[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

But once they've done that, they don't charge more for the exquisitely well-written, lingers-in-your-mind-for-decades books. The ones that will change the lives of readers and the ones that will be read once, pondered for fifteen minutes, and then forgotten, are side-by-side on the shelf, with the same sticker price if they came off the press at the same time.

Yes, once the minimum standard of quality is presumably met, there's no further differentiation by price.

Why? Because self-publishing authors will only charge more than $5 if the book is very good, and will know that poorly-written unedited drafts are only worth $1? My research hasn't shown that to be true.

It has nothing to do with the author's perception of quality, but the reader's willingness to gamble on the unknown. The lower the price, the more likely the customer is to buy an unknown--at least, that's my opinion. I don't know if the self-published book is even written in complete sentences with the words spelled correctly. I assume that the book from a mainstream publisher will be.

I'm certainly more willing to take a chance on a $1-3 book by an unknown author. But that doesn't mean I believe an ebook offered for $7 is more likely to entertain me, nor do I automatically believe that it's more likely to have been carefully edited, proofread, and formatted. Indeed, what I've seen is that a lot of would-be pro authors who believe they are too "edgy" for mainstream publication price their books as high or higher than mass-market paperbacks, on the theory that they are "worth" that much.

I expect the careful editing, proofreading, and formatting from a real publisher. They have their reputation to uphold. With a self-published book, it's a total crapshoot. Plus I make the assumption that a person generally does not self-publish as a first choice.

And I can't speak for objective value, only my limits: $6 for non-DRM'd fiction ebooks. $3 for authors I don't know. Not because "no ebook is worth more than that," but because I'm certain I can find endless content I will enjoy reading for that price or less, and have no need to pay more.

I don't have any hard and fast limits for what I will pay for a book I want, as long as it's from a mainstream publisher or university press. I am unlikely to go near a self-published book even if it's free, except in rare circumstances.