Adjustment to "My Pledge"

Well, folks. I try to be thoughtful and to take my time with all of my posts, but yesterday I got just a little ahead of myself. I posted my pledge to you all, a pledge that included a promise for consistently low prices on my books. In my haste, I didn't take into account the price indie authors have to set for their paperback books; future trends; and traditional publishers' strategic adjustments to regain control over the industry. This industry is changing rapidly, and traditional publishers are now being forced to play "catch up." This article from Smashwords was quite the wake-up call that instigated the need for this adjustment to my pledge. The author of the article is right: traditional publishers will soon lower the prices of their e-books, because they have to. The independent section of the industry is becoming too big: indie authors are selling too many books at a much lower price. It's getting to the point where the Big Six have to do something about it.


I am dedicated to producing quality and I will always be first and foremost, but I had to remove the pricing component of the pledge since there's no way I will be able to offer content for a third of the price as these publishers when they begin offering e-books for $2.99. I will do "free" and "99 cents" promos but it just wouldn't make sense to consistently offer books for fifty cents a piece in order to keep up with my pricing pledge. And I wouldn't be able to offer paperback versions of my books as cheaply as I would like to since the price will have to be about the same as commercial paperbacks, if not slightly more expensive.


A few years ago, the argument against the Big Six's overpricing of e-books would have been a nice salvo to launch against them, but they have caught on, and soon they will begin adapting to the change in the industry. My argument and pricing strategy would have been quickly outdated, so that section of the pledge needed to be scrapped.


My apologies, everyone.