The Big Kindle Price Experiment

The most successful author I know of in the world of ebooks is J.A. Konrath. Joe and I go way back, to the first Love is Murder conference I attended, and he blurbed my first novel in print. His blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing is a bottomless font of valuable information. And Joe is paying his bills with ebooks, mostly for the Kindle. So, yeah, I pay attention to what Joe says when it comes to selling novels.

Konrath has created an interesting model for ebooks sales: publish several titles, sell them cheap, and promote them like crazy online. Sounds like something someone like me should try.

So I did.

My five mystery novels and two thrillers were already available for the Kindle, but prices varied. The Intrigue Publishing titles sold for $6.99, while the Echelon Press book (Blood and Bone) was priced at $2.99. Each was moving at the rate of 2 or 3 each month, so price didn’t seem to matter. But I had not explored the third leg of Konrath’s plan, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Two mystery-writing pals of mine, Debbie Mack and Rob Walker, had had success chatting with readers on forums. Since both were on the Kindle Korner Yahoo group that seemed like a good place to start. But if you’re going to be there you need to have something to talk about. They don’t allow you to just pop up and start talking about your books. I needed a news hook.

Well, that seemed obvious. I dropped the price of my first novel (The Troubleshooter) to $2.99 to match Blood and Bone. And since the moderators wouldn’t let me start the conversation about the change, I asked a friend to mention it in a post. That got people asking questions, which it was then okay for me to answer. Here was an unexpected happy result of this sly marketing approach – I got to have serious, honest conversation with readers about my books and others. I gained priceless insights, received valuable feedback and became part of a community of people who love books! It was already worth the effort.

But, did it result in my book becoming a bestseller? Maybe not yet. But when I checked the stats yesterday I was stunned to see The Troubleshooter ranked #6901 of all Kindle books. With 690,419 titles available for the Kindle, that put my novel in the top ONE PERCENT of Kindle titles. If that wasn’t enough of an ego boost, Amazon breaks titles down by genre. In the hard-boiled mystery category The Troubleshooter was #88. I don’t know how many hard boiled mysteries there are on the Kindle, so I choose to believe there are tens of thousands. (If you happen to know there are only 90, please keep that knowledge to yourself.)

So one Kindle copy of the Troubleshooter sold last month, and 40 sold in the last week. I guess I have to declare the experiment a success. How long will it last? Who knows? But you can bet I’ll try the same approach with another book next month!

Have YOU had a moving Kindle experience? As a writer or a reader?

The Edge of the New Thing

At Bouchercon I saw convincing evidence that the paper book was not dead, as hundreds of fans hauled away rolling cases filled with new acquisitions. But there was also much talk of the popularity of e-books, which got a dramatic boost from the Kindle.

A completely separate ongoing conversation had to do with the threatened death of the short mystery story. The most vocal proponents of this form belong to the Short Mystery Fiction Society which gives out the Derringer Award for the best short mystery of the year.

The challenge with short stories is that there are precious few places to get them published. Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines have little competition these days. The Strand is a larger, slick magazine that also publishes some fiction among other things.

So the question arises, will people buy short stories the way they buy novels in e-book format? Perhaps the short story form will gain even more popularity if the stories can be purchased individually.

If short fiction sold individually is the leading edge of the new wave of reading options, then Echelon Press is standing at that edge. Their new line of Echelon Shorts allows readers to download quick reads for small money – much like downloading the songs you like to make your own IPod mix instead of buying whole CDs.

I loved the idea I decided to submit a story myself and was pleased to be accepted. So now, for a couple of bucks, new readers can get the flavor of a Hannibal Jones novel in a few thousand words. My short story, “A Little Wildness” has all the basic elements of a Hannibal Jones novel in a bite-sized package.

Naturally, I hope you’ll give the story a try. But more to the point, I hope you and others will step further into the 21st century and sample other short stories on the site. This could be the reading plan of the future and we get to be there today.

Charitable Murder

Sometimes a writer will give a story away for free just to get some exposure. Of course, in winter a person could die from exposure, but for the past three years I’ve donated a new short story to the same series of anthologies. It’s great exposure but that’s not the reason for my generosity. It turns out to be an easy and rewarding way to support one of my favorite charities.

For the last three years, Wolfmont Press has published anthologies of short fiction involving crimes around the winter holiday season. Cover art and stories are donated, and all profits go to the Toys for Tots Foundation. To date, Wolfmont has raised more than $6,600 for this worthy cause.

This year’s book, "The Gift of Murder" contains 19 great stories featuring Christmas crime, Chanukah homicide, Kwanzaa killings, and some stories that combine all three! This is truly inspired short fiction from the likes of Agatha and Anthony award nominee Elizabeth Zelvin, Anthony Award winner Bill Crider, and Kris Neri (Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Award nominee.) For the Hannibal Jones completist, my Washington-based private eye is there too.

I have to say I enjoyed every story in the book and am humbled to be among such talented writers. I think the cause alone is enough of a reason to order your copy of "The Gift of Murder," but even in you hate kids you owe it to yourself to check out this truly great read! It would also make a great stocking stuffer for those friends who would love a sampler of some of the best crime writers out there.

So give the Gift of Murder this year – toys for the kids, joy for the readers!

How to Work the Web

Recently I've been trying to respond to some of the most frequently asked questions, on the theory that if one new author asked, a dozen more want to know the same thing. Here’s a question that addresses the busy writer’s need to have a strong internet presence:


I noticed that you had many blog mentions. What is the secret? What makes a good blog that gets attention? I remember MJ Rose saying she hated her blog, and that's how I feel. It's a mix of author interviews/tours, publishing/promoting tips, inspirational quotes, and tidbits on what I am doing, but I don't feel I've ever found my voice. I try to blog 5-6 times a week, but it's become a drain. I'm linked to many other blogs, but unfortunately do not have time to visit many of them. Is that what I lack - commenting often enough on other's blogs? Between blogs, websites & communities, I've got over a dozen sites, so it's already a lot to keep up with!


There are a number of related questions here and I’ll try to address them all. First, I do get mentioned on other people’s blogs. That’s mostly because I mention people on mine. I’ve made a lot of friends in the writing community. I talk up their activities on my blog and people often reciprocate. I also get mentions because I attend a lot of conferences and appear on panels. People comment on those events and my name comes up.

My blog gets mentioned or picked up on other blogs because I give advice or make comments others want to pass on. I think you have to have a theme and stick to it, so people know what to expect. If I read your blog and you’re talking about something that interests me, I’ll return. But if it’s hit or miss on the subject I want to read about I probably won’t. I started my blog thinking the average reader would be interested in the life of a writer. My content hasn’t really changed, but the blog has evolved to target other writers. I don’t know if it’s selling books, but it has helped to solidify my friendships in the business.

I’d love to blog five or six times a week, but honestly, I just don’t have that much to say. I write a newsletter most weeks, and post to my main blog (this one) ONCE a week. That appears to be enough to hold an audience.

I’m also linked to a lot of other sites – the ones I like – but rarely visit them. I don’t think those folks visit my blog very often either, but I think people who read mine click to theirs and vice versa. And I don’t spend much time posting on other blogs… with one exception. I have a Google Alert set for my name, as every author should. This means Google sends me an e-mail every time my name appears on the internet. I ALWAYS comment on a blog that mentions me. Comments are a small reward for making their audience aware of me, but it’s also my way of saying thank you. I’m always a little bummed when I talk somebody up on my blog and I hear nothing from them. I assume they didn’t even know I gave them some props. I don’t want anyone else to feel that way.

This question inspired me to do an internet inventory of sorts. I counted 20 web sites I’m on, counting this blog I post to once a week, but the others aren’t as much to keep up with as you might think.

For one thing, my lovely wife Denise updates my main web site. There’s a Hannibal Jones Yahoo Group but that’s run entirely by fans so no work for me.

I am a member of three different teams of writers who take turns posting to web sites, so there’s something new every day on Acme Authors, Criminal Minds at Work and Make Mine Mystery, but I only supply the content two or three times a month on each.

There are half a dozen sites I almost never visit. Red room, Black Author Showcase , Maverick Marketers , Linkedin, Shelfari and Goodreads are more like standing billboards for me. They are filled with content that promotes my writing, but are pretty much static displays.

That leaves the sites I actively communicate through: MySpace, Gather, Friendster, Crimespace, Book Place, Bebo, and the current hot tickets, Facebook and Twitter. Those I feed four or five times every week. But again they don’t take much time because I generally reuse content already written for my newsletter. Or, if I get an unexpected mention on line I whip up a one sentence note pointing to that site and post it in all 8 places. 10 well spent minutes to get my stuff all over the web.

So there’s a long, drawn out view of my approach to on line promotion. It’s all based on my own experience and someone else may have a better plan. In fact, I’d be happy to hear some other approaches.