On why my work is worth more than two pints of Guinness
Adrian White, bookseller and author, discusses why he’s pricing his novel at $9.99 in digital form.
Pricing my ebook at $9.99? Am I crazy? Maybe so, but here’s why:
I have three novels published as ebooks. Two have been published previously by Penguin Books but the third is published exclusively as an ebook. When I came to set the prices, I took the opportunity to try out the three different price points of €2.99, $4.99 and $9.99. I’m well aware of the power of $0.99 as an attention-grabbing price, particularly on Amazon, but it seems to me that a lot of that attention is on established writers such as Stephen Leather – writers making the most of an extensive backlist and an established readership to storm the Amazon sales chart. Or writers of serial genre novels, paranormal romance etc. And good luck to Stephen Leather and the others who manage to pull this off but, although my paperbacks have sold reasonably well in Ireland, I don’t believe I possess the reach to do the same. Also, there’s something in me that says this is my work and if I don’t value it correctly then who will?
Harry Potter and the Half-Price Book
I’ve worked extensively as a bookseller over the years and no other industry manages to devalue the potential of their bestselling product quite like the book industry. Dan Brown, Harry Potter, Stieg Larsson- booksellers can’t wait to give away margin and to price premium-selling product as low as they possibly can. Sure, they point to the price in Tesco or on Amazon and there’s wailing and gnashing of teeth but boo-hoo, I think. Any sales matching that low price represent a complete waste of time, effort and expense when it comes to making money for the retailer. And don’t talk to me about loss-leaders – if you need to half-price Harry Potter to get customers into your shop, perhaps it’s time you took a long hard look at who you are as a bookseller and what you’re trying to do. Those customers won’t stay with you once something cheaper comes along whereas your real customers, the customers that you should value and that will value you in return, well, maybe they’d pay a little extra for Harry Potter because shopping in a proper book store makes them feel good about themselves. Half-price Harry Potter books are not your business; your customers are. The fact that millions of ebooks are being bought for $0.99 doesn’t necessarily mean those ebooks are being read; some customers are buying them simply because they can, now, at that price. And, if these ebooks are not being read, there’s ultimately no future in this market model.
The sweet spot
It seems to me, as pointed out by Catherine Ryan Howard and others, that the sweet price for a novel published as an ebook is currently $2.99; sweet as in a decent return for the author, a cheap offer for the customer and not demeaning to the work. It’s obvious that customers are prepared to pay a higher price for works of non-fiction because they place a higher value on the information containd inside. The fiction e-publishing industry is still in its relative infancy as regards persuading a whole new potential market to switch from paper, or at least to get over the hurdle of reading on a screen, so a low price point makes sense. Is there a danger this will affect future price expectations? Yes. Is the print publishing industry all-at-sea in their approach to pricing, author royalty and distribution of ebooks? Yes. Will things change quickly over the next year or so? Most definitely yes, but the beauty of ebook publishing for an author is that we can adapt and respond – we can roll with the changes.
Going for a song
$0.99 is the price you can expect to pay for a single song on iTunes (although in true Apple fashion this isn’t always the case). So which is worth more – a novel or a song? Depends on the novel and depends on the song, I hear you say. A song can be written in an afternoon and yet last a lifetime – if you’re Lennon and McCartney – and a novel might take a lifetime to write and still be better off left unpublished. I priced my first novel, An Accident Waiting to Happen, at $4.99 because readers have told me it’s a strong story that they couldn’t put down, that they had to find out what happened in the end. (On Smashwords, readers can sample a substantial portion of my books for free so I’m hoping this is true.) Where the Rain Gets In, my second novel, is a harder sell in that it deals extensively with self-harm and so wouldn’t be to everybody’s taste; I priced this at $2.99. But when it comes to my third novel, Dancing to the End of Love, there’s just no way I can bring myself to give it away for a song. I value it too highly; it’s worth more to me than that.
Okay, I lied
Okay, I lied. I’ve been giving Dancing to the End of Love away for free for a limited time period because I want to get readers reviewing the book online. I also gave Accident away for free as part of Read an E-Book Week, my reasoning being that if I could hook a few readers with that book then they might move on to the other two. I believe in the power of free but it’s a marketing tool and not necessarily a sales tool. When it comes to sales and using price to help create those sales, I’m going to use my common sense and price my first two books at $2.99 from the end of this month. I also think my books are ready-made to run a 3 for 2 offer, perhaps with the added twist of giving the most expensive book away for free. Or I might even run a Buy One Get One Free. But I’m going to keep the price of Dancing to the End of Love at $9.99.
Why my work is worth more than two pints of Guinness
I like drinking Guinness. When I’ve drunk one pint of Guinness I like to drink another and two pints of Guinness cost about the same as Dancing to the End of Love. So too does a single fancy cocktail but my work is not some Cosmopolitan or a Mojito – it’s sweet on the tongue but full of body, beautiful to look at and even nicer to savour. My work – like Guinness – is the product of a long gestation period, brewed to a careful recipe and presented with loving care. But here’s the thing: although I can remember certain pints of Guinness at certain periods in my life – and there have been many, many beautiful and memorable pints – my work will last longer than any pint of Guinness. And I’m prepared to back this up by holding my nerve to price my novel – under price my novel – at $9.99.
[...] Auch ein empfehlenswerter Artikel über den Autor Adrian White und wie er seine drei Romane preislich einordnet – inklusive der [...]
[...] encourage piracy) but certainly rise beyond the $2.99 standard. There needs to be more people like this guy pricing their ebooks at $9.99, and a more level pricing system to [...]
It is a bit of a tragedy to see people like this who’s egos are bigger than their common sense.
I guess he will be happy selling a small number of his title to people gullible enough to pay a high price.
But on the other hand I imagine he will be telling himself he is a wonderful author charging all of 9.99 for his fabulous books and walk around with a self satisfied glow instead of a full wallet.
Me .. I’d prefer to earn more. That’s what I call ‘value’.
What a shockingly primitive reaction from Howard. I hope he doesn’t work in literature, as he certainly has problems understanding written text…
Value is what the buyer decides. Quality will always cost more, simple as that.
I think Adrian White makes an interesting comparison, a 9.99 book costing as much as two beers. At least I spend more time reading a book than drinking two pints.
I wonder what the angle of so many people complaining actively about book prices are? Do they have a business interest of their own? Would they prefer socialism? Can’t they find enough free or 0.99 books to read?
Fixing myself:
“Quality will always cost more, simple as that.”
->
Quality is always more valuable, although pricing tactics and marketing have an effect on price.
Wow Howard
Even as a troll you are unique
Too misunderstand an article like that takes a special talent
Valuing your work isn’t about financial gain. It’s placing a real value on your ability
I’d rather sell 20 items to people who bought them because they wanted them than 200 to people that bought them because they were cheap
It’s the same profit but a much better feeling
[...] On why my work is worth more than two pints of Guinness [...]
Oh, my goodness. Yes, you are crazy. And delusional. The “value” of your book is decided individually by each prospective buyer. What you believe its value to be is immaterial, because you’re not buying the book.
If you price your book at $9.99, you will price it out of the range of probably 99.9% of prospective buyers, and you’ll end up selling probably 0.1% or less of the number of copies you’d sell if you priced it at $0.99, and maybe 2% or 3% of the sales if you priced it at $2.99. The vast majority of readers simply won’t take a chance on an unknown-to-them author at $9.99. Even at $2.99, you eliminate most of your potential buyers. Your book should be at $0.99 if you want to maximize both sales volume and revenue.
In financial terms, the “value” to you of your book is not the amount you earn per copy; it’s the total amount you earn. If you sell, say, 40 copies at $2.99 versus one copy at $9.99, which is not an unreasonable ratio to expect, you earn about $80 at $2.99 versus about $7 at $9.99. If you sell 1,000 copies at $0.99 versus one copy at $9.99, you earn about $350 at $0.99 versus about $7 at $9.99.
Your expectations are simply unrealistic. Most readers won’t pay $10 even for a well-known author that they like.
As an author you need to experiment with pricing and ultimately the market will decide where your novel sits as far as sales price. I don’t think it’s necessary for all authors to price their books at 99c (in fact this feels like panic marketing), marketing teaches us you can underprice your product out of the market as well as over price it. Most of the e-books I buy are between 2.99 and 7.99 (although the later is only for more established writers).
I don’t think an e-book would sell for long at $9.99, but I’ll be interested to see if it does. Thanks for sharing your strategies.
Wagging Tales – Blog for Writers
Interesting point, and one I’d be inclined to agree with.
As a reader, I tend to actively avoid titles priced at 99c – such a low price implies that even the author doesn’t place much value on the work.
Hey there Adrian, interesting post, looks like you ruffled a few feathers.
Do you think the pricing should be determined by the production cost at all? Is there a certain amount of books you want to sell, or not sell, before you change the price? I’m still on the fence about the pricing of ebooks, but I’m working on a couple of my own so I’m looking for as much information as I can get.
And by the way, I personally believe that it is impossible to give value to a Guinness. Sometimes it is hard to imagine something better than the first sip of a Guinness.
Price point for ebooks is a marketing issue. The cost of production is a low fixed cost that when spread over a potentially large sale figure is measured in cents.
The thing about ebooks is that the market is not driven in near time but is spread over an indefinite future. Likewise the geographical spread of the market is instantly worldwide. These features tend towards a lower ebook price model.
The key factor in pricing is whether control is with the author or the “publisher”. Traditional publishing houses are trying to keep the price of ebooks high. In some cases more than the cost of a paper book. This is absurd economics but is driven by a profit model that in the past has provided good returns.
If the author retains control of the ebook then a low (and the lower the better) price delivers better longterm returns.