I did some thinking over the weekend about self-publishing, and more specifically, about electronic publishing.
Someone I respect tweeted yesterday about a book he’d just finished, giving it five stars. I looked it up. The Kindle version was $13.
What the hell is up with that? There is no paper or printing involved! I didn’t buy the book. No way will I spend that kind of money for bits and bytes.
So I gave some thought to how Voodoo Lily had priced Bringer of Light and decided it was too expensive. Yeah, it was priced $2 cheaper than other books that length, and it took a while to write, and then there was the editing and cover prep and formatting, but what’s the important thing here?
I WANT THE BOOK TO BE READ.
So the price has been dropped to $2.99 and there’s a brand new cover on it. Click to New Releases and check it out!
I think that when you are a new writer is reasonable (but not fair) to have low prices to attract the public and let them know your work. When a writer is finally able to reach the masses, at that moment he/she is able to give a better and real price to their work. Because even when you are paying bits and bytes, remember that at the end what you are really paying is a writer’s work not only the paper used to print the book. You better than anyone can tell how much effort and time you had to invest in writing a single book. Your effort should be recognized.
I agree, it should. But amazingly, there are people out there who think creative work should be free. They don’t want to pay for it. They expect you to hand over the result of your labors for nothing.
Creativity gets short shrift these days.