Are my books worth 0.99$?

Certainly, and much more. I personally think they are worth at least 5 – 10 $. But it is a fact I do not feel obliged to have to justify the price of 0.99$ or 2.99$ whatever.

John Locke says that he does not need to prove that his books are good because he is offering them for only 0.99$. So now all those offering books for 9.99$ have to prove that their books are 10 times better.  

So, stop wondering if your books are good enough and direct your attention to the right way of promoting them instead. This means you must attract your target group. They will assess whether your books really are worth the price you are selling them at.

The price of your books?

Before I started publishing, I carried out a great deal of research. The first problem was how to set the price of my books. In this regard, I found the following article most fascinating: How does an unknown author become a Kindle bestseller?  

Reading J. A. Konrath’s blog and blogs by some other writers I will mention later was also very helpful. J.A. Konrath’s most relevant article on this subject can be found HERE.

One reason for John Locke’s success was his strategy of offering his books at the price of 0.99$. The following article is very interesting: Will 99-Cent E-Books Destroy The World As We Know It?.

There are two more very interesting articles by Dean Wesley Smith: E-Book Price Post Redone and The New World of Publishing: Pricing Indie Books…Some 2012 Thoughts.

Also worth reading are the following

1. Why Your Low Priced eBook Pricing Strategy is Wrong?
2. Are eBooks Too Cheap?
3. Pricing - What to do...what to do.
4. Pricing an E-Book on Amazon.

To sum up: the price should be somewhere between 0.99$ and 2.99$. Unless you are already well known, of course, in which case you can afford to charge, let us say, 3.99$ or even 4.99$. Only the very well known authors can charge more than that.

What is important before you start promoting your book?

However good you are at promotion, unless the following conditions are fulfilled, you may have many problems:

• Your book must be published at least on Amazon, it is even better if it also appears on Smashwords with the proviso that you let Smashwords distribute your book in all possible channels.
• The price of your book must not be too high. If you are not yet well known, I suggest you set the price between 0.99$ and 2.99$.
• The cover of your book must be interesting. There is no point in saving on covers. Hire an expert who will design an attractive cover for you. The costs range between 40$ and 100$.
• The text must be without grammatical errors. Again, it is not worth saving here. Find a good editor. The price is approximately 1700$ for 100,000 words. It is ideal if your editor reads the book at least twice.
• The book must be interesting and attractive.
• Before a large promotion, you must obtain the opinion of critics or at least beta readers. Beta readers are people who do not know you and who are ready to read your book and write their opinion.
• If your writing is not perfect, accept the criticism and correct the problems they tell you about. If you are not capable of accepting criticism, you are most probably destined to fail. Your vanity will cost you your career as a writer.
• You must have a static internet page like mine, for example: http://www.ianfox.si/. That is your personal ID.
• It is good if you also have a dynamic internet page, which means writing a blog. What you are reading now is an example
• The use of at least Twitter and FB is obligatory.
• Make sure that there are links at the end of all your books, as well as on your internet sites and all your social networks. An example: at the end of the books, there have to be links to your internet pages, blog, Twitter, FB and the rest. On FB and Twitter, there have to be links to all your other internet appearances.
• You must not give up and have to be persistent and stubborn. Sooner or later you will succeed.

Writing a blog aimed only at writers

Recently I decided that my blogs would be aimed mainly at writers. I would like to help all those who have found themselves in the mass of those offering all kinds of books and who don’t know how to proceed and how to promote them.

I would like to share my experience with you. And I will be very happy if you respond and add your own.

The competition in the field of publishing is huge. The internet has both advantages and disadvantages. One big advantage is that you can promote your books at practically no cost, all that is needed is a time investment. And the main disadvantage is that most writers get lost in the big crowd of other authors.

Even if you are offering a book for free, it does not mean that many people will wish to read it. The number of free books on offer is so high that even the readers of free books have become choosy.

But what is most important is that you do not give up. We are all sensitive and have different ways in coping with negative reviews and bad selling figures. Irrespective of this, you must believe in yourself and continue with your mission. Whatever happens, the cost involved is negligible.

Self-publishing in Slovenia

A few months after coming back from France, I hired someone to word process the whole of the story I had written on paper. Since then, I’ve been writing on a computer. When the whole of that first book was finished, I was faced with the problem of how to publish it. As the content was not arty enough, my application for a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture was rejected. Many publishers also rejected me, because according to them even the well established foreign writers were not selling well, let alone beginners. So my only option was to self-publish.

First I had to find a good proof reader. Then the Word file needed to be converted to PDF, but the guy who could do it was constantly busy. I was very impatient and lost many sleepless nights over this guy. It was because of him I later learnt how to use Adobe Designer and convert files from Word to PDF.

Only a few ideas – depressing

The number of ideas in my head is not unlimited. Or to put it differently, I have many average ideas but very few good ones. I try to get them from films I watch on television or from books I read.

A few years ago I was on holiday in Greece and I spent the whole week thinking about my next book, but with no success. And then, a few weeks later, I accidentally stumbled across the idea for the next book Promise Me Eternity. I’m especially proud of this one as the plot is so complex that I was quite surprised with myself at the end.

Summary:

Dr. Simon Patterson is a successful and well-respected neurosurgeon at Central Hospital in the town of Seattle. Married, though without children, he keeps himself so busy that one day is not much different from another. Until, that is, he saves the life of the powerful mobster Carlo Vucci.

At a dinner in honour of Dr. Patterson, Carlo Vucci introduces him to his alluring wife Christine. Simon is entranced by her beauty.

Three weeks later, Christine shows up at the hospital, complaining of terrible headaches. Dr. Patterson offers to help her, but Christine did not come to see him just because of her headaches. A series of shocking events follow that turn Dr. Patterson’s life into a nightmare. Among other things, he finds himself in court accused of murder in the first degree …

The tempo in the second half is particularly dynamic. Even I had problems whilst editing as I read the novel too quickly. The story pulled me in so much that I was unable to slow down.

Benefits of a scene-by-scene storyline

A scene-by-scene storyline must be well thought out and the timeline of events must be determined. It also has to contain descriptions of things and people.

An example: first we describe all the participating protagonists. Not just their appearance but also their character.

FRANZ HARTMAN        Maria’s father, 48 years old, imposing, demanding, fearless and
obsessed with antiques.
MARIA  HARTMAN    26 years old, currently unemployed, wavy, long red-brownish curls, warm brown eyes, slightly freckly skin. Very spoilt.
EDWIN WEBSTER         32 years old, fitter of air conditioning units, slim, light brown hair, high
forehead, likes to make fun of others, always the cleverest one around, doesn’t like losing. Brags all the time. A homophobe.
And so on.


And then the storyline.

1.    Two men arguing on a cliff. One of them falls into the abyss.
2.    Maria, aged 22, from Newcastle, (rather spoilt and insolent) inherits from the father she had hardly ever seen a castle cum hotel in Eisendorf, Austria. Her father died in an accident, fell down a steep cliff. Maria is told this news by the hotel manager.
3.    Monday – Everyone is shocked. The castle has been renovated and has approximately 40 rooms, plus another 20 that have not been furnished. The manager receives the guests in a friendly manner and explains to them that they can go hiking, that there’s a lake and a waterfall nearby or they can go and explore the nearby subterranean cave.
4.    The young people have a really good time, they swim in the lake and hike around the mountains nearby. They come across a forester who jokingly asks them if they have come to search for Count Wagner’s treasure. When they ask him about the count, he just smiles and tells them to enquire in the village.

In point three, it says Monday. You can also note the date, for example April 1. You note the names of days only if the whole story happens within one or two weeks, otherwise it’s better to write just the dates.