If all goes well, I’ll finally issue an ebook release of my favorite Alex
Bellamy mystery, Fatal Encryption. The
print version appeared in 2008. What took me so long, you ask? Well, a
number of things.
Back then, I spent a great deal of time finding reviewers and preparing a mail-out to hundreds of libraries here in Canada. I joined forums, launched a social network
presence, and began blogging.
I was also working on my Casey Holland mysteries and starting
a new day job in security. Learning how to format an ebook was a daunting task,
and in those days a number of start-up publishers were accepting ebook
submissions.
So I signed with an American publisher, a relationship that lasted for two or
three years, but as neither of us were doing much marketing, few copies were
sold. By 2010, I’d also signed a contract with another publisher for the
Holland series, which resulted in publishing a book a year from 2011 to 2014.
A colleague told me about Draft 2 Digital, a company that
does ebook formatting in multiple platforms and only takes a small percentage
of each sale. I’ve heard great things from others about D2D, so this is the
route I’ve chosen for now.
This week, I also came across an interesting piece by Chris Meadows who
offers Kobo’s Mark Lefebvre’s thoughts on publishing pitfalls to avoid. The one
that caught my attention, and which I’m still struggling with, is price point.
Fatal Encryption is 370 print pages. Other than tweaking a word here and
there, and updating my front and back cover information, it pretty much stands
as is. I’m trying to decide whether to price the book at $1.99 or $2.99, or even higher? I don’t plan to write more Alex Bellamy mysteries, so it will be a stand-alone.
2 comments:
If this were me.... I would price it at $0.99 during a pre-order phase to gain initial interest, then I would raise the price to $4.99 on release day. I'd advertise the price is going up on release day so everyone you know gets an early copy and raises the books rankings on Amazon. Just a thought, based on my limited experience. I'll be on the pre-order list for a kindle copy!
Ah, I haven't thought of a pre-order price. Good advice! Given that the novel is a re-issue of the 2008 version, I doubt, though, that $4.99 will sell many books. If this was a brand new novel, then yes, absolutely. Still, this is well worth considering. Thanks, Kristina!
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