The Price of a Book
At a recent event, one of my professional acquaintances picked up the sole remaining copy of Bare Foot Astrology, I had one on the table top, looked at it, and asked, “How much?”
In person, a slightly dog-earred version? Last “demo” copy I had there?
“Five bucks.”
Which was then followed by a long discourse on how I priced too low, at $5, to which I replied, “Check the cover, it is listed as $6.95, from Amazon,” and from there?
The Price of a Book
I was, apparently, too low. As a 99-cent eBook, I think it’s worth it. In so many words, I was told I should price it at $9.99, and that I should sell copies from the table at ten bucks. While I would like to charge ten dollars, I prefer to just say, “Order from Amazon,” as that’s much easier.
Over the years – on the road – I’ve seen “New Age and Occult” bookstores come and go. I always loved one that was in West Texas, couple of industrious employees would lug a van full of books, tarot cards , and crystals out to shows, painstakingly unloading, arranging, displaying, bartering, selling, then, at the end of the weekend, packing up. While it was streamlined, it still took several hours.
Last time? It took me less than five minutes to pack up. Less than ten minutes to set up, less than five to tear down? Works for me. Another professional associate, also author of one the Idiot’s Guide, I watched while he would carry around the remaining cases of books he had on hand, selling them for 5 or 10 bucks, and eventually, just giving them way.
If I remember, I’ll get another case shipped out to El Paso. I don’t keep any books to sell on hand at home, though, too much trouble to store, too hard to carry in and out. I know I should, but I just can’t justify adding the weight of unsold books to my go-to travel gear.
At the Rock Shop (Nature’s Treasures) in Austin, I was pleased to see they sold out of most of my texts with one beaten, dog-earred, much-abused copy of Bare Foot Astrology left out and marked as “Store Copy, not for sale.”
I like seeing that.
Funniest part, to me, about the book, my "Bare Foot Astrology?’
That text is merely the transcibed notes from my video series, the lecture, which tries to encapsulate several basic astrology principles as an hour presentation.
It’s variations on a theme, and the price of the books is quite fair.
One of the videos is now available, for streaming, straight off my site.
