Orbit is partnering up with a number of major ebook vendors to increase the appeal of ebooks. Specifically, they’re offering ebook for one dollar each (one per month). After their month in the spotlight, the books will return to their regular prices. They’ve established a web site specifically for this program: onedollarorbit.com.
The first ebook they’re for $1 is The Way of Shadows by new author Brent Weeks. The book is the first of the Night Angel trilogy. Future offerings will include Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks (February), Empress by Karen Miller (March), and Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley.
Orbit Vice President and Publisher Tim Holman said: “We believe that this promotion will give readers a great opportunity to discover new writers. Most of our consumer marketing has an online focus, and the digital marketplace offers the perfect platform for price-promotion initiatives such as this. It will be very exciting to see how effective it is. The range of titles chosen for the promotion includes a mix of frontlist and backlist, from both new and established authors, and we will be monitoring the performance of every title very closely.”
Marketing and Publicity Director Alex Lencicki said the program has no definite end point, and will keep running as long as it’s successful. Asked to define that success, Lencicki said that if the sales in this program drive either print or digital sales, or attract new readers to a series, it will be a success. “We haven’t done a lot of direct e-book marketing, but here we found a way to promote our e-book program and to introduce readers to our series.”