Yeah, What Dean Said

 
After my Short Story Ebook Economics post, I had been thinking about writing a "Novel Ebook Economics" post. I don't have to, though, because Dean Wesley Smith did exactly that today over on his blog:
 
Think Like a Publisher #3: Projected Income
 
Read the whole thing, of course, but he has a very detailed example about calculating the break-even point for novels which says everything I would have said.
 
After reading his post (and after being prodded by another indie writing friend), I'm thinking of raising the price of my first two novels to $4.99.
 
As a businessman, I prefer to be as far away from the "appearance of discount" as I can be. In my software business, I have worked to be as upmarket as I can for the last decade. Aside from Microsoft OneNote and a few niche-specific offerings, The Journal is probably the most expensive journaling software you will find (and worth every penny, thank you very much). Let my many competitors figure out how to make a profit at their lower price points, I'm happy offering a superior product for a good price. Someday I might figure out how to do something similar with my indie publishing. For now, though, I'll be satisfied with positioning myself in the middle range (not discount, not upmarket).
 
So, yeah, I might be raising the ebook prices of The Summoning Fire and The Girl Who Ran With Horses in the near future.
 
Just to mention it: I raised the trade paperback prices of both books back in February for a similar reason. I realized as I was getting Demon Candy ready to go that I had seriously underpriced both of my previous POD books. Trade paperback prices are noticeably higher than mass market paperbacks. One thing that was cool about raising the prices then was that Amazon then felt it had enough profit margin to offer the books at a discount. Plus, I think it made the books more attractive to the "expanded distribution network" of CreateSpace for the same reason.
 
-David
 
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