Who doesn’t love a cheap book?

Today I am with Lonnie Collins Pratt, Senior Editor of The Cheap, a website dedicated to showcasing cheap books in Nook and Kindle formats.

JR: Tell us a little about yourself and The Cheap, and why you do this.

LP: Well, I don’t do it alone because that would be impossible. The Cheap’s founder is April Floyd, together we manage day-to-day operating details of The Cheap. She’s the founder/publisher and I’m Senior Managing Editor. April began The Cheap in March of 2011 when the FB page The Nookhood was being overrun by folks posting free and cheap deals. To get those links off and unclog the page, she started a new FB page and titled it Cheap e-Reads. Its purpose was to share book deals among a few friends –but then, thousands of people showed up. Today, we operate 13 FB pages, two blogs and are working on the launch of a third blog, a blogzine actually which we hope to launch the first quarter of 2012.

April has natural marketing savvy and ambition. She’s an avid reader. I have a life-long history in publishing as a journalist, editor, publicist and book author.

JR: How did the idea for The Cheap come about?

LP: The Cheap happened as Cheap e-Reads grew at an amazing rate. In the first quarter, we had more than 10 million views. We merged with Nook Deals which was operated by Amber Davidson, started blogging and then the authors began showing up because they realized we had access to thousands of readers of digital content. The Cheap is what we call the whole organization with all the blogs and break-out pages. We’re working on setting up a web page for The Cheap, a kind of hub that will guide readers and authors to our blogs and Facebook walls.

JR: What is your mission with The Cheap?  How do you balance making readers aware of great deals while aiding authors in promoting their work?

LP: Our mission is to provide excellent deals on quality eBooks for both the Nook and Kindle markets.  We also search out the best of the free offers so that our fans don’t have to go trudging through the cesspools of free books.

Our Facebook page Authors on The Cheap is where authors can post information about their books.  We ask authors not to post on our other pages.  This accomplishes a couple of things.  The authors have access to our thousands of Nook and Kindle owners.  Our fans buy books, we know that for sure.  Plus, it allows us to place the author’s books before the audience that is most likely to purchase their books.  We re-post from that wall to our main walls.  Our friends are hugely loyal and they’ve come to expect that we will provide them with certain information, in a specific format, and of course that we won’t steer them wrong.  They trust us.  Authors can do very well on our pages, if they are wise enough to rely on the trust we’ve already built rather than charging in with their typical marketing formula.  We also use our Authors on The Cheap wall as a source for guest blogs, reviews and articles.  Authors on the Cheap is a great tool for us and for the authors.  The readers love being able to chat with the authors of their favorite books.

JR: You have a group of readers and reviewers dedicated to finding great books at great prices. How hard is it not to spend all your money on books that are posted?

LP: Actually, for me, it’s impossible.  I spend, spend, spend on books.  Fortunately, we also post some excellent free books.  I think everyone on staff has the same issue with buying so many books.

JR:  I see now you have many Facebook pages with different categories and I see a magazine is in the works as well. How have things progressed lately?

LP: There is always something new happening behind the scenes.  We aren’t even a year old yet, so we’re in solid growth mode.  April and I often joke that between the two of us we can come up with enough ideas to occupy a small country.  We don’t want to lose the quality though.  And we want to remain the friendliest place on Facebook.

JR: What is your ultimate goal with The Cheap?

LP: Probably world domination;  however with that being unlikely, we want to be the top place on the internet for deals, news and information related to eBooks.

JR: From your vantage point, what is the biggest change you have seen in the publishing industry?

LP: I suspect that if you ask anyone who has been in the industry as long as I have they would say the biggest change is digital content.  Publisher’s Weekly features stories on it every week, it’s the big TRANSITION.

JR: Amazon just came up with an eReader for under $100, and more self-published authors aren’t worried about traditional publishing anymore. How do you feel the eBook explosion will affect the future of publishing?

LP: Publishing has long been a conservative and traditional empire and to get in the gates an author had to play by certain rules.  The rules are clearly shifting and so is the power base.   It’s hard to say exactly how the transition to digital content is going to look in the end.  I think readers will become more and more the force determining what is excellence rather than people in ivory towers.   It’s a whole new world for smart authors.  The downside is that there is simply so much crap out there and so readers are hesitant to make purchases of self-published titles.  One of the important things we do is introduce readers to authors.

JR: What is your favorite character in a book and why?

LP: I don’t have a life-long favorite.  I loved Scarlett, and Harry Potter is a delight.  I just read Galway Bay and loved the strong Irish woman there.  Strength and wonder will always endear me to a character.

JR: Now it is your turn. You get to ask me any question you would like.

LP: What are you reading now?  What do you like or not like about it?

JR: To be honest, I am reading a book called Axon Growth and Guidance. It is a series of papers that brings me back to my roots in neurobiology. It is rather boring and some of the concepts of the book I have a hard remembering. I like that it has taken me away from what I am comfortable reading, which can be a nice change.

Short Answer

Authors are… fascinating to hang out with.

My favorite author is… Margaret Atwood.

My biggest pet peeve is… crappy book covers.

People always tell me… to stop looking at them as if they are stupid.

Facebook is…a wonderful tool.

http://the-cheap.net/