Progress so far on Count Taka and the Vampire Brides!
Manuscript draft: done. eBook draft hopefully correctly formatted.
Cover art still being tweaked a bit; hoping to have a final draft of that soon.
Back cover blurb set. Still need to write up a book description for the webpage entry on Amazon.
Category it fits into: Fantasy, Humorous, Romantic.
Aaaand here we come to one of the tricky parts: setting prices.
Going to bite the bullet right now and say the discrepancy in pricing between eBook and paperback is going to be even worse on Taka than on Net. Given the number of pages, CreateSpace says it’ll cost a little over $10 just to break even – their cut plus the cost of printing the book. In order for me to actually make a smidgeon of cash per paperback, the price will have to be at least $14. (Even at that, I’d make a bit less than I do on a copy of Net.)
I did some surfing on Amazon to look up self-published books of comparable length, and found prices ranging all the way up to about $30. Which, I have to say, what. Seriously, people. What.
Personally, I think a fair price for a book this size shouldn’t be above $15. So… I’m leaning toward putting it at either $14.99 or a flat $14 – because honestly, I think I might be more willing to buy a $14 book than a $15 one, especially given you could put it together with a cool manga and probably qualify for free shipping right there.
Thoughts? Opinions? Mutual arghs?
(And yes, there will be an eBook version published right along with it. I like a hard copy because I spend too much time in front of computer screens already, but I can’t deny eBooks can be much cheaper!)
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
14.00 is a little high, but it’s not to outrageous. Generally if I like the book I don’t mind having to pay for it. I don’t know much about this story but what I do know seems to be hilarious and I intend get a copy as soon as I can.
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Thanks! Still need to get cover done, then upload, proof copy, get LCCN… Still going to be at least a few weeks. *Knocks on wood!*
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I mean, if most of your ‘competition’, so to speak, are pricing at $30, I think you can totally get away with $15 at least. Depending on the actual page count of the book in question, I wouldn’t think twice of paying $15-25 for a somewhat impulsive book purchase. And if it’s an author I recognize and like? I’d easily add an extra $10 to what I’m willing to spend.
Even if I was unfamiliar with you and your work, I would have been okay with spending $15 on A Net of Dawn and Bones.
But then again, you are the one with access to the numbers on how well Net sold, not me.
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It actually looks like most people with a similar pagecount are pricing from about $14 to $20. But there are a few $30 books out there, some of which were only 200 pages, which is just… mind-boggling. 🙂 Thanks for the feedback!
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I am totally up for a $15 hard copy. A lot of the big paperbacks for mainstream books I’m buying now are $16 or $17.
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🙂 So I’ve got the right price range, then. Good to know!
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Have you thought of selling signed copies? You could charge more those, right?
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See my second comment below.
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I have done so with Net on eBay. Have had a few buyers that way. 🙂
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15$ sounds about right to me. Lots of new books hit that range and from what I remember, the ones that hit below that tend to be mass-market books from well-established authors from the best sellers list, and therefor have the power of bulk economics on their side.
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Heh, so true! Not anywhere near that point yet. 🙂
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Yeah, I’m going to be buying the physical copy(late birthday present! It’ll be awesome.), and $15 sounds fine. And I don’t have anything against e-books, it’s just that Amazon and I tend to have these…issues.
Admittedly, I’m happier if it makes a profit for you, so definitely go for it.
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Thanks! 🙂 Like I said, I love a physical book myself.
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That sounds perfectly fair. It’s… a bit disheartening to see how much the cost of a book is making it a book and not going to the author. (I understand the expense, and it’s cheaper than it’s ever been in history [especially ebooks, wow] but some deep part of me is sad that over a third of a book’s price is loss to the author. I guess books are like royalties- you don’t get very much for them /individually/ but you hope that they sell like ammo around Sanzo, antacids around General Hammond, or fish around a pride of Fanalis.)
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OTOH, it’s awesome that CreateSpace and places like it exist! Because I’ve tried going the traditional publishing route, and they’re just not interested unless they think they’ve got the next David Weber on the hook. Ouch.
(I did a bunch of research before deciding on CreateSpace. When published authors like Sarah Hoyt say “look, if you don’t fit what NYC thinks is In, you won’t get published” – well.)
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Oh, I can only imagine. And it does all end up working (hopefully it will end up working ratger well for you in the long run. *crosses fingers*)
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Thanks! I got a printed copy of the cover draft and ran it past librarians. I think there was squee. 🙂
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As someone who literally (and in public) squeed and knocked a friend over with a gratitute hug when presented with a signed copy of A Net of Dawn and Bones in February, they do exist.
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*G* Yep!
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15.50 is great. I’d buy a book of yours for 25 bucks, and an anthology of your fanfics would be wonderful no matter the price. Btw,fictionpress sequel?
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Would be cool if we could find someplace to print fanfics, wouldn’t it? I personally would love a copy of “Friends Across Borders”, full stop. And Sleeps With Coyote’s FF7 Mascotverse, and… ahem. *Sheepish G*
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Given my first exposure to fanfic I did print out(and still have a copy of), yes. I’d definitely put Urban Legends on there, Marvel DarkLore if I could ever find it again, Ellen Brand’s stuff…just a whole bunch, though I definitely understand the difficulties.
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Ellen Brand’s variant of Angel Grove is still Awesome. 🙂
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I’m guessing we’re talking 14USD-15USD for a physical copy, this seems to be well within the curve for pricing. Given the dual physical/digital format those who can’t justify spending so much for a physical copy will still be able to afford the ebook.
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Thanks for pointing that out! Yes, around $14-15 USD. And the eBook should be a lot cheaper, definitely. I have to say that’s one thing I like about the Amazon Kindle program being linked up with CreateSpace; you can put both out at the same time and people can get whatever they like. 🙂
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Assuming I’d never read any of your stuff before and had just randomly found the book, 15$ is sounds about right, with up to 20$ possible but getting more unlikely. Taking into account that I have read your stuff before and liked it a lot, I’d be willing to pay 20$ for it probably…
Well, 15 to 20 sounds about right to me at least.
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Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
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As someone who generally doesn’t have much money, I like the idea of a lower price. That being said, I like your work enough that you could probably go up to about $20 and I would still be willing to buy it.
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Thanks for the feedback! Going to try and make it as low as is reasonable. 🙂
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Check who is selling the self-pubs; from what I’ve read over at the Mad Genius Club, there are some bots that will buy the self-pub books and re-list them on Amazon.
Some just scan the price on other print on demand sites, then post it with their “I make a profit” price on Amazon, and wait for someone to buy; folks figured that out because it was sold out on the other POD places but still listed on Amazon, they ordered it and the “seller” canceled.
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Huh. Good to know – although some of the $30 I saw did seem to be the price on the official entry.
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The physical price doesn’t touch on me, much, because I buy e-books– everyone I know that reads the same kind of books is too far away to squee over a print book, but I can zip them an ebook no issue.
Incidentally, I’m using your Net book to kind of back-handedly teach an aspiring writer teen what she should try to do. 😉 She has some awesome ideas, but is…well, just starting.
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Hey, that’s how I learned! 🙂 That and lots and lots of thumping on a keyboard and using up sheets of scrap paper….
And whoof, yeah, these days most of the people who like to squee over Magi, etc. are people I contact via email. 🙂
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I’d buy it at 15. but i like to support my authors. 15’s not that outrageous since most books i get are like 20, 25. so choose what you think would be best for you. i’m buying it no matter what (unless it’s like 50, i don’t have that cash to drop o one book) so there’s that.
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Thing is, there actually turn out to be limits to how low CreateSpace will let me set the price, due to them needing to make money even if one’s bought in various out-of-the-U.S. locations. I’m hoping to be able to set it about $15-16 at the moment; still need to work out a few things with the cover art and get that approved to be sure, though!
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