Posted on 02/04/2012 9:10:25 AM PST by Travis McGee
I imagine a book like that would result in a visit from the Secret Service.
Good point about self-valuing, and I love the free fridge analogy. I sure won’t go to .99 cents, not even for a trial. Maybe try it at a mid-range price as a special, for a defined time, and watch how it does. 9.99 is steep for an unknown author. I wish I could direct more people to my website, where I have the paper equiv of about 400 pages to read for free. Anybody who reads them will be able to fairly judge the caliber of my writing.
That is the exact plot of Foreign Enemies And Traitors, featuring a commie mole POTUS by the name of Jamal Tambor. No visits from the SS yet.
I’m not aware of any kindle bundling deals, but I’ll look into it. Maybe it’s a feature I’m just not aware of. After some study, I’ll maybe do some promos. First, I’m going to set up a blog for easy Q&A, all cross-linked to FB and Twitter. I won’t run the “sale” until I’ve had a chance to notify most of my readership. Even all of my 100s of old email contacts from readers are a vein to tap. (I’m getting lots of ideas from John Locke’s “How I sold a million Kindle books in 5 months.” I don’t agree with his .99 cent pricing, but he writes his mini-thrillers in just 2 or 3 months each. Mine are much bigger word counts, like triple his, easily, and take me two years per to write.
Three years, but now I can do them in two.
Any interest in audio books? With my job filing stuff, I have little energy to absorb and comprehend reading a book, so I listen to audio books when at work.
I been pluggin the heck out of your website and books to my buds, on a hunting/fishing message board, and on my FB page. However,
1. Most Americans, as long as they have their Tahoes, McMansions, and Idol..ignore politics and politicians, what’s going on in the world, they stick their heads in the sand. If they do vote...they do so based on watching CNN for 30 minutes. We are far and away the minority.
2. Most Americans have attention spans shorter than the list of paid for assets they actually own. On “Family Guy” the dog Brian worked on a novel for years. It was deep, sophisticated, and took much effort on Brian’s part. It sold jack. He produced a brainless self help book overnight whose premise didn’t even make sense...and it was a best seller.
You can still read the books, in an on-line "cloud reader". All you need is an Amazon account. Later, should you get a Kindle, you can then download any books you've purchased to the Kindle. But the base Kindle is only $79 through Amazon.
For someone who has trouble with small print, a kindle is great, since you can adjust the font size to whatever you need.
Thanks for the ping. BTTT.
Thanks. I downloaded the Kindle for PC App to use. Eventually I may get a Kindle.
I only get a couple of requests for audio books a year. The production costs, especially in time, would be pretty high to do a good job. So far, I haven’t felt it would be worth it. But there is an audio function on Kindle. It’s kind of a monotone, but it’s understandable.
I hear ya. I’m currently reading John “Schlock” Locke’s “How I sold a million ebooks in 5 months.” He is proud that he writes crap, takes him about a month to write a Donovan Creed novel. Sells them for 99 cents. I’m sort of at the other end of the scale, I guess. But I just find it hard to write schlock. (To be fair, he does make a lot of great points about marketing and promo, overall “sold a million ebooks” is a very worthwhile read.)
I can’t recommend the Kindle platform enough. I’m referring to the basic ~100 dollar B&W “electric ink” version, not the color Kindle Fire. The basic Kindle works like a dream, set the font as big as you want, and it runs for WEEKS on a single charge. I don’t even take my charging cable when I’m on a road trip or vacation.
Amen to the Kindle. I had slowed way done on my reading because I hated wearing reading glasses. The ability to adjust the font was a godsend.
One very minor issue is the lack of backlighting. I use the app on my iPad more...only because I can read in bed after my wife turns off the light,
Get one. You'll thank yourself. Current lowest cost one is $79, and you'll save that after probably a dozen books, not to mention all the stuff you can get free (Project Gutenberg). Plus, you CAN check books out of most libraries onto a Kindle.
“I wonder how the folks who bought them at full price will feel....”
Not too bad, I just ordered the first three from Amazon!
I had a gift certificate. LOL
I don’t have any other type of a pad, so I really can’t complain about the kindle’s lack of backlighting. But I for sure appreciate its battery endurance: a few weeks on one charge!
The answer to that is "definitely yes". Proven by marketing experimentation done by Jim Baen at Baen Books (Sci-fi publisher). He (with permission of his authors) placed free copies of certain of their books on-line. Sales of non-free versions increased signficantly.
There used to be a discussion of the subject on their website, but they've revamped that, and I don't know where (or if) it's still there.
I won’t be putting them on “sale” for a few weeks at least. Before I do, I need to update all of my contact lists, create a blog, give into Twitter, and follow lots of other great suggestions on Locke’s “How I sold a million ebooks in 5 weeks.”
I’m kicking myself for not creating a master email list just from the couple thousand “book order contacts” I’ve gotten from my website over the last decade. Very tiresome to be compiling it more or less manually now.
the Republican Primary is an interesting lesson in the war on Constitutional Government...by the comfortable in DC
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.