PublishAmerica's CEO discusses book pricing

Many authors and detractors have commented on the high price of PublishAmerica's books. These books by unknown authors are too expensive. So expensive that nobody but their authors and the friends and family of the authors will buy them (not to mention the over inflated shipping fees that I pointed out in my last post.) PA's CEO doesn't think price is an issue. Price of a book is indeed a consideration especially in this economy. Just walk into a Barnes and Noble store and look over at their bargain book selection. See all the people crowded around it? I was there yesterday. All of those books start at 4.95 for hardcover editions.   All of those authors are names known to all of us. I also think genre has a lot to do with how many copies are sold. There are several genres that are very, very popular right now. Now, the books that PA famously publishes written by and about overcoming adversity, are not among the popular genres.  What is popular now, vampire stories, those supernatural teen romances like Twilight or the Vampire Diaries. Science Fiction and Science fantasy. Do you really think people aren't buying Star Wars or Star Trek or would even pass them over to buy a book by an unknown PublishAmerica author at triple the price? Fantasy Adventure such at the Lord of The Rings which at any given time there are several versions available sitting on bookshelves, physically in book stores.   You cannot find PublishAmerica books sitting there waiting for you on the shelf. I challange authors to go into these stores and if you find your book sitting there, take a picture or video and send it to the Bogus Barrister. Let us know what store and where so we call up and verify it... just to keep anybody from walking in the store with said book copy in hand, placing it on the shelf and shamelessly taking the picture.   As a bookseller myself I can tell you that the cheaper they can sell these books, the more copies we sell. All publishers and booksellers know this. Price point is a major selling point. It's all about how low I can sell to the public and how much of a profit I can turn while doing it.   The CEO of PublishAmerica however, has a different opinion and seems in his email to place the blame of lack of sales on the author. He doesn't even touch on the fact that his fictional "Joe Blow" and every other PA author are buying the books, not the general public. In order to sell books to the public, the public has to know that the books exist. A mention on an obscure Facebook page, where all the "likes" are their authors and those who know one of their authors does not meet the criteria of the general public. A paid mention ($69 bucks plus shipping) by it's CEO in an email, does not meet the criteria of an advertising campaign. That money would be better spent with an ad in the newspaper or hell, advertise your books on Craigslist (for free!) For legitimate book reviews, approach book clubs. You can find them on the internet. All that will cost you is a copy of the book. Some may even acept it in the form of an electronic copy, in which case, will cost you nothing.   Letter from PublishAmerica's CEO  April 27, 2012   Good morning! Thank you so much for the feedback. Today I'll say a few things about book pricing, a topic that I received a hundred or so questions about. More after this book review: A few words about The Hole in the Doorknob by John. K. Silberman (jks111@aol.com). Just about the hardest genre in speaking and writing is humor. It is not difficult to make your readers weep. But to make them laugh out loud, that's an art. Vital ingredient of the art is to keep it short. That's why John Silberman has opted for the novella format. All he needs in order to make the reader laugh throughout the book is a mere sixty pages. There's nothing subtle about his story. You can't afford subtlety in sixty pages, not if you want the 80-something main character to start, maintain, and mourn an affair with a serial-married bartender, while also painting a decent picture of the entire cast of depraved folks that such a set-up calls for. I think that John has done a good job. His novella is fun, original, and very much in line with the high quality of the other three of his books that PublishAmerica has proudly presented to the public. There's a deeper, serious message in The Hole, and I encourage you to make it your own. Find The Hole in the Doorknob here: www.publishamerica.net/product46464.html Pricing is not difficult. Anyone who is selling a product looks for only one thing: where is the perfect balance between what the customer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to sell it for? Where you find that balance, that's where the sales price is going to be.   What does this balance look like in real time? If somebody pays fifty cents for a newspaper, that means that to him/her the paper is worth more than two quarters. If not, they'd keep their fifty cents in their pocket. For the newspaper publisher, the opposite is the case: to him, that half dollar is worth more than the paper. If not, he would rather keep the paper and tell the customer to keep their fifty cents. And there's your balance.   Some people tell me that our books are priced too high. We should cut our prices in half, if not more. Typically, their books have not sold very well. They tend to blame it on the book price. If only their book would be listed for $10 or less, they'd be bestsellers. "Don't you understand that, Willem? It's a win-win for both of us!"   Except that it isn't true. The cheapest books in America are what's called mass market paperbacks. You find them in supermarkets, priced often under $7. Glorious times for them in a bad economy, right? Wrong. The cheap book has taken the worst hit of all books (sales are 40 pct down from just a few years ago) and are generally considered to be on their way to extinction.   Price doesn't determine if a book sells or not. Interest in the author does, and sometimes in the subject of the book, but that's mostly when it's nonfiction. If you like the author, you want to read their book, and you'll pay what the bookstore charges. If you don't know the author, chances are that you won't care for their book, even if it sells for $5. Here's a shocker for you: the average book in America sells 15 copies. Each year half a million or more new books are pumped into the market. How can you possibly compete on price amidst that onslaught? You can't. Instead you compete on who the author is. That's why celebrities sell a million books, and Joe Blow sells 15.   Of all PublishAmerica books, 27,000 have sold 15 or less copies. 33,000 have sold more or much more. 10,000 books have sold between well over 100 copies to over 10,000. And here's the key question: given that all of our 60,000 books have been produced the exact same way, printed the same way, released and announced to the book industry the same way, accompanied by the same number of press releases, and they're also priced the same way, how come that one book sells no copies, and the other sells 10,000? Answer: the only factor that's different between all those books is twofold: it's the author and the content. That, and only that, determines whether a book sells or not. And that's why we never receive a pricing complaint from our top-10,000 authors.   Footnote, in case you had forgotten: last year we experimented with a $9.95 retail price for all books. The experiment lasted three full months. We didn't sell a single book extra. On the soapbox today: Marilyn Keeton, Quest for Forgiveness (marilynk@c-zone.net):   "Betrayal, struggles, archeological tombs, curses and death. Marlee made a bad mistake she might pay for with her life. Forgiveness was something she wasn't expecting when she returned half dead, yet could it happen?"   Also open mic for Raymond O'Brien, Unchartered Territory (raymondobrien49@hotmail.com): "The Mental Immune System: a mind/body extention to the physical immune system. This concept creates a major new "must have" understanding about mental health and ilness."   I invite you to talk back to me. I don't guarantee a response, but I do guarantee that we listen. You can reach me by email at meetpublishamerica@publishamerica.com. In the subject line write Attn. Willem.   PS: A few years ago, Barnes and Noble contacted giant book wholesaler Baker and Taylor. Could they please also carry PublishAmerica books? Sure, said Baker and Taylor, but why? From the horse's mouth, to me: "B&N was keen to get your titles because they sold better on average than [self-publisher] AuthorHouse titles."   Have a wonderful day! --Willem Meiners   If you want to piggyback on Willem's future Letters-from-the-CEO, go to www.publishamerica.net/service/Willem.html. Have your book reviewed for tens of thousands of people to see, or talk into the open mic!     You can read this letter also online here: www.publishamerica.net/ceo042712. All previous letters are here: www.publishamerica.net/ceoarchives.