Digressions

Kindle Pricing

/ Lisa / 4 Comments

I’m curious to see what others think about the price of Kindle books.

Here’s how I browse when looking for a new author. I scroll for a title that catches my eye, and more importantly, a tag that looks professional. I saw a tag after a title not that long ago that said, ‘A thriller mystery romance!’ Well, if the author doesn’t know the genre, I’m certainly not going to be able to figure it out either. Plus exclamation points telling me I should be excited have the opposite effect.

After I find something that catches my eye, the next thing I look at is the price. If the Kindle price is over $4.99 I move on. Even if it’s a big name author. If the book is written by one of my favorite authors I’m still not going to pay more for it. Because if I’m going to pay $15 for a book, it’s going to be an actual book I can hold, especially if it’s a favorite author.

One of the reasons I won’t pay much for a Kindle book is I always wonder how they justify the price. ‘They’ as in the authors or publishers. If there are no printing costs, no shipping costs, etc., then why does the e-book cost the same as the paper version?

Once I did spend $13 for a Kindle book by a big name author. I’d never read the author, the synopsis sounded intriguing, and I figured if I liked it, the author had a lot more books I could read. It was one of the worst books I’ve read. I should have at least downloaded a sample first.

I understand the whole concept of valuing the author’s time and how long it takes to write a novel. I understand publishing costs, the cost for editing services, cover art, etc. And I also understand that people want to make a living. But even with all that understanding, I just can’t bring myself to spend a lot on an e-book.

I’m curious what others think about this. I keep my Kindle prices low, and keep the first book in the series free hoping to make the books accessible to all. Do you equate cheap prices with low quality? How do you justify spending on e-books when there are little production costs? Does it bother you that an e-book can  cost almost the same as a hardback book?

I’d love to hear opinions on this as I’m very curious – and also looking for something new to read on Kindle.

 

The Cost of Art

/ Lisa / 7 Comments

My  husband asked me to make a doily for his bedside table (built by his great-grandfather), that matched one I’d made for my bedside table. My crochet basket goes with me any place I wait. Since I’ve spent some time recently in a lot of doctor offices, I got a lot of crocheting done. It’s much slower when there’s IVs in the backs of both hands.

Then my husband asked me how long it took to crochet. I had no idea so I timed myself. His piece took roughly forty hours.

Art's table

Art’s piece. Pattern: Queen Anne’s Lace

The amount of time got me thinking about how you price on art. Or in this case, crafts. Even if I charged fifty cents an hour, no one is going to pay twenty dollars for a doily. You can get them in thrift stores for fifty cents. They’re old lady things; out of fashion. Taught to me by an old lady I loved, so I crochet in her memory.

Aunty and us Easter 2

‘Aunty’ who taught me to crochet when I was nine. Plus me in the middle with siblings.

What about my friends who create beautiful works of art with glass? Or the friend who makes earrings (that I benefit from)? The friend who paints? The friend who creates amazing landscapes?

The writer?

If you charged even minimum wage your work of art would be priced out of reach for the majority of the people.

How do you price something that is a creation, something spiritual, something you’ve breathed your soul into? Granted, my crocheting isn’t anything like that; it’s simply a way to keep hands busy. But writing certainly is.

I’m a slow writer. I dally and wander and get distracted by the scenery. So it can take me years to write a book. I’d have to sell more books than I currently do, to make a poverty-level wage off of them.

We all know no one creates works of art in order to make money. And isn’t that a good thing? There are so many things I value, made by people I equally value, that would not be in my life if the artists were out to make money.

I just wish I could pay them as much as I value their work.

Steven mumps March 1965

Brother with mumps – and one of the few photos I have of Aunty’s crocheting

Then There’s This Question

/ Lisa / 5 Comments

Those who read this blog know I love any question that begins with ‘What if…’ and all the stories that question leads to. But over the past couple years I’ve been noticing a new question creeping in. Not sure I like it, not sure I want to ask it, definitely don’t want to hear the answer.

I think this new question has to do with the gray hair starting to come in. They both seemed to arrive at the same time.

‘Is this it?’

Not so much ‘is this the sum total of my life?’ or ‘is this who I am to be from here on out?’. Or even ‘is this all there is?’.

Those of course are deep questions that can be asked at any stage of life. But it’s not how I’ve been asking that question. It goes something more like this.

When a semi truck going way too fast on the narrow bridge over the Skykomish river confluence is way over into my lane and there’s no place to go but the river. That brief second before the driver gets the truck safely back into his lane.

When lying on the table with your breast covered in ultrasound goo.

When you’re feeling up your arm pit thinking, has the lymphoma come back?

When you’re standing in the pantry trying to remember what you went in there for, and then can’t remember if you even wanted to go to the pantry.

When you realize that the generation older than you is fading and you’re becoming that older generation.

It’s actually an odd thing to think about, but I assume as everyone ages they begin to wonder what their end will be like.

In a way, it’s a rather sick humor sort of version of the ‘what if’ question. That makes me laugh now that I think about it.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not brooding or even worried. It’s just occasionally the question pops into my head.

Is this it?

Well, not today. Today all is good.

Except for the housecleaning bit. But even that’s not so bad when music is blasting and the husband is helping and the dog is protecting me from the killer vacuum cleaner.