Support for Indie Authors discussion

... I have read a number of post where authors are getting royalties of pennies as opposed to dollars. I know it's math, but are they pricing their books that low or does Amazon take that much? Non seem to add up to 70% or even 35%. Or are these numbers from Amazon Select? Thanks..

Yup. Pennies it is. If a UK author prices at 99p, each sale nets them 29p. You have to factor VAT into the equation.

It's not a get rich quick scheme (or a get rich ever scheme) but the point is to get the books out and possibly build a following. Or that's my idea anyway.

Don't quite understand your numbers... Can you use dollars?

Just substitute cents for pence.

Not accurately. I'm a UK person. However I'll give it a go. The principle is the same.

So if a book was priced at 99 cents the author would get 29 cents which is 35 per cent after the government gets a bit in tax because ebooks are taxable.

Okay... got it. But I guess my question is why would anyone sell a worthy product (time, talent, quality) for so little? Maybe it's my indoctrination of being in sales nearly 30 years with Fortune 100 companies. I was taught to never gave anything away, and as a rep, we had to sell around those who did. Believe, present the quality and those who can't see it (or afford it), move on.

If you are in the US, the royalty options are spelled out quite simply in plain English by Amazon:
kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A30F3VI2T...
Now, if you are asking why someone would price their book lower than you would, that is a different and more personal question. Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do. Some folks see a higher return on a 99¢ book than a $2.99 book based on volume. Some people are just trying to get their name out there. Others do not consider dollar amounts a reasonable measure of quality.

C. Erskine wrote: "Okay... got it. But I guess my question is why would anyone sell a worthy product (time, talent, quality) for so little? Maybe it's my indoctrination of being in sales nearly 30 years with Fortune ..."

Mostly its to get your books out there and get yourself a following. If a lot of people like your book at 99c, the chances are they'll buy the next one at a bigger price. Or that's the theory

C. Erskine wrote: "but are they pricing their books that low or does Amazon take that much?"

Chances are they're pricing it low. Or maybe they've gone through a publisher and the publisher is taking some?

C. Erskine wrote: "I was taught to never gave anything away, and as a rep, we had to sell around those who did."

Selling for low is a marketing tactic; loss leader. It's a way to get people interested with minimal investment on their part. For example, I have my first book set to perma-free in order to get people to by my 2nd book at $4.99. I get $0 on the first book, but I get $2.85 off of each of the 2nd book in my series. It's a method that works. This can be applied to $0.99 books and that may be where they're getting pennies.

I have a permafree, a $0.99, and then higher-priced books. Get people reading your stuff. My $0.99 moves pretty well.

C. Erskine - I'd like to comment from a reader's point of view. As these authors have stated above, their pricing methods are about getting people to take a chance on their work and to build a following. I think it's great when an author offers their first book in a series for Free or for $0.99. If I read it and like it, I'll buy the rest. Works for me.

As an aspiring author, (I will publish this year if it kills me!) I will price my first book low in the beginning, then make it Perma-Free after publishing my third book in the series. I also have two short stories ready to publish after my first book and those will be Perma-Free right from the start.

Christina is right. Pricing is a personal issue. Every author here has developed a pricing structure that works for them. I can only hope mine will work for me, too.

Can I just say that my romance book about a CSA survivor is permanently 99p, because it's trying to to raise awareness, and offer hope to survivors. I want it to be affordable and accessible.

Also, I earn £0.00 from it, as I'm currently donatinin all its royalties to charity.

(just saying as we all have our reasons for pricing)

OK, so others have explained the 99c book receiving 30% royalties, less tax/VAT.
Also, Amazon withhold further tax for books sold in the US if you're a UK author and have no ITIN (special tax code for internatonals which is hard to get).

Hope that helps.

We currently offer the first book in our main series for $2.99 and the first in our short story series for $.99. When we release our second book in our main series, we'll probably drop the price to $.99 to get exposure and hopefully boost book 2 sales. I hear a lot of authors say they won't give their work away for free or nearly free. What I don't hear, is how many sales they get at the higher prices. If they're making money on higher prices, great for them! Call me cheap, but I have a very hard time spending more than 3 or 4 dollars on a download, especially if it's a new or new-to-me author that I'm considering trying and have passed up e-books that sounded interesting but were priced at $7.99 or higher. Pricing is a personal decision and I'd rather make $150 in a month at $.99 than nothing on a higher priced book. It's a matter of supply and demand, and there's a huge supply of ebooks to read.

I did some research before choosing what I should price my book at, and I ended up deciding on 2.99. From what I read from what other people were saying it was the happy medium. Any less and I was worried that people would think that they were going to get what they pay for. Any more than that and I was worried that people would not buy it due to the price being too high.

All well said, regarding known and unknown authors. As a reader I download samples to determine if the read is worth the purchase. If it is, l'll go buy the book. Just my approach...

I think that it is a whole different ball game for non-fiction of an academic theme. I've paid more that $100 for an e-book and $300 each for two hardcover books. For e-books around the $20 -$50 mark, I just judge them from the preview to see if they are worth purchasing, regardless of whether I'm familiar with the author or not. The very expensive books, though, are standard refs. by big names. When you are a researcher, they have you by the throat!
One academic book (paperback) had a collection of papers by some big names and cost me $70. There were only two things in it I didn't already know and an awful lot of weasel words, and groupthink. I gave it a multi-part bad review on my blog! I really felt ripped off.

Sue (Dog Mom) wrote: "As an aspiring author, (I will publish this year if it kills me!) I will price my first book low in the beginning, then make it Perma-Free after publishing my third book in the series. I also have two short stories ready to publish after my first book and those will be Perma-Free right from the start."

That's close to what I do now. Have many books, so I have 2 perma free with ads in both the front and back of each book, giving both my second book in the series AND an exclusive origin story of a main character.

My goal, though is to build a mailing list, but I have never liked the .99 cent route, personally. I did alright for a short time, but what made me laugh, was after nearly a year of nagging from my best friend and even my wife (they said I was cheating myself), I raised the books to $4.99 or higher, and you know what?

Everything started selling better. Go figure.

I'm with Dwayne though--but my personal twist is, until I get a personal recommendation from someone I know, I rarely buy books from reviews or promotions. Bad luck maybe, but once I find something I like--doesn't matter much on price. I get it for myself and all the readers in my household. =)

Always have at least 600 books on my Nook at any given time (laughs)...and I think it's become an obsession!

Oh, BTW---just for the record, my #1 selling book--which sells 7-9 TIMES as any other book, goes for $5.99.

So...honestly, pricing has indeed become something of a personal nature with me. I stopped dropping the price and increased the value instead.

Just my .99 cents (wink)

C. Erskine wrote: "All well said, regarding known and unknown authors. As a reader I download samples to determine if the read is worth the purchase. If it is, l'll go buy the book. Just my approach..."

That sounds very sensible to me.

It's good to have access to so many books from new authors as well as well-known ones, but it's wise imo to sort out who suits you.

Another important factor to consider in pricing is your target audience. I'm sure there are many adults willing to spend money on books they find intriguing. When trying to reach middle grade readers, parents are much more open to let their children download a free or $.99 book to see if the child will read it completely. My children have read samples, thought they'd enjoy a book, and then only read half of it for various reasons. On the flip side, numerous times they've downloaded an inexpensive first book of a series and gone on the pay more for the rest because they loved the series and could explain why they did. In an ideal world, we could all charge as much as J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan but until we have that kind of following, the chances of our middle grade readers paying high prices is slim.

Pricing tends to fluctuate, promos, regular price, etc. It depends on your goals and marketing approach. The most successful indies I've seen recently, have a lot of fluctuation in their pricing, they do free promos, countdowns, etc., and back to full price. They are very active in their approach. It's paid off.

J.S. wrote: "Another important factor to consider in pricing is your target audience. I'm sure there are many adults willing to spend money on books they find intriguing. When trying to reach middle grade reade..."

I am glad somebody else has taken a child's budget into consideration for the pricing of YA. I am also dealing with the desire for children to get my message, like the author up above who is donating all sales to charity. In my case, I want kids to know that they are not alone with some of the things they are going through, and that they're not crazy just because the grown-ups aren't paying any attention to what is going on. So when I run price reductions and free promos, it's not just to promote, it's an opportunity to reach the people who might need to be reached, but who can't afford the price my "marketing director" has set.

Of course, on the flip side, I've discovered that putting free books in peoples' hands isn't going to get them read or reviewed, either. One of my first indie projects, I printed up multiple copies and gave them away to friends and family...for a net value of 0 reviews and several "Oh, sorry, everything else in my life is more important than reading your book."

I agree with the people above that say readers are more willing to take a chance on a new-to-them author if there is less risk to them - ie, the price is lower. That's certainly the case for me as a reader. And that's the reason my books are priced relatively low ($2.99 for full length, $0.99 for novellas).

But I also want the most people to be able to access them, and not everyone can afford $5.99-$15.99 a book. I like to think that my books are getting to the widest possible audience this way. :)

We're going to lock this thread guys, been a few comments headed towards the negative, and it really shouldn't matter. Price your books what you feel is a good price. If you believe your book is worth $150 each, price them as such. If you think you'll get your most sails at $0.99, then sell it there. Have a great day! #SupportIndieAuthors!