Thursday Thoughts: What's it Worth to You?

 

Today, I want to talk about perceived value and how this pertains to book sales and publishing. I'm sure we've all heard that saying: You get what you pay for. Right? And while I do believe this is true to an extent, I think we need to be careful about painting everyone and every situation with the same brush. 

Let's take freelance services, for example. A lot of authors are skeptical about editors or cover designers who don't charge a lot of money. Why? Because there's a fear that maybe the editor or designer isn't legitimate, or doesn't have a lot of experience. A lack of experience isn't always a bad thing, though I do warn authors to proceed cautiously. On the flip side, authors can also be skeptical of service providers who charge too much money because what qualifications do they have that warrants that price tag? 

But, if you're anything like me, you're not willing to charge someone else what you yourself aren't willing to pay. Also, as an Indie author myself, I understand how expensive this industry is and how little we make per book sale. For these reasons, I intentionally keep my editing rates low. And yes, I have experience -- a decade's worth. 

Now, let's switch our focus to actual books and the sale of them, specifically digital books. They are cheaper for authors to produce and are often sold at a cheaper price point than a print book. 

A lot of authors will offer an ebook for free or $0.99 to entice readers to start a new series or try out a new-to-them author. This is a very valid marketing strategy, and it's one I employ rather successfully. The first book in my Cursed Series is free. All the time. Across a wide range of vendors. My goal is to get people into the story with a free book and that they'll go on to purchase the other 6 books in the series. 

Some people will argue that if something is free or cheap, the quality must be terrible. And yes, this does hold true sometimes. But not always. (Which is why I always urge people to always do research and make your own determinations about things) On the flip side, some people will die on the hill that the more something costs, the better it is. I also disagree with this sentiment. 

There are a whole host of reasons someone will choose to sell something or offer a service at a reduced price (or free) -- and there's nothing wrong with that! I think the black-and-white thinking of cheap/free = bad and expensive = good is doing a disservice to everyone. 

Yet, there IS something behind that thought process. 

Recently, I started the process of rebranding my Cursed Series with new cover art, fresh edits, new content and interior formatting, etc., and I'm investing financially in doing so. Additionally, the cost of printing and shipping has gone up, so I have to take that into account as well. As a result, I reluctantly raised the prices on my ebooks. 

Books 2-7 ranged from $2.99 to $3.99, but since doing the rebrand, I've raised the prices to a consistent $4.99 across the board (except for book 1, which will always remain free). 

And you know what?? My sales have increased SO MUCH since I raised the prices! Talk about confused (and thrilled). But this leads me to believe and buy into the idea of perceived value and how a slightly higher price tag switches something in the brain that tells readers -- this book has value and is worth the money and you should buy it. I'm not sure I'll ever understand this, but it's certainly been on my mind a lot lately, and I'll be experimenting more to see if this holds true. 

At the end of the day, only you can determine what something is worth to you, or how much you're willing to pay for something. 

What're your thoughts on perceived value? Do you think cheap or free automatically means something is bad or of a lower quality? 

Thursday Thoughts: Scaring Myself Silly

I'm a huge fan of all things creepy and spooky and scary. As such, I engage with a lot of scary media--books, TV shows, movies, haunted houses, etc. While this is great to feed my need for scary stuff, it also sucks because not a lot truly scares me anymore. The last book I read that truly scared me was way back when I was a pre-teen, and that was Cujo by Stephen King. Most movies don't scare me to the point I can't sleep--at least not since I was a teen and watched the original "Candyman" in theaters with my friends. Yes, jump scares will always give me that immediate jolt of terror, but then it becomes comical. 

So this spooky season, I've decided it's time to push my limits just a little. To do so, I've started engaging with more real-life horror / scary stories, in addition to my favorite movies and haunted houses. 

Part of this is utilizing the app, Atlas Obscura. For those who don't know what that is, it's an app that you can use to find cool, strange places near your location. It gives you a brief history and whether you can visit. You can track the places you've visited and add your own notes so others can see them. It's really very cool. You should check it out. 

Anyway, back in September while I was in NY visiting family, me and my girls decided to try the app, and we stumbled upon The Love Canal containment zone.  If you're unfamiliar with this, I strong suggest you go watch this video. 

All done? Great! So me and my girls drove through this area, and yes, it's as spooky as it sounds. Granted, we were there in the middle of the day, but just knowing the history, seeing the fence, the dilapidated crumbling building, the desolation... definitely has a really creepy vibe. 

If you'd like to see our video of this, please GO HERE! Be warned: there's some coarse language. But you can see how abandoned this place looks, save for the two or three places still standing. Oddly enough, there's a vibrant community just a block away. 

Anyone else use the Atlas Obscura app? What do you think of it? 

Ever visited any place spooky or haunted before?

Thursday Thoughts: Marketing Genuis or Mad-cash Grab?

 

Recently, I read an 8-book series that started with a very short (50-ish pages) freebie prequel. As I often do, I studied this series and how the author did things in terms of the cover art, the blurbs, the style of the books, the overall marketing, etc. I mean, this is how most Indie authors learn: by watching how other authors do things. And I noticed a few things that led me down a deep rabbit hole. 

Here are my overall observations:

1. This free prequel was basically the inciting incident that would then lead the characters through the rest of the series. It ended abruptly and on a huge cliffhanger. (I find this very unique because what if I hadn't read the prequel first? What if I'd just jumped into book one? I wouldn't have seen some really important scenes / characters, because book 1 picks up exactly where the prequel ends.)

2. Each subsequent book in the series was short, too. Most came in under 150 pages each. There were 7 books in the series (not counting the prequel). 

3. Each book ended abruptly and on a cliffhanger. At the end, a direct link was given to click through and buy the next book. (This is very handy, and I think all authors should do this!)

4. The prequel was free. Book one was $0.99. Each book thereafter was $2.99.

5. Each book has essentially the same cover image with different color schemes and the corresponding titles. (Personally, this bugs me. I love an eye-catching cover, but if every single cover is different only in color and title, that easily confuses me and makes it hard to keep the books straight.)

Now, I'm not slamming or shaming this author at all! I fully support all artists being paid for their hard work. In fact, I really enjoyed the series, but the more I think about this, the more I'm left wondering: 

Do readers prefer books like this? 

Short continuous stories that feel more like serials than full novels?

I paid just shy of $16 for this series, which isn't bad when you think about it. I got 8 books in total (including the free prequel), but if you take time to think about the numbers (which I did), I'm not sure I got my money's worth. The author could have very easily combined all of these into 3 or 4 books, and at the end, as a consumer, I probably would've paid less overall. 

My Cursed Series is 7 books long, and they do end on cliffhangers, but each book is well over 300 pages / 100k words. So I don't necessarily feel "bad" about asking readers to pay $2.99 or even $4.99 for my books. I honestly feel like they're getting their money's worth. 

So my question to readers is this: Do you prefer a lot of shorter books all priced the same that also look the same, or a series of longer books all priced the same with all different cover art?

At the end of the day, the blurb is what ultimately sold me on this series, and I didn't pay much attention to the covers and pricing scheme until after I'd already finished buying and reading all of them. Am I mad that this type of marketing worked on me? A little, but I'm much more intrigued by this method, and that rabbit hole I fell down -- yeah, a LOT of indie authors are employing this publishing method. And a lot of them seem to have high rankings and stellar reviews. Maybe they're on to something here... 

 

Thursday Thoughts: Why that Genre?

 

Growing up, I was always reading something. Basically, whatever I could get my hands on. I used to love the Sweet Valley High series, and I read almost all of them. Then I moved on to V.C. Andrews -- Flowers in the Attic and whatever else she'd written. I was hooked by the twisted, often horrific stories she told. From there, I graduated to Dean Koontz and Stephen King. As a teen, I would watch The X-Files with my dad every week. I realized early on that I had a penchant for the dark and scary stuff, which has carried on through adulthood. Now, I find myself gravitating toward teen and adult thrillers, spooky / haunted non-fiction, horror movies, etc. The spookier and creepier the better. 

Yet, I write romance. 

I've had people ask me why. Why write romance when you seem to love all the scary, spooky, haunted, twisty thriller type stuff so much? And my answer is: I don't know. Honestly. I really don't. Maybe because I do read and watch so much of it that I worry I won't be able to come up with anything new or unique. Or maybe I'm just suffering from severe imposter syndrome and worry I won't be able to pull off a good thriller or horror novel. Though, I have started to shift toward more spookier stories, with my paranormal series. And I have started (and stopped) working on a few thrillers. 

But I'm coming to another realization: The more scary stuff I read, the more post-apocalyptic books I read, the more horror movies and shows I watch, the stronger my urge to write within this genre. And so I've decided I'm going to really put some effort into finishing a new book in one of these genres. 

Will I completely abandon writing romance? Absolutely not! Even within these other genres, there will be romantic subplots -- I can't not write romance into my books. I'm looking forward to this challenge!

Anyone else read or consume media that's outside of the genre they write? If so, what's your reasoning? Is there a genre you've always wanted to try writing? Got any tips for anyone just branching out? Share in the comments!

Thursday Thoughts: Social Time Suck

 

As authors, we're often told by our fellow authors, industry professionals, marketers, promoters, bloggers, readers and a host of other people that we have to be on social media. That we need to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Goodreads, and whatever new site pops up every so often. We need to post multiple times a day. We need to stay on top of all the new trends while being "real" and honest and commenting on large world events -- or even smaller conflicts within our community. 

Well, I'm here to ask WHY? Why do I need to do all of that stuff? I'm an author. My job is to write, isn't it? Shouldn't my focus be on writing books for people to read? Yeah, but... how will people know about your books if you're not on social media? 

Let me be clear that I'm not against social media. Just the opposite. I actually enjoy it when I'm using it organically and for fun. But when I'm actively trying to engage with readers or create content with the goal of garnering engagement, I find myself hating it. I come to loathe logging into my accounts. And spending so much time creating content, posting content, and then monitoring engagement takes valuable time away from the three things that are way more important: 

1. My family

2. My health

3. My writing

So, again, I find myself asking WHY? Why do I need to do all of this extra stuff? And the answer is: I don't! Do you know how freeing that is?? I don't have to spend hours every week scheduling engagement posts across all my social media platforms. I don't have to create content for my readers. And you want to know why? Because my books are my content. 

I write and publish books to entertain readers and engage with them on a deeper level. Does this mean I'm going to quit social media all together? Of course not. But instead of focusing on all the various platforms, I'm going to focus more of my time and effort on this blog, my newsletter, and writing my books. I'll share my blog posts to my social media profiles, and I'll post when I have something fun to share, but I'm no longer posting daily / weekly memes or questions. And you will never see me dancing on TikTok!

Goodbye social media time suck!

Got thoughts about this topic? 

Share them in the comments below.