Information at What Price? Exploring fee-based e-content

In pursuit of a paid model for content, many businesses offer newsletters for a fee or ebooks. These models offer pros and cons. Some organizations send out two newsletters: fee and free. The free version has the basic, watered-down contents found in the fee version to entice readers into wanting more and paying for it. But is it worth the time and energy to do this?

Ebooks are also a way for businesses to make money. But do they sell when it's been proven that people prefer reading printed copy to electronic text? Read on to hear from several experts in the field about what people are willing to pay for and whether or not offering fee-based content is right for your organization.

<strong Too much information!</strong

Considering there are so many free newsletters and information out there, why should readers shell out the dough for these premium newsletters? Reading online is harder on the eyes because of the light emitted from the monitor. People overcome this by printing out the newsletter.

I can't hazard a guess on how many free newsletters are out there. So why would a person pay for a fee-based newsletter? Jenna Glatzer, editor-in-chief of AbsoluteWrite.com, says, "You have to offer something different and better than what the free newsletters are doing. Personally, I wouldn't pay for newsletters that are just for entertainment, but I do have paid subscriptions to a handful of newsletters that are specific to my line of work and appropriate for my level (not beginner). A paid newsletter that has all the same sorts of free-reprint articles that all the other sites have won't work. You must find a corner of the market that no one has claimed yet and be the most reliable source of information on it."

Joan Stewart, publisher of The Publicity Hound, started her subscription newsletter seven years ago, long before there was as much information on the Internet as there is today. She says, "Content must be king. If you can supply good content that can't be found elsewhere, and it's well-written and easy to read, and leads readers in other directions where they can find even more info than they could possibly need, you will keep your customers happy.

"If I had it to do over again, I would have never started my subscription newsletter. It started as an 8-page print newsletter, but the postage and printing costs were killing me," she says. "About two years ago, I reverted from a print newsletter to a PDF document. It's in the same format, but it's now emailed to customers. My free ezine, The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week, is still far more profitable, several hundredfold, than the subscription newsletter."

<strong Charging for ebooks</strong

Considering there are no printing and paper costs to the publisher for ebooks, how can they charge as much as they do for them? Higher prices equal higher perceived value. However, I've seen many ebooks cost more than a paperback, and the content isn't always better quality than print. Yet, they sell.

What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher of Ezine-Tips, says, "What justifies the higher cost of ebooks when there are no printing costs involved with them? Christopher Knight, publisher of Ezine-Tips, says, 'That would be a fallacy in perception logic because the printing cost is not relevant to the market perception of a paperback versus an ebook. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that some people even value an ebook as higher value than a paperback because they can take their data with them on a personal notebook computer, whereas it's hard to travel with a pile of paperback books.'"

Glatzer points out that whether a piece is written in print or ebook format, it is the same amount of work for the writer. "Of course, ebooks have a smaller market, so the problem is that if the ebook is priced very low, it won't be worth it for the writer to spend the time writing and promoting the book."

If it is worth it, however, ebooks provide many benefits to those who download them: The readers aren't taxed, don't incur shipping costs and don't need gas money to go to the bookstore. As soon as people buy your ebook, they instantly download it and have it in their "e-hands."

Stewart says, "The biggest justification is that the information is immediate. If a customer wants information NOW, they can get it NOW, and they're often willing to pay the hefty price. My ebook, How to Be a Kick-Butt Publicity Hound, sells for $97. The most I could expect to get for the same book in hardcover is about $25. Another justification for the higher priced ebooks is that live links in the ebooks take visitors directly to Web sites with related content."

<strong E-format versus print format</strong

Research on ebooks indicates people still prefer paper over ebooks. What's the point of pursuing ebooks and fee-based newsletters? Glatzer shares her experience.

"I've written two ebooks and 14 print books, so that shows you where my bread and butter comes from. However, I had my newsletter first. It was thriving, yet I had nothing to sell my readers. I was barely breaking even with advertising costs and often paying hosting fees out of pocket. I'd received so many letters from readers asking for advice about how to do what I had done -- make a living writing for magazines -- and finally decided to write a book about it. I knew I had a built-in audience among my subscribers. The ebook sold well, but my goal was to take it to print. When a publisher made an offer on it, I took it out of circulation as an e-book and expanded it for the print publisher. That became Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer, and the print book has far outsold the ebook.

"The second was a niche book for greeting card writers and artists. It contained market info for just that field, so it was such a specialized book that I didn't go after conventional publishers for it. Plus, the time factor was crucial: contact info changes so often that I wanted to get the book out ASAP, and I wanted to be able to update it when needed. I briefly had it out as a print-on-demand book, but I took it off the market as soon as it became dated and just continued selling it as an ebook.

"Since then, I've stuck to conventional publishing and just a few giveaway ebooks for publicity. But I think the market for ebooks is decent if you have a specialized topic and a built-in audience."

Based on Glatzer's experience, when you have a free newsletter, you already have an audience ... unless you try to sell a book on home makeovers to your audience that subscribes to your pets newsletter!

<strong Timely matters</strong

Ebooks have an advantage over print in that their content is up-to-date and piping hot. If something changes, it's quick and easy to modify the ebook and put the new version up for sale. The publishing process for printed books can be a lengthy one.

Time can impact content depending on the topic. Some industries such as sports and history have experienced little or no change in over a decade, while others like technology are moving at megahertz speed.

By the time an author of a book related to software writes it, and the publisher prints it, a new version of the software is available, rendering the brand-new book outdated. However, many users don't upgrade every version, as this stings the cash flow. Often, tips and steps given in books covering earlier versions of software are applicable to the newer version.

Knight suggests selling in both formats (print and ebook); that way all your bases are covered and you reach more channels for the same product.

<strong eContent = lower quality?</strong

M.J. Rose, Wired columnist and author of both print and electronic books, has commented that people thought she wasn't a real author when she published her ebook. For some, ebooks are "bottom-feeders" in the world of publishing. They see such content as lower quality and without prestige.

I have a folder of all the books I've collected through reviewer duties and as free downloads. I haven't read 10 percent of them. However, it could be a different story when you pay for an ebook. Knowing that you bought the book might force you to read it. But then again, I have shelves of printed books that I have yet to read.

Why would I want to buy ebooks and let them rot on my hard drive where I naturally save them after downloading them? Same reason for printed books? I don't think so, because you can see and touch them. It's easier to scan printed pages than to scroll electronic books.

<strong Fee-based newsletters</strong

Most of the fee-based newsletters I've seen have a free newsletter distributed by the same people. Organizations use the free newsletter to entice readers into subscribing to the fee-based newsletter. Like Glatzer says, you're establishing credibility with your audience through the free newsletter, and when they see another offering from you, they might jump at it. Glatzer publishes Absolute Write, free Absolute Markets and Absolute Markets Premium Edition newsletters. Free Absolute Markets comes out every other week and the premium edition comes out in between those issues.

Glatzer explains the difference between the free and premium editions. The free markets contains a small sampling, about 10 markets covering mainly magazine-related work plus contest listings or an article in alternating issues. The premium edition has many jobs and lists markets for various types of writing including international markets. It also includes interviews with magazine editors and an in-depth look at a high profile magazine on a monthly basis. She also lists calls for writers from editors who know her and those calls won't be found anywhere else online.

Glatzer decided to offer the fee-based newsletter because there wasn't anything like the Absolute Markets Premium Edition

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