How Much To Charge For My New E-Book?

CaseyAve · 09-30-2011, 11:04 AM

Hello Everyone! I am new to MobileRead, and a newly self-published author. I won't bore you with book plugging

QUESTION: HOW MUCH DO I CHARGE FOR MY NOVEL?

Does length have some bearing on price? My novel is 320 pages
Should I sell it cheap just to get the word out and build a fan base?
How can you make any money selling it for .99?
What is too much to pay for an e-book? I've read reviews that think 9.99 is too much and 1.99 is too little. (I don't want to sell myself short -It is not physically published - just ebook)
I'm on Amazon, smashwords, and Barnes and Noble - is there some formula that I am missing? I see books at all different prices!
Amazon claims to start promoting right away, do they do a good job? how long does it take to get selling?

Thanks for all your help!! I really appreciate it!

by the way....I initially priced it mistakenly at $9.99 (a little too ambitious I think)and I am planning on changing price today

mr ploppy · 09-30-2011, 11:50 AM

How many have you sold at that price? You will lose out on impulse buys at anything over £2 (don't know how much that is in dollars), but there's a psychological aspect to pricing too. Pricing it at the same level as "proper" publishers will make people think it is up to the same quality, and if it isn't you will get hammered with low ratings. If it is up to quality, you won't get many sales but you will make as much as you would if you had lots of sales at a lower price.

Amazon only seem to be promoting their own ebooks these days, now that they have their own imprint, so I wouldn't expect anyone to buy it at all if you don't pimp it yourself.

jbcohen · 09-30-2011, 12:04 PM

One approach that some sucessfull electronic published author have used is that they write a series of novels and give away the first one for $0 to get your potential customers hooked then sell them the rest at least $5 each. I bought into that model a few times. I think that $10 is way to much, personally I would never touch anything at that level, does not matter who you are no one is worth that. I always recommend giving out a free preview of anything, perhaps the first page, I want to see your writting style before I put anything down.

RobertLCollins · 09-30-2011, 12:58 PM

What you might want to do is think a little long term. Is this book the first in a series, or a stand-alone? Do you have other works like published short stories that you can release?

If it's the first in a series, you could price it lower than the others. Other authors have done this, and it's paid off for some. My view is to start at $2.99. You get the highest royalty, and your price is in line with other self-pubbed books. You can tinker later. Keep in mind that you can issue coupons through Smashwords. You can use that for giveaways, reviews, and so on.

As soon as you book is "live," people can buy it. That's not promotion, that's availability. You will have to promote. Mention your book to your friends through Twitter, FB, etc. Search for blogs that review your genre and send requests. Then start working on your next book. The more you have out, the more copies you're likely to sell.

Good luck!

Harper Kingsley · 10-01-2011, 05:27 PM

I agree with the previous poster. You want to go at least $2.99 so you get 70% royalty from Amazon.

mjhudston · 10-01-2011, 06:00 PM

Depends if is your first ebook or not. If you are unknown, people are probably going to be unwilling to pay much more than $3 to $4 dollars. 340 pages is a little on the shortish side for a Novel.

My first ebook was a short story so I set it at .99c just as a taster. For a month no one touched it. So as it was my first I let it go for free. 1500 Downloads later in 18 months, but then if they are all like me, I will download anything for free, because you have nothing to lose, and that maybe a way of getting yourself a following.

VydorScope · 10-01-2011, 06:04 PM

The plan I am following...

1) Plan a series as your debut
2) Release book one for FREE.
3) Get real honest people to review it and post reviews
4) List it every where you can (Smash helps get you in a lot of places, Amazon lets you self list, etc).
5) Promote the book on every site that will let you. Do not count on others to promote for you.
6) Release Book 2 at $2.99
7) Repeat steps 3,4,5
8) Release Book 3, judge price by demand that book 2 generated.
9) Repeat till you retire from writing.

This of course assumes your books are good and worth buying. This is a MULTI-YEAR plan to become successful. You need to build a name for yourself and create a demand for books with your name on them before you could get away with a $5 or $10 price tag.

That is my advice. Might be worth as much as you paid for it....

Kubizo · 10-02-2011, 01:30 PM

Quote:

1) Plan a series as your debut
2) Release book one for FREE.

I'm not an expert, but it makes a lot of sense. Not sure whether you can do so in an Amazon page, but you can try Cloudflood.com, which is a tool to let people download your book only after they tweeted or shared on Facebook about it.

VydorScope · 10-02-2011, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kubizo

I'm not an expert, but it makes a lot of sense. Not sure whether you can do so in an Amazon page, but you can try Cloudflood.com, which is a tool to let people download your book only after they tweeted or shared on Facebook about it.

To get your book out there for free, I recommend Smashwords.com which will let you list it for free, track it, post updates and spread it to all major ebook stores (cept Amazon) for free.

My book is currently free on Amazon, but that is because they eventually price matched all the other places that it was free (B&N, Apple, etc).

09-30-2011, 11:04 AM	#1
CaseyAve DoubleDeception.com Posts: 5 Karma: 20000 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: kindle	How Much To Charge For My New E-Book? Hello Everyone! I am new to MobileRead, and a newly self-published author. I won't bore you with book plugging QUESTION: HOW MUCH DO I CHARGE FOR MY NOVEL? Does length have some bearing on price? My novel is 320 pages Should I sell it cheap just to get the word out and build a fan base? How can you make any money selling it for .99? What is too much to pay for an e-book? I've read reviews that think 9.99 is too much and 1.99 is too little. (I don't want to sell myself short -It is not physically published - just ebook) I'm on Amazon, smashwords, and Barnes and Noble - is there some formula that I am missing? I see books at all different prices! Amazon claims to start promoting right away, do they do a good job? how long does it take to get selling? Thanks for all your help!! I really appreciate it! by the way....I initially priced it mistakenly at $9.99 (a little too ambitious I think)and I am planning on changing price today Last edited by CaseyAve; 09-30-2011 at 12:53 PM.

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09-30-2011, 11:50 AM	#2
mr ploppy Feral Underclass Posts: 3,622 Karma: 26821535 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Yorkshire, tha noz Device: 2nd hand paperback	How many have you sold at that price? You will lose out on impulse buys at anything over £2 (don't know how much that is in dollars), but there's a psychological aspect to pricing too. Pricing it at the same level as "proper" publishers will make people think it is up to the same quality, and if it isn't you will get hammered with low ratings. If it is up to quality, you won't get many sales but you will make as much as you would if you had lots of sales at a lower price. Amazon only seem to be promoting their own ebooks these days, now that they have their own imprint, so I wouldn't expect anyone to buy it at all if you don't pimp it yourself.

09-30-2011, 12:04 PM	#3
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	One approach that some sucessfull electronic published author have used is that they write a series of novels and give away the first one for $0 to get your potential customers hooked then sell them the rest at least $5 each. I bought into that model a few times. I think that $10 is way to much, personally I would never touch anything at that level, does not matter who you are no one is worth that. I always recommend giving out a free preview of anything, perhaps the first page, I want to see your writting style before I put anything down.

09-30-2011, 12:58 PM	#4
RobertLCollins Groupie Posts: 155 Karma: 1735704 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Kansas Device: iPhone	What you might want to do is think a little long term. Is this book the first in a series, or a stand-alone? Do you have other works like published short stories that you can release? If it's the first in a series, you could price it lower than the others. Other authors have done this, and it's paid off for some. My view is to start at $2.99. You get the highest royalty, and your price is in line with other self-pubbed books. You can tinker later. Keep in mind that you can issue coupons through Smashwords. You can use that for giveaways, reviews, and so on. As soon as you book is "live," people can buy it. That's not promotion, that's availability. You will have to promote. Mention your book to your friends through Twitter, FB, etc. Search for blogs that review your genre and send requests. Then start working on your next book. The more you have out, the more copies you're likely to sell. Good luck!

10-01-2011, 05:27 PM	#5
Harper Kingsley Clone Trooper Posts: 212 Karma: 4566103 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Washington Device: kindle	I agree with the previous poster. You want to go at least $2.99 so you get 70% royalty from Amazon.

10-01-2011, 06:00 PM	#6
mjhudston All round good egg Posts: 229 Karma: 1005039 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Apple Ipad 3rd Generation	Depends if is your first ebook or not. If you are unknown, people are probably going to be unwilling to pay much more than $3 to $4 dollars. 340 pages is a little on the shortish side for a Novel. My first ebook was a short story so I set it at .99c just as a taster. For a month no one touched it. So as it was my first I let it go for free. 1500 Downloads later in 18 months, but then if they are all like me, I will download anything for free, because you have nothing to lose, and that maybe a way of getting yourself a following.

10-01-2011, 06:04 PM	#7
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	The plan I am following... 1) Plan a series as your debut 2) Release book one for FREE. 3) Get real honest people to review it and post reviews 4) List it every where you can (Smash helps get you in a lot of places, Amazon lets you self list, etc). 5) Promote the book on every site that will let you. Do not count on others to promote for you. 6) Release Book 2 at $2.99 7) Repeat steps 3,4,5 8) Release Book 3, judge price by demand that book 2 generated. 9) Repeat till you retire from writing. This of course assumes your books are good and worth buying. This is a MULTI-YEAR plan to become successful. You need to build a name for yourself and create a demand for books with your name on them before you could get away with a $5 or $10 price tag. That is my advice. Might be worth as much as you paid for it....

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