Cultivating Future Readers

                As you can see, I’ve had a wonderful time starting my book tour. People have been so friendly and I swallowed one or two bad reviews on Kindle and Nook but I found that big fans of the book vehemently defended it. To my surprise, I actually met one of the girls at my last signing that gave me a bad review to which she admitted, very much to my surprise. When I asked her what she didn’t like about the book, her friend laughed and made her admit the book had not ended how she had expected or wanted it to. I let her know it was a trilogy and anything could happen, but still thanked her for her honesty. Even more to my surprise she bought a hard copy of the book.

 

                I made one mistake in booking  a signing one town on the day of a local Women’s Conference who would have been my primary demographic.  Still with all the dads with their kids in tow. I smiled and talked to many different people. I brought mints, had bookmarks with all pertinent information on it, and I made a deal with the in store café to have in store samples of some of their things (which was probably the biggest lure).  When things got slow I would make rounds about the store in the music and movie sections to and out treats and bookmarks, and explain what the book entailed.

                The store was very accommodating and there was a line of people when I first arrived that wanted an autograph and to meet me. I was booked for a three-hour signing and there were some lulls of shoppers. So I grabbed bookmarks and mints, talked to people, and let them know about my book.  Even if they were teenage boys who I knew were very unlikely to buy my book or little kids I still offered a mint. I also knew once the kids got over there the parents would soon follow.

                There were people who really wanted to buy my book but they were teens who just didn’t have the cash with them. Or I even met other people who just like me and you wanted to be a published author. So I pointed them in the direction of our blog and informed them that my book was also available on Kindle. I left fifteen books of extra stock at the store at the end of the day just in case.

                To be honest I did well in the number of books that I sold but nothing staggering. To my surprise,  the manager informed me I was their best-selling author all year. They said it was so nice to see an author interact with the public and to answer questions, and to be nice even if the people were not going to purchase a book. They said usually all their authors just sit at a table and read their own book, and wait for people to come to them.

                I called the store this morning and to my surprise, all of my extra books I left have sold and my sales on Kindle shot way up this week. So you never know how much it may make a difference to jut talk to people.

-Elsha Fornefeld

Don't Price Your ebook at $1.99

Lindsey Rietzsch

Here is an intriguing article I read the other day on gigaom.com

What’s the right price for your self-published ebook? You’ll probably want to stay in the $2.99 to $5.99 range, new data from Kobo’s Writing Life platform suggests — and stay away from $1.99 if you want to maximize sales.

Publishers Weekly reports on Kobo’s self-publishing platform, Writing Life, which launched in June 2012. Mark Lefebvre, Kobo’s director of self-publishing and author relations, tells PW that the $1.99 price point “is dead”:

“Authors most often start at $2.99 ‘and walk the prices up,’ he said, noting, ‘A low price point may be a hook, but it’s the quality of a work that attracts readers, not the price.’ Lefebvre added that $1.99 is dead ‘not just for us, but also, it seems, on other platforms,’ pointing out that $0.99 KWL titles sell twice as many copies as those at $1.99, and that ‘$2.99 sells more than four times more.’ About 80 percent of the KWL titles that sell consistently are priced in the $2.99–$5.99 range, and he also pointed to ‘a bit of a lift in the $7.99–$9.99 price range.’”

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This is corroborated by a recent report from self-publishing platform Smashwords, in which Smashwords CEO Mark Coker called the $1.99 price point “a black hole” and said to avoid it. He found that “on average, $3.99 books sold more units than $2.99 books, and more units than any other price except FREE.”

So what is the problem with $1.99? It may be that readers have come to associate it with bargain-basement quality; they may see $0.99 or free as a promotional or limited-time price and $2.99 and above as a marker of quality. I’d love to hear thoughts from self-published authors in the comments.

http://gigaom.com/2013/09/23/dont-price-your-ebook-at-1-99/#!

TV Interview for "The Altar"

So here is the first TV interview I have for my book "The Altar". After the interview I thought I could have done a lot better there were so many things I left out that I wanted to say about where and how to buy my book.

But a big thanks to Matt and Libby the hosts they were great and this allowed me to make notes for my next interview as I go on tour.

Click the link below to watch the interview on my book the Altar with channel 6 in Pocatello. I thought I did terrible but the hosts were great and the experience was so fun. Always keep learning.
Elsha

http://www.kpvi.com/content/news/local/story/KPVI-More-Books-Author-Elsha-Fornefeld/P6IBZaEGZ0KZv3XNfWibjQ.cspx

Okay so I had a great response from the television interviews. The Messages, e-mails, and IM for support and with questions have been pouring in so thank you. But if anyone lives in the Idaho Falls area we are doing a BIG book signing tomorrow at Hastings in Idaho Falls from 2-5. So please come and support our blog and the  "The Altar" book. If you already bought a book I would love to sign it. Or you can get ones there for cheaper than the amazon price, since you don't have to pay the royalties or shipping. If nothing else get a free pen and I would love to meet you.

Happy reading,
Elsha Fornefeld

Also, I'm going to be on Channel 6 in Pocatello tomorrow at 4 :00 on the Aaron Moore show to Promote my new book "The Altar" Timeless Generation. Way excited if you can't get the show I'll post the link on my webpage. REALLY! REALLY ! Excited but please tune in if you can. Thanks to my family and friends for the awesome support. I'll also be mentioning our blog so all you authors out there pay attention. J/K hope you catch it.