PAY ATTENTION!

 

Over the past two weeks I’ve received several WHINE e-mails from readers – followers – fans? – Freeloaders?  All were complaining that the 100 FREE books were gone before they had a chance to download them.  One person wanted me to be like all the other writers and give them away for two days. (about a likely as me kissing this horse's ass)

I wrote all seven people who complained and attached this posting.  I also asked them to write back if they had read any of my ‘freebies’.

So far I haven’t heard received a reply. 

In the next week (7 days) I will have a couple more offerings so I’m going to leave this post (RANT) on the blog until it soaks in!!!!

 

NEW DEAL – INTEGRETY TRUMPS SLEEZE!

Commencing immediately, after the GIA event has passed into history, A NEW DEAL will be initiated – By me, Robert Hatting! 

My twelve (12) novels represent a lot of work and expense.  I will no longer place them on sale for 99 cents.  That’s a crap price. You can’t buy a package of bubble gum or a condom for 99 cents anymore.   Neither will there be free offerings that last 48 hours.  Perhaps an offering once in a while that lasts 4 hours – tops out 100 freebies – never more. 

My base price per title will increase to the current price of a gallon of diesel in Panama $4.99.   (1 gallon of diesel represents a round trip to the nearest beach for me.)

I’m not going to fall prey to the gizmos, gimmicks, or the sleeze that seems to follow us hard working authors.  Outfits like BookBub, bargain book hunters and these other parasite blogs get rich off our sweat.  I will not use these people anymore.  This is not a call to arms; just one guy who’s had enough!

If this hurts my meager sales or offends the parasites…BFD.  I’ll go to the beach and photograph bikinis!

 

THIS WAS POSTED ON FACE BOOK YESTERDAY. 

This set of statements that will hold true for the balance of my writing career.  I’m probably shooting myself in the foot.  The cause and effect of life’s decisions. But I don’t give a furry rat’s ass!   I have no one to answer to; my mother and father have passed away, I’m not married and from where I sit, not even the clown in the white house has the power to keep me from making my own decisions.  Amazon will probably whine -- but again, I don’t care.  There are many e-book retailers in the world today. 

Discounting my work is like pissing on my entire life’s endeavors.  A visit from the ghost of Edward Abbey would agree.  I chose to be a writer because it’s fun.  No other reason.  If I can’t enjoy what I do, I won’t do it.  It would be nice to be rewarded for my creativity but I will no longer pimp myself out!!!

Readers don’t realize the steps we authors take to get a manuscript self published.  The first expense is the actual copyright registration.  That’s the government getting their pound of flesh before anything else occurs.  Then the beta reader, the editor, the proofreader, the cover art, the formatting guy and finally a manuscript is ready to publish.  This expense is AFTER the manuscript is completed.  Sometimes thousands of dollars are spent on research alone.  Add in the cost of travel, hotels, meals while away and paying tour guides and the like. It becomes a financial burden for some writers.  I plan on travelling to the Philippines in a couple of quarters.  Another writer friend is planning to travel with me so the expenses can be shared.  I have a trilogy outlined and it takes place in the current times; located in several islands in the Philippines.  I haven’t been there for a long time and certainly not to some of the islands I expect to visit in this upcoming trip.   Will I ever recover my expenses?  Probably not.   I strive to depict a location or event as close as reality as I can get.  The term ‘grounded in reality’ is not just a buzz phrase.  I apply it with gusto.  My writing buddy is also a stickler to details of reality.  Back to the subject at hand; giving away our hard earned creativity.  That’s the operative word – CREATIVITY! 

Just because my novels are in a digital format does not mean the process from start to finish is any less.  When one goes the old-fashioned writer-agent-publisher route, the author doesn’t take any shortcuts.  It’s still the same creativity and work.  The format for the final product is different.  No paper, ink, and binding are involved but also there’s no agent, publisher, or big-box retailer involved either.  The paradigm has changed.  Now, it’s changing again and Amazon controls the rules if you play in their park.  When I offer one of my novels for 99 cents, I forfeit 50% of my royalty.  Amazon gets a HUGE percentage of the sale.  Amazon didn’t write a word in my novel.  Nor did they pay to have it edited and proofread.  But they are the ones offering the cyberstore -- so, they benefit. 

I’ve restructured my prices to reflect the creativity of my offering.  If the book was in print and I was selling it on the corner of ‘walk’ and ‘wait’, I would receive X number of dollars.  I eliminated the printing – binding – shipping costs, the agent’s commission, and the profit usually taken by the publisher.  What’s left is what the retailer and I split. No more sales!  No more games! That’s the price. 

The most expensive novel in my inventory is about the price of a hamburger and fries.  It contains 140,000 words.  Most of my work is way above average in the e-book market.  I have two novels or novellas under 50,000 words; the remainder are average or above average in reading pleasure. Also all my work is 4 & 5 star in the review department.

Giving away for free – an e-book.  This marketing program was developed by some pimply face genius in the bowels of Amazon.  Again, it favors the retailer.  It’s like offering crackers and a cheese spread in the aisles of a warehouse retailer.  Offer the sample for free.  Maybe the shopper will buy a box of crackers or the processed cheese dip.  Good idea, right?

Now, let’s take a family with seven brats….put them in the store and they go from vendor to vendor eating all the free samples. They don’t buy a thing.  That’s what has happened to the e-book industry.  In addition to the freeloaders, there are parasites offering to spread the word that the author’s e-books are free.  They get paid to offer this information to their data base.

I’m embarking on a new program with the FREEBIES.  I can understand the concept.  Give it away to gain a broader reader base.  But I don’t want the freeloaders.  I was told that only 5% of the people that download the free books actually read them.  That’s crap if true.  So, here’s the new plan.

REVOLUTION OF FOOLS will be offered for FREE  today, 7/24/2013.  The schedule starts at midnight Pacific Daylight Time and goes until I flip the stop switch.  I will allow 100 novels for free.  If you are subscribing to my blog or on my FB friends list, you will have a head’s up.  Perhaps I’ll make a few tweets on the subject but for the most part, no one else will be touting my offering. The parasites won’t know about it nor will the freeloaders.