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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Price is an issue in Publishing and then again...

If you follow the Amazon struggle with publishers then you know it is about the price of the ebook. This is what the war is being fought over. Should Amazon be allowed to undercut publishers and get a bigger cut of the profit.  It is true that people are price driven but then again there is that thing called quality. When I sold books at the Printers Row here in Chicago of The Pitcher I sold twenty five books.

Now I charged full bump and I had three hardcovers priced at twenty seven dollars. The people buying The Pitcher seemed to not care at all. Well you say that is because you had a captive market and no competition. Actually no. Right across from my booth was a discount bookseller who started at eight dollars a book and worked his way right down to one dollar a book. And he was not quiet about it.

As my people were paying sixteen dollars for my book and then twenty seven the guy selling discount books literally yelled across the aisle ALL BOOKS ARE A BUCK. Still people did not flinch they simply wanted to read the book. Now in Ebook land the .99 title is king. But there is a sneaking suspicion that people would spay 2.99 or 3.99 or 7.99  if they decided that was the book they wanted. And yes there are people who live for the cheap book but they are always there.

My point is that if someone wants your book they will pay just about anything for it. Price may be king in some areas but a good book has a funny way of setting it's own price. Or market.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
 

Books by William Hazelgrove