Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
Is it concievable that .99$/£ books, e-b or otherwise, are at that price because they aren't very good ?  |
Some are (probably a lot are, given the nature of self-publishing), but the ones that have become bestsellers on the Kindle charts didn't get that way because of 50,000 random people deciding that was where to drop their dollar today. If they were all poor-quality books, the sales would be spread out a lot more equally.
There's word-of-mouth, and reviews, and the sample download; those combine to tell new readers that this book is actually worth reading. And for a lot of authors, there's one book at .99, and the rest of their catalog is 2.99 - 4.99, and they sell those after readers have tried the one book that's cheapest.
We're used to price having no connection to book quality. Publishers set prices according to format & length; prizewinning books cost the same as new authors' clumsy works that will never be reprinted. Classics that are loved by millions cost the same as midlist formula romances.