Figuring out the price...Submitted by Paul Elard Cooley on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 20:45 |
What the hell is my time worth? Why the hell do you, the listener or reader, care?
This is the question being bandied about these days, especially since the announcement by certain content creators that they will no longer give away their work for free. Now, I've already put out a podcast essay on that subject so I'm not going to belabor that point again. In case you've forgotten, it's the episode called "The Cost Of Free."
No, what I'm talking about here is something completely different. I'm readying the Fiends collection for Smashwords. I've been thinking about how to price the collection for quite some time. I've seen other people sell their short stories for $.99. Each. I don't know what their experience has been in creating a market for themselves or how many readers they've grabbed.
With all the titles being offered online now, we're all struggling to build our brands and compete with one another. So we have a couple of questions to ask ourselves as content creators. What is our time worth? What are our stories worth?
You can usually expect, from the paying markets I've seen, $100 for a short story sale. And that's most definitely at the top end. At the bottom end, there's merely a mention or maybe a $5.00 honorarium. You don't get a cut of royalties. You don't get any kind of repeat. So trying to make a living just selling short stories is nuts unless you're a famous author where you can get $25k from Playboy or Esquire.
So what are these stories worth that we put together? They've not been edited by a magazine editor. They've not been accepted by a magazine, in many cases, not even been read by other writers. There's been very little oversight by the community over ourselves and therefore some truly shit stories are doubtless for sale.
We have to rely on the paying public to rate our work for good or ill, to leave comments as warnings to other readers/potential buyers from making the same mistake, or to help promote our work. The community should also have a hand in ultimately policing itself, but I'm not certain how that would work.
I believe my stories are pretty good. They're not what I would call ground-breaking or earth-shattering. Instead, I think they're entertaining and certainly you, my audience, seem to agree. But that doesn't tell me what they're worth.
What would you pay for the Fiends Collection? For Momma, Ghosts of 1900, Canvas, and Breakers? What would you pay for the entire group as a digital e-book from B&N, Amazon, or Smashwords? What would you pay?
Is it worth more than $1.99 for all the stories together? Is it only worth $.99? Are each of the stories worth a buck? How much would you pay?
The digital marketplace for books is in its infancy. We, as consumers, are still trying to wrap our heads around purchasing short fiction outside of large collections, where we typically pay up to $15.00 for three hundred pages of fiction, or about 15-20 stories. But it's a book. It's usually by some of the best in the business. Those stories have been published in "real" magazines, edited by real editors, and been checked for grammar and professionally typeset.
So what's a 4500 word short story that's never been sold worth? What is a collection of them worth? Think about it.
There has been some discussion about this in the community and there are many and varied opinions on the matter. Some think it's best to hit the market as many times as possible. In other words, try and saturate with many different smaller releases than one large one. In my conversations with the FDO, he suggested that having more items to sell is better. I concur.
But where do you draw the line? Do you put out 4 short stories as separate for $.99 each and then the entire collection for $2.99 to save someone some cash if they purchase the whole shooting match? Do you even bother with the collection at all? Do you not sell the stories on their own?
Too many questions and there is little data from which to draw conclusions. We're all taking a chance here as the market begins the slow march toward a decision on the best approach. If we screw up this pricing model, it will turn away readers completely or leave so much money on the table as to make a living untenable.
I, for one, want to give readers as much bang for the buck as I feel is fair. I think selling the four short stories in the Fiends collection for $1.99 is pretty damned fair. It's basically a 1/4 of the length of a shortish novel and is priced accordingly. But it's also a gateway drug into the rest of my writing.
But then what to do about novellas? Works that are longer than a short story, but still not novel length? Because of Tattoo's popularity I think it's worth a little more than the short story collection and I'm going to start selling it for $2.99. If that price doesn't work, then I'll drop it to match the other fiends collection.
Am I right? Am I wrong? What are you going to pay to grab it from Smashwords or Amazon or B&N or the apple store? What is fair? If there are hundreds of people, each purchasing a copy of Tattoo and the Fiends collection, every month, then that is a sustainable living. Or at least enough to pay the mortgage. That's awesome and more or less what I'm shooting for.
But you know what? It doesn't matter much. I'm going to keep writing. I'm going to keep podcasting my work for you. If I make some cash off it, that's great too. If my work completely fails to attract a paying audience, then so be it. Closet Treats is destined for a publisher, one way or another. Tattoo will ultimately be put out as a book in some for or another. The Fiends collection will continue to grow until its finished and I start the next series of stories.
It wont stop me writing. It won't stop me podcasting. And it won't stop me from giving you the content you've come to expect.
If you have some opinions on pricing, please leave some comments on the forums. I'd love to see what you think is fair and what you'd be willing to pay. Chalk this up to market research before I dive into the mess that is trying to extract a little cash for my work.
One last thing. I'm not insisting or begging you to purchase anything. I don't expect you to. Those of you who have given donations, there's no reason for you to give me any more money than you already have. If you want to, that's fine. But again, there is no expectation here. I write. I create. I edit. I put it out there. If it's worth money to you, great. If not, then I just hope you enjoyed it and will keep listening. Maybe one day, I'll put out something you feel like paying for. But to have you in the audience is enough for me. I hope you continue to support me by spreading the word. That's all I can ask.
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Definitely worth some $$$!
Your writing is definitely worth money. Folks are downloading/listening to you because it's entertaining and good. Outside of mainstream publishing, this all still seems to be a bit of exploration. With enough content of yours available there's probably room for you to help determine what the market will sustain for folks like you. You're outside the mainstream publishing world & letting the market run free. Good stuff will sell! That's exciting, but it's slow. Build the audience. A large enough crowd that thinks likes your work will add fuel to the engine. For the consumer, public libraries are "free", but folks still buy books. Music on the radio is "free" but folks still buy albums. With the Internet, I think we're back to the "starving artist" model of old, only now it includes authors. You have to write stuff, people need to learn who you are locally and beyond and buy your stuff. But you have to pay the bills now, in part to allow you to write and make your work available. Until this becomes self-sustaining, give away lots, sell what you can (for donations; fix a price for short stories, novellas, full-length works, etc.). If you sell content, it'll take time. And along the way maybe you'll get a patron or two rather than departing the scene in artistic poverty. As for me, I'll pay!
Selling it!
I'm on Smashwords too as I think you know. I've got two storoes out there right now, one for $1.99 and one for $.99. Interestingly enough I've sold more of the more expensive story though neither is flying off the shelf per se. I think $.99 is a fair price for a short. I also think bundling them and doing a self pub anthology for a reduced per story rate also works.
A fair point is made regarding these stories being un-edited. Personally I try and fly these by some beta readers before I unleash them on the world, but there not professional editors. There's not vetting process so there's a bigger risk for the readers. On the other hand with SW you do get to give them a preview if you so choose and I'll be podcasting all of these at some point so my audience won't be buying these sight unseen. It's just one more tool in the bag.
I think our words are worth money. I think we need to be trying to get that on some level, whether that's through traditional means or through e-pub/self-pub or some combination. Giving them away is fine to a degree and I'll always be pro-free on podcasts. They're good marketing tools.
My two cents anyway. Cheers!
I like the idea of buying a
I like the idea of buying a group of stories better than just buying one. Unless I know the author, there's not much chance I'll shell out any amount of money for a single story.
I'm looking at it this way: A 250 page book might be worth $15 to me, but that doesn't mean I think books are worth 17 cents a page. I'd rather pay $4 for a group of 4 stories than a buck each separately.
Your $2 for 4 stories pricing sounds like a good idea to me. As a reader, if I'm looking at trying out a new author, and one guy is selling 1 story for 99 cents, and another has 4 for $2, I'm obviously gonna pay the extra buck. For not much more money, I'm four times as likely to find something I enjoy.
You're definitely on the right track by NOT looking at this as a simple "Four stories X 99 cents each =" pricing model. In the future, you may look back and feel that your over analyzed it, but it's definitely something that needs to be examined on a case-by-case basis.
I concur with most of Chris' points
There is such a thing as too small a package, particularly when dealing with an unknown quantity. I think your best bet is to go with $1.99 for four stories. If you're charging $0.99 each, how does a prospective customer know which to buy? If they've already listened to the podcast, why would they buy an e-book as well? If they liked the 'cast and are willing to spend $$$, they donated. That's how the whole Podiobooks.com system functions. Charging a buck each makes no sense at all to me unless you're trying to get those few people who buy *after* they've listened. If I understood your query correctly, that's not your target market. As far as Tattoo goes, I'd actually go with $2.49. $3 seems too high and $2 is a bit low. Split the difference.
I Wish...
The difference could be split. Basically, we authors set the price on smashwords, but amazon, b&n, and the apple store are pretty much free to change the price to whatever they like. Unless I'm mistaken, the apple online store, for instance, won't accept a price unless it ends in ".99". Therefore there is little control authors have once the articles are in the market place. This is a bit of a problem, I think, and I hope that one day we'll have total control over it. One of the reasons I do love the online marketplace is that content creators do have more control over their work, how it's marketed, and sold. The balance of power in this area will shift. Ultimately, since content is king, I think we'll have much more control over our properties and be more capable of making decisions for ourselves rather than distributors making those decisions for us.
Ebook pricing
What is an ebook worth... this is a great question. I only purchase ebooks (unless someone like Sigler releases a hard cover limited edition version) and I read them on a Kindle. I have some that were free and some that are over $15. I do feel that the ebook should cost significantly less than a physical book as the cost to produce/deliver is reduced to near zero. I would look at what kind of revenue you would get, as an author, from paper sales and price the ebook according to those numbers.
I too
believe e-books should cost significantly less than the paper product. This isn't to say that the digital version is in anyway inferior, but the fact there is no warehousing, no printing costs, and no shipping should definitely factor in to the cost of the ebooks. What I truly love about them is they can be priced for practically nothing and the author can still make bank on them. This model definitely serves the author in much more fair manner than the current print models the big publishing companies throw at us. We create the damned product and yet we get the smalled piece of the pie. It's absolutely ridiculous. But that's a rant for a different time.
Thank you much for the comment and support.
Cheers.
Interesting question
As a non-creative type, I'll say that any ebooks I buy are solely to support the author, not to actually read. I don't have a good device to read them on. I bought George Hrab's book a year ago, and am only about 25% of the way through it now reading on my computer, even though during that time I've probably read at least a physical book a week. I love my Nokia N800, and have read a few books on it, but it isn't great for the places I'd really like to use it. I don't have a fancy cell phone, and I don't want to shell out for an e-book reader when publishers have made clear they would then consider me an elite client willing to pay more for less.
I do have shelves of books by Ellis, Harwood, Sigler, Hutchins, Rossi, Selznick, Morris, Ballantine, etc that I've never cracked open (outside of PE:DA and the Pitcher's Pendant, because they weren't podcast) because I listened to them on the podcasts (my preferred format, due to my long commute), and that is the way they asked for support. If the author wants cash, I'll send them cash. If the author wants book sales, I'll buy the book. If the author wants to try a subscription model (Patrick McLean and Selznick come to mind), I'll subscribe. I hope the model works, because I get stuff I like in a format I can use and I try to support the creators as they wish.
So, I can't really speak to price of ebooks, other than to say that you are right, it is early days in this model. I'm probably a luddite in my lack of a good option to read ebooks, and maybe more availability of content in free formats would spur me to get a better reader, and then I'd be voracious in my appetite for the content. For now, the prices you suggest seem very reasonable and I'd likely purchase them solely for the purpose of supporting your efforts. But, you are preaching to the choir with me, and I can't imagine reaching the non-choir, because I can barely convince my friends and family to try out free RSS feeds and podiobooks and the like, let alone paying for content. I am torn between my optimism and support for this model, and JC's experience, which I take almost personally as disappointing.
Good points...
I have my own thoughts on JC's experience and what happened to him. I'm not going to go into that, as I'd rather keep those thoughts to myself. Just to make this clear, so his minions aren't pissed at me, I consider JC a great writer and have great hopes for his future. I don't agree with his decision, but I support him in it and wish him all the best.
Now, that said, ebooks are the most accessible way for "independent" writers (ie-- unpublished writers) to get their work out into the marketplace. Even as bad as the current book selling markets are, the ebook market is smaller and the podiofiction market is even smaller. Therefore, it's very important to look at the economics and business model as more than a single tiered approach. I could put Tattoo up on Lulu or whatever and even the Fiends collection, but in order to make it economical for my readers and achieve the most royalty percentage, i'd have to put up quite a bit of cash to get the price point where it needs to be.
Do I want to see my work in print? Hell yes. Do I want readers like yourself purchasing my books from amazon.com or some other bookseller? Of course. If you like my work, I want you reading it. If you can pay for it, then that's awesome and helps me keep going. But I have to be realistic about what I can achieve right now. The best I can do at this moment is go through smashwords with the ebooks and hope it attracts some new readers and that my existing audience, like you, will purchase them in order to provide me some support.
I can put out expensive t-shirts. I can put out expensive books. But I love my fans. I'm a reader and fan of other podcaster's work and I try and support them as much as possible. But would you pay $10.00 for a print copy of Tattoo? I think that's a ripoff. It's too much money for a short novella. My fans deserve a better price. They deserve a high quality product for the best price possible without either party getting screwed over. That's what I want to give my fans. That's what I want to give the reading public. But I would have to order a thousand copies AND handle all the shipping myself in order to make that happen. And I certainly don't have that kind of cash.
So Smashwords is the way to go. BTW-- epubs ARE DRM FREE and you can read them on your iphone, iTouch, crackberry, and a large number of other readers/devices. I try and purchase as much as I can in the epub format because, as an opensource advocate, I too loathe proprietary formats and technology. So, there are alternatives, my friend. They do exist and will continue.
If you don't want the ebooks, then don't buy them. I don't expect you to. If you want something concrete for your money, then find some other thing you do want. And if you like my work but can't find a way to support me through cash donations or purchasing what i have to sale, then just spread me like a virus to your friends and family.
I'm putting my work out there for free. If you like it, then I have achieved my goal. Unlike some people, I'm a realist. I'm never going to get rich doing this. I'm never going to be able to pay all my bills from my writing. Should that ever happen, then I'll be the luckiest man alive. But I'm okay with it not happening. So hopefully you'll continue to enjoy my work. Hopefully you'll continue to savage me on my own forums when I'm a dipshit and give me some accolades when i do something good. But as long as you're listening, giving feedback, and helping to spread the word, you have paid me enough.
Thank you very much for your comments, my friend. I do hope to speak with you again.
What You Should Expect
Paul, I have to say, being someone who is braving the short story sale market, that $.99 is definitely a fair price for a short story. I put out a novella around 12,000 words and sold it for $1.99, and it did well. Overall, I've been doing moderate to fair in the sales department with all of my work, with each new story doing better than the last because of the efforts put into the overall project. I've asked a lot of my network in not purchasing the stories, but helping me reach a wider audience and promoting the work to their friends and networks. It has helped a little. I've gotten a handful of new readers, and developed a loyal following who looks forward to each new story in the collection. Putting out a novel-length piece definitely requires more time and effort on your part, which potentially makes it more valuable. I think the only person you can really ask how much it's worth is you. How much is your time you put into it worth to you? A fair price for a novel-length work by someone like you or me is probably to be set a bit lower because at this time, we aren't as established as some of the wider-known authors. No matter what price you determine, I am here to support you. Will spread the word to everyone I know in hopes that it helps, and will definitely purchase a copy so I can review it and offer experienced word to the people I promote it to.
It's a lot to ask for us, I realize that. Some days I feel like I ask too much of the people who support me, but many of them are enthusiastic and excited about helping me out because they believe in the work I do. Just as many of us believe in you, you should know that while I can't speak on behalf of everyone, you are supported.
Whatever you decide in the end is fair. Not to mention, if you price it too high, you will know, and you can always alter it after a few weeks if sales don't pick up.
We have a wealth of resources at our disposal in a world where everything is rapidly changing. Charge forth, friend...er...fiend... And let me know how I can help.