I am publishing a collection of short stories as an e-book. In this week’s blog posts I’m trying to work through the relevant pricing issues and set a price for that content.
More than once in my life I’ve had someone tell me they would like to own ItemX. When I asked how much ItemX cost, however, the person replied with, “I don’t know.”
Now, it’s not very often in our commercially saturated lives that we encounter a product which is outside our pricing experience. And that’s particularly true if we know enough about the product to know we want it. Which is why, when this scenario unfolds before me, I invariably respond like this: “Is it a dollar? A million dollars? Ten dollars? A hundred dollars? Ten hundred millions dollars?” And on and on, until the person calmly replies that one of those numbers is close to the mark.
Most products have a price range that we’re familiar with. If you say you’re looking for a used car, that’s probably not going to be a $2,000,000 antique. If you say you’re looking for an office chair, that’s probably $100, or $200 max. If you say a good office chair, then that’s an Aeron, so maybe $750.
So…what pops into my head if you mention you just bought a collection of short stories — by which I mean a print book? $12. Why? Well, until a few days ago I had no idea, but now I realize it’s because I’m doing some simple subliminal math relative to the twelve-story collection I intend to publish. (More on that here.)
One disadvantage I do have is that I’m not a book buyer by vice. I’ve learned some rough price ranges for print books (now also being called p-books) and e-books from all the reading I’ve done over the past half year, but even at that I’m still vague on the criteria that determines price in any specific case. So I’m telling you my gut reaction here, not what I objectively know to be true.
One bit of good news is that the floor on any price is $0, meaning I only have to truly flail at one end of the price range. (Having already rejected the free/freemium pricing model I still have to figure out where my price range starts, but at least the total range will be smaller.) I think the high end for a contemporary p-book collection of short stories — without getting into rare books and first editions and such — is probably something like $15 or $20 dollars, but even there I’m not sure if that would be the paperback price or the hardcover price. (I’m thinking paperback, but again, that’s a guess.)
One benefit of this admittedly narrow range, however, is that no matter how completely whack my decision-making process is, I can’t really go too far wrong in any absolute sense. I mean, I’m not going to crunch a bunch of numbers and end up with some insane mathematical proof that my short story collection should sell for $293. Even if $15 for an e-book might be considered no-way-anybody-will-pay-it crazy, it’s not $293 crazy.
Right now my gut tells me that the theoretical high-end price of an e-book collection of twelve short stories is an even $12. That price keeps coming up because it’s $1 per story, and I have hard time thinking of any story I wrote as worth less than a buck. (If it would help total sales to sell at $0.99, I’d obviously go there.) But my gut also tells me that the whole collection should be discounted from the $1 per-story price, precisely because people are (theoretically) willing to buy more than one story at a time. Just as three lemons might get you a fourth one free, or a dozen doughnuts will net you one more at no change (the proverbial baker’s dozen), it seems as if a larger purchase of my content should be discounted relative to the price of acquiring each story individually.
Whether I think that’s an incentive to the customer, or just fair, I’m not sure. (Maybe there’s no distinction; maybe it’s a win-win.) I just have the feeling that the price range I’m coming to terms with is something like $10 at the high end. Because I’m not giving the content away I know the low end will be higher than $0, but I don’t really have a fix on what it might be. A big part of the equation is the degree to which I think a lower price might increase purchases (readers) while keeping overall profit the same.
In fact, I think that question will probably be the subject of my next post. As for now, a price range between, say, $4 and $10 strikes me as not objectionable or insane. That’s a six dollar spread, and if I made the theoretical top-end price $9.99 the entire range of considered prices would be in the single digits.
What’s the right number in that range? Is the right number in that range?
I have no idea.
— Mark Barrett
Here’s a data point for you — and just a data point, so realise that generalising from it would be a mistake.
I’m not interested in a single short story no matter how cheap. It’s below the minimum unit I’m interested in paying for.
I am, however, interested in collections of short stories. The price a take chances on is about ten bucks. Much more than that and you’re asking for more than a novel from Amazon Kindle (well before the MacMillan debacle anyway — and I haven’t bought an ebook since). Much less and you’re saying your work is worthless.
So here’s my recommendation: $9.99. Then market the hell out of it.
Brad,
That’s an interesting data point. I noted elsewhere recently that there’s clearly a difference between music and fiction as mediums, including the fact that songs have a longer shelf life. Many people will listen to songs more than once; few people are going to read a short story over and over.
Your note points out a second difference. Music is often a hits-driven business to the point of absurdity. One song on a CD/album may explode in popularity, while the other 13 or 14 remain virtually unknown. Individually-priced songs were a long-overdue, angrily-demanded response to the music business’s habit of holding individual hits hostage to the full cost of a $15 CD.
None of that is true for short stories. I’ve never heard anyone describe a short story as a hit, or as having a great beat that you can dance to. I’ve never heard of anyone obsessing over an individual short story except in the case of actual clinical obsession, and even then I’ve never heard of it. A short story never takes off as a pop-culture anthem, or as a groove that is at one and the same time its own itch and scratch. And a short story never seems as if it is being held hostage to the collection it comes from. If anything, individual short stories — even in magazines like the New Yorker — have always seemed oddly (even uncomfortably) alone to me.
Thanks for the great data point. 🙂
I think $1.99 is going to be the sweet spot for digital publishing, maybe a bit less. I suggest you take a look at Eddie Stack’s new multi media collection of short stories, paintings, music, and audio stories entitled The West. (The west of Ireland) I bought it as an iPhone app for $1.99. There were bugs in the app and some dud stories as well. There were also some fine stories and some good music (not all). The paintings included would not enlarge, nor were they related to the stories. Type could not be enlarged easily. Even so, there were enough good stories I’d buy another collection (maybe for as much as $4) when they are available as digital downloads. I suggested to the publisher, they create a PC/Mac version of the collection as well. Despite all the hype about Kindles and iPhones, MOST people do not have them, so a PDF version covers more bases.
As for price–reality is most used books are available on Amazon for 1 cent plus $3.99 postage. If I want to try out some unknown (to me) writer’s short stories, $4 is the top limit. I can walk down to the two local used bookstores and pick up ten books of short stories for $1 (we’re not even considering my walking over to the library for some free short stories..) If I’m going to spend $10 (your top limit) I’m going to spread the risk far and wide buying ten books of short stories by ten writers. Even if 8 are duds, I’m still ahead of the game compared to buying your one book.
The point of iTunes is that it makes trying out music VERY low risk. You don’t like some music you bought, well, you’re only out 99 cents. Books take much longer to enjoy/experience. I don’t want to be out of both time AND money to buy a book it turns out I did not like. Yes, you work as hard as any well known writer, but the customer doesn’t see that. An analogy would be music concerts–nobody pays the same thing to go to a big name performer’s concert as to an unknown’s. People are loathe to risk both time AND money.
I also suggest you do some readings for free posted on YouTube. (NOT those dreadful things posted of writer’s readings at bookstore signings.) but a good audio version of you reading some of your stories. There’s a free sample AND publicity.
Joel,
Thanks for the pointer to Stack. Every time I look at what someone else is doing I learn a bit myself.
I don’t have to worry about images and such, so I’ll probably go the .epub route, but I agree that .pdf is a simple (if flawed) solution to all the problems you describe.
https://ditchwalk.com/2010/02/16/open-source-epub-vs-adobe-pdf/
Your points about specific prices and risk are really helpful. I agree with you about the bookstores and the library, and how easy it is for a reader to lower their own risk of exposure to failed content — and I’m pretty sure that dedicated readers (who aren’t millionaires) do such things reflexively. (And as to your Amazon point, I had forgotten to think hard about how an e-book defeats shipping costs.)
As to doing my own readings, I don’t know that I have the voice or talent for that, but I could certainly find someone who does. Thanks for the excellent tip(s)!
ah, mark, pricing. we’ve ha a go at this before i believe. but yes, at least you’re in the ballpark–$4-$10.
i am interested in publishing some of my short stories in print, but in the meanwhile i’m giving them away on Year Zero (http://yearzerowriters.wordpress.com) and on my website.
it’s brad’s contention that anything less and we are valuing our own work as worthless. *cringe*
admittedly, i won’t buy a book for a base of more than $4, new, used, or with wings. because i know that if it is a mainstream print paperback, they’ve made their money by a 100% margin already. but the intellectual value of a book? well, who can put a price on that? (oh, wait, i think i did in this post back in november: http://dontpublishme.blogspot.com/2009/11/for-writers-get-off-your-ass-whether.html)
good luck, mark, and i will gladly pay $4 for your anthology; even though I’ll give you mine for free.
here’s the link to the PDF as it is right now (with no typos):
http://29jobsandamillionlies.com/attachments/anthology2009.pdf
best,
~jenn
@revolucion0
Hi Jenn,
As a reminder (including to myself), I have no idea if I’m right about any of this. I know what approach you’re taking, I know what Levi’s doing, and I’m watching it all. This is simply my own attempt to balance on one rock and leap to the next — across a raging stream, in thick fog, at night.
It’s fascinating that most people seem to agree on the general price ranges for content, but that even small variations seem huge in the context of such a narrow spread. (I am particularly prone to the ill effects of looking at something too deeply. If a dress just needs a splash of gold at the ear to set it off, I can easily become consumed by the detailing of each candidate earring.)
Your note about the $4 price point is interesting. As noted in the post, I just don’t buy a lot of books (p-books or e-books), so I really don’t know what the market prices are these days. $4 keeps coming up, though, and this fits with some other data points I’ve gathered. (And $4 is not always $4. A $4 e-book is a different beast than a $4 p-book w/shipping included — and particularly so from the point of view of the author’s bank account.)
if i could develop an iphone app that would deliver a consistent (weekly at the least) stream of short stories, i would sell the app for $4, which is steep in iphone app land, but i’d be interested in seeing what the response would be. iphone apps with a finite amount of content in them don’t appeal to me. it’s the promise of more (i’m SO american) that gets me going. that’s why an anthology is interesting because it seems like there will always be more. i love short stories, so i’m a little biased.
the good thing is that you are publishing this piece, and you will break even. if you invested your time in getting some dickface publisher, then you would lose your time and your marketing dollars to the thieving bastards. so you are in control. and remember, the naive souls who put their work in the hands of publishers have ZERO input on the pricing of their work. imagine that.
~jenn