Introducing…Kindle Matchbook.

By Andrew E. Kaufman, bestselling author of psychological thrillers

Amazon announced yesterday that, starting in October, readers who have bought paper books on their site will also be able to purchase the digital versions for a nominal fee through the new Kindle Matchbook promotional program (by the way, I love the name). Here’s how it works:

1. The e-books will be sold at a discounted rate, typically, $2.99, $1.99, .99, or free.
2. The offer is retroactive, which means it would apply to paper versions purchased as far back as 1995 when Amazon first went live selling books online.
3. The e-books will only be available at a discounted price from publishers who enroll in the program.  So far, there are about 10-thousand of them, but I suspect that number will grow once Matchbook gets off the ground.

According to Amazon, the idea of bundling print and digital books has been one of the most requested features from customers.

Being a Thomas & Mercer and 47North author (which are Amazon imprints) I’m told my books will be included in the program. How do I feel about this?  Pretty good, actually, and here’s why:

My first concern is, and always will be, for the reader. Whatever is good for them is good for me, and this just makes sense. I want them to have access to my work in any format they like and in the most economical way possible.

Regardless of what some seem to think, paper is not dead.  My readers are constantly telling me that, while they love their Kindles, they also love their paper. Many also tell me they’ve gone on to buy paper versions of my books for their shelves. What I’m hoping is that, when my new release, Darkness & Shadows comes out next month, those readers will be able to buy both versions at a much more reasonable cost. And when you think about it, this could actually augment the life of paper books by driving up their sales and giving readers more incentive to purchase them.

And here's something else: with the price of e-books getting more and more competitive, this may drive some of those ridiculously expensive ones lower, something that, in my ever-so-humble opinion, needs to happen.

Using this feature will also, in essence, be like creating a digital backup for the books readers love. I know many people whose books are among their most treasured items. I also know ones who have lost their books to fires, floods, and other tragic circumstances. Those people can never lose their books because they’ll always be just a click away.

It’s great news for independent authors as well, because they too will have the option of enrolling in the program while earning the same royalty rates—so while they  normally wouldn’t get the usual 70% cut for books priced at $1.99 and lower, in this case, if the price is lowered through Matchbook, they still will. It also creates another opportunity to get their work out into more readers’ hands and gain extra exposure while still earning the generous royalty rate that KDP offers.

The downside? I’m not sure I see any—although it will be interesting to see how many legacy publishers jump on board. We can’t know for sure, but my sense is that this is a win-win for them as well.

Of course, already there are the pundits claiming this is just another way for Amazon to make more money. I don’t agree, and even if it were, to that I say: What successful business doesn’t?

What this actually sounds like to me is Amazon listening to their customers, something that, in my opinion, they do better than any other retailer in the country. And really, the bundling concept is nothing new to them—they’ve already been doing it with Immersion Reading, a feature that allows customers to buy the audio and e-book versions of a novel at a discounted price so they can listen and read at the same time.

So what do you think? Readers: Can you see yourself taking advantage of this program? And authors, do you feel this could be a benefit to your career?

How Much Should an e-book Cost?

By Andrew E. Kaufman

It seems to be a question that has yet to find an answer, with about as many theories as there are books.

Back in the days of paperbacks and hard covers (remember those?) it seemed the price for a novel was pretty standard—they weren’t all the same, but at least they hovered in the same neighborhood. Since the advent of the e-book, however, it seems anything goes. The scale is frenetic, to say the least, with prices falling on average anywhere between free and about $12.99.

As an author, I find it disconcerting, and as a reader, even more so. While shopping for books, I often shake my head at some of the prices—and I also wonder: what makes one book worth more than another? Amazon tried to level the field by setting a fixed price for e-books, putting them all at a reasonable $9.99, and even taking a loss on profits, but then legacy publishing fell into an uproar and put an end to it.

So now the question remains: what makes one book worth more than another? Should they be based on prior sales? The author’s reputation? If those were the criteria, one might expect each book to be as good as the last, and that’s simply seldom the case. How about the length of a book? More pages no longer equate to more paper, but they still mean more work—should the author and publisher be compensated accordingly?

Of course, I’m just throwing out variables here, and really, I don’t know if there’s a reasonable answer. I suppose the logical theory from an economic standpoint would be that a book is only worth as much as people are willing to pay for it, but these days, even that answer seems a bit vague, because most readers have different standards on what they’re willing to pay. Some base their price cap on how much they can afford, others on how much of a risk they’re willing to take on a new author. Then there are those who set a firm cutoff point and won’t go over a certain price no matter who the author is. Yet another variable (as if there weren’t already enough) is the pricing on indie books vs. traditionally published ones. Some readers are still uncertain about paying a higher price for the former.

But whether independent or mainstream, it seems authors and publishers are just as uncertain on the matter. One might think that finding the magic price point were as complex as charting a quantum theory. I decided to take an informal survey of Amazon’s top 12 bestsellers to illustrate my point. Here’s what I found:

1. Safe Haven (Nicholas Sparks): $6.64

2. American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, Jim Defelice): $8.99

3. Wait for Me (Elizabeth Naughton) .99

4. Crazy Little Thing ( Tracy Brogan) $3.99

5. Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) $12.99

6. House of Evidence (Victor Ingolfsson) $4.99

7. Collide (Gail McHugh) $3.99

8. Hopeless (Colleen Hoover)  $3.99

9. Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl) $5.80

10. The Pain Scale (Tyler Ditts) $1.99

11. Alex Cross, Run (James Patterson) $12.74

12. Rush (Maya Banks) $7.99

See what I mean? All over the map.

I suppose prices will eventually settle once the market does—or at least, I hope so—but in the meantime, what do you think? How much are you willing to pay for an e-book, and how do you arrive at that decision?

Pricing Pains

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries and thrillers
I love most of what I do—writing novels, blogging, designing covers, hosting giveaways, chatting with book clubs—all good fun. But I loathe setting prices on my e-books. I’ve read lots of discussions on the subject and I’ve thought about the numbers until my eyes crossed over. Some authors say the 99-cent price devalues books and that they sell plenty of their self-published novels at around $5. Yet so many books were priced at $.99, many authors felt they had to have at least one book set there to be competitive. Joe Konrath has experimented a lot with pricing and I generally follow his lead.

Lately, a few indie blogs say Amazon has changed its algorithm again, this time giving more weight to higher-priced books. The speculation is that after all the free downloads generated by the Select program and giveaways, Amazon is trying to move authors away from free and almost-free.

From the beginning, Amazon set $2.99-$9.99 as the sweet spot by offering a 70% royalty on books priced in that range (and only a 35% royalty on everything outside.) I’ve tried to keep my books just inside that range with a few offered for less to encourage readers to try my series.

No one really knows for sure what the algorithms are doing, but observation leads me to think the speculation might be true. Suddenly, there are fewer .99-cent books on the genre bestseller lists and many more books price between $5 and $10...and even higher.

What’s an author to do? I hate raising prices, but I can't let my  books slip off the lists for lack of weight. Once that happens, they lose visibility and sales drop even farther. So I’m experimenting with prices.

I raised the price of Secrets to Die For, my lead-in Jackson book, from $.99 to $2.99, thinking it would make the new algorithm happy. It didn’t. In 48 hours, my book slid from #37 on the police procedural list to #67. Panicked, I priced it back at $.99, and it’s stable for now. But I notice other 99-cent books, which have held solid spots for months, are now slipping.

Conversely, two other Jackson books, I raised from $2.99 to $3.99 to offset the money I lose on my 99-cent books and to see what would happen. Sales/rankings went up a little.

So what does all this mean? Hell if I know. I'm thoroughly confused. I hate pricing and will be glad when Amazon is making these decisions for me.

Writers: What has your experience with Amazon pricing been lately?

Readers: Do the price changes drive you crazy?

Do You Get What You Pay For?

By C.J. West
Suspense. Creativity. Action

Hitch had a great post this week about new authors and their quest to turn their manuscript into a published book. Being a publisher encompasses a whole lot more than writing and her post “Writing The Book Was Step Zero” was apt. There is editing, cover art, then marketing, which is an occupation unto itself.

When all that is done, a book that might have spent an eternity in a hundred different slush piles comes to market. The new writer sees a world of opportunity and braces for an onslaught of attention and what he hears most often is crickets. He feels isolated. Locked out of the market.

I’m reminded of a story from a few years ago. I’d been self-publishing for about 5 years. I had a book optioned for film and was excited about my prospects. I’d had enough bookstore doors slammed in my face to know that the industry wasn’t receptive to self-publishers, but I ventured off to Bouchercon eager to meet other readers and writers.

I met a well-respected reviewer and we chatted several times about panels. This person was impressed by a large e-book panel I moderated. When the show was over, I was included in a roundup of the event. But when I read my name, I was “self-published author C.J. West”.

Self-published. Like a warning label. Or a contagious disease.

None of the other authors mentioned was linked to a publisher. Just me. A friend suggested the publicity was a good thing. It felt like discrimination and I still think I would have been happier if my name had been omitted.

Fortunately all those gatekeepers who held new writers back have become much less important. Self-published authors can easily get books into the hands of readers.

But that means the slush pile has moved to Amazon.com.

It’s now up to readers to discern if a book is worth reading. Readers see a book description, a cover, and list a price. If a self-publisher is a good marketer, it becomes really hard to tell their book from one that’s traditionally published.

Until you open it.

In the last few months I’ve been hearing frustrated comments from readers about ninety-nine cent books. I know from personal experience that many of these books are really disappointing. Some readers who have been disappointed enough times steer clear of deeply-discounted novels altogether.

I think this is a sign that Kindle is hitting the mainstream reader. The early adopters were excited about the technology and embraced pioneer writers that brought them inexpensive stories. Many Kindlers still go out of their way to read self-published books and offer “kid-glove” reviews.

The mainstream reader expects a well-edited story that hangs together until the end. This isn’t true for a lot of self-published books and unless you know the author or carefully read the reviews, sometimes you are in for a huge disappointment. Please note the distinction between a book that you don’t enjoy and one that is full of grammatical errors, sloppy writing, and plot inconsistencies.

At the same time I’m seeing writers experiment with price increases to move away from the self-published crowd. For now, the $2.99 price dominates for new writers, but I wonder if readers will begin to think these books are worth avoiding.

Will we see a time when a majority of readers treat inexpensive books like they deserve a warning label?

Are you willing to pay an extra $7.00 for a book you know was professionally published?

Under The Covers

by C.J. West

When I first started publishing books I thought it was really cool that I had complete control over what I wrote and what cover I put on my books. Little did I realize that readers have become accustomed to some very specific things and they expect them when they are looking for a good book. 

I talked a little about Amazon pages and how the formatting really matters. Well, in the last few weeks I’ve been retooling the covers for my Randy Black series and I’m ready to unveil the results. 

Book One: Sin And Vengeance

The old cover has a cartoonish feel to me that suggests there will be fire and maybe some action and suspense, but it gives me the feeling that it’s done in an amateurish way. When I looked at other suspense novels one of the first things that struck me was that the large majority have clear, realistic photographs on their covers.

The New cover is a little sexier in my view and fits reader expectations for a suspense novel.

For years I felt like a great book was hiding underneath a cover that wasn’t getting attention. The book itself was optioned for film and came very close to the big screen about a year and a half ago, but the deal fell apart due to lack of funding. 

Book Two: A Demon Awaits

The old cover was a marvel of graphics work by my cover artist. She took a real flame and morphed it into a demon. The guy on the cover is me, photographed by my oldest daughter. It was fun to tell people that was me on the cover. I liked this cover, but even though it was created using two photographs it still had a surreal feeling to me that didn't fit a suspense novel.

The new cover is sexier, consistent with the series and still shows the main idea of the book, a man seeking redemption, even as a thumbnail. This picture to me speaks of a man facing his maker in a more concrete way than the fire demon did.

Book Three: Gretchen Greene

The old cover is a scene I really like. The oil refinery sets up the reader for the climax and this is the only cover I was sad to see go. The coloring here is softer than I would like and it doesn't set up as suspenseful for me. It doesn't convey a sense of mystery or danger.

The new cover matches the series well and also shows a scene right out of the book where Randy walks out of a swamp toward a vehicle in dark. This cover says spooky much better than the old one and it is clear that this is a suspense novel.

Only time will tell if these covers help the books sell better and given how little we ever know about marketing, I may never truly know what impact they have. But I feel good about the change and I’m excited for the future of these books.

What do you think about the change and the importance of covers?

Amazon's Quality Reviews

by L.J. Sellers, bestselling author of  provocative mysteries & thrillers

For today's post, I'm combining one of our most-viewed blogs with a piece I posted recently on my own blog—because they share a similar concern: Amazon's quality reviews.

Here's the core of the original post from Hitch, our ebook formatter.

Two other things have happened this month that are related to this. Which makes me think that this shan't be an isolated incident, and we in the biz need to pay closer attention to what we write, publish and produce. The two events are:

First, one of our top authors received a letter from Amazon, informing him/her that "During a quality assurance review of your title, we have found the following issue(s): Typo/formatting issues exist that may have been caused by an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) problem. An example is mentioned below:
"Don't forger that" should be ""Don't forget that"  
Please look for the same kind of errors throughout and make the necessary corrections to the title before republishing it. 

The interesting part is that this book wasn’t scanned, nor OCR’d; and it was professionally edited more than once. Amazon only provided the one instance of an “error.”

Another client, having crafted some rather unique content, had deliberately written scenes that were incoherent, to represent a protagonist in a comatose state. Amazon flatly yanked the title after customer complaints about the unreadability of the text.

What this tells me is that Amazon, having purged innumerable over-represented PD (Public Domain) titles, and every PLR (so-called, "Private Label Rights") book they could find, have decided that they are going to tackle the issue that everyone's been talking about: Curation

Which means one thing: real editing. Not Word's built-in spellchecker; not your Mom; real editors with real experience. Here at Booknook, we like the Twin Lizzies; Elisabeth Hallett and Elizabeth Lyon. Elisabeth Hallett, (Email here) specializes in line editing, as well as proofing and copyediting; Elizabeth Lyon (website here) is a freelance editor with more than 60 books under her belt, and can assist you with revisions and developmental editing, in addition to line editing services.
(And I add our blog member, Jodie Renner's editing services.)

And here's what I posted recently on my blog, Write First, Clean Later:

Sorry, but I need to vent a little. An recent email from Amazon had this to say:
During a quality assurance review of your title, we have found the following issue(s): Typos have been found in your book. For example:

• "blond hair off" should be "blonde hair off"
• "teen-agers thought" should be "teenagers thought"

Please look for the same kind of errors throughout and make the necessary corrections to the title before republishing it.

Seriously? Of all the millions of books out there—many of which have never been edited—they find fault with blond instead of blonde? And teen-agers instead of teenagers?

First, editing styles and word-use changes over time. Second, who cares? These are not errors, not compared to some of the stuff I’ve found in my other books. And when I think about some of the manuscripts I evaluated for iUniverse that are now selling on Amazon through KDP, I shudder at the bad grammar, incoherent sentence structure, and lack of punctuation.

So I have to wonder: Why The Sex Club? A book written by a seasoned journalist and edited by a professional? Did some readers complain because they didn’t like the title and content? And did that complaint trigger a “quality assurance review”? Is Amazon just going through the motions to make the complainers happy? For those of you not familiar with my work, the book is a PG mystery.

The upside is that Amazon didn’t necessarily require me to do anything. The email says “before republishing it.” Since I don’t plan to republish it, I think I’m okay to let it go.

But it’s kind of annoying, and it makes me wonder what the heck is going on. I think Amazon is right to conduct quality reviews, and I think it should refuse to publish some of the crap that it does. But its email to me makes no sense at all.

Anyone else had this experience?

Moving Toward Amazon Only

by L.J. Sellers, bestselling author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

I suspect that blogging during the week after Christmas will be a lot like going into the office at this time—eerily quiet, with only a few other diehards around. But I'm trying to keep the site live during the break, so I'll be posting all week and running some favorites. But to start with, here's a recent (and updated) post from my own blog.

And the craziness continues! Last week The Sex Club, which is selling well again (after the giveaway), was suddenly being discounted on Amazon from $2.99 to $.99. Which means, I was suddenly making a third of the money. After cursing loud and long, I tracked down the culprit. Kobo was selling the title at $.99—even though I requested the retailer take it down two weeks ago.

I asked for the takedown because I had enrolled The Sex Club in the Kindle Select program and it requires exclusivity. So the fact that it was still selling there could have gotten me kicked out of the program. I did everything possible to correct it—including sending a legal "cease and desist" letter—but retailers are notoriously slow about taking down books, especially if they’re selling. (After 10 days, they finally removed it.)

I distribute to Kobo, Sony, Apple, and various other retailers through INgrooves, and this was not the first time I’ve had to deal with the discounting issue. For those not familiar, here’s the short version: Amazon will not be underpriced. If a competitor puts an ebook on sale, Amazon matches the price. This can be a serious problem for authors who make most of their money from Amazon and need to control what price their books sell for on Amazon.

When I starting losing money on Amazon, I see my mortgage payment for the next month disappearing. Which led me to finally withdraw all my books from INgrooves. The small amount of money I make from other retailers is offset by the profit I lose from the discounting issue.

My only hesitation, as always, was readers. I want them to have full access to my books, regardless of their e-reader device. But I’m running a small publishing business (Spellbinder Press), and I have to make smart business decisions. I have to be able to track and predict profit.
 
Also, I have to remind readers that my most of my ebooks are available for purchase from my website.
Other writers tell me I should upload to Smashwords as my distributor, but that doesn’t fix the discounting issue. And I’m tired of continuously having to scan the other retailers to ensure they’re not undercutting my ability to make a living from Kindle sales.

Pulling my books from INgrooves leaves me with ebooks available only on Kindle and Nook. But what I sell on B&N/Nook every month won’t even pay my cell phone bill.

After I see my first bonus payment from Amazon for enrolling in the Select program, I’ll have to decide whether keeping my Detective Jackson books on B&N is actually worth it. I predict I’ll be exclusive to Amazon by the end of the next year. Some people may see this as a sell out. But I have to make a living, and I’m worth more than minimum wage.

Readers: Can you sympathize with this decision?
Writers: How do you deal with the discounting issue?

Amazon's KDP Select Results

By L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers
When Amazon asked me to enroll a few books its KDP Select program, I went along. Like many other authors, because of Kindle Direct Publishing, I now have readers and I’m able to make a small living. So I’m deeply grateful, and even loyal, to Amazon. I don’t necessarily like the 90-exclusivity requirement of the new program, but I don’t sell enough of certain titles in other venues for it to be a financial consideration.

So I enrolled three books out of ten, and promptly listed two for back-to-back, five-day giveaways, the main perk of the program.

The results were better than expected. First, I gave away The Suicide Effect, my lowest-selling book. Between the US and UK, in five days, I had 34,888 downloads. A stunning number for a book with suicide in the title. The book is now #61 in the entire Kindle store and actually selling for the first time. I know this effect is temporary, but still awesome. The bonus is that I have an excerpt of The Baby Thief in the back, and I sold several hundred of that title during the giveaway, and it's selling better than ever too.

I also gave away The Sex Club, a book that’s already had a lot of exposure. In addition to the 23,868 ebooks downloaded so far, I’ve also seen a bump in the sales of my other Detective Jackson novels…even though The Sex Club is no longer listed as part of my series. (I recently blogged about that decision.)

So it’s been a good move for me. Ironically, two weeks ago I announced to my husband that I was giving up writing novels and looking for an office job...because I was working too hard and making too little money in this crazy industry. The power of Amazon!

Those three titles won’t be available on Nook, Kobo, or any other e-reader for at least 90 days, but I can live with that. I haven’t enrolled my Detective Jackson books in the program, and I don’t plan to. I want readers everywhere to have access to them.

I may never really know the full effect of this promotion. Many of those people will never read either story. Many may not read them for six months or more. But with so much exposure to my writing, it’s inevitable that I’ll pick up thousands of new readers. I’ve already had several people contact me and say something like, “I just started your book, but the writing is so good, I bought everything you have.” When you’re selling ebooks for $.99 and $2.99, it’s not a big commitment for a reader.

I’m sharing this information because many of my writer friends have contacted me to ask about my participation. How can I not recommend it?

But I’m leery of putting all my books in the program. Amazon would have to sweeten the deal considerably, such as by offering me a contract and/or promotional support. But I’m not holding my breath. I’ve worked myself into this position without any help from agents or publishers so far, and I suspect I’ll be indie for the long haul.

What do you think about this program? Have you participated?

Summer Special: Detective Jackson ebooks $.99 in July!

As a thank you to readers who’ve supported me and made it possible for me to write full time—and in celebration of my birthday—I’m offering all five Detective Jackson books on Kindle and Nook for $.99 for the month of July. (I just posted the price change to Nook, so it may take a day or so.)

All five stories for the price of a tall latte! If you’ve already bought my series, thank you! Please tell your friends and family about this great offer. Here’s a link to all five on Amazon. And here are brief blurbs for each book. They’re standalone stories and can be read in any order….with an average 4.5-star rating on Amazon.

The Sex Club: A dead girl, a ticking bomb, a Bible study that’s not what it appears to be, and a detective who won’t give up.

Secrets to Die For: A brutal murder, a suspect with a strange story, a missing woman with secrets to hide—can Jackson discover the truth in time to save her?

Thrilled to Death: Two missing women with nothing in common, a dead body, and a suspect who hasn’t left his house in a year—Jackson’s most puzzling cast yet.

Passions of the Dead: A murdered family, two high-octane suspects, and a deadly home invasion lead Jackson on the most disturbing case of his career.

Dying for Justice: Two unsolved murders from the past, a corrupt cop, and dying man’s confession—Can Jackson find the link and stop the rampage?

Happy July!