experimental Archangel

I've just completed Archangel.

I know it seems excessive to have written this one so closely on the heels of the last one, Edge. However, I want to test the 'free-giveaways' aspect of publishing.

Most authors I've met seem to reckon that a freebie is a good way to encourage readership, and they also say that the free books are likely to get around 10 times as many 'sales' as the paid-for ones. I was sceptical of this approach, given that a novel takes x hours to write and a further y hours to get ready for publication. If all we do is train people to expect free product then I'm not sure we are doing it right.

Anyway, I designed this novel to a specification. Less than 150 pages, so that it looks slim and not too off-putting. A similar cover style to the other novels and also that this one would be a lead into some of the other novels.

I've also tried publishing this one directly through Amazon, which I assumed would be a way to be able to manage the pricing.



I was wrong about that. Amazon wants me to minimum price it at 99p and then to put it through Kindle Direct Publishing. I've gone along with this at the moment, but it means I'd have to resort to tricks to get the price reset to 'free'.

Apparently, I need to put it onto another platform, price it low and then tell Kindle that there's the lower price. Of course, KDP interferes with this, saying that I can't do it, because I've given exclusivity to KDP.

I presume Amazon are trying to avoid a race to the bottom, where everyone is trying to undercut everyone else resulting in a West Texas Crude Oil pricing scenario for novels. The race to the bottom results in cutthroat competition and consumer expectations of lower prices may mean any eventual victors find profit margins permanently squeezed.

Meh, I'll leave it to rumble through the system now, which seems to take another 72 hours before it will hit the store. I have doubts about whether it will automatically link it with my other published books at that point.

It seems complicated, when all I want to do is have Amazon list it as 'permafree'. KDP won't allow that in any case and wants me to have a total of 10 days on special offer as free.

At this rate, this story of Christina Nott won't get read at all. I'm going to leave it to simmer for a few days and then decide whether it is worth republishing it through firstelement, with a different ISBN.