This article for independent ebook authors on The Savvy Book Marketer (@bookmarketer) by Mark Coker (@markcoker), founder of ebook distributor Smashwords, says “it’s important to consider price as only one of several factors that influence a reader’s purchase decision. We have many free ebooks that earn few downloads, and many priced books that get more paid downloads than some of the freebies. In the end, if a book doesn’t honor the reader with a great read, you can’t pay a reader to read it.” Coker says the pricing decision should be made within the context of these other important factors:
- Length
- Reader passion
- Author platform
- Reader trust
- Series or not
- Author marketing
- Perceived value
- Platform building or harvesting?
A separate article on The Shatzkin Files is for established publishers. “The ebook value chain is still sorting itself out, and so are the splits” by Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) examines how publishing pricing strategy and author royalties are dramatically changing in light of the digital revolution.
Right now for ebooks we have two “standards” for the publisher-retailer division of revenue. For agency publishers across all retailers and for all publishers selling to (or perhaps we should, with respect for the agency logic, say “through”) Apple, the retailer share is 30% of the purchasing customer’s payment for the ebook, or the publisher’s “digital retail price.” For non-agency publishers selling to everybody else but Apple, the normal offer is 50% off the publishers “suggested retail price”....
What if one retailer (B&N? Kobo? Google?) were to offer publishers a deal where a discounted version of an ebook were offered through them on a temporary exclusive — say, the first 60 days the ebook was out — during which they would help subsidize the discount by taking a smaller percentage themselves during the promotion. Would publishers find it tempting to accept such an arrangement to poke a hole in the 30% standard?....
Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you establish your ebook publishing and pricing strategy. And use the SomersaultNOW online dashboard to stay current with publishing news.