Epi-epi-epilogue

A Smart Bitchery reader brought the following to my attention: Julia Quinn is offering ebook second-epilogues to her past publications on her site for $1.99, or $1.59 at 20% discount. According to her note to her readers, it’s a chance to find out “what happened to your favorite characters after you closed the final page,” and for Ms. Quinn to revisit some of her favorite character creations, I’m sure. I’ve wondered if authors who write a story miss the characters once they’ve finished the book; I’m sure they do.

The Bitchery reader, who is a self-professed Julia Quinn fan, was quite perturbed by the idea, and hopes this does not start a trend among big authors. Several have offered additional epilogues, such as Eloisa James, and multiple prologues, as did Kelley Armstrong, but neither party asked readers to pay for the privilege of a visit with the protagonists of a much-enjoyed book.

Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about this, either. I wouldn’t pay $2 for 30 pages to revisit with the characters from The Viscount Who Loved Me or It’s In His Kiss, but that’s because I like to imagine my own happily ever after-after, and don’t always enjoy the replay of matrimonial bliss when characters from past books come into the newer book I’m reading from that author. In fact, Quinn is one of the few writers who can pull it off and not disrupt my own imaginings of what happened to the protagonists.

Candy, after I emailed her the link, said, “It sounds like Quinn is basically providing a service usually filled by fanfic, i.e. providing a glimpse into what goes on with favorite characters’ lives after the book ends.” But she agrees with our source that it also implies that the story isn’t complete and finished, and doesn’t really stand on its own.

Yet neither of us blink even the slightest amount at James or Armstrong offering prequels and epilogues for registered visitors to their author sites, or offering later stories for download online. I agree that the issue is definitely the commerce involved. What do you think?

Comments are Closed

  1. Sonja says:

    Sounds like a good idea to me. Not sure I’d buy one, but hey, if she spent the time writing it and wants it out there as a representation of her work, she should be allowed to charge for it.

  2. Molly says:

    $2 for an extra epilogue seems like scraping for pennies to me. If she put them all together and sold it as a story collection, I think that wouldn’t bother me, if it was enough new material to be worth buying. But this seems like charging for content that most authors would put up for free on their websites.

    That said I know that being a writer isn’t the most lucrative profession around and you gotta do what you gotta do. Still I won’t be buying them.

  3. Jenica says:

    It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.  It’s an author’s choice to do what they will with their characters, their creative output, and the business that is made from their characters and their creativity.  It’s also the reader’s choice to decide if it’s worth $2 to read a short story about a set of characters they were fond of.

    Also… when you say, “neither party asked readers to pay for the privilege of a visit with the protagonists of a much-enjoyed book,” it implies that asking readers to pay for that privilege is wrong.  Why is that wrong?  Don’t we pay for the author’s books?  Do we think that’s wrong?  Isn’t it equally valid creative output, and shouldn’t the author have the right to charge for it?

    I think this question harks back to the earlier discussions had here about what an author “owes” to her readership, and about the relationships built between authors and readers in the online environment.  Some authors choose to offer readers freebies.  Some authors choose to charge for it.  It’s a choice, yes?

  4. Esther says:

    Maybe it makes me sound cheap, but the problem I have with it is the amount she’s asking. I’m actually a fan, and would really like to read these. But if a complete, printed 400-page paperback costs me around $6, how do you come up with ~$2 for what is probably less than 30 pages?

    I agree with Molly; if they were to take all of these epilogues, print them, and publish as a novella collection, I’d buy it.

  5. Jane says:

    JQ is not an author hurting for money.  Her last book had a print run of 800,000.  This is surely savvy marketing by Quinn but slaps the idea of writing as an art down a bit.  Can Kinsale come back and justify this as art?  I would like to hear it.  We’ve blogged about it at DearAuthor.Com a couple of times. First when I heard about and second when I bought one of the second epilogues and did a review. (Mine was free thanks to the Fictionwise 100% rebate).

    Fiona also did a review of the two epilogues. 

    What was more interesting than the idea of the epilogues are the comments that Julia Quinn made at Sybil’s blog.  She first says that they are not a marketing ploy.  Then she says they are.  Then she claims that they hope to lure in new ereaders who don’t read romance.  After saying that the books have no backstory and are intended for Quinn readers in the first place.

    It is all about the money and that’s great for the author.  But don’t give me a bunch of crap about how this is an artistic endeavor.  And don’t expect me to pay for it when other authors are giving it away for free.  And don’t expect me to cheer for you, the author, when you put this out there for $$.  I am a consumer.  I like things free, or cheap as possible. 

    Also, I think that there is a greater danger here.  What other exclusive ebook content will publisher’s be offering up?  Eloisa James’ spoiler trail which helps decipher the clues she supposedly left re: Imogen’s discovery of Rafe’s masquerade?

    How about serial ebooks where you pay $2.00 per scene.  Price per word count for Quinn’s epilogues are the equivalent to paying $25.00 for a 76,000 word hardcover book. 

    As for Kelley Armstrong, her work is self contained.  Meaning her novellas are short stories that take nothing away from her previous books.  They are not epilogues.  She has written a whole “book” on how Clay developed and how Clay and Elena met.  I don’t think it suggests at all that Bitten and Stolen were unfinished books.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I just wanted to add a little bit of industry information.  When Publishers Weekly discloses the print run of an author’s book, it’s usually highly inflated.  Quinn’s 800,000 is probably around 500,000 which isn’t anything to sneeze at either.

  7. SandyO says:

    I’m not a big JQ fan, so I’m not certain how I’d feel if it were Kinsale doing it, but I think I’d feel the same.

    First of all, there is not going to be any great revelations.  We demand a HEA, so we aren’t going to see one of the Bridgerton brothers falling down drunk and beating his wife or seeing the hero and heroine at the funeral of one of their children (nor would we want that).  So we are going to get fluff (if I’m wrong on that, please let me know).

    And as for selling these epilogues.  It looks cheap to me.  If the author wants to use a snippet to entice new readers or to give faithful readers another glimpse, that’s cool.  But to charge for it.  Naw, sorry that’s just cheap.

  8. Cynthia says:

    I’d much prefer it if JQ simply revisited the characters when appropriate in upcoming books or at least give away the epilogues for free.

    With that said, I wonder if the idea to do this in the first place came not from JQ but someone in the HarperCollins ebook marketing department who wanted to try this as an experiment. It’s entirely possible and she wouldn’t be the first author to do write something at a publisher’s behest even if she found it a bit odd.

    I don’t plan on buying the epilogues just because I don’t much like the idea of paying for something I’d rather see given away free to loyal fans. However, I will still buy JQ’s books because she’s a talented author and I’m hooked to her stories.

  9. Jane says:

    On Syb’s blog, JQ says it was her idea.  I won’t stop buying JQ books either.  I don’t want to financially support these epilogues or the idea that I would pay for companion pieces in the future.

  10. Angie says:

    I have always liked when characters are carried over to new books, but only when they enhance the story.  Once a couple is happily together I lose interest.

    As previously stated it is going to be fluff and I would not pay $2.00 for it. 

    I do think an author has the right to market it.  I do hope it does not affect the quality of new stories.  Like lets say purposely leaving a vague ending that of course will be cleared up if you purchase an additional chapter…

  11. SB Sarah says:

    Certainly it’s an author’s prerogative to charge for her work. It’s her job; it’s what she does. My issue here is the idea that the reader already paid for the book. Why pay more for additional parts of the same? That’s my issue.

    I’m not knocking getting paid for your written labor. Heck yeah, writers should get paid more! More more more! Lottery sized pay! And so should teachers. Maybe some starting sports professional salaries could be trimmed to make room.

    But that said, I loved these books, especially The Viscount Who Loved Me but I wouldn’t pay additional money for additional story. I thought I already bought it. So I’ll choose not to buy it. Which is my choice, just as much as it is her choice to charge for the download.

  12. Jane says:

    Maybe Authors should start charging for extra content like the family trees, access to blog content, etc.  ESPN does that.  There is content that is available to only pay subscribers.  For a monthly fee, you can have access to a reader’s only section.  There you can get printable booklists, special exclusive excerpts, connected books information, etc.

  13. lovelysalome says:

    Angie said: Once a couple is happily together I lose interest. Giggle!

    Too true.  I have reserved a little corner of my mind where happy fictional couples go to live forever.  They hug more often than they share lurid kisses.  They laugh at life’s quirks, cope with its stresses, eat dinner together, read to the kids, and snuggle close on nights when they are both too exhausted to make passionate 12-page love.  This place in my brain winds up looking quite a bit like my life.  Why would I want to pay to read about that? 

    More power to authors who can do so – nice work if you can get – but I will not be one to fork over the cash.  Some of these 30-page bits, however, might find homes as supplements to other books: Presenting Jane Author’s new book “Love Love Love,” with a bonus epilogue to her best-selling favorite “Kiss Kiss Kiss.”  Might be fun.

  14. Julie says:

    I’m a huge Kelley Armstrong fan, and I think the fact that she writes all these extra short stories and novellas for her website shows tremendous respect and affection for her fans. They do not detract from her novels at all- they just explore backstory and give voice to some of her fascinating minor characters. You do not need to register to read the stories, but you can register to participate on the discussion boards.

  15. Robin says:

    If Laura Kinsale wanted to write an epilogue to Seize the Fire, I would be first in line to buy it, because damn I had questions at the end of that book. 

    Obviously this is at least partly about money for Quinn, or she’d simply offer the epis on her website free or at a VERY nominal fee.  She said on Sybil’s blog that not only were they her idea, but she had to talk her publisher into them.  If, as Quinn says, the strategy is to provide an invitation to new readers, then wouldn’t that overture of welcome be more irresistible if the epis were free?  I agree with Jane’s point that it’s just downright disingenuous for an author in this position to claim that it’s all about the characters and the readers.  I understand why they do this, of course, since it can seem a little crass to admit that profit or at least increased marketability is part of the equation (at what point does an author go from appearing smart to looking greedy?).  But I think denying the market aspect can make the whole deal look a little nefarious. 

    As for the overall strategy of it, I would actually like it if more authors published their novellas or short stories in this way so that I wouldn’t have to invest in anthologies so often.  In terms of the epilogue issue, though, I think it comes down to where the author and reader’s interests align.  A die hard fan who would gladly pay for whatever Quinn produces is not at all in conflict with Quinn’s desire to market more of her writing.  No problem there.  Someone who is not that type of fan or who is not a fan at all may be in conflict in this kind of scenario (I personally don’t get Quinn’s popularity at all from the two works of hers I have tried, but I respect her savvy marketing sense—that woman knows how to present herself and her books in the best light, that’s for sure).  One problem, IMO, is that so many readers already feel like publishers are squeezing us for more money and offering less quality in return, so a new format like this can appear suspect.  And if the quality of the shorts seems low, then readers might, again, feel that niggling sense that the genre is becoming so much more about marketing than about writing and reading.  In the end, it’s all about what something like this is worth to each reader, and I think that will depend on a number of factors for each reader.

  16. Tonda says:

    $2 seems outrageous. That’s 1/3 the cost of whole freaken book! There’s no way I’d pay that . . . Epi-epilogues are basically only for your most rabid fans, and gouging them out of $2 in this way just seems like a bitch slap to me.

    Amazon has their new(ish) Amazon Shorts program where an author can post up to a 40 page short story or collection and it’s 49-cents to download it. This (or a free download on your website) seems like the way to go to me. I plan on posting an Amazon Short before my first book comes out so that people can get a CHEAP taste of my writing before they plonk down real money for my book.

  17. michele says:

    Well, I paid for the epilogues and I have to say it didn;t bother me too much.  I guess I don’t really analyze it too closely.  I can buy a 2 liter of soda for .89 cents at the grocery store, but I come in to work and pay $1.10 for 20 oz. at the soda machine.  It’s all about supply and demand – quantity has very little to do with it for me.  I don’t care enough to do a regression analysis on the price per page.  Either it’s a story I want to read or it isn’t.  In the case of the Bridgertons, I’ll toss a few more $$ in to Julia Quinn’s pocket – they were great stories.  If I wanted to be really technical, I could argue that charging the same amount for a book by Julia Quinn or Jennifer Crusie and Cassie Edwards or Connie Mason is where the real discrepency lies.

    I loved the Eloisa James epi-epilogue and spoiler trail for Taming of the Duke.  It was great that it was free.  Just because she gave it away, though, doesn’t mean I expect every author to do so.  I don’t think this is any different than any other kind of “art” that is placed on the commercial market.  Recording artists charge me for songs I can listen to on the radio for free.  They also charge me to change format from a cassette to a CD; I bought the right to listen to it originally, nothing changed except the format.  The ten minute extended dance mix version of Vogue and the original four minute mix cost the same amount of money on iTunes.  If you really want to control the play time and extend your enjoyment of the song, you’ll buy it.  If you don’t care, you’ll wait for it to be played on the radio.

    fwiw, the epilogue for VWLM was hilarious!  IIHK was a little weaker, but I’ve paid $7 for 300 p books I enjoyed less than these epilogues.  I’m happy with my mony spent.

  18. This reminds me of these little booklets they were giving away at the check-out of one of my regular bookstores. I don’t have it handy to check names but it contained a couple of very short sci-fi/fantasy stories by two new-to-me authors and a couple of extracts from other authors’ books.

    Now, I’m not that familiar with this genre, but I’m starting to get more interested in it and I’m looking for new writers. So I picked it up and read it later over coffee. Then I went back and bought a couple of books by the authors who’d written the short stories. In this case, cunning marketing beat my wallet into submission, but so far the books have been worth it.

    Would I have paid 2.99 for it? Sorry, no. I’d be more inclined to save that money for a “real” book and just spend the time flicking through the racks at random until something caught my eye.

  19. Jenica says:

    I guess I just don’t understand the sense that’s really pervasive here that the reader is entitled to ‘extras’ from authors.  If the author chooses to charge for her writing, that’s her choice, just like it’s the reader’s choice to pay for it or not pay for it.  Just because one author posts ‘extras’ for free on her website doesn’t mean everyone is required to do so, nor that we, as an audience, are entitled to it.  Sure, free’s nice, but it’s not our right.

  20. SB Sarah says:

    Jenica:

    I don’t feel like I’m entitled to “extras” from the author. Ff she’s adding on to a book I already bought, then why do I pay twice for the same story continued? That’s my problem. But you are right that it’s her choice to charge and my choice not to buy it. Just because she’s selling the epi-epilogues doesn’t mean I’m going to strike her from my auto-buy list and take down my Julia Quinn fan posters.

    Did I say that last part out loud? I did, didn’t I?

  21. Caryle says:

    One side of my brain agree with those saying that it’s a simple matter of supply and demand.  The other side of my brain is raising an eyebrow at the $2.00 pricetag.  I’m on the fence, apparently.  I’m also not a JQ reader, so I can only respond as a book addict.

    I think my eyebrow would raise a little less if I knew that the money earned, if I chose to download one of these epi-epilogues, went towards a charity.  I also like the anthology idea. 

    Looking at it from the other side, the time spent to write these short stories is time taken away from writing a book intended for publication through the traditional sources.  I suppose she had the right to be paid for her time.

    At the end of the day, though, as long as the actual book quality is not affected, the decision to purchase or not to purchase is at the discretion of the reader.

  22. Jenica says:

    Sarah, I think I see where our opinions are diverging—I don’t CARE that it’s the same story, continued.  I see it as additional content written in the same universe that I previously enjoyed, sort of like when Ursula LeGuin writes a short story about Earthsea and publishes it in an anthology, or I find out that there’s new Behind-The-Scenes content on a special DVD release of a movie.  I just see it as “more content”, and when I liked the original, I WANT more content!

    But if you look at it from the perspective of “the story is done, and now I’m being charged to get more of that story”, I can see how that would sit wrong.

  23. Caryle says:

    Ack!  It’s agrees not agree in that first sentence.  Darn inability to edit.

  24. If an author wants to do it, and readers are willing to pay for it, I don’t have a problem with it. 

    Having said that, I wouldn’t do it.  My books are finished when they’re sent off to the publisher, and I don’t think it’s fair to the totality of my readership to offer something extra for an extra fee.  To me that feels like I’m shorting everyone who bought the book originally.

    Mary Balogh posted an epilogue from More Than A Mistress at her website, an epilogue her editor asked her to leave off.  I agreed with the editor.  As nice as it was to revisit the characters, the ending as published was much stronger. 

    But I should point out, that posted epilogue could be viewed free of charge.

  25. I have mixed feelings about the epilogues.  I happen to like more denouement than is currently fashionable—if the world bowed to my tastes, books would have a full chapter or two of characters being happy and recovering from their adventures rather than the page or two that’s all we often get!  So in principle I like the idea of additional epilogues, but $2 seems like too high a price, as others have said.

    If/when I ever get published, I’m considering having stories about my characters’ pasts and futures on my website, for free.  Mostly I’d put them up to satisfy my own urge to keep writing about characters I’ve grown fond of, even if there’s not enough drama there to warrant a full prequel or sequel.  But since so far all my stories are at least loosely connected, there’d be a marketing element there, too, to build interest in future stories or to point new readers to my backlist.

    (I so enjoy the happy fantasy world where I’m an established author with a backlist!)

  26. azteclady says:

    My take (some of these are variations on one theme):

    * Offering freebies is a much more efficient way of getting new readers to buy both backlist and new books

    * Offering freebies is a way of showing existing fans that the author appreciates them—and the hard earned cash they plonk down to buy his/her books.

    * Offering ‘out of time’ short stories for free (see Nora Roberts’ website for two Christmas’s stories which complement two different trilogies), or a series of continuing short stories (Suzanne Brockmann’s two “Sam and Alyssa” short stories, found at the end of successive novels, in publisher pamphlets and/or her website), are great ways of introducing backlists to new readers.

    * Offering an extra chapter for sale on a book that’s been in print for a while seems to me a bit too greedy—wasn’t the story finished? [with a proper epilogue in many of JQ’s novels]

    *What, exactly, is the purpose of these… things? They are not short stories, clearly, for they can’t stand alone—to make sense of them one has to have read the pertinent novel. Back to greedy for me.

    I don’t expect any author to offer me, or any other reader, anything for free—I am very aware of the business aspect of publishing, more so after recent discussions here and elsewhere. But the thing is: it doesn’t appear as if anyone asked JQ to do this—she came up with it.

    Given that most other authors do similar things for free as a token to loyal readers, or, as Tonda mentioned, at very reasonable rates elsewhere (amazon.com) for new readers, the whole thing rubs me wrong.

  27. Jane says:

    I think its perfectly appropriate for a fan to say

    a) books are too expensive
    b) don’t like the Venti size
    c) would rather buy in paperback than spend the dough for the hardcover
    d) would rather have the second epi for free rather than pay for it.

    It doesn’t have anything to do with feeling entitled to free content.  It’s just that is the way readers prefer it.  Just as I am sure that authors would prefer to have readers pay for everything and high prices too as that means more dough for them. 

    It’s called the author reader divide.  We want to pay the least amount for something and they want us to pay the most they can squeeze out of us.

  28. Tonda says:

    Of course JQ can do this. These are HER stories. She can do anything she wants. It’s just not the path I would take, as it FEELS like gouging (even if that’s not the intent).

    And I sincerely doubt that’s her intent. She’s pretty much a class act and just a genuinely NICE person. I have a six-degrees-of-separation thing with her and she got her editor at AVON to read my MS. That’s the kind of freaken generosity that I associate with her (which is why the $2 thing seems even weirder to me).

  29. Katidid says:

    To be honest, it makes me wonder if Ms. Quinn has hit a bit of a rough patch writing wise. I mean Gregory’s book is the last in the Bridgerton series, so unless she starts hopping down to kids and distant cousins (a la Stephanie Laurens) she’s got to move away from the family. I wonder if both she and her publisher are a bit worried about the whole leap to something else as the Bridgertons have been so wildly successful.
    JQ started with different characters, so I have never worried about what she’s going to do next…..but selling these 30 page epilogues? Still seems a bit hesitant. A bit ‘let’s capitalise on what works’. Hard to think of JQ as being insecure, but that’s the impression I’m getting.

  30. Candy says:

    If Laura Kinsale wanted to write an epilogue to Seize the Fire, I would be first in line to buy it, because damn I had questions at the end of that book.

    Me, too. (These two words don’t do justice to my feelings. Imagine me saying this in the most fervent tones.)

    When it comes down to it, I have a list of books I’d love to read epilogues for—would, in fact, shell out bucks for 30-page dealiejobs, which are most assuredly overpriced, but to hell with it, I WANT MORE:

    Seize the Fire
    The Lion’s Daughter
    The Shadow and the Star
    Uncertain Magic
    Midsummer Moon

    Heh, notice how most of the books are by Laura Kinsale? Those books left off at very interesting points in the protagonists’ journeys, and while I appreciate the open-endedness, I would love to look into how their lives are down the road. Just a glimpse.

    And I would pay a hell of a lot more if Sharon and Tom Curtis would write a book for Raven, Cat or Rand Morgan (in that order of preference, though it’s a close thing between Raven and Cat). I’d pay hardcover prices. I’ve even daydreamed fanficcy stories for Cat and Raven before, which says a lot, because I’m not a fanfic sort of a girl.

  31. Molly says:

    I don’t think anyone here is saying that readers are entitled to freebies. We’re only entitled to the books we paid for. But it’s good marketing to keep your fans happy & hooked, and free content on your website seems to do that. JQ has the absolute right to do what she wants – hell, she could charge $20 an epilogue – but it’s against her own interests if this goes too far and fans start to feel ripped off.

  32. Kate D. says:

    After reading this post, I had to wonder, “Woah. Is there romance novel fanfic out there?” I’ve only ever seen it attached to TV shows like “X-Files,” or maybe the “Harry Potter” books. But now you’ve got me curious.

    I don’t think I’ll read the epilogues. I prefer to imagine my own happy endings… especially if I have to pay for the privilege of reading the author’s imaginings.

    That said, I’ll probably end up ordering them for my mother. She’s a hardcore Bridgerton fan and has no such qualms.

    I hear what everyone’s saying about Julia Quinn being hesitant to find new writing territory. I think she’s a class act and an excellent writer, but I wouldn’t blame her for any anxiety about leaving the Bridgertons. After all, she’s been writing about the family for eight years now (if you assume she started in ‘99 in order to make the 2000 “Duke and I” copyright).

  33. Robin says:

    And I would pay a hell of a lot more if Sharon and Tom Curtis would write a book for Raven, Cat or Rand Morgan (in that order of preference, though it’s a close thing between Raven and Cat). I’d pay hardcover prices.

    Are you kidding??! I wish that we could come up with some kind of campaign to beg, plead, bribe, or just plain harass them back into writing Romance (and I want Rand’s story first, followed by Cat’s). 

    I would add to your Kinsale list The Dream Hunter, only because I’d like to see Zenia a few years out.  A couple of Ivory’s are on my list, too, especially Black Silk, Dance, Starlit Surrender, and Untie My Heart.  Like you, Candy, for me it’s about the MORE factor!

    What all of this and the Venti talk has made me curious about, though, is whether there is an unconscious “starving artist” thing going on, even in Romance.  Do readers still have that idea that really successful writers should stop at some point from coming up with ideas that make them more money? Or is this just confirmation that many readers really do see Romance as just entertainment, not art, and therefore worth only a certain price?  For me it depends on the author, no matter what their level of commercial success.  If I righteously respect a writer’s creative voice, I’ll pay more for it.  If I’m not that into it, I won’t.  I wouldn’t, though, see a several dollar epilogue to a previously published book as a way to be introduced to a new author.  That’s not going to be a particularly effective strategy to get me to try an author.  *Free* really works best for me on that one. 🙂

  34. Julia Quinn says:

    Hi all—

    Julia Quinn here.  I’m a little hesitant to post after the dust-up here last month, but what the heck.  I feel like I owe it to Sarah and Candy—not that they were aware of it, but SBTB was responsible for my getting interviewed by a swanky Irish fashion magazine.  (Sadly, it was by phone.  I—tried—to convince them they needed to fly me to Dublin, but no dice.)

    Anyway, it’s a little disconcerting to see so many people speculating about my motives, etc., so I thought I’d try to explain the whole thing to you.  I tried to do this on Sybil’s blog last week, but I guess I wasn’t clear.  So here goes:

    I get a lot of reader mail.  A lot of it.  And a lot of people ask me questions on the Avon Ladies bbs.  I know this isn’t the type of board the SB regulars prefer, but a lot of readers do go there.  And readers ask me, over and over, “What happened to so-and-so?”  More specifically—Do Michael and Francesca have children?  What happened when Eloise found out about Lady W?  What’s up with the diamonds?  In short, I get a TON of people asking for the Shakespearean equivalent of Act Six.

    I figured that if I could give readers what they were asking for, and write something I was proud of at the same time, that would be a good thing.

    So I took the idea to my publishing house.  I wanted to have them bound in one collection.  At the time, I thought each story would be shorter—maybe 15-20 pages.  I figured the collection would be $4.99, $5.99, tops.

    But my publisher didn’t quite get what I was talking about.  It went back and forth for quite some time, and I finally decided I would try to e-publish them myself.  By then I’d written the first of them, and it turned out to be considerably longer than I’d anticipated.  I thought I would make them 99c downloads.  I realize that some authors do stuff like this for free, but I’m not a particularly fast writer, and 8 30 page stories is well over half of a book, and it would take a fair bit of time away from novel-writing.

    I suppose the response of some would be simply, “Then don’t write them.”

    Except that I was enjoying them, and I honestly felt (and still feel) that it would be something my readers would really appreciate.

    Now I have no idea how to e-publish something.  It was going to be fairly complicated, however, and so when my publisher said that THEY would like to e-publish, I decided to go that way.  More time for me to write.

    I really would have liked to have seen the extra epis in print, but the e-book route did have the advantage of allowing me to release them as I wrote them, rather than force me to do all eight in a row.

    The price point was set by my publisher.  The big e-book stores (fictionwise, ereader, etc.) fought hard to price the stories at 3.99 (each!) but I (and my publisher) put my foot down.  I mean, that’s just ridiculous.

    I would have liked to have seen the price go a little lower, but apparently there are certain fixed costs that go along with e-publishing.  And the e-bookstores won’t take things that are too cheap because it eats up their profit margin.  I know that Amazon has their shorts program, but that is content that is exclusive to them, and they have cut out the middleman, so they can price it lower.

    Anyway, that is the story of how the extra epilogues came about.  For those of you arguing whether it’s about the money or not about the money—-well, can’t something be about more than one thing?  I feel I can say quite honestly that when I came up with the idea to do these (and yes, it was my idea to write them, even if the method of publication came about later) that I was not thinking about the money.  It is far more lucrative for me to try to write novels faster.  Trust me on this.  That said, yes, I did make a decision to offer these to my publisher.  I certainly could have posted them for free.  If I’d written something a lot shorter, I certainly would have posted it for free. 

    Now then, just to make a long story even longer, I apparently did myself a disservice on Sybil’s blog last week when I tried to explain why I felt these weren’t a marketing ploy (even though I also said that my publishing house was hoping to lure some new readers.)  So if you guys will indulge me, I’d like to make another attempt:

    (but I’ll have to do it in another post.  Blogger, or whatever this is is telling me I’m too long-winded.)

    to be continued…

  35. Julia Quinn again says:

    Back to my explanation about marketing and all that—-

    The stories were written for people who have read the original novels.  I did not include backstory, explanations of characters, etc.  I certainly don’t think anyone who doesn’t read my books would want to purchase or read these.

    HOWEVER, in addition to offering these for sale individually (or as a bundle of two), you can buy an e-book bundle where, I think, you buy 3 or 4 of my full-length novels and you get these free.

    So yes, in the latter case, my publisher (and the e-bookstores) were hoping that the bonus content would entice readers into trying my books.  Not that the bonus content itself was going to convert anyone to me or to the romance genre.  But maybe the idea of the bonus content would get them to buy an actual novel and then THAT would turn them into a fan.  And I’m not sure what is so underhanded about this.  Every author I know is trying to widen her readership.  That’s what we do.

    Well, this is getting pretty long.  If people would like, I would be happy to address some of the more specific points people have brought up, but at this point, I think I’m going to go have a root beer.  (Yes, this is how exciting my life is… it’s Diet, even.  Sigh.)

    Julie Q.

  36. shoes says:

    I am not going to buy Quinn’s epilogues, not because of money but because she has spread the Bridgerton saga out so far I really couldn’t get into it.  Like others readers here, I would buy Kinsale in a nanosecond because she takes the time to write the highest quality work and doesn’t go on and on like other authors with what is essentially the same story. I am not putting down Quinn, her fans (each to her own) or any other author who does this but come on.
    I spend a lot of money on books and am more willing to try a new author that a publisher supports with a price break like Tamara Lejeune or an author like Eloisa James who shows appreciation for a fan of a book already purchased. If I didn’t buy the book why would I buy the epilogue?

  37. desertwillow says:

    Ok, now who gets the $1.99? Does it go straight to the author or does the publisher take a cut? I don’t know how I feel about an author selling little epilogues of her books. For me once I put the book down I’ve pretty much lost interest. But I might change my mind someday. If the 2 bucks goes straight to the author I’m more sympathetic, if it’s some ploy dished up by the publisher, then I don’t care. They get enough of my money. I would rather see the author get the cash since most of them are usually willing to give back to the writing community in some way. 

    But I’m writing a book about a family. It already had one plot but because of the nature of this bunch there are a bunch of side stories that won’t make it into the book which I would like to see told. The best place may be on a web site. But I had’nt thought of charging for it. Don’t think I could get anybody interested. Hmmmm…

  38. Jenny says:

    I think it’s her business if she wants to charge, and get paid for, her creative works. Lord knows that I don’t go into work extra “Just to be nice.” As a nurse, I’ve had people, only sort of joking, asking if I could stay longer because they liked me so much. While I’m very flattered, my time is worth money. And so is Julia’s. Pay if you want, but I believe it’s unfair to rip her up for wanting compensation for her stories.

  39. we aren’t going to see one of the Bridgerton brothers falling down drunk and beating his wife

    See now I’d pay $2 to read THAT.

    Woah. Is there romance novel fanfic out there?

    What, you don’t consider slash romantic?

  40. Taekduu says:

    I loved the Bridgerton books, but at this point my relationship with them is over and only renewed when I reread or the next book comes out.  I like JQ as an author, I don’t know her personally and I am glad that she has made an effort to answer reader questions.  I would not give 2 dollars per epilogue and but would have picked them up in a $5-7 anthology form.  I certainly didn’t hesitate to pick up the Lady Whistledown anthologies and there was only one JQ in each. 

        I have purchased the Lee and Miller chapbooks which are expensive and often shorter than 30 pages each.  They don’t always write in the same universe or with the same characters so I take what I can get when I can get it.  I accomodate the price because I want these short stories.  If I don’t want them, I don’t buy them, end of story.   

        As a reader, I don’t feel entitled, but I definitely favor authors who provide me samples of their work, especially if they are new to me.  I recently picked up Touch the Dark because it was on my Amazon recommended list.  I checked out the author website and she had me at the first chapter, by the second the cement was setting.  I had to know what happened next and immediately put in a pre-order.

      With internet access and e-books you have to browse online (author websites are great places for advertising) and not so often at the bookstore.  For all my love of bricks and mortar, Amazon has become a close associate simply because I don’t always have the time to drive to the bookstore.

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