In his blog post yesterday, Seth Godin stated that high value is not the same as low price. He said, “The price is the same for every person who buys that item at retail. The value is different for everyone. Low price is the last refuge for marketers who don’t have the patience or guts to demonstrate value for those that need it.”.
Let’s apply this to books.
It’s easy to provide low price, in fact, huge numbers of indie authors give their books away. They pimp their novels out using the permafree strategy with online retailers, free giveaways via Instafreebie or the like, free cross promotions with authors writing in the same genre, etc. This has never made sense to me. Think about books by your favourite authors. Are you willing to pay for their latest releases? You probably are, aren’t you? Because you know you’ll get value for your money regardless of the price.
So what would happen if we focussed on providing value in the form of a story well told, rather than on the price? What would happen if we demonstrated that we have the patience and the guts to provide value for our readers.
