A Few Articles Of My Own – by Helen Hollick

Welcome to my Blog!
Wander through wonderful worlds
real and fictional,
meet interesting people,
visit exciting places
and find a few good books
to enjoy along the way!

I thought I’d take this week to pen a few articles of my own between hosting Coffee Pot Guests and the start of the Step Back Into Saxon Englandtour that Annie Whitehead and I are embarking on (traveling to?) from the 10^th-16^thOctober.

So expect a few difference of opinion debates interspersed with a daft post or two…

Today. The cost of e-books. Something popped up on Twitter which I retweeted with my own opinion. Which was almost immediately hotly contested. (I replied once, then walked away – I’m not interested in prolonging social media arguments.)

I believe that mainstream/traditional publishers price their e-book versions of a paperback (or hardback) WAY too high. A paperback at £8.99 the ebook at £7.99? Oh come on! There’s no paper, no printing, no warehouse storage, no delivery cost for an e-book. There may be an upload fee and an ISBN number to purchase, but that’s minimal. (And can even be free!)

The argument is that there’s the writer’s time, the editing cost, the cover design to pay for… yes, agreed but that is absorbed into the paperback cost. If this is an issue for publishers /authors, then launch the paperback first, with the e-version appearing a month or two later (as happens with hardback/paperback. A paperback usually appears about 4 – 6 months after the hardback – even longer in some cases, especially where no-fiction is concerned.)

The blame for ‘cheap’ books has been put on Amazon. I disagree … who remembers the £1 or BOGOFF (buy one, get one free) offers that the big bookstores used to run? (still run?) These were in place long before Amazon arrived. What about the PoundLand type discount shops? What about cheap books in supermarkets? Again, these were available well before Amazon, so blaming Amazon for cheap prices for books is not an argument.

Personally I thank Amazon. (OK, I know all the issues against – but if we were really all that bothered why do millions of us continue to use Amazon as our main ‘go to’ site?) Amazon has been of huge benefit to many, many, many indie writers. Indie writers who produce books that are as good as (even better than in some cases) traditionally published books. Indie writers who can diversify into other genres if they choose – almost impossible for trad published writers. Amazon has opened up a whole new world for writers who just want to enjoy writing without being under the thumb of a short sighted (dare I say ‘dinosaur?) publishing house.

I have to be frank here: on several occasions recently I have wondered whether publishers really do want to sell books! They overprice them, then wonder why they haven’t sold. They mess authors about – giving a publication date, then the book doesn’t appear. (And no this isn’t recent – it was happening before Brexit and Covid!) They won’t publish books that fall into several different genres. So many new, good, authors are turned down because the genre is a cross-over: publishers insist ‘but how could we market it?’ Marketing these books is absolutely no problem for us indies, so why is it a problem for publishers? Publishers mess up with formatting. Big time. (Yes, honest, they do!) Indies can – do – put bloopers right immediately. Indies are rapidly becoming more professional than the publishing houses. Our unclimbable mountain is that we do not have the financial resources to mass media-promote our books.

What has driven the prices of books down, therefore, is us indie writers. Most of us have worked out that it is better to sell two e-books at £3.99 or £4.99 each rather than one e-book at £6.99. We’ve also worked out that to price the first in a series at £1.99 draws readers in, who then eagerly await/buy the next in the series for £4.99.

I know publishers have a business to run. They have staff to pay etc … but that still does not excuse pricing an e-book at the same or near to the cost of a paperback.

I have to read e-books because I’m visually impaired and can no longer read printed versions – Kindle means I can enlarge the font and have a comfortable reading experience (and just for the record large print is as much a pain … the books are heavy. Forget it). The only drawback with an e-reader is that you have to keep it charged. Real books don’t run out of battery at the critical moment of the plot.

My view, my opinion, but I refuse to buy an e-book if it costs over £5. If it’s a mainstream published book I’ll borrow it as an e-book from the library. So again the publisher has lost a sale. Too bad, they should price e-books sensibly.

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Books (sensibly priced) By Helen Hollick

Website: https://helenhollick.net/

Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick