A Drastic Change: Charging for All Books

Just decided to charge (more or less) a flat rate for each of my stories on Smashwords: $0.99.

The reason for this is to ensure that only one title is available for free; this way I have a better idea whether people actually read the books, and if so, which ones.  My basic assumption is that people who pay for a title are more likely to actually read it, in contrast to those who download a title at no cost!

I'm not sure whether this decision affects people unduly; I doubt whether there is anyone at all who has read all the titles --18 of them--that I have put up on Smashwords, or who was planning to obtain and read all of them.  Well, until now, most of them would have been free, except for maybe two or three.  From now on, they would cost around a dollar each, and if you think about it, it isn't too outrageous to get 18 books for a little over $20!

If there is anyone who was planning to buy a number of my stories (wow; that would really knock my socks off) and has been put in the position of actually having to shell out big money for them, please contact me with a good sob story, and I'll work on arranging for you to have the books you desire for free!

By the way, Prisoner! is still available for free, for no good reason.  I just want to see all the sales statistics flatline, except for Prisoner!, which would perversely cheer me up.

Kay

[Added later:]

Well, it's been close to a week since I changed the settings on Smashwords to have them charge a nominal price for each of my books except for Prisoner! and, as predicted, only Prisoner is selling!  I'm more amused than disappointed, but jeeze, it seems very much as though only a few readers are interested in the non-prurient aspects of the stories, and most buyers are actually looking for inexpensive erotica.

Well, I don't blame them; I have so often been on the same quest myself.  In these horrible days, only that sort of fiction seems to have the power to soothe me enough for me to slip into slumber.  It probably wouldn't surprise my readers to learn that almost every one of my books up for sale started life as sort of erotica with a story, even if subsequently all the sex was removed.

I just got an awesome idea.  What if I wrote a screamingly erotic story, and simply redacted the naughty bits, like the Mueller report as it was released to the public?  I wonder whether I could put it up on Smashwords as not containing adult material.

In other unrelated news, we're getting closer to getting a cover for Helen & Sharon (Vuehl) custom-painted by the artist who supplied the artwork for the Series Helen.  I have only seen a preliminary sketch of it, but I have high hopes that it will be exceptional.

K