Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Raiden
Ah, interesting. Well, is there a guild on how to offer the ebook on Amazon, and the suggested ebook price?
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I'm sure there are others, but I'd check The Book Bazaar forum over at kindleboards.com. Not only are you allowed a thread per book for promotion, but there are numerous threads by other indie authors there (and links to other resources) on just the issues you have asked about. Plus the forums at dtp.amazon.com, of course. Pricing is, as you can imagine, a highly debated subject, but, for my 2 cents - indie authors who are using any type of ebook format need to price more along paperback prices or lower, rather than paper tradebook prices. Some believe only in free or 99 cents, which are good sales tools, but for most authors may be too low (depending on the skills of the author, including editing and proofing .. for others it may be too high). But trying to get 9.99 when bestselling authors and other well-known, traditionally published authors get that only when their newest books are out in hardback is going to be a tough sell. Somewhere in between is where you'll balance income vs. more readers (and most big author's paperback editions sell at 6.39 when they are in the Kindle store, so keep that in mind, as well).
As to the 35% you get from Amazon, it's all relative - you must do all the editing, proofing and promotion (then again, for many authors, they have to do this even with traditional publishing contracts), but you get a much higher percentage from your books (5-10% are more "normal"). You have no up front costs or minimums, as you do with a paper vanity press, nor do you have to fight a high minimum cost just to recover printing charges.
You can also use smashwords.com - not sure their percentage, but suspect it's much higher (then again, their sales are much lower, as well). They let you offer multiple formats (all non-DRM), use coupons or temporary sales much more easily, etc.