The indie book business is a harsh master. The Distributors (i.e. Amazon, Nook, etc.) pay a lot for the platform and software. The Readers pay for their devices, comms and the books themselves. We Authors pay to write and package the books, and then pay even more to advertise them. It’s a costly business all round.
There are so many ebooks now, if we don’t pay to advertise, our books are largely invisible to our current and potential Readers. On top of that, some advertisers won’t even market the books unless we can prove they’re on discount. The indie publishing world is a bit like the Wild Wild West, and everyone kinda does whatever they want!
To date, we’ve at best broken even with the books (possibly not even that) and we need to raise the prices, but we also understand times are tough everywhere. We do need to charge a price that matches our costs, but at the same time we still want the books to be within reach of anyone who wants to read them.
We’ve got an idea that we hope will satisfy both needs. We plan to put one book on sale every few weeks. We’ll publish which books are on sale through this blog. If you’d like to be notified, then please subscribe to the blog. As you know, I don’t blog much so there’s no chance of you getting a lot of notifications from me!
We’ll be raising the prices of all books at the end of the month, but I thought you might like to know why. Trust me, it’s not greed, but need! Hopefully, offering cyclic discounts will make sure the books can still make their way into the hands of everyone who’d like to read them.
As ever, always happy to hear from you if you’d like to drop me a line or two.
Stay well, folks, and I’ll be beavering away writing the next series, Eden Lost!
I understand the need to raise the cost. You have a wonderful idea to offset that cost. I am already looking forward to the next series. 🙂 Have fun writing. 🙂 Be well!
Thank you for understanding our situation. I’ve been an avid reader since I was very young and I hate to deny anyone the opportunity to read. It’s such a terrific escape and it should be within reach of us all. Hopefully those who can afford a little extra can pay the full price, so we can afford to maintain our discounts. Of course, if we could spend less on advertising that would be great, so please spread the word!
Best to you & your family,
SD