TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Rob Preece’ Category

By Rob Preece, founder of BooksForABuck.com

Moderator: See earlier item on e-book pricing. Unrelated: Rob’s test of BookGlutton’s ePub conversion. Try it yourself. - D.R.

Sometimes you can’t win for losing. E-books get dinged for being “too expensive.” But offer great books at super-affordable prices instead—and you might get attacked for that.

Pricing is one of the most controversial aspects of e-books. When I started BooksForABuck.com, my market research indicated that many e-book publishers had set price points above those charged by traditional publishers for paper books. I love e-books and can understand charging more for the portability, adjustable font, and convenience. The problem is, you have to try e-books before you discover the advantages. My market research indicated that high prices kept many from bothering.

Logical savings for the reader

There is a logic that if a publisher doesn’t need to pay for paper, for shipping, invest in printing thousands of books that might not sell and might get returned at some future point, there should be a savings for the reader. That made sense to me. Certainly for small publishers, the cost of printing is non-trivial, and the risks of offset printing a quantity (as opposed to the extremely high price for POD printing) are substantial.

I came up with the “Books For A Buck” concept and sampled everyone I could reach; a high percentage indicated that they’d be intrigued by affordable books, and that a buck was a heck of a price. Many of them indicated that they’d be willing to experiment with a new author if they could buy a book at a price low enough that they wouldn’t feel too disappointed if they ultimately didn’t enjoy it.

(more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

By David Rothman

Who says Rob Preece, a TeleBlog regular, is just a former FCC economist and publisher of BooksForABuck? He’s a novelist, too. And the cover and blurb for his new book show signs of a wicked and quirky imagination that just might appeal to some members of the TeleBlog community.

No, I haven’t read A Really Bad Hair Day: The Return of Magic Plague, among Rob’s more than half a dozen books. But the cover of this one, now on sale at Fictionwise as a multiformat title without DRM, really caught my eye. Without the least prompting from Rob or his store or FW, I’ll share the blurb with you, and then perhaps you can follow the just-given ARBHD link for a peek at Chapter 1:

“Lawyer Erin Tsong knows how to put on her game face, intimidate an opposing witness, play tough, but there’s such a thing as carrying intimidation too far. At least that’s what the judge says when she grows snakes out of her head.

(more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

By Rob Preece, founder of BooksForABuck.com

Moderator’s note: Will e-books really help the typical reader save money? Here are some Kindle-related thoughts from Rob Preece, owner of BooksForABuck.com—trained as an economist. - DR

First, you’ve got to assume a useful life—and consider the discount rate. I’m going to assume your e-book reader lasts three years and ignore the discount rate, which is about comparing a buck spent now with a buck saved in a couple of years. For most of us saving a dollar a couple of years from now is not as valuable as saving a dollar now.

Let’s assume you buy your Kindle at $400 and you regularly read best-sellers in paperback at $20 each, but you now buy them for Kindle at $10 each (and we’ll assume that Amazon keeps the $9.99 pricing).

Repaying the $400

To pay for your Kindle, you’ve got to buy enough books to repay your $400 from the savings. Which is 40 books. Over three years, that’s 13.33 books a year. Which would make you a fairly heavy reader.

Now, if you normally wait for books to come out in paperback, your savings drop dramatically. For example, you can buy Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett in paperback for $6.99. On the Kindle, you save 20% or $1.40. At a savings of $1.40 a book, it would take you 286 book purchases to repay your Kindle or 95 a year.

Let’s make this a bit more real by assuming you read a mix of paperbacks and new best-sellers. As long as you buy at least one best-seller a month, and a couple of paperbacks, you’re talking break-even. Adding a modest discount rate (say 10%) means a few more books, but not too bad.

Makes sense if you buy new best-sellers regularly

Bottom line: As long as you buy best-sellers new on a regular basis, you actually can come out ahead with the Kindle. It’s rougher with the Sony because Sony doesn’t discount so much from cover price (if at all).

(more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]

By Rob Preece, founder of BooksForABuck.com

Moderator’s note: Photo is of Maxwell Perkins, who, as an editor for Charles Scribner’s Sons, added value to the works of such immortals as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe. - DR

I’m as fond of free books as anyone. Project Gutenberg is a wonderful service, and I am grateful for all of the volunteers and contributors who’ve made this resource possible.

So many great works of the past were either inaccessible or available only in high-cost collectible books until Gutenberg began its epic construction of the new universal library.

The glories of the weed-out

That said, I’m also a publisher. It’s my job to weed through a vast host of not-so-good books and pick out the ones that stand out, that represent story-telling at its best. It’s also my job to work with the authors of these very best books, to help them hone their talents, to strip out the fluff, and to then convert the polished novels into a variety of formats (primarily electronic but also paper).

In addition, it’s my job to help these select and talented authors earn money for all of the hundreds of hours they’ve put into their novels by marketing their works, by arranging distribution for their works, and by paying them regularly. For every book I publish, I probably reject a dozen. For me, every book I publish represents a hundred or more man-hours of research, editing, and production—and then there’s marketing.

E compared to P

In the traditional world of paper publishing, a book went on sale, remained on the shelves of bookstores for a month or three, and then vanished. Velocity was key and “out of print” a meaningful and painful prospect. But we in the e-publishing world live on the Long Tail. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

By Rob Preece, founder of BooksForABuck.com

Moderator’s note: We’re pleased to welcome Rob Preece as a regular TeleBlog contributor. I haven’t always agreed with his comments on others’ posts, but I’ve enjoyed them, and as a publisher and bookstore operator, he’ll offer his own special perspective. - David Rothman

I discovered e-books as the ideal mix of my love for books and my one-time career in technology.

Because I read and write science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and romance, I opened the small electronic publisher, BooksForABuck.com, specifically to address these genres of fiction.

I believe that e-publishing offers the opportunity to expand the reading audience, so I’ve made a point of setting a price point that will encourage people to try new authors and take a chance with reading. Although I’m not a fan of DRM, I’m a true believer that authors and publishers create value and deserve to be paid for it.

When I’m not reading or writing, I study the martial arts, fence, plan long distance bicycle trips, and I’m a professional bridge instructor. You can find out more about me at my blog.

Popularity: 2% [?]