Pricing Your E-Book to Gain Fair Reviews

I have started a service where I am offering to review your e-book as long as I receive a gift or review copy of your book. I know you have worked hard, but to receive a fair review, we want to be able to provide constructive criticism in a way that it is not crawled all over the Internet. This damages a person's reputation and there will have to be much explaining to do. I thought I'd take the lead in that respect on this post. (Applause)

I saw that Michael Connelly's new book, The Fifth Witness on Amazon.com, received bad reviews. But this is not because of the writing, it has a lot to do with the pricing of the e-book. The hardcover is going for $14.28 and the Kindle version is $12.99. This book received 117 (as of today), 1-star reviews! Yikes!

I think people ought not to bash this prolific author. I happen to like Michael Connelly and caught a glimpse of him here in DC while at the Annual Book Festival held on the National Mall. He was speaking on how he got started in writing while fans like myself were too busy snapping pictures with their cell phones and digital cameras! Groupie I was that day!

So with that said, I do not believe it was right for the 117 fans to bash the book based on price. If they felt like that, then why buy it? Or if you know you're not going to buy it at all, don't bother (please). Most hardcover books by Patterson, Grisham and Connelly can cost $25.00-$26.00 easily. Amazon priced the hardcover at a now, $14.28. If I were to walk over to Target right now, I would probably see The Fifth Witness priced at $25.00 with 30% off. Other side of the mall at Books-A-Million, maybe $19.99.

My point is, Michael Connelly does not make the decision to price his books since he is publishing via a traditional publisher. He is a writer first, business second (I think I got this right). Now, if you're self-publishing and you want a huge following, do not try to be like Michael Connelly's publisher. He has enough fans and publishing cred to price his books that high even if some do not like it. For the 117 1-star reviews, they can choose to not buy the book or go back to traditional purchased books.

I have been following JA Konrath's blog heavily. He seems to be a math genius as well as a great thriller and horror writer as he breaks down the "science" of selling an e-book at just $0.99. I believe this pricing works if one has a huge following, great marketing, great writing of course and patience. With so many options for publishing today, do your research before setting your price as if one was St. Martin's Press or Harper Collins. I saw Lisa Gardner's Love You More: A Novel on Amazon Kindle priced at $12.99, yet there aren't any 1-star reviews. Okay, so that's another story...
If you'd like me to review your book, please e-mail me to discuss!