Pricing sweet spots: $0 and $Lots (Yet another reason to forget micropayments)

Cory Doctrow writes: My latest Locus Magazine column is live: "Macropayments" explains why I don't have a tipjar:

Two columns back, in "Think Like a Dandelion," I talked about the reproductive strategies employed in species where reproduction is cheap, like dandelions. Unlike humans, dandelions don’t worry about the disposition of each of their children — they only want to be sure that every opportunity for success is fulfilled, that every crack in every sidewalk has a dandelion growing out of it. It’s a damned successful strategy, for dandelions at least. You’d be hard pressed to find a lawn, no matter how carefully tended and how thoroughly poisoned, that doesn’t have a dandelion or two sprouting on it.

To concretize the metaphor: I don’t care about making sure that everyone who gets a copy of my books pays me for them — what I care about is ensuring that the everyone who would pay me decent money for a book has the opportunity to do so. I don’t want to hold 13-year-olds by the ankles and shake them until their allowance falls out of their pockets, but I do want to be sure that when their parents are thinking about a gift for them, the first thing that springs to mind is my latest $20-$25 hardcover.

Macropayments [Read the whole thing, which is great, and also read Cory's previous article on the freeconomics of book distribution: Think Like A Dandelion]

Comments

[jonathan_sergio]

For those of you thinking that if they implement this it will eliminate some of the waiting and lines…
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panik atak
estetik

[John Stefan]

Well, nice article buddy… Someone will love to read this infor if I tell her about this. For those of you thinking that if they implement this it will eliminate some of the waiting and lines…
meme estetiği
yüz estetiği
burun estetiği

[Camela Chircle]

Hi. I agree in principal with your ideas at the same time I do believe if someone invents something before others.
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yaşam koçu

[christmas gifts]

Forget starting with micropayments. High tech companies charge the most at the beginning. Next, instead of putting expensive content behind an all-or-nothing paywall, make it first available to subscribers (expensive), then drop it to free sometime after 18-36 hours. Then everyone, even search engines can access it.