First off, it's a pretty old-fashioned attitude. Back in my day a book wasn't 27 pages! That was back when all "books" were on paper. It's as backwards as music groups who still put intro tracks and hidden tracks on albums like it's the 90s--looking at you, Coldplay! Nowadays a "book" can be anything from 1 page to 100,000,000 pages. Since it's online there's really no limit--minimum or maximum. Though if you write a single word and tried to call it a book, probably no one would buy it and Amazon would probably pull it.
Bringing me to the next point: supply and demand, old dude. If no one bought these books, no one would write them. But obviously people are buying them so they exist. Most of my books are $2.99, though most of them are longer than 27 pages. Some only a little bit longer like 40 pages but others are 50-100 pages. Novels over 100 pages I usually charge $3.99 at first.
And of course the old guy is ignoring the most important factor here: Amazon. They're the ones who mandated that anything $2.99 or above would have a 70% royalty. Authors didn't decide to do this. Amazon did. If Amazon allowed authors to get a 70% royalty on 99 cent books maybe those 27 page books would be 99 cents. For the author you have to decide if you'll sell enough at 99 cents to make up for what you lose with the smaller royalty.
Since most of my competition also charges $2.99 or more, why should I be the one charging less? Maybe if I think that'll get more people to buy. Of course that's why I have free books so people will read those and then buy other ones.
The thing is, what do you consider a "book" these days? Is 50 pages a book? 100 pages? 200 pages? It's really up to the individual to decide. But telling writers 27 pages is a chapter not a book and they need to "slow their roll" is just hidebound thinking. Contemporize, man!
1 comment:
Maybe the word he was looking for is "Novel" because 27 pages isn't a novel. There are plenty books 27 pages or less books.
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