If you’re thinking of getting copies of my books, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!
I’ve been recommending this essay for years to every writer I know. And it’s free to read online…
I compiled a list of fun facts about this brilliant mathematician after reading two biographies. The oddest little things stayed with me, and here they are…
Well, it happened again. I went to check out one of my books on Amazon, only to discover the image of the paperback cover had been replaced by a picture of mens workout pants. This has happened to me a lot in my years of selling books on Amazon. It’s always pants, for some reason. And no one can ever tell why it’s pants…
I received confirmation late yesterday that Amazon had finally resolved the issue in which one of my book covers went missing, and was replaced with the image of a stack of mens’ trousers. (See image below.)
I carefully clicked through to all of Amazon’s international stores to make sure that what the KDP rep was telling me was accurate. It was.
All told, the problem took from 9/8/23 to 9/24/23 to resolve. So I only had to look like an idiot—and lose potential sales—for 16 days!
I was naturally concerned when I saw the recent articles about the proliferation of crap books impersonating established authors. Jane Friedman did a great post on this. And Chris Fox revealed another twist on the scammer problem. Fox predicts that these kind of quality control issues will hurt Amazon in the long term.
I believe I have them all beat. What I’m reporting here is not a scam issue. At least, I don’t think it is. I do think it’s just an egregious example of nonexistent quality control.
I looked at one of my self-pubbed books the other day on Amazon, and discovered this. Yes! I am an author not of books, but PANTS!
Have you been meaning to get my wife’s New York Times bestselling book, The Last Castle, for your Kindle? The time is now.
The Last Castle is a Kindle Goldbox deal this Sunday, February 10, which means it will be on sale for $4.99 for that day only.
Wake up Sunday and check this link (or just search for the book on Amazon) before you start scarfing down your morning waffles!
Seriously, Amazon, you really want to know what I thought of this title?
Self-pubbed authors are always debating ebook pricing strategies. Former math editor that I am, it occurred to me that you could look at data gleaned from your book’s also-boughts to see what they tell you about the customers who have bought your books.
The also-boughts (or “alsobots”) are typically located under your book’s product description on Amazon. They look like this. (Click to enlarge.)
In this case the author (not me) has about 17 pages of books that were bought along with his. If you go through each of the titles and write down the book prices, you get a nice collection of data on purchasing patterns.
A refresher is probably necessary here.
The price (or prices) that appears most frequently is/are known as the mode.
The average of all the prices—add them all up and divide by the number of individual prices—is the mean.
The number that appears in the middle of all these prices when you rank them from lowest to highest is the median.
One of my books—a nonfiction collection of my science articles—has only 5 pages of also-boughts. When I worked my way through the calculations, here’s what I found:
* I had 20 data points in all.
* The mean (average) price was $5.0035, or $5.00.
* The median (right-in-the-middle) price was $2.99.
* The mode (most frequent) price was $.99.
(You don’t have do these calculations by hand, by the way. You can use calculators like this one, this one or this one.)
This gives us some food for thought. You can use the results to ask yourself some questions:
* Am I pricing too low? (If both the mean and median are higher than your book’s price, you might consider adjusting.)
* Am I pricing too high? (Both mean and median are lower than your book’s price.)
* Am I living in cheapskate city? (Your mean and median are consistently lower than those of ebooks by comparable authors. The mode and even the median for all your titles is always $.99.)
Traditionally published books by name authors tend to display also-boughts that are solidly in the mainstream price range: $9.99 to $12.99.
Are the customers who’ve bought these books ignorant of the ocean of better-priced self-published books out there? Are they consciously avoiding them? Is there too much competition to be listed as an also-bought for a book by a Patterson, a Lee Child or even a Malcolm Gladwell that the algorithm favors higher-priced books over lower-priced ones? Does the evidence support the suggestion that there’s a self-pubbed pricing ghetto?
Or are there other reasons?
Uncertainties
This kind of data is interesting but problematic, for the following reasons.
* Book prices are dynamic. The price you’re seeing in also-boughts when you do your calculations may not be what customers originally paid.
* Inclusion as an also-bought is highly selective. You’ve sold a thousand of a certain title. Great. But you don’t see 1,000 also-boughts or even 500. You’re getting skewed data to begin with.
* Those who’ve designed software similar to the kind used by Amazon say systems can be inaccurate when reflecting customer buys or making recommendations. Think how often Netflix, Twitter, or Tumblr recommend films or follows you’d never spring for in a million years.)
Conclusion
Math is fun, but maddening when you don’t have all the facts. Mean, mode and median can be an interesting guide, but not the only one. My gut tells me to price my books somewhere in the range between $2.99 and $4.99, and this analysis seems to support my gut. (My median was $2.99 and my mean is $5.00.)
But this is what drives me nuts. Part of me can’t help wondering if I’m not caught in a self-fulfilling loop. Six of my also-bought data points are for ebooks priced $8.99 or higher. If customers were willing to spring for those books, why wouldn’t they spring for mine at that price? Sane me answers, “Because your name isn’t Oliver Sacks, Malcolm Gladwell, or Mary Roach, dumbass.”
So: If you’re picking prices with your gut, you might welcome the chance to put some calculations behind your decision. Just understand that the analysis may not be any more accurate than your gut. And if you’re like me, your brain will still give you doubts.
Reading an excellent short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch on le Kindle.
A writer pal of mine just got a job at Amazon, writing for their blog Omnivoracious, among other things. He’s actually the second friend to have landed a job with the online retailer. My publisher at Random House, the fellow who unleashed The Money Book for Freelancers on the world, later left RH to take a job in Bezosland.
Dear Amazon Guy:
I noticed two things about life with a Kindle.
Many times when I'm reading a real book, I get an urge to check something out in another part of the book. When was this published? Where's the author live again? Is this footnoted well? When this happens, I keep one finger in the spot where I was reading, and flip to the other part of the book I need to check, then go back to my finger. Takes two seconds. With the Kindles, at least the one I have, I have to push at a bunch o’ buttons (three to go to the spot I want, and god knows how many to scroll to the page I saw that thing on, and at least one to get back to the main page, and a few more to get back to the spot where I was reading). This is lot of steps, so consequently, I don't do it as much. Which is funny, because the format is digital and that usually implies being able to break out of the media’s linearity. Think of what a hassle it was back in the day to find the song you wanted to hear on a cassette tape. Mp3s changed that. But for some reason with ebooks, I still feel locked-in.
Another thing: When I read a hard copy book late at night, I'll sometimes get a second or third wind and I can keep reading virtually all night without ever getting sleepy. I find I doze off more with the Kindle. Am I reading more boring books or is the device's much-lauded non-glare screen the culprit? I’m no scientist but I can imagine that the light of my bedside lamp reflected on white pages is more likely to keep me awake than the Kindle's screen.
Does this happen to you? Am I normal? Can you check in with your in-house behavioral/cognitive scientists and get back to me?
Also, the last book you mailed me arrived dinged in the box. Can you send me a new one?
Your bud,
Joe
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