How Much Do You Charge for an EBook?

Close Liaisons features Mylar balloons and science fiction by Barbara Custer

SF involving balloons and war $1.49

How much should you charge for your eBook? Some folks believe that charging $2.99 and less will result in more sales. The 99-cent novellas will make good publicity, an easy way to get to know an author’s style of writing. If nothing else, it will generate balloon money for the author and publisher. But I know of people who started out at $5.25 for their book, and when they lowered it to $2.99, sales tanked. What’s more, the lower price cut into their royalties.

Amazon likes to recommend prices when I upload Kindle books for myself or for NTD authors.  Basically, anything over $7 or under $3 won’t earn much. However, if you’re charging more for your eBook, you might want to run promos and specials where people can get the book for much less, thus meaning a larger audience. Many variables go into pricing and you might want to consider several things when you price your eBook, especially if you’re selling through multiple distributors.

  • The size of your eBook. If you’ve written a 10,000 word novelette, you’d charge much less than you would for your 80,000 opus magnum. It’s a matter of fairness. Why charge $4.99 for an eBook that would only have twenty pages in print form? It would be like charging someone $20.00 (the cost of a balloon bouquet) for one balloon. In tandem, consider your primary goals, that is, education versus entertainment. People will shell out more money for vital information, such as tips on winter driving and survival then they might for tales about Mylar balloon adventures.
  • Consider what other authors charge for the same size and genre. If you’re charging $10 for a 30,000 word zombie tale, but other authors are charging $1.99 for the same type of book, yours won’t sell many copies. If you’re only selling off your own website, you might have more leeway with price. My experience has been that most people prefer shopping through Amazon or Barnes & Noble over a private website. Why? If you shop on the NTD website, you’ll need a PayPal account, which requires a password. For that reason, I always provide links to Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble. Most seller websites involve setting up an account and a password. It’s easier to remember one password (Amazon) than tracking different passwords for multiple websites.
  • What are your plans for your book? If your work is a 10,000-word novelette, it can serve as an intro to your larger, more expensive works. Most folks won’t mind shelling out 99 cents for such a story. Your book—and your ideas—will fall into more hands. If they like your work, you’ve got more potential buyers for your larger stories. If you don’t have a 99-cent eBook, you might want to create one. Your entry-level priced eBook will give readers a chance to know your work.
  • How large is your following? If you’re anything like Stephen King or Jonathan Maberry, your publisher might sell your eBooks for $10 each and more. That’s because both authors have dedicated fans who love their writing so much that they’ll gladly pay that to read their fiction. If you’re pitching to total strangers, they’ll balk, especially if they see other books of the same genre sell for $3.99.

You might consider having a list price but discount that price from time to time. This way, you’ll drive more interest in your books. No price is ever set in stone, and because the eBook world is constantly changing, you should evaluate your prices from time to time.

Your thoughts?

Blue Plate Special is zombie novel by Harold Kempka

Tidbits of horror for $2.99

They Can Smell Your Fear

Horror fiction by Kevin Doyle involving feral children
When people contemplate horror tales and movies, zombies, traditional monsters, gruesome scenes, and death come to mind. Its roots started in folklore and religious beliefs revolving around the afterlife, supernatural, and death. Other types of horror involve nature, hostile aliens, rabid animals, killer insects, and perverted criminals – anything that will make people afraid. A good horror tale will scare people with fears they might not have. Take Mylar balloons, for example. I can’t pass a store without stopping in to buy one. Yet Pennywise’s balloons scared the bejesus out of me. I enjoy being around children, but when I edited Kevin R. Doyle’s The Litter, his feral children gave me nightmares.

The Litter offers a traditional monster, death, and feral children. These feral children terrorize a city in brutal ways. They can scent their victims’ fear and capitalize on it in nasty ways. According to some reviewers, Doyle’s book addresses the potential consequences of the breakdown of society and homelessness. That’s possible. Ever since my visit to Atlantic City’s mummy pavilion at age ten, I’ve been a lover of horror and Kevin’s tale was a delight to edit and publish. The body count started with page one. Sure, I had bad dreams along the way, and thus, his mission accomplished.

A great horror tale will keep the surprises coming. Why did Pennywise’s balloons frighten me so much? It’s the surprise element – the clown luring his victim to a brutal death. Kevin filled his tale with lots of surprises – people who knew how to defend themselves, but getting killed. The feral children hungered for meat, and they knew how to catch a victim unaware.

An element of suspense is crucial to an effective horror tale. The action needs to start on page one and keep me reading. In Stephen King’s It, a team of children banded up to fight Pennywise and his minions. All through the book, I kept hoping that the team would survive, but I had my doubts. As I read The Litter, I kept thinking that protag Karen was going to become the next meal.

An element of mystery will give flavor to the horror tale. I’m not talking about whodunits. Sometimes characters can surprise us – even the good guys. Perhaps halfway through the fight, we learn what the major character fears. There’s a strong element of mystery in The Litter. You won’t find out how the feral children got that way until toward the end of the book.

Spoilers (foreshadowing) play a crucial role in any good horror tale. People love them the way I like Mylar balloons. For example, during the first few pages of Steel Rose, Alexis and Johnny were reading about zombies. That spoiler hints that Alexis and Johnny were going to fight some zombies. The Litter has plenty of spoilers. In the prologue, Doyle drops a hint that something ugly is about to happen to one of the characters. And when Karen searched for a missing child, I thought, oh, oh, any second the killers will jump her.

Horror addresses the concept of good versus evil, but some tales will touch on social issues. Does The Litter? Whatever you decide, you’ll meet engaging characters. There’ll be some gruesome moments, so you might want to sleep with the lights on. The Litter debuts this week and will be available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble.

So if you love horror, crime, and suspense fiction, stop by and read an excerpt from The Litter. Kevin’s feral children would love to have you for dinner.

Writer’s Trial: The Synopsis

Night to Dawn 27 features horror and zombie fiction by various authors.People have asked what I find most difficult about writing. Every job has an unpleasant aspect, and for me, writing the synopsis is the toughest. Basically, the synopsis is a summary of the story, or if you prefer, an outline in prose form. For a pantser like me, outlines and synopses can be particularly daunting. I’m getting to the end of reviewing the edits, making final tweaks, and putting together a synopsis for Blood Moon Rising. Meantime, another sequel is calling to me, pleading to be written, presenting an opportunity to write by the seat of my pants, suspended by Mylar balloons. Ah, but I’ve got to stick to the task at hand and quit daydreaming about balloons and what-might-be-next plots.

Why a synopsis? It gives a potential publisher an idea of what the story is about. Is it a story that interests the publisher enough to read the whole manuscript? Does it have a cohesive plot? The synopsis can answer those questions. I myself have requested synopses from authors before reading their books. The synopsis makes a handy-dandy tool when it comes to approaching reviewers. The shorter (maybe one to two pages) the better. It provides material that I might use to advertise the book on my website, or to send to people who are doing promos for the book. What’s more, it provides grist for a back cover blurb and later, a description which goes to Amazon and other distributors. These last pieces of wisdom were whispered to me by my Mylar balloons when I started grousing that the task was oh, so hard.

Writer’s Digest has some good articles on writing synopses. A writer buddy suggested I start with a short back cover blurb and highlight the scenes from there. I’ve gotten a few days off from work which I have in mind to make a serious dent in the synopsis project, among other things. First, I’m getting some fortification from my Mylar balloons. I’m hiring Gemini Wordsmiths for an edit. And after the deed is done, I’ll reward myself by reading Stephen King’s Revival.  Your thoughts?

Horror fiction by Kevin Doyle involving feral children

Is Amazon the Author’s Friend or Foe?

Horror fiction by Kevin Doyle involving feral children

Some of my fellow scribes badmouth Amazon using words that would make my Mylar balloons cringe. Others view Amazon, Kindle and all, as a nice way to earn greenbacks. I’ve sat on both sides of the fence, but the spokes on that fence get thorny after a while, even with my balloons supporting me. So I decided to get off my fence, especially with Kevin Doyle’s book, The Litter, coming out. NTD is offering it for preorder on Amazon and Smashwords now, and the book goes live February 13.

Up until now, the preorder option hadn’t been available for me. But when I got the chance, I jumped at the opportunity. Given the temperament of Pennsylvania winters and the weather’s effect on power lines and servers, I wanted that book uploaded ahead of time. So I got to work on Kindle first. It came time to choose a price. I was thinking $4.99, but a window popped up with Amazon’s advice on what I should charge. They pointed out that similar books sold best at $2.99, with the worst sales being $6.00 and up. So they recommended $2.99 at the 70% option.

Here’s a secret, buckaroos. If you go with Amazon’s 70% option, you have to accept the lending option. That means readers may borrow your book for two weeks. If they finish before that time is up, they can return the book without paying a dime. Ergo, fewer sales for you. If you go with 35%, you can refuse to lend, get more sales, but only realize 35% royalties. Amazon keeps the rest.

I went with my $4.99, and refused lending. Other things play into the price of choice which I don’t think Amazon considered – the size of your following, the strength of your platform, reviews, and publicity tours.

I know one author who made fair to middling sales. Hoping to get more, he dropped his price to $2.99. His sales tanked. Why? Because sometimes it sends a message that author didn’t think his work was worth much. By the same token, I can see why Amazon doesn’t recommend prices at $6.00 and up. For Stephen King and Jonathan Maberry, most people will shell out $7.00 or more for their eBooks, but it’s a big ask for them to pony up $7.00 for an unknown author.

So with Kevin’s book going live, it’s time I got off my fence. Here are several things I’ve noticed.

  • Amazon is the self-published author’s best friend. It’s easy to upload a cover and manuscript in HTML, and simple to set up a website on Author Central. A big plus!
  • Amazon discourages an author (and publisher) from charging a decent price for eBooks, and thus devalues the worth of their hard work. Not good.
  • Amazon grants incentives to people for buying books through them, thus driving business away from bookstores, and in effect putting them out of business. This is sad, because the employees have to seek work somewhere else. I hate the repercussions.
  • During the winter months, Amazon has been my ace in the hole when I can’t get supplies at my local stores. I can often find books that I can’t get at local stores, too.
  • The KDP Select program promises sales but demands that you not use any other distributors. I tried this on a book and it didn’t improve sales. I’ve heard this observation from others.
  • CreateSpace lures authors by promising more exposure on Amazon. I notice better sales I think because Amazon’s popular with readers. They do a great job on trade paperbacks; I’ve been happy with Twilight Healer and City of Brotherly Death. With NTD magazine, I got a slightly better quality of cover with Lulu. I’ve checked out Lightning Source and note a yearly charge to distribute books before I can publish and sell. So I’d give Amazon props on this one.
  • Amazon makes it difficult for the small press publisher because of what I said earlier about the 70% option versus the 35% option. Before I pay authors, I get 35% of the sale if I want to avoid lending. Grrrrrrr!
  • The Amazon reviews offer a great boon for platform building. Prospective readers will take those reviews to heart, and that’s a big plus.
  • Amazon can be controlling. You do what they say or else reviews and like buttons disappear from your site. That stinks.

So there you have it – four good points, five bad. I have found Amazon neither friend nor foe. I consider him like a business partner who might surprise me with a Mylar balloon, but will try to sell me wolf tickets. Your thoughts?

Wintertime Blues

Barbara's loyal balloons guide her with writing.

The balloons help energize Barbara.

Do you struggle with wintertime blues? I know I do as the days get shorter. I went to a condo homeowner’s association meeting last night and sat in a chair prepared to listen and take notes. Instead, I nodded off to sleep during a good part of the meeting. No one chatted about Mylar balloons, nor did I regale anyone with my latest balloon adventure at the Giant and Acme supermarkets. No seminars on writing techniques or opportunities to get a critique on my WIP. Instead, the conversation centered over graphs, numbers, and charts as the Board discussed the upcoming 2015 budget. Every so often, tempers exploded over some imaginary error a Board member committed. I frankly felt that the Board members deserved serious balloons!

What’s more, the meeting room was cold, enough to necessitate my sweater and winter coat. I suspect the people in charge dropped the temperatures so that the attendees would stay awake and pay attention. Their actions had the opposite effect on me. Cold drains my energy, and during winter I need an average of nine hours of sleep each night. I do my best writing and meeting attendance on my “off” days from work when I’m rested. During the winter, I’m more liable to sleep through a meeting. Come spring, I’ll have more energy for meetings and the like. My doctors mention seasonal affective disorder, but I think of it as the wintertime blues.

Last year, when I worked under a deadline during the winter, I made the writing my first priority when I get home from work, while I still had energy left. I need to start doing that again. Then after seven, I can go through my email, wrestle with my balloons, or browse the online shops. Buying a Mylar balloon should help my energy stores, too.

Do you struggle with the wintertime blues? How does it affect your writing and other activities? What helps you shore up energy during the cold winter? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Author David Gelber’s Finding the Time

Night Clinic was written by David GelberTwenty four hours is just not enough. It’s all I have, however. And that creates the dilemma. People get sick, stabbed, bowels burst, tumors grow and these ill or injured parties arrive at any and all hours. Just when is a body supposed to find the time to jot down a clever phrase or create a tragic romance?

When I first took a stab at writing in 2006, there just weren’t nearly as many sick people. My clinic comfortably saw about fifteen patients in an afternoon, call nights brought someone with appendicitis every third night or so, and I was usually home in time for dinner. Now it’s a very slow day when I only see fifteen clinic patients. A typical day on call for the ER call brings me three appendectomies and dinner is now at eight instead of six.

Finding time has become a real problem. My solution is to think and imagine and ponder whenever I have a few moments to stop and reflect. Ideas pop into my head and I commit them to memory until I find a moment to record these thoughts, eventually shaping them into a story. But time doesn’t stop.

“Night Clinic,” the collection of short stories which is the subject of this tour, is a direct result of this quandary about time. “ITP: Book Three,” the third installment of my futuristic science fiction trilogy languishes in my computer because of this shortage of time, its surface barely scratched. Short stories and article proliferate as the scarcity of general surgeons and the expanding number of sick and injured people reduce my writing time. Short stories are far more amenable to a busy irregular schedule than novels.

If I had my druthers, I would reverse it and spend hours every day thinking and imagining and creating, while reserving my surgical skills for those unusual cases which pique my interest. It would have been nice if the law makers of this land had legislated that people are only allowed to get sick between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon. Then again, it’s possible that buried deep in Obamacare is a rule stating just this. It’s probably on page 1872, paragraph 3. After all, no one ever has had the time or desire to read the entire Affordable Care Act.

But, for now, I search for time, ten minutes here, thirty minutes there and the result is “Night Clinic,” a brilliant and inspired collection of short stories. Visit the “Night Clinic” where you will find depressed vampires, morbidly obese superheroes, dwarves, strippers, dragons, and so much more under one roof. I am glad I found the time to write these stories. “Night Clinic” offers some of the most creative, clever and imaginative writing I’ve ever done. I am sure you will enjoy it.

 *************************

written by David GelberBLURB:

“Night Clinic” is a collection of short stories which tell the unusual events which occur at the free clinic attended by Dr. Barnes and Nurse James. Monsters, magical beasts, villains along with ordinary folks come to the clinic looking for health and hope.

“Night Clinic” is a unique melding of medicine and magic.

*************************

David Gelber authored Night Clinic.AUTHOR Bio and Links:

David Gelber, a New York native, is the seventh of nine sons and one of three to pursue medicine. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and went on to graduate medical school in 1984 from the University of Rochester.

He completed a residency in General Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and Nassau County Medical Center on Long Island, NY, in 1989. Dr. Gelber now is in private practice in Houston, TX.

Gelber has been performing surgery for more than 25 years, but over the last few years he began to pursue his passion for writing, initially with his debut novel, “Future Hope”, followed by its sequel “Joshua and Aaron.”

These were followed by two books about surgery “Behind the Mask” and “Under the Drapes.” The apocalyptic “Last Light” and historical fantasy “Minotaur Revisited” round out his published works, while numerous articles have appeared on his blog “Heard in the OR.”

Now he presents “Little Bit’s Story” and his collection of magical medical short stories, “Night Clinic.”

He has been married to Laura for 28 years and has three college aged children. He and Laura share their home with five dogs and numerous birds.

Books Published:

Future Hope ITP Book One

Joshua and Aaron ITP Book Two

Minotaur Revisited

Behind the Mask: The Mystique of Surgery and the Surgeons who Perform Them

Under the Drapes: More Mystique of Surgery

Last Light (e-book only)

Blog: Heard in the OR  http://heardintheor.blogspot.com

http://www.davidgelber.com

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2747647.David_Gelber

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Clinic-David-Gelber-ebook/dp/B00O3R8760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416357751&sr=1-1&keywords=night+clinic+david+gelber

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/night-clinic-david-gelber/1120433341?ean=9780982076392

David will be awarding a $50 Amazon/B&N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon/B&N GC to a randomly drawn host.

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Excerpt: “Speaking of bizarre and crazy, you are aware that the Intergalactic Convention is in town again? Star Trek, Star Wars, and every other outer space franchise all together. So I’m sure we’ll get our share of phaser burns, blaster bruises, and transporter malfunctions. Oh, and to get us off on the right foot, Derek is back with his annual ‘Trouble with Tribbles.’ I’ve left all the usual instruments in the room for you.”

“Not again,” I moaned. “You would think that after four, no five years, he would learn.”

I picked up the chart and gave it a careless glance. Before I saw the words I knew the problem. I walked into the exam room and saw Derek, a regular visitor, lying on his side on the exam table. Seated on a sterile tray were a rigid sigmoidoscope and a tenaculum.

“Derek, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I scolded. “And think of the poor Tribbles. They’re supposed to be comforting, I know, but you’re just supposed to hold them.”

“I do hold them, Dr. Barnes; for a little while. But, the way they coo and vibrate and shake, the possibilities are endless.”

“I hope it’s as simple as last year,” I remarked.

I put on a glove and lubed up my index finger and checked up in Derek’s rectum. Sure enough there was a furry object vibrating just inside. Past experience told me not to try to grab it with my hand; it would just slip away. I greased up the scope and passed it into his rectum. Immediately I visualized a furry yellow ball which was shaking and making low Tribble noises. I reached in with the tenaculum and grabbed the object in its mid portion like a pro and pulled scope and tenaculum out with a single, gentle pull. The Tribble, which was a toy available at the convention, popped out.

“Just one this year?” I asked, although I already knew there would be more.

“No, three,” he replied.

I repeated the routine, pulling out one purple and one red Tribble, both larger that the first and still vibrating.

“I’ll dispose of these for you, Derek. And, please, stay away from Tribbles. You know they’re nothing but trouble.”

He gave a short grunt as I walked out of the exam room.

“What’s next, Nurse?”

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