Tag Archives: pondering

Stuff and some more stuff and few things too

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Tiger's Peak

Why yes, yes that is my own goofy digital art, thank you. Anyway….

So lots of not very book related topics to get to this evening. I continue to pray for and send good thoughts to fellow blogger and amazing writer Sue Vincent for a speedy recovery. It doesn’t get any more genuine and kind than Sue.

I am looking forward to spending the majority of the evening cleaning up the explosion that happened in my bathroom when my washing machine flooded a foot of water into my bathroom, hallway and back storage closet. Thank heaven for the shop vac. Remind me to kiss the guy that invented that thing. Unless he’s dead in which case I will refrain and silently thank him from a distance.

I have decided to join the Rome Construction Crew over at Green Embers blog. You can find out more here: http://greenembers.wordpress.com/about/green-embers-rome-construction-crew/

My reasons? Well, I am a bit of a spazz. Like everyone wasn’t aware of this already. Really, I need to work on public speaking (I am awful at it) and I also get really nervous around people that I don’t know very well. I have a large crowd phobia. So I will do my best to get past this and work on improving the social me. I can hear my university mates laughing uproariously right now.

Tomorrow I will be doing an interview with David Hudnut–author, musician and artist extraordinaire and on Saturday I have an interview planned with the lovely author Carmen Stefanescu whose book, Shadows of the past, was recently featured on this blog. Busy days ahead and I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for the support you have shown to Readful Things and to me personally. You guys give me a reason to look forward to checking my messages every morning. Kisses and hugs.

I would love to see some further entries for my blog contest, I will be updating it with the info on when it is to end and so forth once I see a few more entries. You can find out more here: http://readfulthingsblog.com/2013/03/26/an-unfinished-story-a-blog-contest-from-readful-things/

I will leave you all with a question I have been pondering. I started this thing as a book blog. That was it, strictly books. I have been noticing that over time I have branched out to all types of topics, marketing, publishing, personal items about my life, interviews with everyone including some artists and non authors. Am I doing this thing right? Should I keep it just books or are you happy with the eclectic mix of stuff you find here?

Okay, enough rambling. I will leave you with another fantastically hmmm piece of my artwork.

All About the Benjamins: How much to charge for your ebook?

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The Porkinator     I have been noticing a pattern as I am perusing Amazon, and it has made me think about something I would like your opinion on. While I have chosen a lower-price-sells-more-books strategy for my own books and have been happy with the results, (I impulse buy all the time–books, Tic-Tacs–as seen on TV products at the registers) I have seen a rash of eBooks by relatively unknown self-published authors (Don’t hate you know I love you) that are weighing in with a pretty hefty price tag of 9.99 or more, even on their first book.

I have a mixture of thoughts on this. I understand that people work hard to produce their writing, covers, to market and what a stressful process it is to send your new baby out into the world and face the opinions of others. What I don’t get is how anyone can expect to sell enough books to get noticed in the first place if they make their book more expensive than the traditionally published books that actually have the big boy’s marketing efforts and advertising behind them.

I did a little experiment over the last couple of weeks. I singled out a couple of these authors and a couple others who published their books at the same time but charged a much lower price. What I have seen is pretty fascinating. Those with the lower priced books have gained in their Amazon ranking, have gotten more reviews. We can conclude from this that they have had some success selling more books. (I didn’t include anyone in this research project that has put their book up free for a promo during this time.) Those who are charging higher prices have since gone backward in ranking, and still have the same number of reviews that they did when I began scoping out their stats (how voyeuristic of me.)

I feel like the odds of getting someone to read my work when my book is at a lower price are much better than the odds of them picking it up for a higher price. I might buy a book for that much from an author who I am familiar with and has proven they can deliver, but rarely would I pay that much for a book from an unknown, except on rare occasions where I might have heard about them from someone I trust or followed a blog tour of their book.

I have no problem with an author believing in their own work. You have to if you are going to make it in this business and I get that. For me, I would rather sell A thousand copies at 1.99 than I would sell one at 10.99. I want to get my work out there to as many people as I possibly can and have them spread the word. If a lower price means I can do that, then that is fine with me. I don’t feel that it degrades my work at all to offer up something that is priced to move. What do you all think? How much is too much for a new author to charge for their book?

What Genre Is Your Personal Favorite?

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Do you have a favorite genre, and if so, how did it become your favorite? I realized after looking at my bookshelf the other day how varied my interests seem to be, and yet I do have my favorite genres that I seem to go back to when nothing else seems interesting. So, that prompted curiosity, and I also think the writers amongst my group of followers would be curious to know, How do you pick your books when you are shopping? Do you go by category to search for titles, or do you just find something that looks randomly interesting? For me, it depends on how I am shopping. I am much more likely to go by category shopping online than in a physical bookstore where I can wander and actually handle the books. What do you guys do?

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?

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What would you be doing if you weren’t doing what you are? We all settle into our daily routines and after while they become second nature. I know that I don’t usually stop to think about everyday life much of the time. I just do what I do and keep moving forward. Still in moments like when I took this photo, the world slows for a brief while and I wonder, do each of us have a calling and how do we know if we have reached out and taken what is supposed to be ours? When I am not behind a book, my goal is to photograph the world. I have never claimed to be very good at it, but I do like my camera and I have an awful lot of fun doing it. What do you like to do when you aren’t at your day job?  Would love to hear your thoughts.