me to think it probably needs work.

It would say the opposite to me. Anyone can make a short sample good enough to sucker people in and then not bother too much with the rest. So the more they are giving away, the more confident they are.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Add-in a price out of line with the retailer and/or genre and I'd guess the author/publisher doesn't understand the business. Doesn't mean they're greedy (that word gets used waaayyy too much on forums the 'net over) just inexperienced/misinformed.

Or she doesn't expect to sell many if it is a minority interest subject. Presumably she could lower the price easily enough once sales start to drop off?

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I have included the URL of this thread in my reply to her. And here is part of the rest of what I wrote, explaining why I thought her book was over-priced:

ficbot, just point her to this thread. I'm sure that we'll still be commenting on it for the next 5 days.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Well, she's a bit greedy, what?

I just bought Mission of Honor from Baen: a professionally published book, in an ongoing series, by a bestselling author. Price? $6.00

But a bestselling book should be cheaper to earn the maximum. For a book selling very little a higher price is probably optimal.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It would say the opposite to me. Anyone can make a short sample good enough to sucker people in and then not bother too much with the rest. So the more they are giving away, the more confident they are.

It's not *just* about hooking anybody; the purpose of a *free* sample is to show off the quality of the product. It should be as much as needed to achieve that and no more. Otherwise, you're really doing the "crippleware" version of shareware.

A good short sample will highlight the prose, the dialogue style, a transition or two. Just to show that, while the writer may not be a known quantity, they *can* write. One or two chapters can achieve that. So why offer up more? (And why link it to price?) The risk to the buyer is never in what you see, but what you don't see. A story can tank in the 12th chapter as easily as in the 4th (more often, in fact) so the longer sample is still no guarantee of a quality product.

I see no reason to go long unless you really don't think short is good enough to sell the product and that right there triggers all sorts of alarms for *me*.

YMMV, of course.

[astra]

If the sample is 1/2 of the book and you like it and want to finish, then the price might be higher than "standard" indie price. You pay for something that you know you like. Huge difference vs. buying some indie writer you don't know and have no idea about their writing skill. Even if they provide a small sample like 1-2 chapters because it is not enough to decide whether you are going to like it or not.

[J. Strnad]

" A big sample suggests *to me* they're not sure the story will grab you with a smaller sample. And if the sample is a significant chunk of the total product it would lead me to think it probably needs work."

I don't follow your logic, but it's intriguing.

I figure, "It doesn't cost me any more to allow a 50% sample as a 20% sample, so why not be generous?" I figure that anyone who really hates Risen will put it down after the first 5 or 10 or 20 pages. If they're expecting zombies or hate my writing style or whatever, they'll probably figure out pretty quickly that Risen isn't for them.

I can't imagine anyone getting through the first 200 pages and not wanting to finish it! If they don't like it, what in the world motivates them to keep reading?

As for the "ending" issue, well, you take your chances with endings, don't you? I'm still pissed off about the ending to Hannibal. But, if the author has taken care of you for half of the book, you're probably safe more often than not in trusting him/her to give you a satisfying ending.

The most important thing regarding endings, of course, is that...[oops! Jan suddenly woke up and this entire post has been a dream!]

[J. Strnad]

"It would say the opposite to me. Anyone can make a short sample good enough to sucker people in and then not bother too much with the rest. So the more they are giving away, the more confident they are."

Every word you write is a chance for the reader to bail on your book. The more you give people to sample, the more opportunities they have to find something they don't like about your book.

In pitching ideas, I've learned that you give executives the tiniest amount of information possible. You give them as little reason as possible to say "no." So, as a sales tool, a shorter sample might be the better way to go. As a reader, I'd feel better with a larger sample than with a smaller one, so that's what I did. (Never said I was a great marketer!)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I don't follow your logic, but it's intriguing.

Let me try again:
My thinking is that the purpose of a sample is to show that the story is worth buying, right? To *me*; a good story, from a good writer, can do that in a short sample.

The best stories do it in a page or less.
(HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSPHER'S STONE did it in a paragraph. Everything I needed to know about the tone of the story and the writer's wordsmithing was right up front.)

I just don't see quantity being much of a substitute for quality, is all.
I've grown used to the BAEN and Amazon approach of one sample chapter, so anything longer stands out; anything beyond *three* chapters and I start to wonder *why*? As in, what's the catch? Am I expected to go *that* far before recognizing quality?

Me, I don't need to read half a book to know if I'm going to like it.
What I look for in a story: an interesting premise, prose that doesn't grate, a character or two that intrigues... Those are things that should be front and center in the opening of any well-told story.

I guess my logic is that I'm more forgiving of bad endings than of bad openings.

Finally, I'm stubborn: once I start a story I tend to finish it, bad ending or not; I can count on the fingers of one hand the books I couldn't bring myself to finish. (And I still have fingers to spare, too.)

Other people? Well, that's up to them.