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A while back, I mentioned here that I was raising prices on my blogging and social media ebooks. I also mentioned that I would not be raising prices on my crafty ebooks.
Today, I’d like to talk more about why this is. I hope this discussion will be beneficial to other crafters who are considering writing and publishing their own crafty ebooks.
Currently, my two crafty titles are priced around $10.00. I also have a small line of tutorials I price at $2.95. It’s absolutely true that, given all the hours of work that went into these products, they really should be priced higher. But I don’t think the current market will bear that. Here’s why:
We’re in an abundant landscape of Free.
…Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. But with so much digital how-to content out there for the taking, it’s awfully hard to convince many people to pay for specific pieces of it.
If you’re thinking of writing your own crafty ebook, I’d advise you to figure out ways to set it far, far apart from the material people can already get for free online. There are plenty of interesting options: full-size printable patterns, included videos, message boards, and on and on. At the moment, in our abundant community, mere words, pictures, and design may not be enough to capture a wide swath of customers.
Community vs. Market, again.
Because we share so many of the same skills in this community, it’s very easy for us to undervalue them. Thus, a digital book that purports to teach a skill that we already know, or can learn elsewhere for free, just won’t find much traction among crafters.
If you can go out there and find a market that’s unfamiliar with your craft, but has a strong desire to learn it, then you’ll have a receptive audience who’s also willing to pay more. Admittedly, though, this is a tough group to find.
So, if you want to do some digital publishing, you’d be wise to look for other scarcities.
Also, bla bla the economy bla bla bla. A reality, but not an excuse.
Image from ROI Revolution
Pricing for digital books is in its infancy.
…And as a community, we’re in our infancy with digital self-publishing. So we’re seeing a pro-am landscape emerging. People who want to make their self-publishing ventures profitable may find that they need to price their work higher than mass-market print books. This already makes for a tough sell.
And then, we also have an emerging community of hobbyist self-publishers, who maybe haven’t done the math on their publishing projects, and price them at rock-bottom prices in hopes of getting sales. This is exactly what I did when I started publishing, and why I later raised prices where I could.
In a landscape like this, consumers are understandably confused as to how price and value relate. The only solutions I can see right now are time and repeated exposure.
(Incidentally, I think that prices for mass-market print books have been getting squeezed artificially low by many market forces. Remember that most books published in the U.S. end up losing the publisher money.)
Meanwhile, if you’re considering publishing a crafty ebook, I recommend that you track all of the time you put into your project. With digital craft books, there’s really no such thing as making it up with a high volume of sales – at least at the moment.
You’ll need to price your work so you can make up your costs even if you only make a modest number of sales. Because it’s true you’ll have to work just as hard to get many sales at a low price as you’ll have to work to get few sales at a high price.
Does all this mean I’m against crafty ebooks?
No way – I still believe they’re a great way to get interesting niche ideas out there that would never see the light of day from print publishers.
I also believe that digital crafty publishing gives blog readers a wonderful way to support the people who bring them quality inspiration day in and day out, for free. (I do think this idea is also in its infancy, but sooner or later, we have to understand that all this Free we enjoy does have costs for the people who make it.)
I think that eventually, the market will begin to catch up to the idea of crafty ebooks. Boy, do I wish I knew exactly how long this will take – but all the sands under us are shifting too crazily to make any predictions.
For the time being, I plan to slow down my own crafty e-publishing a bit and evaluate each project more deeply before committing the hundreds of hours of work. For the moment at least, I’ll select crafty publishing projects with an eye toward what benefits they might bring other than money, because the revenue potential may be low.
I’ll definitely continue to support people’s indie publishing efforts, because I think each one holds great promise. And I’ll continue to rejoice every single time someone places an order with me.
I think this is all headed in a good direction, but slowly. This is no time to give up, but it is a time to think more strategically. What are your thoughts?
I wish I could add something new. All I can say is that I completely agree with the work vs pricing issue. There are so many more hours involved than people imagine when tackling an ebook. I keep going back and forth about publishing one myself. In the end I'm afraid it will be more a labor of love than a profitable venture. Unfortunately, as I'm sure the case is for many, I need to be tackling the 'profitable' before I can take on the 'fun'. Maybe we should just take the bull by the horns and form our own e-publishing company! ;)
Well, having formed one bit by bit over the past year, I can tell you that it's not exactly a path to riches, either.
But I think it's very wise to respect the “hours in vs. profit out” formula with these kinds of projects – you and I know first-hand how much time can go into them!
A good, very thought provoking post, thanks Diane. Definitely sounds like a hard road to riches! :)
But have to say that I do prefer, if I can, to support the littler woman or man (so to speak). I would much rather pay that little bit more for publications such as your own, than chase around all over the internet looking for freebies. I've then got everything tied up in very neat, attractive bundle!
Not that I haven't found and used some of that freebie-ness! But being a crafter who designs her own work much of the time, I have some understanding of how much work can go into things such as ebooks, and feel that we should try to do a bit towards supporting those amongst us who are willing to go that long road to help keep us informed.
Thank you, shkapoo! Indie producers of all kinds appreciate customers like you immensely. And hopefully over time, your perspective will take a wider hold in the culture.
I enjoyed this. Thanks, Sister-Diane. You make a lot of great points. We are in an infancy stage of publishing ebooks and free products. Pricing needs to be low but not so low as to be unrewarding to those who spent their efforts. What are the benefits aside from sales? Traffic, networking, opportunities, etc. It certainly is an interesting time to be a part of it. As an Indie author myself of two novels, I've completely embraced the new paradigm and even found myself teaching others how to make, market and sell ebooks – all for free. Could they find all that information online without spending the 4.99 I charge? Yep, but it will take them many, many hours/days/weeks plus they won't have the insight from someone who's spent years figuring it out.
I think you have the right mind-set and perseverance to succeed in this business, while a lot of others will fade out because this certainly is not a get-rich-quick business. Maybe for a few but not for most of us.
Best wishes to you.
I appreciate what you're saying, Jason, but there's a really important distinction here – you're selling information that's scarce. You can absolutely get away with that $4.99 price and make it up in volume, because there are lots of people interested in making money publishing ebooks.
Craft ebook publishers, on the other hand, face a market abundance – they must compete against mountains of readily-available free content online. The point I'm making in this post is that, in this segment of the ebook market, revenue potential is hampered by this abundance.
I also publish ebooks about blogging and social media, and these have outsold my crafty titles by an average factor of four to one.
There's a huge amount of discussion about Free elsewhere on this blog, if you're interested. Just use the Search box. Thanks for your comment!
You make some great points. I do think that, even if the profit is slim compared with the hours of work put in, it is better than making zero. I'm planning to to make an e-book or two in the next year, since I've always wanted to be a writer but am still intimidated by the idea of approaching an actual publisher with a book idea – this seems like a good way to get my feet wet with book writing – so for me, there is a benefit even if sales are next to nothing.
So true, Leah – and when I wrote my weaving ebook, I gained invaluable experience in writing, design, and layout. When I published Crafty Tree Trimmings and Card. Paper. Ribbon, I gained experience in project management, royalty payments, and marketing. I wouldn't trade any of that.
I'm just trying to offer my own experiences here to people who are planning to publish their own ebooks. It's wise to look at this kind of project the way you're looking at it – it's a great learning experience. Just don't plan for it to cover your mortgage right now.
Hmm…. I wrote a very successful ebook. It didn't take me long to write because I wrote what I knew. It continues to get excited tweets & (more importantly) sales on a daily basis. By ebook standards, the price is fairly low ($15) but it's more than the majority of crafty ebooks that are out there although I sell predominantly to crafters.
I think the thing is that I sell a book about blogging – the ideas, inspiration, and some technical aspects – to a craft audience. And I wrote the material specifically for that audience.
Why can't crafty ebooks be the same way? Diane, you mention this idea… but you glossed over it, too. If you want to write a book on making felt flowers, write it for moms on how to make felt flowers for girl's hair doo dads. If you want to write a book on jewelry design, write it for retired women who have time & money on their hands. And then market it as such!
Aren't we talking so much right now about trying to sell within the community too often? If you want to sell to this community, examine what special skill you bring to it and then write the living daylights out of it. Otherwise, find your target market where they live online (mommy blogs, eco-friendly living blogs, forums, etc…) find out what their real needs are and then exceed those needs with your product! And then charge good money for it.
The other thing I wanted to say is that when I pay $20, $50, or $150 for an information product, the cost communicates a certain level of product to me. So far, I haven't been disappointed. Do you want people to think you wrote a $5 ebook with $5 knowledge or a $25 ebook with $25 knowledge? I know my knowledge is worth more…
I have great respect for your ebook, Tara, but I feel compelled to reiterate a reply I made to another commenter here – ebooks that teach scarcer information (like blogging) will definitely outsell ebooks about craft technique in this community. My own ebooks about blogging outsell my craft titles by an average factor of four to one.
I hear what you're saying about niche marketing, but I think that both Weaving Un-Loomed and Card. Paper. Ribbon were strong examples of niche content. Crafty Tree Trimmings garnered a huge amount of exposure far outside our immediate community last Christmas, and ultimately, all three books saw about the same low rate of sales conversion. I think it's simply a matter of trying to compete with both abundant Free content and artificially low-priced print books.
I'll also add that producing a craft technique ebook really can take much longer than producing one with a more informational theme. There's writing to consider, definitely, and also photography (both beauty shots and technique shots), design and layout, and technical editing. That's all before you get to the task of marketing!
My whole point in writing this post wasn't to discourage anyone from having a go at writing a crafty ebook, but to share what I see as some current market realities, based on my own experiences publishing both craft technique and informational ebooks. There are definite learning benefits to be gained from any publishing project, but I think it's vitally important for crafters to be aware of the existing market challenges before they commit many hours to writing, designing, and photographing a craft-technique ebook.
I think your comment about price and the value of information is spot-on. Yours is a perspective I wish I'd had when I started publishing.
Hey Diane,
I'm wondering what you'll be doing now re crafty ebook publishing now that there's a buzz about Flattr. Do you think you'll be more inclined to continue the occasional ebook or do more tutorials with the hopes that they'll be flattr'd.
Just curious,
Michelle
That's a great question, Michelle. I plan to keep doing both – some subjects are better in ebook form and others in tutorial form. Although, for the reason I cited in this post (http://www.craftypod.com/2010/05/12/things-to-c…), I'll only be taking on crafty ebook projects that have strong potential for finding a market.
First of all, I have to say how much I’ve been enjoying your site. I stumbled upon it a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed many of your podcasts and posts.
I also sell ebooks. I’m an art teacher who blogs about the projects I teach my students. My blog started small, but more and more art teachers asked for expanded lesson tutorials. I listened and came up with an ebook that focused on a themed lesson plan. I included handouts, photo tutorials and galleries. The teachers loved them. Now I have 22 books and each one is $5.
I’ve sold over 15K of them so I’m happy. People sometimes say that I priced my ebooks to low. But I don’t think so.
I recently purchased a $55 ebook from a artist/business blogger. I do not know what possessed me or what I thought I would gain from this book, but it was a HUGE waste of money. I was so disappointed. I couldn’t bare to ask for a refund, given that I sell ebooks as well. I’m saying this because you must offer value to your readers/customers. It’s hard to remove your emotions when pricing your ebook, but ask yourself what you’d be willing to pay for a similar book. That helps me.
Great post!
Good for you, Patty! It seems to me that you had developed a specific following, asking you for specific information, and you were able to fulfill on that request to great volume sales. It’s a nice example of publishing for market needs rather than because it was a subject you wanted to publish. (Not that people shouldn’t publish what they want – but it’s important to do that research into what will actually sell to the market you currently reach.)
You don’t mention what the scope of your ebooks is in terms of pages and hours invested in production. I daresay that information might be useful for people interested in publishing, to help them see how you arrived at your $5.00 price. I’d have to say, this isn’t a price I personally recommend for anything longer than an extended tutorial!