Pricing my e-book:Guest Post by science fiction author Steve Umstead

Where do I price my e-book?

I'm in month two of self-promoting my self-published, self-written (sensing a theme?) e-book, and I'm tossing something back and forth here. No, not a kitchen knife – I'm sure that will come later on in the sales process – but the actual pricing of my e-book.

You see, one of the great advantages to self-publishing, essentially being one's own boss, is I can set the pricing to whatever I want it to be, whenever I want it. I can make it $49.99 (outlandish), $2.99 (going rate of a lot of indies), $.99 (as low as it can feasibly be priced), or even $16.99 (someone just posted this is the e-book price of Stephen King's upcoming novel – it's high because of Simon & Schuster's rising e-book costs…huh? Rising costs on something with no physical product or manufacturing? Uh, OK…)

Since day one, I was an avid reader of Joe Konrath's blog, sort of an unofficial bible for self-publishers, as well as the now-famous Amanda Hocking's blog (can't go wrong with someone who has sold nearly a million e-books in under a year) and the two big numbers that stand out are $2.99 and $0.99. Why those two?

If you've self-published on Amazon, you know what those numbers are – they are the lowest you can go in two different royalty levels. If you price a book between $2.99 and $9.99, Amazon pays a 70% royalty. From $0.99 to $2.98, or $10.00 and up, it's 35%. So the lowest anyone should go in the hopes of making money would be $2.99, and the lowest anyone should go…period…would be $0.99.

So therein lies my dilemma. A couple of weeks ago I lowered my debut novel, Gabriel's Redemption, from its initial $2.99 to $0.99 for a couple of 'social media promos.' Therefore, I'm making approximately $0.35 or so on each copy sold. At $2.99, I'd be making just over two bucks each. No brainer, right? Well, sort of…there's the "volume" theory, as well as the "newbie theory."

Volume theory holds that at $0.99, many more people will buy the book, thereby making up for the lower royalty and payout (the math says six people buying at $0.99 is the same profit as one at $2.99). The newbie theory holds that an unknown name, such as myself, has a better chance to break into the market with a $0.99 price, as well as encourage impulse buys – customers that have no idea who I am, but for a buck will take a chance. (I made those theories up, by the way…)

So now what? It's about time for the social media promo to end; do I take it back up to $2.99? Leave it at $0.99 and try to get the name out? I'll be honest – right now, I'm not in this for the money. I'm in it because I really enjoy it and I'm proud of the work I put out. However, getting paid for it is not against my religion. Also, Book 2 of the trilogy will be published in May; would leaving Book 1 at $0.99 to get the name out, Book 2 at $2.99 be a feasible strategy?

My last concern is this – the price-value relationship. Will people see a $0.99 self-published e-book as garbage? Is it priced so low, it demeans its own value? Will people not expect it to be good? Will people shy away from it (ruining the two theories) because it's so cheap? Would I be better served offering it at $2.99 so it has more value to it? I just don't know…

Would LOVE to hear everyone's feedback!

About Steve:

Steve is relatively new to the writing and publishing world, having only launched his debut science fiction novel Gabriel's Redemption in February, but has been writing off-and-on, unofficially, nearly his entire life. Recently he was able to combine his love of writing with his ten years of business ownership and online marketing experience to self-publish and self-promote his first full-length novel as an ebook.
When not writing (which Steve will admit is more often than he'd like), he travels for business throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, and if he's lucky, brings along his wife and two boys to keep him in check.
More information on Steve and his work can be found at www.SteveUmstead.com; follow Steve on Twitter at @SteveUmstead, or Facebook at www.facebook.com/SteveUmsteadWrites