On royalty statements

[jhetley]

Received the twice-yearly statement from the Nice Agent Lady today. You people need to buy more books -- WINTER OAK hasn't earned out its advance yet. On the other hand, I find it somewhat frightening that over 20,000 copies of SUMMER COUNTRY are floating around out there....

And the Penguin-Putnam business model for E-books totally eludes me. They've priced the electronic versions exactly the same as a trade paperback, $14.00 for a bunch of intangible bits and bytes. No wonder they've sold a grand total of less than 40 copies in the three formats.

Comments

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

Bah. I bought copies of both books and am eagerly awaiting Pendragon Autumn. Following the seasonal title pattern, should we assume there is a fourth book planned for after that, with the word 'Spring' in it somewhere?

Oh, and I lent both books to my 16-year old daughter and she loved them enough to buy her own copies--because I dog-ear the pages of mine and 'ruin' them. Hee.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

PENDRAGON AUTUMN will be a long wait. I'm currently writing the first draft, still futzing around in chapter 5, and "spring" remains only a vague notion. Sorta like the real seasons around here.

Current schedule is DRAGON'S EYE coming out in a few weeks, DRAGON'S TEETH next November, and we're still waiting word on GHOST POINT.

It isn't really $14.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

Hunh? Check out:
http://www.ereader.com/product/detail/10847

The Summer Country
by James A. Hetley
List Price: $14.00
Sale Price: $11.20 (You Save 20%)
Newsletter Price: $10.08

I suppose there are clueless people who pay the $11.20 price, but you can find the newsletter on the site and get the $10.08 price.

At fictionwise the discounted price is $11.90 and that is unusually high.

Plus, when a mass market paperback is out, sooner or later the E-book price drops too, although it can take a while, especially if the publisher is not on the ball. The intent appears to be slightly, but only very slightly cheaper than the least expensive paper version.

Some authors (or publishers or somebody) sets up things like bundles and promotions too, at least on ereader.com -- e.g. when Hillerman had a new book coming out recently, you could get all the Hillerman books as a bundle. I got (and reread) all the Matthew Scudder books when the most recent one came out.

A good promotion and fairly typical would be to have a "bundle" price for all three books when Dragon's Eye comes out, that would be cheaper than buying them individually.

You might want to promote the existence of the e-book a little on your website -- I buy a *LOT* of ebooks (often in addition to dead tree versions). Amazon is not a viable source for palm versions, which is a lot of the e-book market -- you should link to ereader and fictionwise (in my opinion.)

I am mildly exasperated that the second book isn't available as an ebook -- I'm a frequrent rereader and like have a whole series electronically and am less likely to buy one if they aren't available. It may be why I haven't gotten it yet. I would expect to, you are the kind of writer I like and reread.

I have added you to my notify list at e-reader, so I'll get email if additional books of yours are added.

Just for context, I'm a volume e-book buyer -- own about 300 books at ereader.com, 220 items at fictionwise (includes short fiction, 180 plus Baen ebooks, and some assorted stuff from places that publish niche fiction.

I do own paper copies of both books...

Re: It isn't really $14.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know many sources discount the "list" price on ebooks, just as with the dead tree versions. Amusing sidenote on that, for a while Amazon carried the trade paperback discounted and the ebook at full list price.

The mass-market SC has been out for almost a year now, and the electronic version price stays pegged to the trade paperback. And I have no idea why Ace hasn't released WO in an electronic edition. Maybe I should pass a question along through the Nice Agent Lady, although the whole situation leaves me scratching my head.

I'll mention linking to fictionwise and ereader the next time I'm begging changes on the web page. That can be a slow process -- the guy who manages changes is doing it for free....