Saturday 2 May 2015

Price, cover or content?

I had raised the prices of all my mainstream, full length books to £2.99 -  they should have been £2.50  for me to keep the same royalty - and sales plummeted. I read somewhere that books should never be priced at £2.50 ( or anything £.50) which is why I made them £2.99.
I have now reduced the prices of all of them to £1.99 - and will  have to absorb the reduction in royalty of £0.40.
Original Cover.
People happily spend £3 on a coffee, but for some reason don't want to pay the same for a book which has taken months to produce.
How much does price influence you? I must admit I get the majority  of my books via KU nowadays, and would only spend more than £2.99 for a book from someone like Lee Child or Donna Leon.

Covers - how important are they to sales? I have changed the cover for Lady Emma's Revenge because several people said they looked as if they were asleep. Hadn't occurred to either Jane or I until then - but decided to have a new cover. Would the old cover have put you off buying the book? I know that I don't even look inside a book if I don't like the cover.
New cover.

What about content? Obviously the story is the crucial thing for any book - but if the price and cover are not right then readers don't even 'look inside.' What I'm asking about is the 'front matter'. I only have a title page, copyright stuff and acknowledgments  - my book list is at the end. Some books have pages of  information about family etc/book lists'historical notes and contents page before the book starts - would you persevere and read the excerpt or give up?
When  KU began and writers got paid if a reader read 10% of the book there were, I'm told, hundreds of very short books published where 10% of the book was just the 'front-matter'. not sure if this is true - but saw it on several loops.
For me it's cover, price and content -what about you?
Fenella J Miller

'Lady Emma's Revenge' will be published in June 2015.

4 comments:

  1. For me, Fenella, it's still content that counts. I read the blurb, if there is one on the back, and buy it if I like the sound of it. I'm never put off by a cover I don't particularly like, as long as I'm interested in the story. But price is important too. I agree with you that it's crazy that people won't pay for a book, what they happily pay for a magazine! Madness. But for an ebook, I personally won't pay an inflated price. I think your books and mine are bargains! But I believe we both agree that we'd rather sell more books at a low price, than hardly any at a high price. Good post. x

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  2. I will buy a book for $0.99 or $9.99. It depends on the storyline so the blurb is important. I ammire likely to pay more for an author whose books I have purchased and enjoyed previously. But if the storyline intrigues, I will buy it.

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    Replies
    1. Blurb - yes - Kathy -should have included that. Thanks for the reminder.

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  3. I will buy a book for $0.99 or $9.99. It depends on the storyline so the blurb is important. I ammire likely to pay more for an author whose books I have purchased and enjoyed previously. But if the storyline intrigues, I will buy it.

    ReplyDelete