I'm Raising the Price of my Books: Here's Why

I'm not just a writer. I'm a reader too. I think most authors are. The love of reading is what makes us so passionate about writing.

A few years ago, I finally caved and bought my first e-reader. As I was getting acquainted with it, I was astonished to find that many authors were offering their books free. There were just as many that were priced at a paltry 99 cents. For a while, the only books I would buy were those priced at 99 cents, especially if I didn't know the author. I discovered some amazing authors this way including Erin Nicholas, Nicky Charles and Christie Craig. I was also able to rule out those that I didn't enjoy without breaking the bank.

Since the 99 cent price point was working for me as a consumer, it made sense to use it as an author. The idea was that I could reach more readers, including those who loved to read but had a limited budget. Every e-book I've released in the last two years has been priced at only 99 cents. Considering not one of my books is less than 50,000 words, I felt like readers were getting their money's worth. As a reader, nothing irks me more than paying $5.99 for a book that turns out to be less than 100 pages when I download it to my e-reader.

Recently, there's been a shift in people's opinions on the price of books. There's a theory out there that a book that costs 99 cents is poor quality, poorly edited and the author isn't talented. That's true for some books that are 99 cents, but it's also true for some books that are $5.99. In fact, I've seen more mistakes in some of the $5.99 books I've read than some of the free ones. Maybe it's because the authors offering their books for a cheaper price feel like they have to try harder or pay for it in reviews. Who knows?

A recent industry survey also found that the highest selling books are those priced at $3.99. Readers feel the price is reasonable and are confident the quality will be good.

From the release of my first novel, I've been hoping that I'll end up a bestseller and I'm not picky. I'll be happy if I'm an Amazon bestselling author, but I'd also be happy to be a NY Times and/or USA Today best seller.  I haven't reached that goal yet and I'm beginning to wonder if the 99 cent price point is costing me new readers. I have a pretty steady following of loyal readers who have read everything I've produced since my Wattpad days. My books are well received by reviewers. Yet I continue to struggle to reach the one big goal on every writer's bucket list; become a bestseller.

With the change in readers' opinions, I think it's time to change with it. I'm not saying I'll become an instant bestseller, but I have to see if this is going to help. Come January, I'll be raising the prices on all of my books while still keeping them reasonably priced. Will it make a difference? Time will tell, but you better believe if I become a bestselling author next year, I will be shouting it for all to hear!

All I Want for Christmas: Some Things Never Change

It’s that time of year again. The holiday season is upon us and Christmas is this month. With the approach of Christmas comes that inevitable question: what do you want for Christmas?

Most people are expecting me to answer with a specific gift item. Oh, I want a watch or I could really use some more Magnolia perfume. On a serious side note, if anyone knows where I can get my hands on some Magnolia perfume by Avon please let me know. It was part of their floral line a few years ago and I haven’t been able to find it since.

Getting back on track, the truth is that I only want one thing. It’s the same thing I’ve been asking for since I became a published author. It’s a gift that can be purchased for less than ten dollars, but it’s something I can’t buy myself. As I typed that last line, I was struck funny by how much like a riddle it sounded, but that wasn’t my intent.

The only thing I want for Christmas, the only thing I want in my writing career really, is to be a bestselling author. Clearly, I can’t make that happen on my own. Sure, I can write a killer novel and promote the hell out of it, but I can’t buy enough copies of my books to secure me bestselling author status. I need readers to do that for me, and I’m including my friends, family and coworkers in that group.

If you really want to give me something for Christmas, buy one or all of my e-books. I currently have seven e-books out and they are all priced at 99 cents each. Even if you buy all of them, you’re only spending $6.93 and we both benefit from that. You get the books and I get the sales that can help me inch closer to that bestselling author mark. There is one other thing you could do that I would really appreciate. After you buy the books, if you could be so kind as to leave a review on Amazon, it would make my day. Reviews don’t have to be much. A few kind words are all that’s needed.

So, there you have it. Once again, all I want for Christmas is to be a bestselling author. As soon as I reach this goal, I’ll stop asking for this gift. Until then, I’ll ask every year. Now you see what I mean when I say that some things never change. 

Plagiarized: A Tale of Two Betrayals

Whoever said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery obviously wasn’t a writer and was probably not talking about writers. Copying a writer’s work and claiming it as your own is serious, it’s illegal and it has a name; plagiarism.

Recently, the writing community was shocked by the news that one romance writer plagiarized the work of another. And we’re not talking about borrowing a few lines. We’re talking about taking the entire novel and changing so few details that anyone reading both would immediately see the problem. The author committing the plagiarism initially stayed silent but did remove ten of her books from circulation. Yes, ten! That author has since come out to say that she has “made mistakes” in her writing and was dealing with personal issues.

As an author, I was stunned and sickened when I learned of this. I’ll admit there have been times when I’ve read a book and liked it so much that I wished I’d thought of it. I have never, ever, plagiarized another author’s work. I’ve never even considered it. The fact that someone would is almost unfathomable. Not even in my darkest personal moments can I imagine stooping so low as to steal from someone else.

What makes this case worse is that it hit home for me. Until I learned she was a fraud, I supported the plagiarizing author. I bought several of her books and left glowing reviews online. I followed her on social media. I encouraged like-minded readers to buy her books. As a reader, I feel betrayed. As an author, I’m heartsick. Did the money I paid for her books rightfully belong to someone else?

A few years ago one of my stories was plagiarized. Just like in this instance, it was an alert reader that stumbled across it and contacted me. In my case, there was no profit being turned by the phony. She took my story and made it her own and posted it on a Justin Bieber fan fiction website. It took me a few weeks of going round and round with the moderator of the website, who was probably a teenage girl for all I know, to finally get my story removed. It didn’t matter that this other person wasn’t making money from claiming my story as hers. What mattered was that my story, a story I’d worked so hard on, was being passed off as hers and she was getting praise she didn’t earn.

Plagiarism is one of those crimes I’ll never understand. Isn’t there any kind of conscience on the part of the person committing the crime? How can they sit back and watch the money and praise roll in and not give one thought to the person they’ve victimized? And that’s what we are folks, we’re victims. The authors being plagiarized are victims of the most heartbreaking kind, but the readers are victims too. The readers are paying for a product and endorsing an author who is nothing more than a thief stealing the words, dreams, and in some instances money, of an author who poured blood, sweat and tears into her novel.

There isn't much more I can say other than it's disgusting and anyone who steals from another author should be punished to the fullest extent the law allows, no matter what the reason for the plagiarism was. You can bet I'll be keeping an eye out to see what comes of this case.

You Asked for It!

I've been an author for a long time. In fact, I'm coming up on the ten year anniversary of the release of my first novel. As I've said before, electronic books didn't exist when I first started out and authors who struck out on their own weren't given any respect. Self-publishing companies were referred to as vanity presses.

A lot has changed since then. Most of it for the better, particularly when it comes to people's perception of the self-publisher. Now, the self-publisher is known as the independent or indie author, and there are a lot more options available to indie authors to get their work out there.

It wasn't that long ago, indie authors had two choices when it came to releasing their work. They could either pay a self-publisher to produce and distribute the book, or they could produce it themselves. Those options still exist, but thanks to the advent of e-readers, authors can release their books electronically for little to no cost.

Last year, I moved away from offering my books in print and went with the electronic format only. Doing this allowed me to keep the costs of production low. That was money I could invest in promotion in addition to being able to pass on the savings to the reader with lower prices. Like many authors, I used an e-book publishing site to distribute my book to online retailers in exchange for sharing a portion of my royalties. The one thing this site didn't do was offer my book on Amazon. For that to happen, I had to reach a minimum of 2,000 books sold through the other outlets first. Unless you're a best seller or have a lot of friends and family on standby, that's a difficult goal to meet.

Not having my book on Amazon turned out to be an issue.  The Kindle is one of the most popular reading devices there is and most readers prefer to purchase directly from the Kindle store rather than create an account with the e-publisher in order to buy the Kindle formatted book. There was also less exposure for my work.

Recently, I released the first book of my new Taking on Love series on both the original e-publishing site and Amazon using their Kindle Direct Publishing program. With that came the inevitable question of whether or not I would finally release the Time for Love series on Amazon. Well, guess what?

After a year, the answer to that question is finally yes. All four Time for Love books are now available on Amazon in e-book format for just 99 cents. I also released Like You Mean It, my young adult novel, on Amazon as well.

You asked for it and here it is. Now help me out and buy those books and tell your friends and family to do the same!

Don't Judge a Book by its Price

The other day, a fellow writer asked her readers if they avoided buying e-books that were priced less than five dollars. Apparently, she'd heard that it was a bad idea to price a book below this amount as it gave readers the impression it was poorly written.

I just about fell out of my chair when I read that. I remember a time not too long ago when the advice of the moment was for writers to price their books at ninety-nine cents to attract more readers. It was suggested that if they didn't want to set all of their books with such a low price point that they make the first in a series this price and the subsequent books a higher price.
 
If you've bought any of my e-books, you know that I've priced them all at ninety-nine cents. I do that because I want readers to feel like they have gotten the most for their money. Yes, it means I make less money, but that's never been the driving force behind my writing. Sure, I'd love to make a ton of money as a writer, but if I don't, I'm still happy being a writer.

As a reader, I can tell you that price doesn't determine whether or not a book is good quality. I've bought some six dollar books that were less than fifty pages of poorly written prose. I've also bought some ninety-nine cent books that ran circles around other, higher priced books. I never let the cost of a book dictate whether or not I'll purchase the book. Instead, I download a free sample of the book before I buy. If I like what I initially read then I'll buy the book.

I've known a few readers who won't pay a dime for a book. If it's not free, they aren't going to download it. I've also known readers who won't pay more than a dollar for a book. I had a friend who was given a twenty-five dollar gift card for her birthday and used it to buy twenty-five e-books.

Truthfully, I guess there's no hard and fast rule about buying books. Some will only download the free or ninety-nine cent books. Some won't go near those. Either philosophy is a shame. Instead of judging the merit of a book on its price, why not give it a try first? Who knows? You might be happy you did.

Pushing Past the Nerves

As a writer, I strongly believe in doing all that I can to avoid self-censorship. I can always get a sense of when an author censors their work based on how the sex scenes are written, but I understand. It’s easy to fall into the trap of censoring your work when you have that little voice in your head reminding you that your mom, dad, grandma, etc. is going to be reading your book. Last week, I ran in to a new possibility for self-censorship that I haven’t faced before.

One of my coworkers, an avid reader who happens to be a sweet Catholic woman, informed me that she purchased all of my books and had already started reading the latest one. While I’m always ecstatic for the sales, I can’t lie. I cringed a little when I thought of all the rather graphic sex scenes in my new book. Now, in my defense, I am a contemporary erotic romance writer. The word erotic is supposed to serve as a warning that my books will not only contain hot and heavy sex, but that hot and heavy sex will be described in detail. Still, my first thought when my dear coworker told me that she bought my book was ‘Well, that’s a bit unnerving’, followed by ‘Hope she’s ready to see a whole new side of me’!

I am not the same person at work that I am at home. The fact that I wear my hair in a bun and wear tortoise framed glasses to work every day seems to give people the prim and proper librarian impression. While I don’t do anything to foster that, I don’t go out of my way to remind people just how scandalous I am. However, I do warn them that nobody wants to know the real me. That would be frightening, but I’m okay with that. My bosses don’t pay me to be myself. They pay me to get a job done.

Not only has my coworker now been introduced to a new side of me through my writing, but she has exposed other coworkers to me as well! Come to find out, she was reading aloud from my book to the four other people she shares an office with. As flattering as that is, I still had that initial gut reaction of it being unsettling.

I can’t say her recitation was the reason, but one of her office mates then went out and bought the newest book, the one my coworker had been reading from. Another sale for me is always good. My second coworker hasn’t really given me an indication of how she liked the book other than to say ‘I finished your book this weekend’, but it turns out the sweet little Catholic lady is hooked. She not only told me that I was going to end up being another of her favorite writers whose next book she anxiously awaited but she found a rather racy picture of a muscular man she imagined my male lead to be and posted that to my Facebook wall.

Moral of the story? Yes, it can be unnerving for your friends, family and coworkers to read your work. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write what you want. Either they will like it or they won't. That’s not something you can dictate, but you can stay true to your writing if you push past the nerves and just go for it. 

Another Rant about Reviews

Last week, I talked about bad book reviews and how authors can handle them. Well, guess what? My rant about reviews isn’t quite over. This time, I’ve got a different beef, one that falls under the category of ‘be careful what you wish for’.

So, what’s my problem with reviews now? It’s a personal one.

If you buy a book, and you like the book, please write a review. Reviews aren’t just a way to validate an author’s hard work. They have a much greater significance. Reviews can influence sales. Some people read those book reviews before they buy and might be more likely to buy a book that’s well reviewed. 

Amazon reviews can be instrumental in promotion. When a book surpasses twenty-five reviews, Amazon will include the author’s book in the “Customers who bought this also bought” category when readers are buying other books. After more than seventy reviews, Amazon will highlight the book for spotlight positions, including their newsletter. Even more reviews and an author’s book can be included in an email to all Amazon customers who have purchased other titles in that author’s genre. Talk about exposure!

Yes, it feels good to get a good review. If you’re not a writer, or you don’t know one, you may not realize how much goes into a book. It’s not simply writing a story and handing it off. Most books start with story and character outlines well before they’re written. After writing comes the editing and revising and then still more editing. Then you share your work with beta readers and with their feedback comes still more revising and editing. Then, maybe if you’re lucky, you can release the book.

When you finally release the book, you hold your breath and hope that readers like it. And you’re not going to know if they like it without that review. I’m not going to lie. It’s very depressing to release a book that you’ve worked hard on and feel proud of and wait for reviews that never come. It can make you question your ability and wonder why you worked so hard.

So, if you read a book you like, especially if it’s one of my books, please take a moment to write a review. It doesn’t have to be an essay. A few kind words will do. Those few kind words can make a huge difference to an author that has no reviews at all. And to those of you who faithfully read and review my books, thank you. I couldn’t do this without you.