Support for Indie Authors discussion

My ebook is currently free and gets about 50 downloads a day with minimal promotion. I'm releasing both a print and audiobook in late spring. Print is 6x9 with 228 pages. Cost on Createspace comes out to $3.58 before tax and shipping. Audiobook will be about 6 hours.

Does anyone have thoughts about how to price these three things once I 'launch' audio and print?

Thanks! I really appreciate anyone who cares to share their experiences. There is the whole question of retail/discount pricing too as in set retail higher and then discount to the max--if anyone has thoughts I'm all ears.

Prepare to see your downloads shoot to 0 a day most days when you have the gall to even ask for 0.01! I did an offer on my debut novel once, and saw 196 free copies go in 2 days. Since then...tumbleweed time!

Hi Lark. 50 downloads a day with no promotion is great :).

My books are trimmed 5X8 and around 190 pages. I have them priced at 9.95 as this gets me a couple dollars in royalties once Amazon and Createspace take their cut. It depends on how much you want to make from them. I've read that most book prices end in .95 rather than .99, like ebooks, if that helps :).

My audiobooks are distributed through ACX so I don't have control over what they are priced at. Here is their pricing guide for audio:

"Under 1 hour: under $7
1 – 3 hours: $7 - $10
3 – 5 hours: $10 - $20
5–10 hours: $15 - $25
10–20 hours: $20 - $30
Over 20 hours: $25 - $35"

These are expensive IMO but there are ways readers can get discounts on the audio, like if they buy an Audible subscription or the Whispersync version.

Hi Lark,

Double check your createspace price is not "author copy" price.

This is all really great information. Thank you.

Marie that's good to know you can make a profit at $9.95. I was thinking once the wholesale discount is taken into account I would be right at the edge of losing money per book at that price. Also I'm thinking of shipping costs if I plan to sell some directly myself.

Graeme thanks for telling me author copy isn't the same as createspace price...hmm. Also Ingram Spark books seem to have slightly higher cost per book.

Colin wrote: "Prepare to see your downloads shoot to 0 a day most days when you have the gall to even ask for 0.01! I did an offer on my debut novel once, and saw 196 free copies go in 2 days. Since then...tumbl..."

Colin, I had that experience too--I had my book set at 99c and did a promotion and got 12 more downloads than usual, then I did a free promo w Freebooksy and got around 2000. From what I gather here in this group this isn't a huge result, but the difference in demand between 0 and 99c was surprising to me.

Lots of good stuff here! I have never heard of Freebooksy.