I have been wondering a lot lately about why “hot” books don’t cost more than ordinary books and also how a Rising Scale Payout might work in our new eReader world of direct book distribution:

I can also see a rising scale that, as a text becomes more popular, the price will rise 1 percent of a penny or so for each one sold — so hot texts will become hotter faster as readers will want to jump on the train before the price becomes too high.  Then, as the text begins to die, a sliding scale tips in that will more quickly reduce the price of the text down to nearly free — unless it gets hot again!

I’ve never understood why hot “books” are discounted so deeply and ordinary books have such a high price.  I understand the thinking that a hot book will sell more at a lower price — but what makes a hot book?  A low price?  I don’t think people care about price when they want to really read a book.

Continue reading → Rising Scale Payouts