Comments on: An author’s experience with Kindle publishing http://www.teleread.org/2008/11/25/an-authors-experience-with-kindle-publishing/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:38:33 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: April L. Hamilton http://www.teleread.org/2008/11/25/an-authors-experience-with-kindle-publishing/comment-page-1/#comment-970440 April L. Hamilton Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:55:31 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=13917#comment-970440 I've published two novels and a how-to reference book on self-publishing in both trade paperback and Kindle formats, though not as any sort of experiment or through any desire to get feedback on rough drafts. I initially began with a deeply-discounted price on the my two Kindle novels, but through discussions with Kindle owners I learned that within reason, price point isn't what sells the book---availability of a free excerpt and good reviews from other Kindle owners do. Nobody wants to pay more than about $9.99 for a Kindle book, and since I'm not a "name brand" author I've priced my novels at about half that. It took a great deal of work and time to get the heavily-illustrated how-to book published for the Kindle and therefore I feel OK about setting its price point higher. Anyway, the process can seem daunting to someone who isn't well-versed in HTML, but you don't really have to know HTML to successfully publish for the Kindle. In fact, I've written a free, how-to guide to show other authors how to do it. The guide can be accessed at my website: http://www.aprillhamilton.com/iaguides.html#IAGFree And here's a tip...Amazon seems to want most Kindle books priced no higher than $9.99, so even if you set the retail price of your book a few dollars higher, they will most likely discount it to $9.99. However, as the author/publisher, you're entitled to a royalty of 35% of the book's original retail price on each sale, regardless of what the book actually sold for. So I set the price on my how-to book at $12.99 and even though Amazon has kept the book 'on sale' for $9.99 since day one, I get 35% of $12.99 for each copy sold. Finally, if you set your price a few dollars higher than the target price of $9.99 for the sake of the slightly higher royalty but Amazon does NOT discount it, and it seems your sales are suffering as a result, you can always change the price to $9.99 yourself. That means your royalty is 35% of $9.99 instead of 35% of some higher retail price, but the trade-off may be worthwhile if the lower price drives more sales. I’ve published two novels and a how-to reference book on self-publishing in both trade paperback and Kindle formats, though not as any sort of experiment or through any desire to get feedback on rough drafts.

I initially began with a deeply-discounted price on the my two Kindle novels, but through discussions with Kindle owners I learned that within reason, price point isn’t what sells the book—availability of a free excerpt and good reviews from other Kindle owners do. Nobody wants to pay more than about $9.99 for a Kindle book, and since I’m not a “name brand” author I’ve priced my novels at about half that. It took a great deal of work and time to get the heavily-illustrated how-to book published for the Kindle and therefore I feel OK about setting its price point higher.

Anyway, the process can seem daunting to someone who isn’t well-versed in HTML, but you don’t really have to know HTML to successfully publish for the Kindle. In fact, I’ve written a free, how-to guide to show other authors how to do it. The guide can be accessed at my website:
http://www.aprillhamilton.com/iaguides.html#IAGFree

And here’s a tip…Amazon seems to want most Kindle books priced no higher than $9.99, so even if you set the retail price of your book a few dollars higher, they will most likely discount it to $9.99. However, as the author/publisher, you’re entitled to a royalty of 35% of the book’s original retail price on each sale, regardless of what the book actually sold for. So I set the price on my how-to book at $12.99 and even though Amazon has kept the book ‘on sale’ for $9.99 since day one, I get 35% of $12.99 for each copy sold.

Finally, if you set your price a few dollars higher than the target price of $9.99 for the sake of the slightly higher royalty but Amazon does NOT discount it, and it seems your sales are suffering as a result, you can always change the price to $9.99 yourself. That means your royalty is 35% of $9.99 instead of 35% of some higher retail price, but the trade-off may be worthwhile if the lower price drives more sales.

]]> By: Kat Meyer http://www.teleread.org/2008/11/25/an-authors-experience-with-kindle-publishing/comment-page-1/#comment-970025 Kat Meyer Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:33:32 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=13917#comment-970025 Hey Paul: I'd agree with the author regarding his experience with trying to get feedback. For a few of our Kindle Books, we have included a link w/in the book to an online page (formatted to work w/in the Kindle experimental browser) asking for some basic feedback on the book and on the Kindle reading experience of the book. We've gotten nothing - and, Kindle did not make it easy to insert this kind of questionnaire into the Kindle process. Which is a shame, since interaction with readers, or between readers seems one of the more obvious possible benefits of a Kindle(or other e-reader)format book as opposed to your plain old p-books. It's early in the game, and hopefully we'll soon see these kinds of reader feedback/interaction capabilities integrated into the publisher side of ebooks. Hey Paul:
I’d agree with the author regarding his experience with trying to get feedback. For a few of our Kindle Books, we have included a link w/in the book to an online page (formatted to work w/in the Kindle experimental browser) asking for some basic feedback on the book and on the Kindle reading experience of the book. We’ve gotten nothing – and, Kindle did not make it easy to insert this kind of questionnaire into the Kindle process. Which is a shame, since interaction with readers, or between readers seems one of the more obvious possible benefits of a Kindle(or other e-reader)format book as opposed to your plain old p-books.
It’s early in the game, and hopefully we’ll soon see these kinds of reader feedback/interaction capabilities integrated into the publisher side of ebooks.

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