Maybe Buys
Last week, Steve Umstead was talking on his blog about where to price his ebook. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately, both with regard to the price my publisher is setting for Ordinary Angels ($5.50) and the price at which I want to set my indie book Blood Faerie. ($2.99) It’s not that I think Blood Faerie is worth less than Ordinary Angels. In fact, I think, in many ways, it’s a better book. (Of course, I always think new projects are the greatest thing and older projects could have been better—I think it’s the curse of being a writer to do that to ourselves.)
I’ve been so worried that the higher price of Ordinary Angels is going to drive away customers. But then I realised that I am thinking two different ways–as a writer and as a reader. (Part of the info below comes from a comment I left on Steve’s blog on the topic.)
As a reader, I will download a sample chapter of any book if the genre, description, and cover catch my eye.
If I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sample, I’d pay just about anything to keep going. But that’s only happened maybe 1/200 times for sample chapters I’ve downloaded in the past 6 months I’ve had my Kindle.
For samples where it’s a good solid read, I’m engaged and enjoying myself, I’d pay up to £4.00 (with the way our prices work–tax included–that converts to about $5.00) without really thinking about it.
For samples that I’m interested, but have a nitpick or two and am not sure, if it’s under £1 (about $1.30), I’ll go ahead, as long as it isn’t terrible. (About 1/4 of the books I get samples for, I wouldn’t download the rest for free—sad but true—but I’m reading a LOT of debut and indie authors lately, and those can be more hit-or-miss.)
If it’s priced above my “instant buy” threshhold, I put it in a folder on my Kindle called “maybe buys”. If I’m stuck for something to read, I sometimes will go back and see if the price has gone down. But honestly, the ‘maybe’ folder isn’t where a book wants to end up on my Kindle, because I’m rarely stuck for something to read.
So as a reader, I’d comfortably pay up to £4/$5 without too much thought, but as a soon-to-be indie author, I’m afraid to price things that high. I’m curious what your thoughts are… from BOTH perspectives. What do you feel comfortable paying as a reader, and if you’re an indie author, is that different from how you price your own books?
I’m still planning on going with the $2.99 strategy as an indie author, but I’m now not feeling so pessimistic about my publisher-produced novel. Only time will tell if their pricing strategy will work.
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As a reader, i will buy almost anything (i like the look of) for a dollar. I check reviews and if the book has over 100 reviews and most are 4 and 5 and only a smattering of 1 & 2 i will normally buy without reading the sample pages. (Those random one or two are often by people that have no clue anyway.)
However i often view these books as “potential disasters” i often buy them for research. at .99 i think… hmmmm this could really be crap
I find some gems and some crap.
Books over this price, i normally have a closer look at the reviews and sometimes download a sample. I have paid up to $3.99au for random books like this.
For this price i think, they must be ok-ish.
over this price ($3.99 +) i rarely buy them “unless” i know the author, have heard RAVE reviews and i mean RAVE reviews about the book. Or perhaps it is a favorite book of mine in childhood and i am desperate to read the book again.
I would be very unlikely to pay over 8.95 for a kindle edition of any novel.
That is how i look at pricing on Amazon (for my kindle)
I am a poor student so perhaps when i am working full time i will think differently about this.
Sarah ketley
[ Follow me on Twitter: pixieleigh7 ]
I am having the same problem with how to price my ebooks – they must be a lot less than an actula paperback in my opinion because there are no hidden costs (printing, distrubtion, stocking, staff etc) but what I can’t decide is whether a very low price will seel more and therefore pay in the long run or higher price selling fewer but still bringing in the pay
Is there an answer – as a reader of e-books I look first at the very cheap/free then reveiws and the blurb and then maybe the sample – but as a pensioner I am now on fixed income so unless I know the author from past reads I have to be careful where the money goes
If you find the answer let us know!!!
[ Follow me on Twitter: albertaross ]
I’ve got a few poetry ebooks out there and three poetry paperbacks so far. Three ebooks are versions of the paperbacks, three other ebooks are out there as just for fun with lowish production values and hence freebies and one which is a compendium of everything so far plus an early preview of my next book due out.
I priced the ebook versions of my paperbacks the same as the paperbacks to begin with £4.99 and sold one or two. That was deliberate because I wanted to sell the paperbacks and I made a fair number of sales over a year considering it was poetry LOL
Lately I reduced the price of my Yellow poetry ebook to 99 cents and have sold a LOT of them in the UK and US. Happily I got a few nice reviews on that book too – 7 good ones on the UK site and 2 on the US site. I didn’t reduce my Pink ebook because I wanted to see what would happen.
I have been very pleased to see that since I reduced the Yellow book – sales in my paperbacks at the original price AND in my other Pink ebook at the original price have gone up.
The downloads on my free ebooks have shot up too and I got two in the top ten highest rated poetry ebooks on Smashwords
So I think my experience is that lowering the price will encourage people to buy and if you have plenty more where that came from and they like your ‘sprat to catch a mackerel’ they will then be more confident to pay for your other work in whatever format.
I think my freebies might have been doing me a disservice as people may have thought they were representative of my ‘proper’ books instead of just ‘quick and dirty’ free stuff – which is what they are. But live and learn.
My books are priced roughly at $2.99/ £1.71. I think that’s a reasonable price, although I would be willing to pay up to £3/ £3.50 if it’s by an author I really enjoy. I’d be unlikely to pay over that for an ebook.
[ Follow me on Twitter: talliroland ]
On the reading side…I generally won’t pay more than $5 for an ebook, and for that, it has to be something I really, really, really want to read. There is one, and only one author that I pay $6.95 for…and that’s because I’m hooked on her series, her publisher sets the price, and I’d go buy the paperback the second it hit the shelves anyways. I’d probably be a little more lax on that if my husband read ebooks, but he still reads paperback, so we buy all of our thriller/suspense novels in paperback at the higher price.
Otherwise, I sample *everything*, and I’ll pay up to $1.99 without much thought, but anything over that I have to really be engaged in the sample to purchase the book. I don’t even download free books without reading the sample – I have a big enough TBR pile as is.
As a writer, I try to keep my books reasonably priced for the genre (some genres will bear a higher price than others, from what I’ve seen). .99 cents to $1.49 for short stories/novellas in erotica/romantic suspense, and anywhere from 1.99 – 3.49 for novels. I may price thriller novels at the higher end of that, where I expect to level out the rom. suspense right in that $2.99 range, but in the end, I’ll leave them where they sell the best. And nothing over what I’d pay without too much hesitation if I enjoyed the sample.
[ Follow me on Twitter: JamieDeBree ]
6.95? 7.95 if it’s an author I really like.
[ Follow me on Twitter: alexjcavanaugh ]
I’m a pretty frugal person in general, but I’m self-indulgent when it comes to books (and food.) So, if the sample appeals to me, I’ll buy anything under $4 without a second thought. After that, it comes down to how much more than $4 it is. After about $7, I have to really, really like it. Past $10, I have to be absolutely in love with it. (I’m talking ebook or paperback.)
I’m not self-publishing so I can’t set my own prices, but it was the one real con about the publisher I chose. Since they’re a small pub and only print trade paper, the print books are about $14. I went with them anyway, because the pros outweighed that con, and because the ebooks are priced within a range I’d pay. But it’s definitely a concern.
[ Follow me on Twitter: LeahPetersen ]
I think I spend so much on books, India, especially if I like the author.
[ Follow me on Twitter: conversationswithlenyahoo.co.uk ]
Thanks for the great post, India, and the comments have been enlightening as well.
Personally, I wouldn’t pay more than five, maybe six bucks for an ebook, but then again, I know how much they cost to make.
[ Follow me on Twitter: marjoriemcatee ]
I famously tilt at windmills, so before expressing what I would spend for a book, allow me to take exception to the remark (above) by @marjoriemcatee, equating cost to value. I’m a poet, parent, life-long book-lover, damned good tailor, knitter, painter, sculptor, and chief cook and bottle-washer who learned early in life THE JOY OF COMPETENCE.
Following mm’s logic, in today’s dollars I figure Michaelangelo had $500 tied up in the Sistine Chapel project.
Back to books, for an author whose work I know, I’ll pay the price; for recommended books and “iffy” authors, I prefer a bargain. I like to read on a Kindle, but don’t own one, so we’re talking print books here.
The real question I heard, India, was, “Is my book worth the price?” If I read a sample chapter, I’d buy it. Having read the book — even though I did not pay for it (unless you count the $900 airline ticket required to borrow your Kindle), I’d have no buyer’s remorse.
[ Follow me on Twitter: girlfrenkate ]
For a lot of people I know, $5 is the cut off. The thing with pricing low is even if your sales jump, you’ll never know if the book was read or if it was an impulse buy wasting away on the TBR pile. You can’t deny the visibility though. In the right hands (People who will read and recommend your book) a lower priced book is a good idea, but you may not want to leave it at that price forever.
Zoe Winters had an interesting take on the subject here: http://allindiepublishing.com/author-interviews/zoe-winters-on-ebook-pricing/
[ Follow me on Twitter: andrewmocete ]
I can only comment as a buyer and not a published writer yet. It is only recently that I have stepped into the world of eBooks as I got a reader at Christmas. I absolutely love that I can browse and shop so easily. In fact it’s probably a bit too easy. if it’s an established author I know and read regularly, for instance, Karin Slaughter/James Patterson, then I will pay out for the book. New authors, or authors I have read before I probably wouldn’t go over £5 and if I’m honest, there are so many below that price in the kindle store that I am tending to go for those. To be harsh, it is a financial decision most of the time as the difficult times are also hitting our household.
However, I can’t wait to read Ordinary Angels!
[ Follow me on Twitter: rebeccajbradley ]