Natasha Fondren

I get this question a lot. Mostly, I say “I don’t know.” It’s not that I don’t have opinions or ideas, but I don’t want to give advice on something that could, potentially, lose someone money.

But iampariah did in the video below, and I think he did it super well. I think there’s another price range, $3.99 – $4.99, that deserves it’s own range, though. Just my opinion, but what he said about $3.99 – $8.99 is really more for the $5 – $8.99 range.

I’d be interested in what people think of the $3.99 &ndash $4.99 range, both from readers and from authors who’ve experimented with that price range.

From a theoretical standpoint, I like that price point. It’s fair and good payment for the author, and still cheap for readers.

Mostly I’m thinking fiction here, by the way.

What do you think about ebook pricing?

The ebook world is crazy, lately. As you’ve probably heard, Kindle is embracing an entirely new format. This is a great thing: books are going to pretty much be almost as flexible as web pages, now. The possibilities are (well, I’m a writer, so I hate to use clichés, but…) endless.

But change stresses me out. I find that the first day of a change, whether it be a bug or a bad change or a good change, I can hardly eek out any work afterwards.

And then the next day?

The ever-changing ebook world is why I love it. It’s so exciting!

If it stayed the same, I’d get bored and quit.

But today? The first day? There have been so many changes lately, that I’m stressed out.

I do love it, though.

So what? Do I now delete all my Kindle Formatting posts? I’m sorta glad I never had time to finish the series.

Do you need time to process change?

The last few years have been so much change, that my first instinct when I want something I don’t have is to change me or my life or something.

But I’ve done most all my changing. I’m usually happy. I love going to yoga, doing belly dancing, doing my work, etc. I can’t really think of anything within my control to change.

And so I think I’ve entered a period of my life where I’m on the right path; I just need to walk it.

I can’t even think of a resolution for my new year; I’m already on the path to all my goals.

The last year, my body has changed a great deal in reflection of the change in my mind and life. I don’t know what else to change, though. Something must need to, because I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m trusting that if anything else in me needs to change, yoga will make it happen.

Yoga does change me internally. It makes me feel so happy and joyful and loving, and focusing on work is easier. So I am relaxing and breathing and being present.

And being patient. (Now there’s a hard one!)

So you already know today’s my birthday, since most of you are on Facebook. When I was little, a birthday was cause for celebration because I wanted to get older. And I wanted to get older because I wanted freedom. And then I wanted respect. And gradually, a birthday was a cause for celebration simply because I’d managed to survive another crazy year on this earth.

This year, though?

I feel total terror.

I pretty much feel like the rest of my life, all my future possible happiness and worth as a human being, rides on how much money I make and what I manage to do in this next year—all so that I can have kids.

No pressure or anything.

I am so terrified, I can’t tell you.

Don’t Get Pregnant was drilled into me from a very early age, so somewhere along the line, I guess I got the idea that it was wrong, bad, something I should avoid at all costs. And being sick for a decade in my twenties never gave me an opportunity to question this.

I hate that I missed that decade. I’m ten years behind!

And marriage? My father drilled into me that I shouldn’t get married before I was thirty. And so I never went for it.

So here I am, thirty-freakin-eight, late to the game, and I took way too long to realize I wanted these things quite a lot.

I suppose if I have children now, I have a good fifteen years of experience of teaching and watching kids grow up. And I’ve done a lot of living, so I can’t help but hope that will make me a better mother.

Part of me keeps thinking that I need to explore and consider what I want to do if I don’t end up having kids. If I don’t meet the one and get married, I can bear that, but I’m not sure I could bear not having kids.

But backup plans have never been my thing. For me, a safety net would be the same as planning for failure.

I spent a lot of time this summer exploring myself and exploring Tucson. It was wonderful, but this year is just heads-down and work.

Terror has its uses. It’s good fuel for productivity.

What was your most terror-filled birthday? How’d your year after that work out?