Return of a Man Named PAMB and its Quotes

An author responds:

Well, this is a disappointment. It's my fault I didn't inquire if the prices would indeed drop, but it would have been the right thing to do for PA to perhaps explain this fact when authors were contacted. It appears I've wasted $70.

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No, it's not your fault. . . .

Update: This post has now been deleted. Apparently PA didn't "do the right thing."

Ironically, had the author uploaded the book to Kindle on their own at $2.99 and sold a single copy, they'd have already "earned back" their "advance" from PA and had a profit margin.

I think he's here now on AW. He mentioned those two--KiWi and PA.

I really want some of the drugs PA is passing around in that office. Yes, sometimes the ebook is priced around the same price as the print edition.

Usually both, in that case, are $10 or less.

All five of my novels come in Kindle format. Every single one of them is under $7, well under what the print editions sell for. I even make more in royalties than I do for the print editions.

And at the moment, they're all selling BETTER (multiple times better) than the print editions.
I don't mind at all: more money in my royalty check.

They really must think their authors are stupid.

I checked the Amazon best sellers page, and Kindle versions are only about $1 or so less than the paperback, and usually about $4 less than the hardcover. That was surprising; is this usually only best sellers priced that close? I thought the Kindle books were 75% or so less than the print versions.

Stormie, you might want to edit his name out, as he seems to be wanting to do something with his PA book. If he doesn't have the rights, there's no reason to give someone reason to hang onto them for his posting here.

Infocenter responds to the author whose post was deleted.

Not to worry, must have happened by accident.

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Do you ban people by accident as well?

Your post indicated disappointment over our response regarding ebook pricing. You said you had wasted $70. You wished you had known about ebook pricing before you activated ebook conversion.
Feel free to post it again, and you will be given a response if called for.

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Chris P said:

I checked the Amazon best sellers page, and Kindle versions are only about $1 or so less than the paperback, and usually about $4 less than the hardcover.

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The Kindle version of my book is $5.20 on Amazon and the print version is $11.29. I'd find it difficult to make any electronic sales if the e-book approached the trade paperback in cost, so maybe it is just for the bestsellers.

Your post indicated disappointment over our response regarding ebook pricing. You said you had wasted $70. You wished you had known about ebook pricing before you activated ebook conversion.
Feel free to post it again, and you will be given a response if called for.

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Translation:

"Fell free to post it again, and you will be given a response if we deem you worthy, you little worm. Now get down on your knees and beg for Mistress's forgiveness."

Chris P said:

I checked the Amazon best sellers page, and Kindle versions are only about $1 or so less than the paperback, and usually about $4 less than the hardcover. That was surprising; is this usually only best sellers priced that close? I thought the Kindle books were 75% or so less than the print versions.

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The cost of producing an ebook isn't significantly less than the cost of producing the print version.

Since buying my iPad 2, I've purchased three books. They were $12.99, $11.99, and $7.99. I'm pretty sure the first two would be trade paperbacks in print, and I know the third is a mass market paperback, so they're priced about on par with their respective print versions.

(I'm used to buying computer games digitally, so having a price structure on par with a physical copy--assuming the price is reasonable, unlike PA--doesn't bother me).

DeadlyAccurate said:

The cost of producing an ebook isn't significantly less than the cost of producing the print version. . . .

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I beg to differ.

--Ken

DeadlyAccurate said:

The cost of producing an ebook isn't significantly less than the cost of producing the print version.

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It depends on the workflow and the book. If the publisher is doing ebooks only, you're correct, particularly if said publisher wants to do the job right. They're already doing the developmental editing, the PR, and so on. Properly formatting an ebook from scratch is similar to typesetting. It's generally HTML markup. (Why yes, I am formatting some reverted works.)

If the publisher is doing print and ebook in their workflow, then the cost of conversion isn't going to be anywhere near the cost of producing a book from scratch because they don't have to bother with editing and some of the other costs.

Let's face it: There are a truckload of free converters that will take a Word file and spit it back out in an ebook format. A quickie conversion is fast, but the end file will probably be riddled with formatting errors.

I wonder how PA is doing their conversion?

With chimps and stone tablets I suspect...

JulieB said:

. . . I wonder how PA is doing their conversion?

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Don't make no nevermind how you do something you are not doing. And that seems to be the norm.

--Ken

JulieB said:

It depends on the workflow and the book. If the publisher is doing ebooks only, you're correct, particularly if said publisher wants to do the job right. They're already doing the developmental editing, the PR, and so on. Properly formatting an ebook from scratch is similar to typesetting. It's generally HTML markup. (Why yes, I am formatting some reverted works.)

If the publisher is doing print and ebook in their workflow, then the cost of conversion isn't going to be anywhere near the cost of producing a book from scratch because they don't have to bother with editing and some of the other costs.

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Fair enough. What I was rather clumsily trying to say is that the actual, physical product needed (paper, glue, cardboard cover, etc.) is not the majority of the cost of a creating a book. It certainly isn't 75% of it.

DeadlyAccurate said:

Fair enough. What I was rather clumsily trying to say is that the actual, physical product needed (paper, glue, cardboard cover, etc.) is not the majority of the cost of a creating a book. It certainly isn't 75% of it.

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Ah, that makes sense.

In general, I find the older a book is the less expensive the eBook version. It's the newer books that are still scrambling for the bestseller list that are comparable to the print versions. And PA sure as hell isn't in that contest.

But it makes sense they'd charge an exorbitant fee for something Amazon, Smashwords and everybody else already does for free. Their traditional business model would never work with eBooks -- why would the author buy more than one?

Blake M. Petit said:

But it makes sense they'd charge an exorbitant fee for something Amazon, Smashwords and everybody else already does for free. Their traditional business model would never work with eBooks -- why would the author buy more than one?

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I don't think Amazon and Smashwords convert manuscripts to e-book format for free. I don't know if either even offer the service, but if they do, I'm sure they charge for it. They just don't charge anything to upload e-books to their stores.

The important distinction is that commercial publishers don't charge authors to convert manuscripts to e-book format, whereas PA does, thus proving, once again, that it (PA) is not a commercial publisher but a vanity press that charges for its services.

Terie said:

I don't think Amazon and Smashwords convert manuscripts to e-book format for free. I don't know if either even offer the service, but if they do, I'm sure they charge for it. They just don't charge anything to upload e-books to their stores.

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Actually, you can upload a Word document to Smashwords and their software will convert it for you. I'm not saying the process is perfect, but it is free. And there are plenty of free conversion tools out there. Calibre is probably the best known of the lot. As I said above, this isn't a quickie convert job, particularly if conversion for an ebook wasn't in your workflow in the first place. The tools are free. Your time...

Terie said:

The important distinction is that commercial publishers don't charge authors to convert manuscripts to e-book format, whereas PA does, thus proving, once again, that it (PA) is not a commercial publisher but a vanity press that charges for its services.

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Exactly. I've never had a publisher charge to convert to ebook or go from hardback to paperback or for doing normal edits. Oh, and they pay ME, too!

Terie said:

I don't think Amazon and Smashwords convert manuscripts to e-book format for free. I don't know if either even offer the service, but if they do, . . . .

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Yeah, they do. But your file better be in good shape before sending to their converters (not difficult for those who are competent with Word). And Smashwords takes a percentage off the top of sales (20 percent?).

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

Yeah, they do. But your file better be in good shape before sending to their converters (not difficult for those who are competent with Word). And Smashwords takes a percentage off the top of sales (20 percent?).

--Ken

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Okay, so colour me surprised that they'd do some work they don't charge for. (Not that I'd trust that. I'd need to do the conversion and test the output myself, but I guess that's just me. I'm pretty picky about layout, probably from nearly 25 years of being a tech writer.)

And I know that both Smashwords and Amazon take a cut of the sales. I specifically said they don't charge anything to upload.