Amazon is (inadvertently?) promoting $12.99 books in its newsletter
It’s interesting to see the following things in the ‘Amazon Kindle Download’ newsletter -
- A $12.99 ebook is the featured book.
- There’s a section called ‘New Arrivals for $9.99′ and another called ‘Popular Pre-orders for $9.99′ that both have only $9.99 books.
- There’s a Bestsellers section which has only $9.99 books.
- There’s an Editor’s Picks section that has 3 $12.99 and 1 $10.99 book. Personally, my feeling is that the editors should leave out books priced above $9.99.
Amazon are doing a good job focusing on lots of $9.99 books. However, highlighting $12.99 books is not done. It’s pretty tough on all the good people promoting a boycott of books over $9.99 if the official Amazon newsletter features $12.99 books.
Are we not in the middle of a grand fight for the future of Publishing?
Instead of an ‘Editor’s Picks’ section full of books at $12.99 we should have a Sub $5 section or an Indie Authors section.
Kindle Free Books + Book Deals
First, two free books (that have been around a few days) -
- Darkfever: The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. Has been free before – It’s very well rated with a 4 star rating on 293 reviews so worth a read. It’s categorized as Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost Romance.
Drawing on elements from the paranormal world that bestseller Moning (Spell of the Highlander) created in her earlier romances, this suspense novel takes readers on a darker journey, one dominated by the search for a powerful Faery magic and bereft of the romantic magic Moning’s fans have come to expect.
When MacKayla Lane, an ordinary young woman, travels to Ireland to track down her sister’s murderer, she is sucked into an extraordinary world filled with ancient secrets, vampires, assorted Fae nasties and other tough-to-kill beings.
In the process, Mac learns of her own unusual talents and finds an unlikely mentor in the wealthy and mysterious Jericho Barrons. Moning’s newest foray contains suspense and plenty of setup.
- Out of Bounds: Love of Sports by T. A. Chase. Rated 4.5 stars on 5 reviews and categorized as Gay Romance.
Can a sexy nightclub owner convince an all star basketball player to risk it all? Love of Sports Book 1. Professional basketball player Kasey Johnson makes a point of keeping his sexual preference under guard and out of the public eye. Empty, off-season flings are all he can look forward to until he retires. He figures his secret is safe-until he meets Ingram Fletcher …
Some good book deals -
- Unconventional by J. J. Hebert is rocketing up the charts – It’s $1 and rated 5 stars on 41 reviews.
YOUNG JAMES FROST just knows, deep in his bones, that he’s a writer. He writes far into early mornings, after his wearying hours of scrubbing toilets and sweeping floors. He loves writing that much.
But it’s not only the joy of words that keeps him grinding; it’s his desire to retire the janitor’s mop. He sees being published as the key to living an improved life. James has another deep-seated conviction: that he’s not good enough. He secretly longs to be accepted. However, the conventional others in his life seem all too willing to remind him that he’s wasting his time.
Then he meets and falls in love with Leigh, the one bright spot in his endless misery of self-doubt. A quiet but resolutely religious girl, she has to fight off disapproval of her own from overly critical parents, whose insults are countered by James’s often-voiced admiration of her.
- Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery by M. Louisa Locke is hot on the heels of Unconventional. Its rated 5 stars on 4 reviews and priced at $2.99.
It’s the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt.
Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl’s clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen.
- The Walk by Lee Goldberg is rated 4.5 stars on 37 reviews. It’s priced at $1.99 and beginning to get some attention.
It’s one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive.
Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He’s prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do … that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.
All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it’s not that easy.
About the Author:
Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar Award nominee. His TV writing and/or producing credits include “Hunter,” “SeaQuest,” “Spenser For Hire,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “Martial Law” and “Monk.” His books include “My Gun Has Bullets,” “Man with the Iron-On Badge,” “Successful Television Writing,” and the “Diagnosis Murder” and “Monk” series of original mystery novels.
The continued pricing of their books at $1 by indie authors brings up a good question.
Is ‘First Book at $1, remaining at $3′ the best strategy for Indie Authors?
Authors earn a lot more if they price their books at $3 – they get a massive $2. However, by placing their books at $1 in the Kindle Store they get a lot more sales and a chance at a place in the Charts. For an independent author that’s far more important than the $2.
$3 doesn’t work if there are other authors pricing their books at $1 – They’ll always get more attention and sales than your book (which is equally unknown to readers) at $3.
Which suggests a hybrid strategy – To price the first few books (or the first few books of a series) at $1 and then price the rest at $2.99.
Filed under: free books Tagged: | free kindle books
Thank you so much for recommending THE WALK!
Your advice to indie authors to price their books at $1 is strongly countered by a blog post today by Joe Konrath
(http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/07/difference-between-sales-and-fans.html)
He writes, in part:
“If you want to earn $10,000 a month on ebook sales, like I did, you need to sell about 5000 ebooks at $2.99. Or you need to sell 30,000 ebooks at 99 cents.
I’m not going to tell everyone to raise their prices, even though it would be better for authors across the board if everyone did.
But I do encourage you to experiment with price. You can be selling fewer copies, and earning more money, with a lower price. This seems like a smarter way to do business. Because if readers like you, they’ll buy more, and they’ll pay more. Three bucks is nothing to a reader. But the difference between 33 cents in royalties and $2.04 in royalties is a huge amount for a writer.”
Konrath is the one exception because he’s managed to create enough of a name for himself.
We’re still on the same page. When he says – If readers like you, they’ll buy more, and they’ll pay more.
It’s exactly what I’m saying – Except you need to give these readers a chance to try you out and like you and realize that they are willing to pay $3 for your books.
* Authors across the board are NEVER going to raise prices. Was looking at the iPhone App Store today and the number of $1 apps in the Top 100 is stunning. In free markets everyone gets killed – The only winners are customers and the market owner/platform.
Just wanted to thank you for the recommendations! From one, I found many. You just made my meager Kindle ebook budget stretch so much further than I had thought it would this month.
Thanks again-
Gadget Girl