How Much Will You Pay for an E-book?

Now I know that authors who are traditionally published have no say on what price the e-book of their novels is sold at. Of course there will be price promotions where readers can buy the e-book for 99 pence for a limited time.

Whereas with self-published e-books the price can vary, though I've heard £2.99 is the ideal price- maybe is is and maybe it isn't?

Of course there's always a selection at 99 pence; but just because they're a low price that doesn't necessarily reflect badly on their quality.

As writers we know the same amount of work has gone into the writing and production of the book whether it's on paper or a digital file.

But as a reader, what price is too high for you to buy an e-book?

Unlike a print book, an e-book- a digital file (while it can last for as long as the technology exists to read it and is available) is more like a rental with no defined end date.

Print or E-book
for the cost?

Plus e-books prices include VAT.

The provider can modify or remove an e-book, likewise if
an online provider has closed a person's account for some reason, the reader will lose access to those e-books they've purchased.

(So if you've got a favourite book it's always a good idea to get a print copy too.)

So back to price.

I recently saw a new  release by one of my many favourite writers (a hybrid author). I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the story having read the blurb, so downloaded the sample. At this point the price was still £3+.

It was a couple of days before I read the sample and decided okay, it has potential I'll buy the e-book. But when I went to Amazon the new release price had gone up to £5+ and I decided no it wasn't worth it at that price...

That response surprised me.

It may just be that I wasn't so intrigued that I just had to read more instantly. Perhaps the author has just lost their edge, that sparkle that would have once guaranteed an immediate buy.

This time it was the price that made the difference between me saying okay I'll buy it- even if it seems not to be as good as previous novels. To saying no, it's not worth it at that price. I probably would have bought it at the £3+ price.

There are a few e-books that I've bought at the £5+ range, but generally I'd opt for a paperback version, as sometimes it can be better value.

I realised that for me, quality + price = value = buy.

So a couple of questions to you as a reader, rather than a writer.

Do you have a maximum price bar when buying e-books?

Or does it depend upon the particular e-book, author or some other combination?

I'm looking forward to reading your responses...




Image from Pixabay.com

Learning via an Online Conference...

Haven't we all at some time wanted to go to a major book related event but distance or personal circumstances mean you can't?

Recently the London Book Fair (LBF) took place and it was good to see pictures from writers who were attending.

It also means that the Alliance of Independent Authors will be holding their spring online conference.

This past weekend it was #SelfPubCon2019 and I spent much of Saturday at my computer with my earphones on and my notebook and pen to hand.
(Having previously signed up to the conference (free), but it could be signed up to that day.)

Online learning...

There were links to the various sessions (24 of them) some were panels recorded live at the LBF earlier this month, others were audio presentations or with video on YouTube.

You'll find links to the various sessions on the ALLi Facebook page and Twitter account, but they'll only be available publicly for a short time.

There were some valuable insights into marketing, being more productive and especially interesting were the Going Wide sessions- there's value in the global market. Lots of opportunities for the self-published writers.

I spent Sunday morning catching up on the sessions that were released overnight in the UK.

For anyone who is or intends to self-publish it is worth looking at membership of ALLi.

It's on my to do list before I publish my novel.

Meanwhile there's just one more session to catch up on; spreadsheets...author data...

Have you taken part in an online conference before? If you have, what were the high points for you? If you haven't, what discourages you?

The Joy of Progress...

March already and I'm finally making progress on the new scenes in the second draft of the novel.

Back in January I was a bit concerned that my heroine wasn't as three-dimensional as my hero, but as I've added the missing scenes and shifted the position of others she's finally started to fill out the gaps.

I'm definitely going to have to make her a few years older than I originally imagined her, so I'm going to look at my backstory and timelines.

As to Scrivener I'm definitely feeling more confident about writing with it and using a different font has helped- I'm more aware of the words filling the page too, but that's helping not hindering.

Today I finished chapter 11, all new scenes and conflicts both internal/external. I also realised how two-faced the antagonist is...

Last month I was not feeling as confident about how the draft was going and I was doubting my ability all round- impostor syndrome!?

There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm not going to give up.

There's still about ten days of my Scrivener trial left and I will probably go ahead and purchase it...

This year...

image:pixabay.com