Blake Crouch – Good Writing Pushes Ebook Sales
Blake Crouch is a Colorado writer and has published in both the print and ebook fields. As well as appearing in several short story anthologies, he co-wrote “Serial” with J.A. Konrath which was downloaded over 350,000 times and topped the Kindle bestseller list for 4 weeks.
Darrell - Paranormal and mystery books seem to head the list of ebook sellers. Do you think certain genres have an advantage in relation to ebook sales?
Blake - Well, I think there’s a lot of good mystery and thriller fiction being written right now. It’s what I love to read most, and I’m just glad there are a lot of other people who feel the same way.
Darrell - Can you describe a normal day of writing to me?
Blake - It’s different every day…sometimes I’m busy uploading work to a new platform…there often long stretches of working on a novella or novel on my own in isolation (this is my favourite thing to do), and other times, I’m working on a collaboration, in which case, there could be ten and twelve hour writing days. When it's new release time, I'm usually emailing a ton and busy doing interviews.
Darrell - Most of your ebooks have a price tag of $2.99. How important is price in relation to sales?
Blake - That’s a tough question. I’m still experimenting with pricing, but I think it’s important to set your books at a price that customers respond to. I have my short fiction available individually for $.99, my novellas and novels for $2.99, my short fiction collections for $3.99, and my complete short fiction collection for $4.99. It seems to be working now, so I’m hesitant to mess with it. I would like to experiment down the road with $.99 and $4.99 novels.
Darrell - Ebook websites provide short samples of the novel - often the first chapter - what is the benefit of this for writers?
Blake - The ability to read a sample before making a purchase is crucial. It’s just like walking through a bookstore and reading the first couple pages of a book you’re considering buying.
Darrell - What marketing tools do you use to promote yourself e.g. magazine advertising, Facebook, direct email?
Blake - Facebook, website, newsletter, guest blogging, posting to certain forums, but mainly continuing to write and release new books.
Darrell - What do you think the future holds for the hard copy printed page?
Blake - I think people will always want to read printed books. I'm one of them, even though I love my Kindle. This is why I'm making all of my work available on a POD basis for hardcore, dead-tree book lovers.
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