The July Sale at Smashwords has ended. The results were amazing.
Smashwords sends me an email whenever a book is sold. I'm used to receiving one or two a day. For the two weeks of the sale, though, I was receiving 20 or 30 emails a day.
I get a little thrill every time one of those emails appears. A new reader!
Thank you to all those new readers. I feel the appreciation. I love it.
From the response to the sale, I get the message: people want to read my books, but in these tough times $4.99 is a bit too much.
My blogs are free and carry no advertising. Maybe I should permanently give my ebooks away for free, also. But I'm not ready for that. There's something wrong with a culture that will pay $2.00 to the mighty Starbucks MegaCorporation for a cup of coffee but won't pay $1.99 to the lowly Joe Cottonwood Unincorporated for several hours of reading pleasure.
As a compromise, I've reduced the prices of my ebooks. The two "adult" books, Clear Heart and Famous Potatoes are now $1.99. All the books involving children (though frequently enjoyed by adults) remain at $0.99.
I love spreading my books around. I love getting new readers. But other than the occasional special offer, I believe people should pay at least a tiny sum. Writers deserve that small amount of respect.
We'll see what happens.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment