Early experience of trying to sell something

Katie and the Witch’s Swap is our first attempt in a very long while to actually sell one of our products.

It was conceived as an app for the Apple Store. The idea behind it is that 17 pictures are synced with 18 minutes of audio and the full text. If I say so myself, it’s rather clever because if you tilt into portrait you get the text, and if you look at it in landscape you get the full pictures (which are beautiful by the way).

So we wondered if people would buy the app if they could get the story for free on the site. I asked our artist, and she shook her head – “probably not” – she said. Perhaps she was being modest about the attractions of her illustrations. But not everyone has an iPod Touch or iPhone or iPad, so we decided to offer a “low-tech” version as a pdf and mp3.

And the result…

I am totally shocked by the howls of protest from kids and parents about how dare we charge for a story. One outraged parent even compared us to drug-dealers. Thanks a lot.

I do realise that many of our visitors are kids – who don’t have credit cards. Others come from countries where they can’t pay by credit cards- but usually the “English Language Learners” are more into the traditional stories. But I did think that parents in rich countries would see the $2 as a very small way to help out a free service. It turns out that they don’t.

I also think people don’t quite realise how much time (most of my time) and money we spend on Storynory, and how little money comes in from advertising. We try not to go on about money matters. I find it hard to hold out a begging bowl. But we do pay everyone who works for us: That means narrators, illustrators, and musicians – everyone in fact, except for me.

So this selling thing: It’s rather depressing.

But I am greatly cheered by this first review which has just appeared in the US view of the Apple iTunes store.

My four year old loves it! – ****
by KHrncir – Version 01 – 01 February 2011
It’s a lovely picture book on the iPhone which my 4 year old can look at and listen to on the way to school. I love that you can choose between text or pictures along with the audio. My 8 year old hasn’t played with it yet, but the 4 year old asks for it every day and the 6 year old will love that it’s Natasha reading! It’s a great price for a picture book with audio! I hope StoryNory comes out with more.

And a big thank you to those who have bought either the app or the mp3. We really do appreciate it.

Bertie