Saluting Major Upheaval (image by wisegeeks.com)
As we all know, the publishing world is in major upheaval. With ebook prices dropping even for big authors, and so many ebooks available for free, are we witnessing the end of the paid model? And what might replace it?
I can see four distinct models emerging from all the chaos.
Business as usual
I call this the ostrich model. Pretend nothing has changed, and keep selling the books for $20 each. Sadly, I doubt many will buy them, unless they’re pretty unique – eg in academia – or by a hugely popular author.
Go big
I don’t mean to print your books on A3 paper, but to have a hundred ebooks, each sold at $0.99. This is a great strategy, and one we’ll see more in the future, but it may come at a high price. As authors strive to churn out ebook after ebook, how can a high standard be maintained?
Give it away
As I explain on my A-Z guide: How both my books reached #1 on Amazon, this strategy can be used to build a fan base. Many authors give away the first book in their series, to entice readers to buy the rest. It’s best used once enough books in the series have been written, or by new authors keen to build their brand. This can be done in innovative ways, like Matt Mason did with “Pirate’s Dilemma”, which he distributed via BitTorrent. In his words, getting your book in front of 160 million users is usually a good thing. He even predicts that in the next five years, we’ll see all kinds of publishers using P2P networks to distribute their publications.
It has also been used in extremely creative ways by authors like Ksenia Anske, author of the Siren Suicides. Readers are encouraged to pay through a virtual tip jar, if they enjoyed the book. In a fascinating recent blog post titled I give my books away for free: here are my sales numbers, she announced that she has made $4,000 in little over six months that way. Her books were downloaded 1,600 times within the last 6 weeks. She also used her newly found fame as an author to raise money through Kickstarter, raising an extra $3,000.
Subscribe
Ksenia also flirts with a subscription model, one that I suspect will gain more prominence. In her words, this would work “like, for $9 a month if you subscribe, you get all of my books as I produce them“.
Along with authors, new services offering subscription models have now appeared. Recently launched Inkbot offers a subscription model along its free one. Free members gain unlimited reading of Royalty-Free works and Unlimited Access members pay $4.95 per month and gain unlimited reading of all works. I wonder whether Wattpad or Writersky will follow suit at some point.
These are the new pricing strategies I see being shaped. Am I missing one?
Reblogged this on Brave New Deadline and commented:
When it cames to the brave new world of epublishing, the conversation is bound to come around to money. Here’s what Nicholas C. Ross has to say.
I don’t know if you saw the BookBub survey about bargain ebook buyers.. it’s not just free, but low priced ebooks, but it’s quite interesting. Their conclusion: More than 60% of those surveyed go on to buy books by authors they discovered through a bargain. So freebies and special offers do have a lot of value. Here’s the full report: https://unbound.bookbub.com/post/87615381745/11-things-you-dont-know-about-bargain-ebook-buyers
This is a great link, thank you for bringing it to my attention – and welcome 🙂
Good thoughtful article. During a free promotion of a couple of books I published for other people, there were a couple hundred downloads but only a couple reviews. I also am not sure if or when these books are being read.
Or if at all. Much like you, I was ecstatic when I had over 3,000 downloads during a single weekend last year. I may have got a handful of reviews out of all that. I still wonder how many people actually read the book.
Having said that, I was a new author, just starting out. Offering my book for free was the best way to get them to find out about me. 🙂
Very informative! Thank you for this post Nicholas! Excellent idea to direct readers who got the book for free to donate on the site. And your directions to do this via the paypal site are greatly appreciated 🙂 I can see myself doing this for my upcoming novel. It will go free lots on KDP Select as to promote the second part (it’s a duology).
I would be very interested to reading how it goes! Any chance of a guest post? 😉
I’ll probably try out the “give the first book away for free” model once I actually have more than one book out. And you’re definitely right about the ostrich model — as long as big book publishers are able to sell ebooks at high prices, they’ll keep doing it. I think it’ll be a lot like the revolution TV/movies are undergoing right now — when most of their profits are getting sucked away because of piracy / free content, they’ll have to start coming up with a new business model whether they like it or not.
The music industry got the point, but only after nearly going bankrupt, while Netflix is doing for movies what Amazon did for books. I hope the publishing industry will be faster to adapt, but I’m not holding my breath…
I can’t wait to finish my entire Pearseus series (book 3/4 now being beta-read), so I can start doing some real promotion. 🙂
Hey, congrats!!! Beta reading is a huge step. That reminds me — I shoved my work in progress aside for a few weeks to get some distance from it and a new perspective … but it’s been more like a few months than a few weeks now, lol. Time to pick it back up and get ‘er done!
Yes please! Fans awaiting! Chop chop! (clapping hands) 🙂
On another note, I loved your pronunciation guide video. I only have the one question: how do you pronounce your surname??
Hahaha thanks 😀 Surname is pronounced “prew”. It’s French, so you basically pronounce the first four letters, and then pretend the L and the X don’t exist. Technically you’re supposed to roll the R as well, but I left Quebec when I was 5 and haven’t spoken a word of French since, so my R rolling skills are horrendous.
So that *is* an L right before the end! I thought I was misreading something… Thanks! 🙂
As a new-ish sci-fi / romance ebooks-only (so far) author, I put my 1st in the series at FREE when my 2nd went into pre-orders last week and saw my downloads skyrocket. But, are these downloaders readers, compulsive downloaders, hoarders, fans, what? I’ll find out when the 2nd and 3rd and subsequent books are being sold, I guess. Meanwhile, I would love a tip jar for my blog. How do I do that? Thanks for posting.
I’ll tell you, if you tell me how you do a pre-order! 🙂
I suspect she uses a PayPal “donate” button. It’s pretty easy to set one on your website/blog, as long as you have a PayPal account. Just go to PayPal and follow the instructions. They will give you a piece of code to insert into your site, for the button to go live.
After that, you have to write a brief text in your book, saying something like, “if you enjoyed this book, don’t forget to tip” or something to that effect.
I think perhaps with younger people more into technology and the older folk dying out, books will be with us. I love my kindle and synching my tablet and phone to it, and taking my books wherever I go. It took me two years to get my husband to use it and then, he only did so because I had ordered a book he wanted to read. I have friends who say, I want a real book in my hands. I love to collect books, especially those written and printed before 1930. One of my greatest treasurers is a cookbook, put out by the garden club of Chattauga, hand signed by the president, Mrs. Thomas A. Edison. Ebooks cannot replace such treasures. Eventually ebooks and print book prices may level out. Not all books are free. I bought a textbook because it was $90 less than the print version. For myself, if I ever published, it would probably be as an e-eversion – cheaper and easier for me to do, and easier to distribute and get into people’s hands. It is the new order, I suppose. I just want people to read, regardless of the venue.
Wow, an edition signed by Edison – impressive! Much like you, I love both “real” books and my Kindle. 🙂