The remake of my author name has been quite a few months in the making.
I realised my name may not be appropriate anymore and wanted to adultify it. And if that’s not a word, it is now.
It started with the Porn Stars series, wanting a more mature author name for them. And then I figured I may as well add the novels into it as well. Then came the two non-fictions. Well they not only changed but I added my name to them as well.
I’m hoping the new author name will make people take my books a little more seriously. My author name a little more seriously.
Either way, it wasn’t a massive overhaul. Just a shortening of the name.
The covers are still the same, and except for Her Secret Island which had its own name shortened, the books are still the same on the outside.
On the inside, the front and back matter had a spruce up to keep urls and info up-to-date.
So not a massive change, but hopefully one that works.
Now, I want to talk about books and size versus pricing.
I’ve come across a lot of blog posts about the “general” guide to word length where books are concerned. The general consensus is
Short Stories up to 7,500 words
Novelette 7,500 to 17,500
Novella 17,500 to 40,000 (although this has varied from site to site and been 50,000 or even 60,000)
Novel 40,000 to 110,000 (again, this has varied from 50,000/60,000 to 110,000)
Epic/saga – 110,000 – 125,000 and longer
To me a novel at 40,000 words is way too thin to be considered a novel when it’s in paperback. I’ve written a couple of books just short of 40,000 words and they are quite small. I also have 75,000 plus word novels which are quite thick, and one, The Road To Vegas, is actually an epic/saga at 122,241 words. Of course if they were “pocket size” they would look fatter than they are.
So does that mean pricing becomes different once again and I need to change my prices to account for all the other books I release? I had a price hike a few years back when my novels were overhauled and I added the cost in.
In my book, Dream It, Write It, Publish It, I mention pricing, where I suggested this as a guideline
0 – 10,000 words = .99 or free
10,000 – 50,000 words = $1.99
50,000 – 100,000 = $2.99
100,000 – 150,000 words = $3.99
150,000 – 200,000 = $4.99
But, judging on the details I’ve discovered, and now that I also write short stories, novelettes and novellas, it’s time to change my pricing, and the guidelines, again.
And it’s always good to have another look at pricing depending on what’s happening in the world of publishing, and what you are currently releasing as it’s always changing.
So based on the “general” consensus about word length, I have come up with this as my own personal guideline for me and my books.
Short stories up to 10,000 words – free/.99/$1.99 depends on what it is, it has three price points to try out.
Novelette 10,000 to 30,000 – $2.99 (which most of my children/young adult books are, and if they are in the same set, regardless of word size, they will be the same price to keep it even.)
Novella 30,000 to 60,000 – $3.99 (Porn Star Brothers books are all over 40,000)
Novel 60,000 – 100,000 – $4.99 (Her Secret Island is 77,341 words)
Epic 100,000 and up – $5.99 (my other three novels are over 100,000 each so they’ve gotten a one dollar rise.)
Illustrated guides – $4.99 – $19.99 depending (under my real name, Tiara King, I released style and jewellery guides with lots of pictures so that accounts for the cost.)
That leads me to paperbacks. That’s always been easy. Novel size was always going to be $19.99 while smaller books were $9.99. But now, making a decision on word and page count, I have added in other prices for my fiction, non-fiction and young adult paperbacks.
So my personal guidelines for my paperback books are,
0 – 100 PAGES – $9.99
100 – 200 PAGES – $12.49
200 – 300 PAGES – $14.99
300 – 400 PAGES – $17.49
400 – 500 PAGES – $19.99
500 – 750 PAGES – $24.99
750 – 1000 PAGES – $29.99
1000 – 1250 PAGES – $34.99
1250 – 1500 PAGES – $39.99
1500 – 1750 PAGES – $44.99
1750 – 2000 PAGES – $49.99
2000 – 2500 PAGES – $54.95
2500 – 3000 PAGES – $59.95
Now while I may not get to 600 pages and over for an epic, I have the price points for omnibus collectors editions of which there will be some coming over the next few years.
Now for some people this may seem like a lot, but Amazon tells you how much you need to price your paperback books over, depending on size and page count, so you can’t put just any price you like on paperbacks, there are guidelines for that too, which is why my novel/epics are priced, at this stage, $17.49 and over. Plus you also have to understand that there is ink, cardboard, paper and printing costs involved in producing a book.
Personally, I think that’s reasonable for paperback books. And the cost for e-books is still in the same pricing range. I just needed to broaden it to cover everything I do.
So that means some of my prices have changed. Three novels, Vegas, London and Lotto have been put up to $5.99 for e-books, Island stays the same for an e-book at $4.99 but the paperback has come down in price to $17.49. Positivity has gone up to $3.99, but Publish It stays the same.
What do you guys pay for electronic and print books these days?
Cheryl says
You are brilliant. I haven't written much that is longer than one of my blog posts and by blog standards that is TOO long.
As for what I spend. I spend whatever it takes to acquire things I am interested in. An out of print book may cost over $100 but if it is something I want I would buy it. I rarely by fiction but when I do, I buy off of Amazon for the hardback version. I like hardback books.
Again, I think you are so creative. I am not sure that the name change matters to me but you know far more about the buying habits of readers.
L.J. Diva says
Thanks Cheryl. My brain is over-creative and very busy.
As for books, i love a good hardback and have been buying all of Jackie Collins books this year, trying to get the originals in hb while still getting pbs for their funky 80s covers. As a stylist and jewellery designer, I have a bunch of books all in hb. I do try to find them at a lower price so I can get more for my money, and with business expenses there's not a lot to go around on books anymore. I'm not sure I'd spend any more than $100 if it's a collectors edition. I am after Elizabeth Taylor's My Love Affair With Jewelry and that may be up to $100, so I do know about prices.
Hbs will always be more than pbs in pricing. With publishing houses most books come out in hb first, a year later in pb, and then trade pbs. Hbs always have that slightly better quality than pbs and most people collect pbs as either a last resort (can't afford the hb) or for a collectors piece.