E-book pricing can sometimes be counterintuitive. I mentioned a couple of months ago that Diane Duane was removing her e-book A Wind from the South from free distribution and offering it up for sale on Amazon. Now she finds that it is actually selling considerably better at $4.99 than at $1.99. She wonders:

Could it be that, when you’re an author who’s been established in print for a while, that it’s not smart to price your book too low? Is it possible that people look at it and say, “Oh, this thing must be cheap because it’s no good”, and pass by on the other side? Or is this just some seasonal effect, or some other kind of coincidence?

I suspect that her first guess is right: People expect self-published e-books to be cheap, but figure ones from known authors should cost more. “You get what you pay for.” Just another one of those little irrational pricing tricks that pop up from time to time. I will look forward to finding out how the sales number go over coming months.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, correct pricing is a tricky business. Another trick: release two products in the same line with different prices and people are more likely to buy the more expensive one than if it was released alone. For example, Sony has acknowledged that PRS-600 sold much better than the less expensive PRS-300, contrary to their expectations.

  2. If you are aiming at a US audience, you can price higher. If you are like me, an author through Smashwords, you don’t have that territorial problem. I am having some success with my ebook, Ponzi House Scheme 21st Century because it is not too large, sells for $1.99, and is a global product. It is ranked number 28 in top business and economics ebooks. There is another Smashwords ebook ranked number 19 in the same category, and was published way back in 2009 and sells for $.99. It is still going strong!

    If the major ebook publishers just want to aim for US readers, I will be happy to sell to others. I am hoping that US readers read my books, but unfortunately US readers are not necessarily willing to take a chance on authors.

    But Diesel bookstore has 70 percent of it’s traffic coming from foreign lands. And if the publishers with DRM restrictions are willing to charge more to fight over the 30 percent of Americans that come to the site, I will be happy to sell to the 70 percent who can’t even buy major publishers’ books there!

    This may be a window of opportunity that will close with the flexibility of major publishers to change their ways. Or it may remain wide open for years to come due to their fear of piracy.

  3. But in he 300/600 comparison, the 600 and 300 are different beasts. The 300 was basically a 5″ 505. The 600 is 6″, touch, and more features such as annotation. They really don’t compare.

  4. I’m self-published, and I decided to drop my novel-length ebook from $2.99 to $0.99 just to see if I could pick up a lot of new fans before the second book in the series came out. Oddly, sales are about the same. Sometimes I wonder if we’re selling ourselves short with the rush into the how-low-can-you-go strategy!

  5. I think for a lot of readers, what we want is something good, not something dirt cheap. Price it too high, and I will pass or wait for a price drop. But price it too low and I am liable to dismiss it as having a high risk of not being worth the time to read it (unless a special pricing promotion is in effect). I would buy endless books at 2.99 or less if they were all gripping engaging stories, but my experience has been that more often than not, this is not the case.

    A book priced middle of the road (above 2.99 but below 10), is more likely to get my attention as it leaves the impression that it is solid enough to charge above the basement prices but still affordable enough to take a risk on. Of course, these middle-of-the-road-priced books have to have something else going for them (solid reviews, recommendation from a friend, intriguing/engaging synopsis or sample, author I have liked in the past). Price alone doesn’t dictate purchasing decisions, but it influences how I filter the books I look at more closely.

  6. Ebook pricing is very confusing. There seem to be so many models in action, and the purchaser isn’t always told which is in play. I’ve accidentally bought short stories for $1.99-2.99 when I thought I was getting a novel by an established author. I had thought the lower price was a way for the author and publisher to make some money on a deep backlist title, and at the same time, get new readers interested in that author. There was no mention in the purchasing info as to whether the ebook was short story or a novel. I doubt I am the only one who has been confused in this way, and a $4.99 price suggests one is really buying a novel length ebook.

    Also, having downloaded samples from several less than $2.99 ebooks (mysteries mostly), I have found most of them a disappointment. Content editing is sorely lacking, and while reading I kept remembering a book I once saw in a bookstore, “How to Write a Mystery Novel.” I felt like the writers were following a flow chart. A higher price suggests that a true editor may have been involved in the writing process. So lately, I have been more apt to try book samples priced in the $4-10 range. That said, I do read ebook versions of old pulp mysteries, and then I expect a $2.99 or lower price.

  7. Well Brenda – it’s funny because I have had exactly the opposite experience. I started buying some titles for $5 – $9, expecting better writing and formatting, but was sadly disappointed. I found them absolutely no better in either respect. Just as many poorly written stories and the formatting/editing was just as bad or worse.
    So after a while I reverted to cheaper titles, and on the whole I myself find the cheaper ones have less typing errors.
    I am disappointed from time to time, but hell . . it’s only 2.99 or 3.99 ! I have wasted $12 or $15 MANY times before on pBooks only to find they are drivel.
    But having read some of the preview before I buy I am generally pleased with the result.
    It will be an extremely exceptional occasion if I ever ever spend more than $5 or $6 on an eBook in the future.

  8. I personally think short stories should be priced at $.99. For non fiction, 7k words could go for $1.99 depending on the importance of the subject. 15k should go for 2.99 and 18k for 3.99.

    For fiction, a good mini novel of 90-125k words could be priced competitively at 2.99-4.99.

    All these prices are better than the big publishers although there are some 9.99 works with a lot of words coming from them.

  9. Aloha.

    Interesting article you have here. I’ve been experimenting with pricing, and I’ve had my books at 2.99 (for six months) and at 99 cents (another six months). Results? I sold more — and made more — at 2.99.

    Why? I have no idea.

    Man, let’s get real. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. This whole pricing thing is just so unpredictable…mysterious…irritimidating (irritating & intimidating). Ironically, self-pubbing has me facing the one job I’ve always hated: Sales.

    Right now, I’m experimenting in the 3 – 4.99 range, mainly because I give up on trying to find that “sweet spot”. All I know right now is I’m worth more than 99 cents. $4 or $3 feels right….The word dignity comes to mind.

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