If I'd written this blog entry three nights ago, it would have been to report cheerfully that my price increase from 99p to £1.99 had gone swimmingly and had, if anything, helped increase sales.
But pride, as always, comes before a fall. I had four UK sales over the weekend at £1.99 and a sale on Monday evening, but nothing since.
I also haven't had a buyer on Amazon.com in over a week.
But for now at least, I am going to hold firm at £1.99.
I do think it is a reasonable price - a fair mid-point between the prices that established publishing houses charge and the bargain basement indie brigade who flog their wares for 77p or less.
As I suggested in my last post, if authors such as myself insist on selling books that cheap then ultimately writing novels will be reduced to being merely an amusing hobby, never a career, and that would be a shame.
Anyway, cheering me up somewhat is the following fantastic email I received from a reader who clearly shares my love for the Lleyn Peninsula - she's a "northerner" where the peninsula is concerned (Nefyn) while I'm a southerner - Abersoch.
This is what she had to say about Smugglers at Whistling Sands:
Hello George,
I have just bought a kindle touch and yours is the first book that I have read. It was recommended by my friend as we both have a caravan on the Llyn peninsular mine is at Morfa Nrfyn at Dinas and my favourite beach is Whistling sands!!
I have loved your novel what an enchanting story I have read it in two days and being a busy mum with three young children that is a mean feat!!
My ten year old is going to start reading it tonight
I am so excited to go to Porth Ysgo on my next visit to my caravan I also love pith Dinllaen where the ty Coch pub is on the beach
Thank you
When people take the time and trouble to write to you with comments like that, it really does make it all worthwhile. And that's why I want to make it as a novelist - the sheer satisfaction of producing something creative that others will enjoy.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
With some reservations, I've put my ebook price up to £1.99
I've decided to increase the price of Smugglers at Whistling Sands to £1.99, at least as a temporary measure, and see how things go at this higher price.
I have actually seen a marked increase in UK sales at 99p compared to my previous bargain basement rate of 77p for my ebook, although with a drop in sales to the United States.
That said, since my last slightly tongue-in-cheek post, I have had a flurry of sales on Amazon.com which is very pleasing.
I still hold the view that a debut indie novelist such as myself cannot and should not ask the kind of prices that authors with the full weight of HarperCollins or Hodder & Stoughton behind them can command. I have no intention of doing that, but at £1.99 the book is still cheap.
Furthermore, the kind of folk likely to buy a Blytonesque children's adventure book probably don't need to be cajoled into buying the book with a 77p price tag.
I was right to start out at 77p but not to carry on with that indefinitely. I think £1.99 is a good, realistic price which strikes a balance between giving people excellent value for money and providing a reasonable return for the author.
Also, independent writers selling through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing programme have to be mindful of the fact that if we all screw prices ever further downwards, everyone will turn out to be a loser.
Most readers do not expect to get books for free, nor are they in fact likely to get as much pleasure out of their reading if they feel they have given nothing for it. And there is always the option of going to the public library if cost is a factor. Ultimately, if people cannot make a living out of writing, then there will be fewer quality books.
For me, if I can carry on getting my current rate of sales at a price of £1.99 then there is a chance, albeit small, that I could realise my dream of making it as a novelist.
Undoubtedly I would be poorer than if I remained a full-time journalist. But being rich doesn't interest me - so long as I have enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table and maintain a reasonable standard of living I would be happy.
That's not to say I'm unhappy as a journalist - I think it's a good job, albeit an increasingly precarious one, it's just that I would rather spend my time writing fiction which might be read and appreciated for years to come rather than non-fiction which has a 24-hour shelf life.
And there's the question of subject matter. I have just penned a dull but worthy feature about the cost of long-term care in Britain, going in the paper on Monday. By Tuesday, it will only be of any further use to wrap chips in, line drawers with, or to get a fire going. Most probably, it will already be in the recycle bin.
I quite enjoyed researching it and writing it but it didn't exactly lift my heart. I'd rather have spent my time working on my new thriller or a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands.
So, in putting my price up for the book, I will keep my fingers crossed that I can continue to achieve the modest rate of sales I have managed to date. If I can, then the dream of being a full-time novelist is still alive.
I have actually seen a marked increase in UK sales at 99p compared to my previous bargain basement rate of 77p for my ebook, although with a drop in sales to the United States.
That said, since my last slightly tongue-in-cheek post, I have had a flurry of sales on Amazon.com which is very pleasing.
I still hold the view that a debut indie novelist such as myself cannot and should not ask the kind of prices that authors with the full weight of HarperCollins or Hodder & Stoughton behind them can command. I have no intention of doing that, but at £1.99 the book is still cheap.
Furthermore, the kind of folk likely to buy a Blytonesque children's adventure book probably don't need to be cajoled into buying the book with a 77p price tag.
I was right to start out at 77p but not to carry on with that indefinitely. I think £1.99 is a good, realistic price which strikes a balance between giving people excellent value for money and providing a reasonable return for the author.
Also, independent writers selling through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing programme have to be mindful of the fact that if we all screw prices ever further downwards, everyone will turn out to be a loser.
Most readers do not expect to get books for free, nor are they in fact likely to get as much pleasure out of their reading if they feel they have given nothing for it. And there is always the option of going to the public library if cost is a factor. Ultimately, if people cannot make a living out of writing, then there will be fewer quality books.
For me, if I can carry on getting my current rate of sales at a price of £1.99 then there is a chance, albeit small, that I could realise my dream of making it as a novelist.
Undoubtedly I would be poorer than if I remained a full-time journalist. But being rich doesn't interest me - so long as I have enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table and maintain a reasonable standard of living I would be happy.
That's not to say I'm unhappy as a journalist - I think it's a good job, albeit an increasingly precarious one, it's just that I would rather spend my time writing fiction which might be read and appreciated for years to come rather than non-fiction which has a 24-hour shelf life.
And there's the question of subject matter. I have just penned a dull but worthy feature about the cost of long-term care in Britain, going in the paper on Monday. By Tuesday, it will only be of any further use to wrap chips in, line drawers with, or to get a fire going. Most probably, it will already be in the recycle bin.
I quite enjoyed researching it and writing it but it didn't exactly lift my heart. I'd rather have spent my time working on my new thriller or a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands.
So, in putting my price up for the book, I will keep my fingers crossed that I can continue to achieve the modest rate of sales I have managed to date. If I can, then the dream of being a full-time novelist is still alive.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Has America fallen out of love with my adventure novel?
I ask this dramatic question because my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands has been downloaded from Amazon.com's Kindle store only a total of once since the start of April. Usually, my US sales amount to around half the sales I get on Amazon.co.uk.
I have been reasonably pleased with the UK sales I've achieved, although to some of you my figures will seem laughably small. I ran a free promotion on Sunday, April 1 which resulted in 102 downloads on Amazon.co.uk and 62 on .com. Since then I've sold a dozen ebooks at 99p (having put the price up recently from bargain basement 77p).
Certainly, it is disappointing at a time when there is some evidence of me building momentum this side of the pond, to have had just one sale in America so far this month. All the more so, in fact, because I get quite a few American readers of this blog.
I have not suffered fewer UK sales at 99p compared to 77p, indeed they seem to have risen somewhat. The biggest challenge of course, for an unknown, self-published author with his debut novel is being spotted. There are plenty of potential readers of a children's mystery adventure story like mine who would be only too willing to pay a pound or a dollar and a half for my book - thousands probably. They just don't know of its existence yet.
But therein lies good reason for optimism for me and any indie author/publisher who believes they have produced a good novel - when it's discovered it will sell - definitely (well, almost definitely!).
Memo to all Americans out there, please give my book a try, I think you'll like its British charm! Click on the Amazon.com product link to Smugglers at Whistling Sands on the right hand side of this page. Thanking you already!
I have been reasonably pleased with the UK sales I've achieved, although to some of you my figures will seem laughably small. I ran a free promotion on Sunday, April 1 which resulted in 102 downloads on Amazon.co.uk and 62 on .com. Since then I've sold a dozen ebooks at 99p (having put the price up recently from bargain basement 77p).
Certainly, it is disappointing at a time when there is some evidence of me building momentum this side of the pond, to have had just one sale in America so far this month. All the more so, in fact, because I get quite a few American readers of this blog.
I have not suffered fewer UK sales at 99p compared to 77p, indeed they seem to have risen somewhat. The biggest challenge of course, for an unknown, self-published author with his debut novel is being spotted. There are plenty of potential readers of a children's mystery adventure story like mine who would be only too willing to pay a pound or a dollar and a half for my book - thousands probably. They just don't know of its existence yet.
But therein lies good reason for optimism for me and any indie author/publisher who believes they have produced a good novel - when it's discovered it will sell - definitely (well, almost definitely!).
Memo to all Americans out there, please give my book a try, I think you'll like its British charm! Click on the Amazon.com product link to Smugglers at Whistling Sands on the right hand side of this page. Thanking you already!
Sunday, April 01, 2012
My children's adventure novel set at Abersoch, North Wales, free on Kindle today!
Well I am sitting here on holiday at Abersoch on the Lleyn peninsula coast of North Wales enjoying glorious sunshine. I've just been down to the beach with my wife and kids and come back to find that I've had three people so far who have downloaded my book for free today.
I thought it would be a nice way to mark being back at wonderful Abersoch to have another free day for my novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands, in Amazon's Kindle store. So PLEASE take advantage of it, go on to Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.com and get a free copy of my children's adventure novel.
If you like it, all I would ask is that you mention it to others and - if you have time - consider leaving me a short review on my Amazon listing which will really help me as an unknown author to get known.
The book, as regular readers of this blog will know, is intended for children aged 9+ but is also intended to be perfectly readable by adults. It should appeal if you enjoy good, wholesome, mystery/adventure stories, loosely inspired by the great Enid Blyton and her Famous Five series.
Anyway, enough talking from me, I'll leave you to get a copy of your free book - just click on the Amazon links to it on the right hand side of this page - Amazon.co.uk for British readers and Amazon.com for the American site.
Do let me know how you get on!
I thought it would be a nice way to mark being back at wonderful Abersoch to have another free day for my novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands, in Amazon's Kindle store. So PLEASE take advantage of it, go on to Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.com and get a free copy of my children's adventure novel.
If you like it, all I would ask is that you mention it to others and - if you have time - consider leaving me a short review on my Amazon listing which will really help me as an unknown author to get known.
The book, as regular readers of this blog will know, is intended for children aged 9+ but is also intended to be perfectly readable by adults. It should appeal if you enjoy good, wholesome, mystery/adventure stories, loosely inspired by the great Enid Blyton and her Famous Five series.
Anyway, enough talking from me, I'll leave you to get a copy of your free book - just click on the Amazon links to it on the right hand side of this page - Amazon.co.uk for British readers and Amazon.com for the American site.
Do let me know how you get on!
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