Category Archives: Blog Post
Daily Update: The ebook pricing debate
It seems that every couple of months (sometimes monthly) a battle will rage about the pricing of ebooks. Because of the Department of Justice stepping in claiming that the Big 6 are doing bad things, price fixing, the agency model, and so many other terms, the internet is abuzz with information right now. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone is claiming that people want cheaper ebooks. People want to spend less money on books than what the Big 6 is charging. I keep hearing all this noise.
I’m subscribed to a lot of blogs and have done enough reading to formulate an opinion. I’ve even given myself time to digest all of this information to be able to form a coherent thought about all of this. Being that I’ve bought books for a good majority of my adult life (and enough of my teen life) I know enough about books and how much they cost. Do you want to know what I think about all of this?
People will pay what they’re going to pay.
It really is that simple. It doesn’t matter if an ebook is $14.99 or if it’s .99. It really doesn’t matter. People will pay what they’re going to pay. Let me explain
I’ve bought a lot of books. Boxes and boxes of books. I love to read. There are some authors (like Tad Williams) that I will buy the hardcover as soon as it is out and devour it. I’ve paid as much as $29.99 for a hard cover novel. It never bothered me. Other authors, let’s just take Piers Anthony as an example, I’ll pick up his books in trade paper back. The most I’ve paid for a Piers Anthony novel is around $6.99 or $7.99. The point is, the price isn’t what got me to make the purchase. The author is what got me to make the purchase.
But that’s physical books. Perhaps I’ve put more worth on having a physical copy, right? Well, let’s look at my buying as of late.
I’ve picked up a lot of free ebooks. I’ve read a couple. They’re alright. I’ve picked up a large number of .99 books. I’ve read a few. They’re also alright. I haven’t picked up a stinker of a .99 book yet because I’m picky. I’ve picked up a few stinker free ebooks and I can see why the person is giving them away. These make up less than half of what’s on my ereader at the moment. Most of what’s on my ereader? Samples and books over $4.99.
That’s right. I only have a few books in the $2.99 – $4.99 range. Why? I really like the authors and I wanted to get their novels. I will always buy a Stephen King novel. I love his writing even if Under the Dome left me underwhelmed with the ending. I still loved the characters, the incidents, the mystery. The ending just sucked but I still got my money’s worth. I’ve picked up 11.22.63 and the Wind Through the Keyhole. It doesn’t matter what the price it. I’ve got a few Mike Stackpole novels on there as well. Again, I’ll buy whatever he produces because I really enjoy his style of writing.
But let’s look at the samples. Do I only pick big 6 books? NO! I’ve got a lot of Nightshade books (bought some of them outright), I’ve got Apex books, Edge/Tesseracts, Pyr, and I do also have some Big 6 books. The publisher isn’t what’s driven me to purchase the books. It’s the author being out there, talking about their book. It’s me getting to know the person that wrote the novel, looking at the first few chapters in the sample and I’ll buy a copy. I’ve got Skalzi’s Redshirts on my reader. Fun stuff. I’ll be buying the book when it comes out. Doesn’t matter what the price is. I know I want to read this book. I’ve done this with many authors.
Beyond that, I’ve got Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds also. Why? I’ve read his blog. I enjoy his writing style. I will pick up the next book I know even though I haven’t read the first. It didn’t matter what the price was. I wanted the book, I bought it.
You may think, “Well you must have a lot of extra money to buy all these books.” Not really. I don’t spend as much on books as you might think. I’ve gotten some book that I was waiting on when they were suddenly free on the Kindle. I’ve won a couple in giveaways. Some were dropped to .99 and I couldn’t pass up on that deal. I’ve even gotten a couple free because I blog and every once in a while I’ll do a book review. Give me a free book, I’ll review it. It’s the least I can do.
But my point is I’ve only a few times in my life cringed at book prices. You want to charge me $21.99 for an ebook? That’s pushing the limit a little too far. Unless it’s an omnibus with three or four novels. Then I’ll pick it up. I bought the Stieg Larsson books for $29.99. Why not. That’s three books. They’re getting great reviews. They seem to be worth the price. I’ve also picked up a trilogy for $2.99 because the premise sounded interesting.
I’ve bought books from people I follow on twitter. Why? They seems like interesting people and I like to support interesting people.I’ve got a few Scott Roche books on my ereader and I do need to get through them and review them. Same with Justin Macumber and Zoe Winters.
So where do I think books should be priced? Well, I think that depends. If you’re an indie author who’s got one or two books out, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick them up for .99. If you’ve got several books out then I wouldn’t be surprised to see them at $2.99 as I would think you’ve got more books out, you’re good at this writing thing. If you’re doing this for a living and making money and you’ve got a proven track record, I’d be more than happy to pay $5.99 and up for one of your works.
My point is it’s not the price that’s important or at stake here. It’s the author. Price for me depends on how established you are. Do I like what you’re doing and I’ll be willing to pay $12.99 or more for your new novel (like the next Wheel of Time book) or are you a brand new author who I’m willing to take a chance on? It’s not a hard and fast rule. You can’t put a line in the sand and say “No one will ever pay more than this” because you’ll be wrong. Sales figures prove that. Look at the Amazon top 100 and you’ll see prices all over the map. It’s something personal and something that each author needs to figure out for themselves. Just because J.A Konrath says “$2.99 is the golden price point for a book.” Doesn’t make it true. It only makes it true for him. It makes it true for people who’ve set their price at that level and had success.
What are your thoughts on ebook pricing? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
Tomorrow I’ll write about ducks
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Feliz dia de las Madres
Today is Mother’s Day in Mexico. Yes, it’s not the same day as Mother’s Day in the US. It always catches me by surprise. If you’re Mexican (and you know it) I hope you had an awesome day!
My favorite daughter had her first day back at practice. You wouldn’t know that she missed three weeks of practice. She was back swinging and jumping and doing great!
Me? yeah, I’ll talk about me more tomorrow (and ducks).
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: May Gray
In the San Diego area we have something every year called May Gray. It’s when the marine layer comes in and engulfs the city with haze. This will run into June and become June Gloom. It normally burns off, but every morning is filled with fog and dampness. This means if you wash your car, it’ll most likely be dirty the next day due to the overnight moisture.
What this means for me is headaches. The high humidity helps my sinuses fill to the bursting point. It’d be nice if I could just blow my nose and be done with it, but that doesn’t happen. Ah well. Life goes on.
Yesterday my favorite daughter was supposed to be back at volleyball practice. She had to do a one mile run on Monday so her ankle was sore and she didn’t practice. Darn it. There’s always tomorrow.
I started this post early in the morning. It’s not 8:30PM and I’m just getting back to it. It’s been one of those days where everything happens to keep you from getting back at it. I’ll get over it.
I met with my co-author, Mike Plested, tonight and we had a great conversation. We’ve both been busy wrangling cats and find a point where our paths cross has been difficult. Somehow the stars aligned and we both looked into the face of God and saw each other looking back.
Okay, that’s just weird. But we discussed several things including: Marketing the Action Pack Podcast to reach a larger audience, Beta readers for Jack Kane and the Statue of Liberty (now that editing will be off to him shortly), our top secret project, and several other things. Our paths are intertwined at this point and that’s a big plus. Mike has gotten some great contacts out there in the writing universe, I’ve got…production value? Yeah, let’s go with that. I’ve been cranking out a large number of words and I intended to keep getting more and more written this year. I’ve only just begun.
Since the first of the year I’ve written nearly 184,000 words. I’ve completed a few new short stories, the Action Pack, gotten deep into To Fall From the Sky (to be shelved until a later time), and more. I’m 20 days (roughly) ahead of schedule and I couldn’t feel better about it.
Yes, I should be doing more to promote myself. I’ve been lacking in that department. This summer I plan on stepping that up. June will be a very VERY (did I say very?) busy month. It’s JuNoWriMo. I am taking a vacation at the end of the month. There’s more volleyball practice. I’ll be starting a new project at work. There are other personal issues that shall not be discussed here. Even with all that going on I’m still going to blog daily and I will complete JuNoWriMo (50,000 words in the month of June) before I go on vacation. I know I can do it.
This is what I mean when I say I’m in production mode. I’m producing more words than I ever have before. It feels great and the May Gray and June gloom will do nothing to stop me from writing more.
On the reading front (you may have noticed a couple of book reviews) I’m reading Stephen King’s 11.22.63 and The Wind Through the Keyhole. I’ll post reviews on those once complete. I’m loving 11.22.63, The Wind Through the Keyhole, not so much. One feels like a great King novel, the other feels like… It’s hard to say but it’s almost like he’s just trying to cash in on the Dark Tower once more. It’ll all be in the review.
I’ve got some editing to do before I get to bed. My talk with Mike distracted me away from writing about ducks. I’ll get to them tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Flossing.
I’ve been negligent over the years with regards to my dental health. Oh sure I brush daily. I make sure to rinse. I’ll use a toothpick when I need to. But flossing?
That was until the other day and I brushed my teeth and the toothpaste was a slight shade of pink. I didn’t think anything of it and actually thought it might be the toothpaste. It had an orange stripe in it. The other day was 6 or 7 months ago and the slight pink would come and go. Finally a couple weeks ago that slight pink became red.
I decided that my gums were bleeding and that’s never a good thing. It felt like I had something stuck in my teeth, but it wasn’t just in one spot, it was in several.
A few years ago I had been to the dentist and had several sessions over an 8 month period where I had ‘deep pockets’ where the tartar on my teeth had gone below the gum line. The dentist suggested removing my wisdom teeth to help me better clean those back teeth.
*note: I still have my wisdom teeth and I intend to keep them. When in the Navy they wanted to remove them because a new dentist needed practice and mine were coming in. I asked “Do I have room in my mouth for them?” “Yes.” “Are they impacted?” “No.” “Is there a problem leaving them in?” “No.” “Will it cause crowding of my teeth if they come in?” “No, there is enough room for them.” “Then no, you can’t have my wisdom teeth to practice on.” That was my last trip to the Naval dentist and I still have my wisdom teeth.
During all the cleanings I had over that multi-month period the dentist kept asking the same thing; “How often do you floss?” The answer is obvious. I didn’t. So I started to floss. But flossing is a royal pain in the backside. So I stopped. Until I realized that this blood when I brushed was the same symptom I had when I had my other dental issues. It was time to get serious about flossing again.
So I bought those picks with the floss in them. I used them and OMFG! My gums felt like they’d been bit by red ants. OW OW OW and double OW! I did it the next day with similar results. My teeth even hurt. After the third day not so much bleeding. And now after five days it’s better better. Not nearly as much bleeding or pain in the gums. At least when I brush the toothpaste I spit out stays whitish instead of pink.
I’m going to stick with this flossing stuff. I like my teeth. I’d like to hang on to them for a few more years. I love dentists reactions when they count my teeth and realize I still have my wisdom teeth. Sure I’ve got fillings, but I’ve got my teeth. I intend to keep them for as long as possible.
On the writing front, I wrote over 3000 words yesterday. I didn’t get any editing done, but I’ll be back on it tonight.
My favorite daughter has volleyball practice. This will be her first practice back since spraining her ankle. I’m hopeful that all goes well.
I need to meet with Mike Plested so we can discuss another super secret project.
So much to do, so little time.
I’ll write about ducks tomorrow.
Until tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: ASSEMBLE!
Yesterday started out a day trying to figure out what to do. We were up kinda early and I got ready, went and got breakfast and coffee for the wife. We thought about going to a Hawaiian celebration in the park. We’d seen that on the news the night before and again on the news that morning. We also saw Cinco de Mayo celebrations around town both on the news the evening before and that morning. Both looked like fun. We were having a difficult time deciding which to go and do.
So instead we went and saw the Avengers. It’s a small film that’s out. You might have heard about it. It was alright.
No, it was freakin awesome! I’ll be doing a review on it as well as reviews on the couple of books I finished over the weekend. I’m working on a plan for my reviews where I’ll look at it from a fan perspective and from a writer’s perspective. It’ll be good to do the compare/contrast of what I liked as a fan, and nit-pick as a writer. I’m enjoying doing reviews and I hope to do more in the future.
After that we went back to the Millican’s house and watched Thor, ate some great clam chowder. During the week we’d seen The Hulk, parts of Captain America, and Iron Man (1 and 2). I was well prepared for the Avengers. They did a great job wrapping everything together. I’ll mention all that in my review.
All in all, it was a good weekend. With the reviews I’m going to write up, I don’t have time to do that post about ducks. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: So I took a day off.
I didn’t do this lightly. I have some editing to do and I know I need to get it done in a short period of time so all the ideas of the story will stay fresh in my mind. Last week was a stressful week with work, editing, and personal life. I just felt like I needed a break and I took it. How did I figure this out?
The wife planned to have breakfast with her sister and take my favorite daughter shopping. She asked if I wanted to go along. I told her to have a girls day and enjoy it. She picked up her mom, her sister, one of the nieces and the five of them went out to breakfast and shopped for a few hours.
I took the time to go through all the laundry, get everything washed, folded, and nearly all of it put away. I lost a lot of left socks so those didn’t find a home. While I did this finished listening to Rendezvous with Rama on audio. I nearly finished the Invisible Man on audio (both reviews will be forthcoming) and I watched a couple programs: Mysteries of the Sphinx and Revelations of the Pyramids.
Both went on very extreme tangents toward the end, but it’s hard to deny much of the initial science in the programs. It’s almost like comparing Fingerprints of the Gods with Chariots of the Gods. The latter is filled with a lot of opinion, speculation, and guesswork whereas the first is filled with hard facts, documentation, and expert opinion. It’s easy to shrug off a lot of the information as not credible, coincidence, or pure fantasy, but every once in a while there is a kernel of truth that flies in the face of commonly accepted theories.
I did a lot of relaxing yesterday. I had to. I needed some down time and I took it. I also got my energy level up for last night.
The Millican’s son’s team had a championship lacrosse game last night. His son is a freshman and not a starter, but he’s still part of the team and we showed up to show our support. The team they played had beaten them earlier in the season. Last night was a different story. In what turned out to be a nail-biter of a game and very strong on defense for both teams, the final score was 4-3 and the Millican’s son’s team will be moving on to the CIF games.
I’m not a big sports fan, but when it comes to watching high school sports, it’s so great to see the enthusiasm the kids play with. If you’ve never seen a high school sporting event, you should get out to one. Find a friend with a kid on the team so you have a team to cheer for. Heck, I might write this one up as an Unorthodox Writing Tip 🙂
Today, no plans as of yet, but that could change at any minute. We’ll see how it goes. Sorry I didn’t write about ducks today, but I will get that post done tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: a day off.
Jay is tired. He slept in ( until 7am ) and I got a lot of writing/editing done this week. My brain is tired so I have decided to take today off from writing. I will see you tomorrow when I shall write about ducks. Maybe,
Until tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update: It’s FRIDAY!
This has been a very long week. It looks to be a long weekend. Next week, we’ll take that one day at a time. Why stress out over the unknown, right?
Got some interesting news from work that I cannot talk about. It impacts me greatly, but not in a negative way. More of a “Hey, here’s more stuff to do” way. It shouldn’t add much to my current work load, but again, we’ll just take it day by day and see how it goes from there.
People will come into your life as people tend to do. People will depart from your life as they also tend to do. This happens more in a work environment than it does with friends and family. It’s inevitable. I, like most people, am adverse to change. Change is a scary thing. When people come and go, that’s a scary thing. Will I lose touch with that person? Will that person lose touch with me? How will I get by without that person to lean on from time to time? Is that person going to be alright?
In the Navy I transfered multiple times. Usually with the same batch of guys from Cory Station, Pensacola. I’ve been in touch with a couple of the guys over the years, but it’s not easy to stay in touch. I guess with Facebook I could go looking for these people again, but it’s been quite a long time. I’d love to know what the old gang is up to.
Heck, even my friends from ITT Tech and National University. I do still keep in touch with a couple friends from high school, but for the most part I just wonder what ever happened to some of the people I used to know. I’m bad at correspondence and lost touch with so many people over the years. It was never deliberate, but it’s happened.
I think starting next week I will begin a search for people I’ve lost touch with over the years. This might be weird. It might be cathartic. It might be totally insane and illogical. Heck, for all I know these people have completely forgotten about me. We’ll find out. I’ll post the first name of the person, where I remember them from, and we’ll see how many people I can track down. Should be interesting. I might even have to dig out my old year books to find friends from high school.
Could be interesting.
Tomorrow I’ll write about Ducks.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: You just never know.
The wife has needed to get a refill for a prescription. The pharmacy said they needed to get a call from her doctor. They hadn’t gotten one after three attempts to reach her. The wife finally called her doctor and got a new number to call. She called that number and her doctor, due to health reasons, had to leave her practice.
Junior Seau was an excellent football player. He played in San Diego (his home town), had his own restaurant, a field name after him where his brother coached football (and the Millican’s son played). He had fame, fortune, adoration of fans, an awesome career. Yet he committed suicide yesterday.
You just never know what life is going to deal you. You also never know what other people are living with that they might not be telling you. I’m going to be sappy here for a moment. Take the time to tell someone you love them, you care about them, you appreciate them. It’s easy to go through life and act tough, but when you lose someone, those moments are gone forever. You just never know what sits around the bend.
On a lighter note, edits for Jack Kane are progressing nicely. I didn’t get much done yesterday as I needed to edit and produce the latest episode of the Action Pack Podcast. It’s now live so head on over and check it out. The stories are building. We’re only three in and things are just hopping along. If you haven’t dipped your toe in yet, you’ll have three episodes to listen to. Enjoy!
Other than that, I’ve been crazy busy with work. Hopefully things will settle down enough for me to get my head back on straight. It’s been a lot of early mornings. I’m hoping those slow down here soon. As I stands, I have plans through the weekend. Every day there’s something going on. Oh the joy of having kids. 🙂 Enjoy them while you can. The time flies by.
I have a lot to get done today, so just a short post. Ducks will happen tomorrow. Just you wait and see.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: It’s one of those days.
This week started out with one of those days. It’s turned into one of those weeks. Every time I turn around there’s something else to do. I’m not complaining, mind you. It just seems like there’s always somewhere to be and something to do. Some days I wonder how I’m fitting all this in and still getting sleep.
Today was another up early day. Tomorrow will be as well. That’s why I get paid the big bucks, right? Been fighting with a coding issue for the past three weeks. I think I’ve finally gotten it nailed down. I’ll do some more testing tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes from there.
I had intended to record my episode of the Action Pack Podcast on Sunday. I was going to edit on Monday and get the episode assembled and uploaded. Guess what, it’s been one of those weeks. I’ve barley been how, but I did get the recording done today and I’m in the process of assembling now. I’ll upload, get the post together, and once Mike Plested is online, the post will go live. It’ll drop in the morning.
I’ve been editing as much as I can and making notes on jack Kane. I really like the story. I did find a continuity issue that I will correct. Seems out hero found something before the villain put it there. Should be an easy enough fix. So far that’s the only major plot issue I’ve found.
Mike and I did a good job planning this one out so it all flows well. We should be able to do similar work once we start on the second book. The characters are so much fun to write, I can’t see us NOT writing the sequel.
All this editing has gotten me even more excited to begin work on Of Gnomes and Dwarves. I’ve got all those characters running around in my head, doing battle, fighting dragons, saving maidens, and doing a lot of other things they’re not supposed to be doing in an effort to stop me from what I’m doing and get them on track for what they should be doing.
I’m like crazy tired, man. I so need to go to bed. My brain is struggling to keep up with my body at this point, but there are still some things that need to be done before I can slip off into slumberland.
I had intended to write my post about ducks today. I’ll have to get on that tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 