How much would you pay?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tompe

They will take it on if the author can tell a story. Technicalities like spelling and grammar can always be fixed by the editor. What is rare is to find the people that really can tell a story.

Also it is not uncommon that writers under contract have to re-write big parts of a book (the last exemple I heard about was throwing away 85%) due to the input of the editors.

It is not rare to find people who can tell a good story. Good grief. There are THOUSANDS of books out there that are good stories.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tompe

They will take it on if the author can tell a story. Technicalities like spelling and grammar can always be fixed by the editor. What is rare is to find the people that really can tell a story.

Also it is not uncommon that writers under contract have to re-write big parts of a book (the last exemple I heard about was throwing away 85%) due to the input of the editors.

Also: I've had at least two stories...no make that three stories that were turned down (according to the editors and they made it all the way to the editor's desks) because, paraphrase, "I just bought something very similar and cannot buy another of this genre/feel at this time." In all cases, the letters said nice things; two of them gave some story advice, etc. One was with a medium sized imprint and one was from a very small publisher. Publishers only have so much money/room on the shelf.

And of course if the editors LOVED it enough they might have bought it anyway. But as the person said who quoted TOR--there are publishable things in the slush pile, but they can't all be published traditionally for a lot of reasons, including economics of the publishing houses.

[laughingdragons]

For my favorite authors I'll pay upto $10...for authors I like a lot up $8. For authors I don't know but thier book interests me upto $5.

2 of my fav authors came out with books recently priced at 12.99 and 14.99 and I'll wait till they get to $10.

There are so many books to read that I can wait to get the 2 books. Plus I'm discovering new authors that are more affordable to read.

[spindlegirl]

I am currently reading "The Fairy Godmother" by Mercedes Lackey, being borrowed from the library. We are less than 1/3 of the way through the book. (my husband and I are reading it aloud together), It is rife with typos and spelling errors. "Were" when the word obviously was "mere" for example.

This would have been unacceptable to me were I to have bought the book.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

I am currently reading "The Fairy Godmother" by Mercedes Lackey, being borrowed from the library. We are less than 1/3 of the way through the book. (my husband and I are reading it aloud together), It is rife with typos and spelling errors. "Were" when the word obviously was "mere" for example.

This would have been unacceptable to me were I to have bought the book.

You're reading it as an ebook? I wonder if it was scanned in. Probably so. I liked a lot of her earlier work, but her later stuff not so much. I don't know if I outgrew it or she did!!!

[Sydney's Mom]

Fiction, I would consider up to 12.99 (the new $9.99)

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Fiction, I would consider up to 12.99 (the new $9.99)

I can't do it. I just can not bring myself to pay more than $9.99 for a fiction novel in either paperback or ebook format. Thank goodness my husband bought Ghost Story (Dresden Files #13) ~ Kindle: $14.99 () so that I can read it when I'm ready. I was not looking forward to playing the waiting game for it to go down in price.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

You're reading it as an ebook? I wonder if it was scanned in. Probably so. I liked a lot of her earlier work, but her later stuff not so much. I don't know if I outgrew it or she did!!!

Yeah, it was on loan at the library, so I am borrowing it. I looked up the price at kobo and it's 7 dollars, which I would NOT pay.

But that's one of my beefs, seeing so many errors in a book and then reading that e-books should cost a lot because of editing costs

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Yeah, it was on loan at the library, so I am borrowing it. I looked up the price at kobo and it's 7 dollars, which I would NOT pay.

But that's one of my beefs, seeing so many errors in a book and then reading that e-books should cost a lot because of editing costs

It's going to be a while before older books have the kinks out. And publishers are always going to try to keep the price up there. Maybe in this case they meant formatting costs.

[M.P. Jones]

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?

I am very interested in these responses as one of those independent authors! My personal approach is to consider books based on whether the subject appeals and the depth of the reviews rather than whether they are independent or not. It seems that independents find it really hard to acquire genuine good quality reviews which makes it difficult to assess them..

So I would pay the same price for an independent even though in practice the vast majority do not charge the same as a mainstream publisher..

M.P. Jones

[tompe]

Originally Posted by M.P. Jones

I am very interested in these responses as one of those independent authors! My personal approach is to consider books based on whether the subject appeals and the depth of the reviews rather than whether they are independent or not. It seems that independents find it really hard to acquire genuine good quality reviews which makes it difficult to assess them..

So I would pay the same price for an independent even though in practice the vast majority do not charge the same as a mainstream publisher..

M.P. Jones

I interpreted the question being about the case were you did not have any reviews to guide you. If I have consistently good reviwes of a book that is in a genre that I read I will probably buy it and treat it as any other book. If I have no knowledge about the book I will never buy it. But I might buy a traditionally published book with no knowledge.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

It's going to be a while before older books have the kinks out. And publishers are always going to try to keep the price up there. Maybe in this case they meant formatting costs.

I don't know Mercedes Lackey well, and didn't know "older" or younger books (This is the first of hers I read, I was just browsing the arrivals and saw it was available and nabbed it).

That being said. The time to work the "kinks" out is before selling, not after. If they need some beta-readers, then hand out the buggy books for free and sell the fixed up versions.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

I don't know Mercedes Lackey well, and didn't know "older" or younger books (This is the first of hers I read, I was just browsing the arrivals and saw it was available and nabbed it).

That being said. The time to work the "kinks" out is before selling, not after. If they need some beta-readers, then hand out the buggy books for free and sell the fixed up versions.

Not arguing. I only meant older in that older books were scanned in, rather than "proofread." Newer books would have an electronic file that has been proofread.

[Lemurion]

I might pay up to $2.99-3.99 if the book catches my attention - but I definitely wouldn't go above $5 for an unknown indie author.

The problem is that indie books are such a crapshoot - while there are some very good ones - there are also an incredible number of really bad ones, and it can be hard to separate the diamonds from the fecal matter.

With commercially published books I know that while I may not like the book, I can pretty much guarantee that it's written to a sufficient standard of English proficiency that I'll actually be able to judge the book on what's being said rather than how it's being said. With indies, I don't know that going in.

I've got more options than I have time - so it's really hard to justify spending money on such a raw chance when I've got books I know I will like waiting for me to find time to read them.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Not arguing. I only meant older in that older books were scanned in, rather than "proofread." Newer books would have an electronic file that has been proofread.

Yeah. One would think they'd pay more attention to the OCR and make sure it isn't total crap before sticking a price tag on it. Then I leave my house