Mark Fassett said:
DriveThruFiction.com is another ebook store. Easy to get set up and all, but you have to make your ePub, mobi and pdf files yourself. They don't sell a lot for me, and I haven't heard of anyone selling a lot through them, but they exist and since I sold books there, I added the ability to import them.
The biggest reason that TrackerBox is $60 is that you get it once, and you don't have to pay for it again, yet I have to update it every time one of the vendors modifies their reports (which happens a few times a year). I'd rather write books than support software, so it has to pay for my time. I DO support it, though, usually turning around new/changed reports in a couple days or less.
Always the difficulty in software that will require updates. The choice between low cost of entry with updates/subscriptions, or the fixed higher cost. No right or wrong, just what's going to make people buy.
$60 once or $20 up front and $10-1$5 a year with a $40 add-on available at any time to go permanent. I can say that a lower up front with a "pay again next year" would make me a buyer for sure for at least a year sometime within the next six months, at which point you probably have me hooked for the additional $40 upgrade if I do at all well within the following year, and $10-$15 if I am still in the game. (Which I personally will be, but I'm talking in generalish.)
I'm just saying that $60 is more than I've sold for, and I'm putting out products 4 and 5 tomorrow, and am on a half dozen outlets at present. Arguably the software is ideal in the long run for someone who does have a large line. But the cost of entry being what it is is putting me off. (And I'm obviously not the only one.)
Certainly the case can be made that if you can get three times as many people buying for a third of the price you're (almost, given merchant fees) doing just as well, while generating not a significantly higher number of change requests (most people will see something they need and report it, but it will be the same things) and if you're getting people in for that lower price they'll stay if the product is good. (And it looks like it is.)
I'll add new vendors on request, too, if you can provide me with a couple of their reports.
I have no idea if any of the people who use your software use Ganxy, but I do know that they plan to be getting serious with sales data in the near future, so they might be worth keeping an eye on.
And, you actually get more than a month to try it out. It's got a 45 day trial, and you can dump all of your reports into it (even ones from Amazon in 2009) to see where you're at.
It was not obvious to me until after the install that this was the case. No big loss for me, it just means that by the time I do have meaningful data (later this year) I won't have this machine to trial it on. (I can use my laptop or the other desktop.) You might want to make it obvious that this is the case, however, as someone just looking might not need it for realsies within the 45 day time period.
But hey, in any case Mark, it's awesome that you have taken the time to work something like this up. Obviously it helps you, but you didn't have to share, and you have. So whatever the price, and whoever that attracts, you're at least being helpful to the general community by providing such a specialized tool.
