Sunday, August 28, 2011

My writing week: Issue 35, year 4

Hi all,

I wrote every day last week. That’s a huge change from recent weeks. But it was all for an article I am writing on gardening for Divine. As the article does not have any fabulous quotes from great interviewees, and does not impart any startling information, its style was all the more important. I ended up writing something a bit more whimsical then my usual writing.

Divine recruitment 

Divine online magazine have started a recruitment campaign for Victorian writers with disabilities. The articles you write should have a disability element. I have enjoyed writing for them, and hope to continue to do so.

Still not writing any fiction

Then will I have a good fiction writing week? I haven’t had one in months. Too busy trying to duck the shit life has been throwing at me over the past couple of years.

The pessimist in me is yelling, why the bother. You will probably just start getting into a fiction writing groove and then a gigantic wombat will crap all over you. My optimism is still on an extended holiday. Last I heard, it had been disappeared somewhere in Afghanistan.

But, hopefully this week I can make a start on a fiction writing routine.

99c seems to be the price for ebooks

I have not checked the top 100 Kindle bestsellers since the end of April. This is what I found then:
Fifty-two of the ebooks were $2.99 or less, with 28 at 99c and 12 at $2.99. Twelve were $9.99. There were none priced at $12.99.

When I just checked, only four Kindle ebooks were $2.99. Four were also $1.99, but a whopping 41 were 99c. Twenty were priced between $3 and $7.98. Six were $7.99 and only 22 were more than $8. So 99c is increasingly its lead on a race to the bottom.

And remember, free ebooks have a separate bestseller list. If trends from last year have continued, free ebooks would now probably make up 100 per cent of a combined kindle bestseller list.

4 comments:

Ethan said...

With free ebooks, you probably get what you pay for. Course, I'm a diehard library guy so I suppose I would be sifting through the freebook garbage pail if I had no other options.

Sorry to hear that you've stopped writing fiction. I always find it difficult to pull out of a slump. You still working on the rainbow story?

Graham Clements said...

Hi Ethan,

I have just read my first free ebook, Turing Evolved, by David Kitson. It needed a good edit, but the story was still a compelling one. I enjoyed it. The author asked for a donation at the end of the novel, I sent him $8.

As of this year, I have adopted a policy of not buying any ebook novel for less than $5. So I won't be able to find out how good or bad the rest of the free ebooks are. (I downloaded Turing Evolved at the end of last year. I also will buy novellas, short stories, and articles for less than $5)

I plan to get back to the rainbow story in a few minutes.

Karen Tyrrell said...

Hi Graham,
Your thoughts on eBook pricing was thought provoking. I thought the 'million book' sellers sell their books for 99c and if you charged more than that you wouldn't sell many books. I'll definitely have to research more into that topic

Graham Clements said...

Hi Karen,

There are two distinct categories of writers selling a lot of ebooks. Established brands like Michael Connelly who sell their ebooks for about $9 and primarily ebook authors like John Locke who sell for 99c.

An unbranded new author has probably little chance of selling many ebooks at $9. Midlist authors will probably try and occupy the territory under $9 to however low they think will increase their sales. Most new self-publishing authors will probably charge $2.99 or less. And it seems that 99c is the price many are choosing.