Finally uploaded the improved formatting version of my electric books to Apple, which also means I finally increased the price to match what I had raised it to over at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Didn't feel right increasing the price before I could get the new files uploaded, which was an option. Price changes can be done through the website. Book files cannot. Go figure. So, there was a very narrow window in which the books were cheaper at Apple than elsewhere.
Still standing by my price increase; even though, I have found books in the $2.99 to $3.99 price range. Still makes me feel a little silly for going with $4.99, but screw it. I'm not jacking the price around. Electric books are still way too expensive. The vast majority of things I am actually interested in reading are still $9.99 or more. Whole thing still makes me freaking angry.
It's got nothing to do with supply and demand. The reason so many books are $9.99 is that is the Amazon pricing structure cut-off. Go above $9.99 and Amazon gets 70% of the price instead of 30%. This is also why you'll find so many $2.99 books. Go any lower and again Amazon takes 70%. The reason I'm pointing out Amazon's pricing structure is because most publishers want a consistent price across bookstores so if you're going to charge $9.99 at Amazon to stay within that 30% window then you're also going to charge $9.99 everywhere else.
The whole supply and demand thing is also pretty much bullshit when you don't have any freaking inventory. It's all about choosing the minimum number of people you are prepared to have buy your book and how rich you think you're going to get from that. It's got nothing to do with how many people can afford to buy your shit. It's all about how many are going to pay regardless of whether or not they can afford it. Never giving a shit about what people are going without in order to meet your need for money.
Makes me break out in a rash just thinking about the price of my books. Wanted a lower point but I feel like I'm rubbing up against something else. Not the price point. The worth point. Much stranger. Much harder to describe or define. Lot of people are probably using the worth point to justify their over-inflated prices. Sleeping well at night because they place the worth point much higher than the humanitarian point.
Oh, well, don't listen to me. I'm just making shit up as I go. Humanitarian point? Seriously?
Oh, and before anybody gives me shit about my price point. Calling me a hypocrite or anything like that. Saying I bitch out other people for setting their prices much too high.
Hard to beat free. All I've got to say. Anybody who really, really needs to read one of my books can do absolutely that for absolutely free simply by downloading a copy from my website. No questions asked. Buy a copy if you feel like supporting the author and want to encourage the possibility that the author might write more. Purchases done through online bookstores pretty much for the convenience factor. If there was enough demand, and by demand I mean one or two whole people asking for it, I would go through the hassle of figuring out how to do one of those PayPal donation boxes. Lock out the big chain electronic bookstores all together.
Free? Didn't you just finish ranting about worth? What's free mean about worth?
Yeah, I know. Shut up. I'm making this shit up as I go. Books cost too much. Still makes me angry. Everything else is pretty much just frothing at the mouth.