Start Spreading the News

Dollars & Sense - Message Received

Dollars & Sense

Message Received

The readers have spoken,

And the message has begun to sink in.

My new price point plan,

While nice in theory, is broken.

It may have worked three decades past

It may have worked through a traditional house.

However as an Indie Author/Publisher

A three-decade-old marketing plan, time has past.

Of course three decades ago the number of

Authors and books could be measured in thousands.

Today, with the ability to self-publish, for authors like I

Those numbers now measure well into the millions.

One rule of marketing has never changed.

Unless you are number one, in market share,

Or the recognized best.  To sell your wares

You need to be priced like the rest.

To bring this rambling verse to an end

Let me simply say that ninety-nine cents

Will be the price of the day, for all except

Collector’s editions and single poems I say.

©May 9, 2016

Richard Nurse

A Rambling - About What is Possible in Fiction...

A Rambling 

by Author Richard Nurse

This note is for, my fans, occasional readers, and reviewers.  I am a proud member of the “Boomer” Generation.  When I was born, TV’s were rare, and radio plays were the rage.  I graduated from High School, and have three college degrees, so I am well past the era of turning in a piece of work and having it graded more for grammar than content.  I have written both fiction and poetry for most of my life, but after I had retired, I decided to cross off an item on my “Bucket List,” to have a work published.

I qualified to actually cross it off my list before I retired, as I wrote an article titled “Addicted to Glass” that was used as a feature article in what then was Collector’s Magazine.  However, I never drew the line, because I wanted to have a book published.  I have been witness to a life full of amazing changes, and one that I enjoy the most is the personal computer, and of course the World Wide Web.  While it has had a very major, and sometimes catastrophic impact on the world of publishing, it has at the same time opened the door of opportunity to many authors who either never got a work accepted, or never even bothered to submit a manuscript that they had written.

I opted for the Indie Author/Publisher route a few years back and have enjoyed moderate success to date.  For years I wrote for the fun of creating a story or poem, and to tell the truth, I still do today. When I write a story and publish it, it is done for the sole purpose of providing entertainment to my readers.  I do not follow anybody’s ordained format or formula when I write a story. My stories tend to write themselves, as I am able to let them take over and use me as a medium to get the story told.  The only constant in my writing is that normally has a happy ending, and character’s who actually get along.  I have done my best to avoid tension and strife in my personal life, and it has carried over into my writing. 

The wonderful thing about writing fiction, and creative writing, is that often comes completely from the author’s imagination.  Unless, an author is writing a work of Historical Fiction, Educational Fiction, or Spiritual/Inspirational Fiction, then I consider it to Fiction for Entertainment.  My philosophy with regards to Entertainment Fiction is that if the author can imagine it and put it into words, that the reader can understand, then it is possible.  Relationships can be stress-free, and be continually loving and caring. Characters can perform feats never thought possible, or machines can come to life; that exist only in the author’s mind.  In real life, we haven’t come close to anything that Gene Roddenberry brought to life in Star Trek, or Steven Spielberg has and is once again creating with Star Wars.  However, just last week, they landed a rocket vertically on a ship at sea, something Buck Roger’s did on a regular basis when I was a child.

I write; for the purpose of providing entertainment for both my readers and myself.  I have an editor and two different proofing programs that I now use to make my stories as error free both grammatically and spelling wise as possible.  One thing that I have learned, or actually relearned, is that there are so many exceptions to the rules in the English language, that the programs will fight each other. I have sat and watched a program go back and forth between two words for its recommendation, or delete a comma, and then suggest that you add it back in.  I do my best, but if there is an error occasionally, so be it, I find them in most books that I read, and simply read right through it, an ability that the human mind excels at. 

About my writing style, and how my stories flow, I make no apologies, for they are mine.  I actually refrain from reading stories in the genre’s that I am writing in, as I do not want to try to copy or emulate another author's work.  I am proud of my stories and equally proud to know that they are MY Stories, created from within my own highly imaginative mind.

Richard Nurse

©April 27, 2016

New Price Points - Good Idea or Bad?

New Price Points – Good Idea or Bad Idea

By Richard Nurse

What do you do when you get a case of writer’s block?  When it hit me recently, I turned to my other love, statistical analysis.  God, did I just say that. Statistics was the course I put off until the bitter end when I was going to college.  It scared the hell out of me.  I have a very logic based mind, just perfect for mathematics, but I also have two other traits that work against my logic base.  The first is that I do not like formulas, especially formulas with unknowns.  The second is that I am able to visualize what I am trying to calculate.  I struggled with Algebra, Geometry, and Trig.  I found my niche though when I finally succumbed to the fact since Latin was a dead language, my learning it was not going to bring it back to life. I met with my guidance counselor and ended my frustration with Latin, and substituted it with a course in Business Mathematics.

It was the first really intelligent decision I made, with regards to taking my future into my own hands.  The course allowed me to use my logical mind, in conjunction with my ability to visualize and learn how to project trends and future outcomes.  Which is exactly what I began to do to keep my mind engaged.  I decided to build an accurate database of my published works.

I decided to create a metadata file for my books.  Knowing there are four main classifications within the genre of Fiction: Novel, Novella, Novelette, and Short Story.  My first question, what determined which classification a book falls into. A simple question, which had and equally simple answer, found with ease through a Google Search.   Word Count was the logical solution. Beginning with the smallest first; the Short Story (Up to 7,500 words) followed by the Novelette (From 7,500 to 17,500 words), then the popular Novella (17,500 to 39,999 words) then the largest of all the Novel (40,000 words or and up).

Now that I had a guide to determine which classification each of my works fit, it was time to decided exactly what data I wanted in my Metadata File.  Since I publish under both my own name and pen names, I decided to make the first column be the Author, which gives me a sortable database.  I followed the author name with the title of the book, followed by the name of a series if the book is part of a series.  Next came Word Count, and the number of pages for both Digital and Paperback editions, followed by prices for both digital and paperback editions.  The final grouping of columns contains the books various ASIN, ISBN’s and ISBN-13’s for each publisher or retailer.

I was surprised to find the relative balance between the number of books in each classification once the lists were completed.  Novels = 9, Novellas = 8, Novelettes = 7, Short Story = 6. I have one other classification of books, as I also write and publish poetry, and within that classification, I have works classified as Collections (3), Single Poems (3), and Stories in Verse (2).

As I constructed the database, I became aware of a trend that began to disturb me.  I seemed to have a very large number of my books, regardless of size priced the same.  It caused me to sit back and re-evaluate myself and my belief in the quality of the works that I have to be published.  Why should I be selling a 25,000 or so Novella, for the same price as a 6,000-word short story?  My answer to that question was that I shouldn’t be doing that.  Which of course brought the next question to the forefront, “How does one determine what to price an e-book for?

I played with some different ideas on pricing, even to the extent of basing the price on the number of words.  It did not work, as the minimum price of $0.99 blocks the use of a sliding scale or formula. If you sell a 7500-word short story for $0.99, the price per word is $ 0.000132. Now; if that short story is only 5500 words in length, the cost per word at $0.99 (The lowest price allowable) is $0.00018.  Now use those figure for an average novel of 50,000 words and see what the price should be: If you use the rate based on a 7500-word short story the 50,000 novel should be priced at $6.60 but if you base the price on the shorter short story the novel should be priced at $ 9.00.

 

I would love to be able to sell my books for $9.00 each, but reality is that the average price for a novel, by an indie author is $2.99 or less.  The $0.99 minimum is the issue today, and also is why there are so many books that are simply given away by the authors.  I would love to see some lower price points for short stories and single works of poetry.  

I would be in favor of free becoming a “promotional only” price industry wide. Since all e-books are moved purely as data, with no physical production costs, other than transmission costs, Let’s see if Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Apple, etc. really want to support the indie authors.  I am suggesting that two lower prices be established for short stories and single or short works of poetry. Why not a $0.69 and a $0.39 price. Each would have to have a maximum number of words as should the $0.99 price as far as I am concerned. 

Indie authors and poets, put the same amount of effort into writing a piece as the top ranked authors with major publishers behind them.  The difference is in the promotional funds behind the books.  I am unaware of any research as to the financial status of the average indie author, but I bet that most write because they love to, and while they would like to make some money at it, it is not the driving force, behind any books that they publish.

 

©April 5, 2016

All Rights Reserved

Five Stars for "M is for Malice" by Richard Nurse

"M is for Malice" 

5 Star Rated

5 Star Review

I am proud to announce that "M is for Malice" now has 5 five star ratings on Goodreads, along with two Reviews, and just yesterday became 5 Star rated and Reviewed on Amazon.

Click on a link to read the reviews.

Goodreads

Amazon

Special Sale - Smashwords Only

Special Sale

Smashwords Only

Now until February 29th

A Sale That Can Only Be Held Once Every 4 Years.

*Two Full-Length Mystery/Thrillers at Special Prices*

 Murder in St. Luietz         Just $ 0.99    Murder in St. Luietz                
 OUT of the CHAO       You Set the Price    Out of the Chaos

                     

                                   

The Excitement is Building

Episode 4 of the "Jasper, Street-Fighter, and Me" Series

M is for Malice

The exciting fourth episode of the "Jasper, Street-Fighter and Me" series is projected to hit the shelves, by no later than Wednesday of this week. This fast paced book, filled with action, suspense, intrigue, romance, and surprises, from the opening line, until the final line.  It is also the longest book of the series, and actually has moved out of the short story category length, but as promised when I started the series, I will keep the price at $0.99.

As per usual for this series, it will only be available from Amazon, for digital, and from Createspace as a paperback.

Here is a Sneak Peak at the book description that will appear on Amazon.

M is for Malice

This is the fourth book in the “Jasper, Street-Fighter, and Me” series.  M is for Malice answer’s Maggie’s final thoughts at the end of book 3 of the series, “Serial Doesn’t Always start with a C”. The action begins right away, and does not let up throughout the story.  Without revealing any specifics in the story, let me simply say, that Maggie’s day definitely did not go as she had planned when she left the house in her new toy, a used, but mint, BMW Z-8.  Maggie, left alone, to meet a new client, while the boys go for a walk in the woods with Jim, who is still ‘convalescing’ at Maggie’s from receiving a large piece of a Ford in his right buttocks at the end of “Serial”.

I also want to give a shout-out to my cover designer, Paul Potiki. Paul took a scene from the story, and created a cover that I know will have the viewer, wanting to read the book to find out what is going on around the car. What could Jasper and Street-Fighter possibly be up to, and why is Maggie hiding behind the car?  There is only one way to find out, and that is to read the story.