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Are reader pricing expectations and retailer royalty rules influencing how authors structure their books?

7/8/2011

9 Comments

 
Before I begin this blog, I would like to state that it is in no way meant as a criticism of authors who are making business decisions about how and what they write. Neither is it a comment on any individual person or persons, but is rather a general observation.

There is growing concern amongst authors that increasing ‘race to the bottom’ pricing of 99c for ebooks is devaluing books generally.

But my concern is a little different. And it is this. I believe that the pressure to set a book at the lowest price accepted by a retailer is driving authors to write particular sorts of books in a particular sort of way in order to stand a chance of earning a living. And this in turn is determining – or will do, as these books become available – the sort of books readers have to buy.

A short background for those unfamiliar with ebook pricing and royalty. For most authors, their biggest market is reached via Amazon. If you price an Amazon book at less than $2.99 (or UK equivalent) you get 35% royalty. If you price it between $2.99 - $9.99 you get 70%. So if you price a book at 99c you will need to sell 6 times as many to earn the same return as pricing it at $2.99. A discouragement, you may think. But Amazon’s algorithms for advertising mean that the more copies you sell, the more your book will be recommended to others. And authors are competing to reach the most customers.

Now, back to the original problem. An author can spend a year or more writing a full-length, intricate novel (general and historical fiction are usually the longest) and price it at $2.99. But this is a huge investment of time for a huge risk. It’s very difficult to get new work noticed. Even if you already have one successful book, you will usually need your second to be very similar or preferably a sequel to the first in order to benefit from the first book’s success. Meanwhile, writers of traditionally shorter genres (eg romance, paranormal) can write 2 books a year and still price at $2.99 (pricing above $2.99 now works for very few indie fiction authors unless they already have a big following).

But what if your book isn’t getting noticed? Especially when, for so many readers, 99c is now the expected price? So you drop your price to 99c (you can price between 99c - $2.99 but it’s something of a no man’s land, being lower royalty). But if you’re going to set the same price and get the same royalty for a book that takes you 6 months to write as one that takes a year, then surely you’re better writing 2 shorter books and getting double the income.

And it doesn’t stop there. If you plan that your book will be priced at 99c then why write as much as 50K words? Surely you would be better to write 4 books of 25K words each. But isn’t 25K words a novella, you ask? Well, yes, if it’s a stand-alone book. But if it’s part of a series then maybe it’s just a different way of dividing a book up, like publishing it as 4 or 5 short sections rather than one full length work. And there’s the added advantage that if readers don’t like the first book you’ve only wasted 2 months’ work.  

I’m already seeing authors plan their genre novels as series of very short reads. It makes good business sense to do so. Now, if it were an artistic decision to write books in this way because that’s how you want to write and it’s how readers want to read, then that’s fine. But if it’s a choice, very much influenced by the best way to earn a living, then that isn’t so good. If reader expectation of pricing, and retailer contracts on royalty are persuading authors to structure their writing in this way, then what future is there for the intricate, complex, full-length novel with plots and sub-plots? Will the writing of this traditional fiction be relegated to a hobby for the comfortably off?


Comments in response to this post are very welcome. However, comments containing detailed author earnings or sales figures will not be displayed as I believe the constant publication of this data is not helpful to new writers and has probably helped cause the pricing issues we now have.
9 Comments
Dan Holloway link
7/8/2011 04:17:34 am

It's interesting seeing you come at this issue from this perspective. I am almost certainly one of the troublemakers, but I have been part of the wave of writers who've come at the novella/epublishing question from the other side - we're already seeing a renaissance in the novella form, which has to be fantastic news for people who love stories. The novella has been commercially unviable for writers for decades, with publishers not wanting to know, and so one of our great art forms has been almost lost. Self-publishing, and epublishing in particular, have opened the door again for the novella, which is wonderful news.

I've structured one of my projects as a series of 25k reads, but strictly for artistic reasons. They're most decidedly not novellas. I publish novellas by other writers and am absolutely bowled over with admiration for them and others who've mastered this form - for me it's the hardest to write with its absolute clarity of purpose and single-minded narrative. Mine is more intended to resemble a high class TV mini series. It's a very big question which is superior - the film or the mini-series, and I imagine something similar may happen with novels and serial books. A serial has very different narrative demands - there has to be an arc for each book as well as an overall arc, and there is fantastic scope for episodically exploring characterisation, and for weaving many many sub-plots. I'm finding it incredibly exciting. And very challenging.

I don't think it's possible to call into question the artistic integrity of the serial as a form - amongst many other things, I think 2666 has settled that one. As for writers making the decisions they do for business reasons and art suffering - well, for decades people who should have been writing novellas have squeezed extra words out to make their books into novels for business reasons. I don't see the difference.

Reply
Ali Cooper
7/8/2011 05:15:58 am

I wouldn't call you a troublemaker, Dan! It's interesting your mentioning a TV mini-series because I'd equate this sort of writing in the way you're doing it with something that would run for 30-45 mins each episode, eg, Dr Who or Buffy. If they work on TV then I don't see why they shouldn't do so in books.

The problem area is if writers of longer fiction feel they have to divide it into similar chunks. I understand Stephen King tried this and the reader who mentioned it wasn't impressed.

Reply
Dan Holloway link
7/8/2011 05:29:57 am

:) I use HBO in the pitch (I'd love to think of it as paranormal written by the people behind The Wire).

Stephen King is interesting - his was the first instance I came across of someone really seeing what could be done online, many many years ago. I have to say I admire the way he always seems to be at the cutting edge of things, but yes, as many of his experiments fall flat as succeed!

Reply
Jonah Gibson link
7/8/2011 07:20:32 am

Thanks, Ali. Your post is thought provoking, as is Dan's comment. I would agree that market considerations influence both the form and nature of writing, but hasn't this always been the case? Dan's example of the long absence of the novella is just one instance I think. I don't know if I'd agree that this is particularly troublesome. We're on the bleeding edge of a paradigm shift in book marketing. There will be lots of upheaval and gnashing of teeth until things settle into something like stability. Once that happens, though, there will necessarily have to be a way for readers to differentiate art from drivel, and any model that fails to provide for that is doomed to fail. There will always, ultimately, be a place for artful writing. People who love to read will make sure of it.

Reply
Naomi Kramer
7/8/2011 09:47:15 pm

Ali, to answer this I'd have to ask - did pulp fiction kill literature? How about penny dreadfuls? Nah. Maybe they caused some short-term perturbations, but they had different (though sometimes overlapping) audiences. I think there'll always be a market for both, and always authors writing for one, the other, or both. She'll be right, mate.

Reply
Nick Daws link
7/8/2011 10:31:19 pm

Food for thought, as ever, Ali. I suppose if this trend continues, from being a literary form almost nobody was interested in, novellas and novelettes will suddenly be everywhere...

It certainly seems to be true that the key to generating sales on Amazon is to have multiple products available to build a readership, and keep churning out new stuff on a regular basis. Of course, this is how many of the novels of Charles Dickens were originally published, so it's not exactly a new thing. I guess long-form writers, if they want to eat, will need to start dividing their books into shorter volumes or episodes that can stand alone, but also impel readers to purchase other volumes in the series.

There's a lot to think about, certainly...

Reply
Ali Cooper
7/9/2011 07:59:00 am

This is all great when you want to read or write shorts but not so good if the expected price is the same for a novella as it is for a full-length novel. There is a good case for the tongue in cheek (I think!) suggestion I read on the amazon US forum of having a minimum price dependent on word count.

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    I'm Ali. I'm an author and musician, living in Devon, and I teach guitar.

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