ROBUST discussion

Here's an interesting interview with Lizzy Ford, who publishes a book a month, gives them all away free, and hopes to build up enough of a following by such means to be able to launch a subscription service in which for a fixed fee readers will get 6 or 7 books a year. http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/20...

What do you reckon her success rate will be?

I think it all depends on what the subscription fee would be. People are already getting a dozen books for free. I think she has too small an audience yet that is willing to pay a subscription fee for her to generate a full-time income.

I think the idea would be better suited if she collaborated with multiple writers and even then I think the business model isn't viable.

She may as well just charge per book if she wants people to buy her books.

I give her this much, the idea is unique and it has attracted attention to her and her books. Maybe she's more of a genius than I give her credit for.

Here's another viewpoint:
http://publishingperspectives.com/201...

This guy picked the wrong price point, though, at $4.99. I tried that; it was death on legs. The sweet spot for maximizing net income is $2.99.

Hi Andre,

Thanks for sharing my blog post.

As for that second article, if you are going to attack someone's writing, it's best not to have a typo in the paragraph!

Dave

David wrote: "Hi Andre,

Thanks for sharing my blog post.

No problemo. Lizzie has an interesting viewpoint, which you bring out well. If you're in contact with her, from my advertising and consulting days I have a small amount of experience with a variety of mailorder merchants, including some very experienced and successful in books and magazines. The dream of all mailorder merchants is subscribers instead of ad hoc sales. Most are willing to pay a good deal per subscriber. Lizzie has that bit right. It's the next bit that sets the alarm bells ringing. Tell Lizzie she's being too ambitious, instead to sell her six or seven books next year as singletons to the fan base she's establishing; it isn't yet big enough to jump from free to a few dollars. She can always later sell the books as packages (four for the price of three, that sort of thing), even three for 99c as a sort of introduction.

David wrote: As for that second article, if you are going to attack someone's writing, it's best not to have a typo in the paragraph!"

If you mean "most" for "almost" where Chad Post puts the boot into John Locke, great minds think alike. I thought the same when I saw that; it stopped me.

I'll mention that to Lizzy.

Actually it was the very first paragraph where Locke is mentioned. He says "He made over a hundred thousand of dollars in royalties last year". No "of" necessary.