Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm looking for feedback on pricing for an ebook only release. It is my second novel and is about 155,000 words; the first one was about 45,000 words and priced at $2.99.

I did some informal market research on Amazon and found the following: established, well-known authors price at $14.99. "New" authors who wrote "hit" books (The Martian, Gone Girl) priced at $8.99 or $9.99 and some down to $6,99. Unknown or little known authors priced below that, with $5,99 the max. Any thoughts on appropriate price point in my situation? Very positive feedback from my beta readers, so my instinct is not to go too low in case it takes off.

$3.99 is a good price, $4.99 may still sell, but it is a bit high. Understand that traditionally published books charge more because they are still paying a team of marketers, editors, etc and the author usually receives a low percentage of royalties. If your book 'takes off,' you can change the price, but honestly, if it takes off, why jinx it?

When I published my second novel I priced it at $4.99 and it sold well (for an unknown). As sales fell off eventually I reduced it to $3.99, but the price drop did nothing to spur sales. Each situation is unique, but if your first novel sold even a few copies, I'd start the price at $4.99. You can always reduce it if it's a problem.

If you go below $2.99, you only get 30% royalty with Amazon.

Interesting topic indeed.
From your experience, if one price his novel $4.99, how much amazon takes, and is the 15 cents per 1 Mb of download calulated against the author's income?
I still havent looked deeper into the matter, but soon will have to decide which way to go with the pricing and which option to take for stard (KDP seems a promising one).

I understood if you go $2.99 you get 70%. Or did I got it wrong?

Frederick wrote: "I understood if you go $2.99 you get 70%. Or did I got it wrong?"

Yes. Below $2.99 is 35% royalty on Amazon.

All of the royalty info for Amazon is spelled out clearly on their website. Just follow the 'publish with us' link at the bottom of any Amazon page.

John wrote: "I'm looking for feedback on pricing for an ebook only release. It is my second novel and is about 155,000 words; the first one was about 45,000 words and priced at $2.99.

I did some informal marke..."

I think The Martian started at .99 on Amazon and was on his web before that.

personally mine is $2.99 the lowest to still get the 70% my reason is: If it is cheap someone may be more likely to give it a chance because it is a very small financial investment to get the book.

I can agree with the $2.99 for unknown author. Othes may value their work in higher rate, due to time spent writting, word count, whatever... Anyway, low pricing is justified from my POV because average readers will not pay more than few bucks on behalf of the nice blurb or review.
In the sea of books, many buy for the reason of the low price. People be like - if it's no good, I didn't loose much.

You have to be a pretty big author to get me to fork out a decent sum for an ebook. An actual paperback or a hardback is another story.

I travel a lot. I have bought more books than I'm alowed to admit, often spending money on a paper edition just for a catchy cover (flight read, what to say).
Ebook is different. I will think and think more before clicking to by, even if it is for free. Why, don't know. Seems the pricing, depending on author, genre, critics and momentarily mood affects me only when I have time to chose. Othervise, I just grab'n'pay.

Pricing gets difficult because of the download prices, when your book has a lot of pictures. Our picture book is 13,6 MB, and as authors pay the download, it's about 1,8 dollars per download- yaiks!

I priced my first novel (e-book) at $2.99. When I release my second novel in the series this spring, I will price it at $2.99 and make my first novel free (permafree). When I reach a certain threshold (such as 4-5 books out, 8,000 books sold), I'll bump my top price up to $3.99. I doubt I would ever go higher than $3.99.

Don't use traditional pricing as any point of reference. They have to charge that much because they're feeding an army. There are only two traditional authors for which I'd pay $7.99 for an e-book. I buy probably 90% indie books now.

Based on the articles I've read, an indie author charging $2.99 for an e-book makes more money PER BOOK than a traditional author whose book sells for $7.99. When it comes to pricing, indies definitely have a strategic advantage.

ML Roberts wrote: "John wrote: "I'm looking for feedback on pricing for an ebook only release. It is my second novel and is about 155,000 words; the first one was about 45,000 words and priced at $2.99.

I did some i..."
I heard Hugh Howey did the same thing before he took off.

I'm not sure there is a single correct answer to the question. You can price it cheap and hope to reach more people who don't wish to spend a lot. But with the high word count, you can assign a higher price point., and there is a train of thought that many readers associate price with quality ie. if you price it too low at this length, you may turn readers off who assume it must be full of editing mistakes and poor quality writing.

Like everyone says, experiment and adjust the price depending on response. Personally, I would price it at 4.99, maybe 5.99 if I was feeling optimistic. Although in all fairness, I'm considering a limited time price of .99 for my next book after my current series is finished.

John wrote: "I'm looking for feedback on pricing for an ebook only release. It is my second novel and is about 155,000 words; the first one was about 45,000 words and priced at $2.99.

I did some informal marke..."

Hi John,
Since your second novel is so much longer in length, I would definitely make sure it was priced higher than the first. 155,000 words is a considerable length of work, so I would think the $3.99-$4.99 range might be a good place to consider.

Wishing you all the best,
LMM

I've heard that it depends on your end goal. If you want more people to buy it, thus hoping to generate a larger audience, a price as low as $0.99 might be the best bet. The issue there is that you won't have high profits immediately. But the advantage is that more people might become fans, leading to higher profits in the long run, if you choose to raise prices of later books.