Crime Writer Makes a Killing With 99 Cent E-Books 445
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Joe Konrath has an interesting interview with independent writer John Locke who currently holds the coveted #1 spot in the Amazon Top 100 and has sold just over 350,000 downloads on Kindle of his 99 cent books since January 1st of this year, which, with a royalty rate of 35%, is an annual income well over $500k. Locke says that 99 cents is the magic number and adds that when he lowered the price of his book The List from $2.99 to 99 cents, he started selling 20 times as many copies — about 800 a day, turning his loss lead into his biggest earner. 'These days the buying public looks at a $9.95 eBook and pauses. It's not an automatic sale,' says Locke. 'And the reason it's not is because the buyer knows when an eBook is priced ten times higher than it has to be. And so the buyer pauses. And it is in this pause—this golden, sweet-scented pause—that we independent authors gain the advantage, because we offer incredible value.' Kevin Kelly predicts that within 5 years all digital books will cost 99 cents. 'I don't think publishers are ready for how low book prices will go,' writes Kelly. 'It seems insane, dangerous, life threatening, but inevitable.'"
Re:Math fail? (Score:4, Informative)
350k for Jan - Mar or 3 months. times 4 = 1.4M * 0.35 = 490k but of course March is only half way, so round up.
Re:It's also because of the Lost (Score:5, Informative)
You hear the name John Locke and you think of some TV show? Seriously?? Not the philosopher considered the founder of Liberalism, nor his theories of continuous consciousness or tabula rasa?
Our educational system has truly failed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke [wikipedia.org]
Similar story from the UK (Score:4, Informative)