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Thursday, December 27, 2012

EPIC Goodness for a Hobbit-sized Price!


The eBook revolution has literally shaken the foundations of the publishing world. For centuries, print publishers have been the one and only gatekeeper, deciding if and when a writer could be published and transformed into a professional author.

eBooks have changed that. Now, anyone can publish...anything at any time. Now, the readers are the gatekeepers, and it's up to them who sells and who doesn't. Putting the power in the readers' hands is a great thing. And it has sent a shock wave through powerhouse print publishers. Most, if not all, print publishers are being forced to change the way they do business.

One of these changes is offering to sell books via Kindle, Nook, and all those other ebook formats. That's easy enough to do. A little formatting, and WHOOSH--digital content for the masses. But how to price it? That's the thing. And most print publishers missed the boat on this issue.

eBooks are digital property, not physical. But most print publishers went ahead and priced their eBooks at or close to trade paperback costs. I've read that the reason for keeping the cost of eBooks higher is to "avoid devaluing the print version." When translated, that means: we don't want to lose money.

The reality is that publishers WILL lose money by keeping the price of eBooks high. With the exception of the BIG NAME authors, people just aren't willing to shell out full physical cost for a digital property. What some publishers refuse to realize is that lowering the price on eBooks (again a digital property) will actually make more money because the volume of sales will go up substantially when the eBook price comes down.

After all, we're living in the digital age. The age of iTunes and Instant Video. People will drop a buck on a song or $3 on a movie without batting an eyelash. Why wouldn't books be the same?

So, I'm stoked and proud to say that my publisher, AMG International, is beginning to offer eBooks at a much-lower-than-print-price. It's a progressive move, one that the buying public should appreciate, that's for certain!

I think for AMG, and for many other publishers trying the lower eBook pricing, that it's kind of an experiment. They really want to know if 1) can they make money through higher volume?  2) will print sales go down if they make eBooks inexpensive?  I believe #1: YES, #2: NO. But it's up to the public, really.

So, ladies and gentlemen {Insert Trumpety Fanfare) it gives me great joy to announce that The Sword in the Stars, book 1 of 7 in the Dark Sea Annals, is now available on Kindle for the lowest price ever: $2.99.
$2.99


Click here for EPIC Goodness at a Hobbit-sized price!



5 comments:

Dark Bug said...

Okay, I finished it a while ago…do you think you will downprice The Errant King as well?

So…I like it so much, I'm thinking of changing my name on the Underground to Alastair Coldhollow.

Raptor Vrangeree said...

THANK YOU!!!!!! SO MUCH!!!

Ah. I finished it in one day... IT WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!

Are you going to downprice the second one next?

Unknown said...

My son could not wait to get this book when it came out, we ordered it from your site. He read it every spare second.
Since school got out Friday, he has written two stories of a trilogy that are 14-16 pages each. He has the third all planned out. The past few days he has been typing the stories. We began referring to him as Hemingway or Mr. Riordan. He replied, "no, I am the future Thomas Batson"! We were delighted. :o) Merry Christmas.

Princess Writer said...

Mr. Batson—Totally unrelated, but I'm currently reading Isle of Fire. (It's great, by the way :). BUT, I found out what the name "Batson" means... Son of Bartholomew! I'm still attempting to figure out what this means—you're Thorne's son! Whether this is good or bad, I cannot tell.
;)
—Moira—

Anonymous said...

I love the new pricing structure but not the format. Why did you choose Kindle? It's not an open standard.
Instead (or in addition) you should publish it also in ePub format - with or without DRM protection. This is a more universal standard, and also the one I use with my Nook.
I'm not saying you have to go through B&N, but make the ePub version available - even through ChristianBook.com, or even directly from your website.
Now that is progress!!!
Cyber Ron