For self-publishers, the most popular list price for an e-book is €2.99. I think of my target customers as urbane, educated and appreciative of the finer things in life. Surely they would not consider an investment of $2.99 to be a major decision in their support of literature? I believed that dropping my price even lower, in an effort to entice them to buy, would be met with indifference and disdain.
I was wrong. My sales figures are not chart-topping but they do spike in the US when I combine an email advert with a promotional price of $0.99. I guess urbane and discerning readers like a bargain just as much as the next guy. Can my empirical experience of price elasticity be extrapolated? If I offer my book for free will many thousands of people download it? Will they then tell all their friends how great it is such that they will rush to buy the book at the full price?
A popular theory says that if you give away your book for free then the reader expects it to have no value. However, some people just love getting stuff for free. They download the book but never read it. Worse than this, others download it even though they don’t like it and then they give it a bad review.
I have never offered my book for free. There may be a little bit of pride in this but I like to think it’s more to do with the theory above. Many full-time, “traditional” publishers and writers seem to be more hung up about low prices. They believe that e-books sold below, say, $5 are being undervalued. The reader should pay more because so much effort and cost has gone into making the book.
Market dynamics tend to ensure that only private monopolies and public services can charge on a cost-plus basis. The rest of us have to compete on price and value. A market with barriers to entry fosters feelings of entitlement and overblown expectations among those who are inside the barricades. The internet and its many applications have removed the barriers to entering various markets.
Do you feel sorry for the ageing rock stars who have had to get back on the road to perform live in order to maintain their multi-million earnings and to boost their pension pots? Are you upset that the price of music recordings and books has fallen significantly over the last twenty years?
Ron beat me to the punch line. I wholeheartedly agree that the overall quality of books has declined due to the ease in plastering an ebook on Amazon and slapping a $.99 price tag on it so the reader doesn't feel the burn if the book is lousy.
You're not the first to suggest pricing an ebook at $2.99. Never one to follow trends or pander to anyone, mine will be priced at $3.99.
Interesting analysis. The, Internet like so many other innovations, in books and music, once held firm by powerful publishers, has greatly reduced the cost of books. Ebooks are particularly vulnerable because they can be easily copied and spread among friends the way that music and movies are now pirated and offered for free everywhere.
I believe the key to pricing a book is fame or infamy. It doesn't matter what the quality is inside, if the author or the subject has either of those two qualities, the masses will pay for it, whatever the price. The result is that while many more people are now publishing what they write and selling it, the overall quality of books has declined. As I recall, I read all the classics by checking them out free from libraries and didn't own a book until I acquired some that were in a house I bought.
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You're not the first to suggest pricing an ebook at $2.99. Never one to follow trends or pander to anyone, mine will be priced at $3.99.
I believe the key to pricing a book is fame or infamy. It doesn't matter what the quality is inside, if the author or the subject has either of those two qualities, the masses will pay for it, whatever the price. The result is that while many more people are now publishing what they write and selling it, the overall quality of books has declined. As I recall, I read all the classics by checking them out free from libraries and didn't own a book until I acquired some that were in a house I bought.
Ron