A Last Word On E-Book Pricing

There's been a lot of discussion in certain niches of the Internet on the subject of e-book pricing. Like most passionate debates, it's very important to a very small number of people: mostly independent authors or wanna-be authors who are excited at the possibilities offered by inexpensive electronic publishing. The subject was made even more compelling when the high-dollar paydays of a few authors became big news in the publishing industry.

I've sold e-books since 2005, but I've remained mostly quiet on the subject. I wanted to watch what other others — particularly friends and colleagues — had to say. The more I read in blog posts or heard on podcasts, the more convinced I became that e-book pricing is almost entirely an arbitrary matter of personal judgement and philosophy.

So. Here's my last word on e-book pricing.

My e-books are / will be priced as follows:

Flash fiction (up to 1,000 words): $0.50

Short stories and essays (1,001 to 7,500 words): $0.99

Novelettes (7,501 to 17,500 words): $1.49

Novellas (17,501 to 40,000 words): $1.99

Novels (40,001 to 100,000 words): $2.99

Anthologies: $2.99

Book-length non-fiction: $4.99

What's my reasoning? Not surprisingly, entirely arbitrary and personal. I don't believe price denotes quality. I do believe that word count = time spent creating. I've got various calculations connecting words written per hour to copies sold to recoup that time… you should see the spreadsheet, it's ridiculous.

I also believe that non-fiction should be more expensive than fiction, either because non-fiction has repeat value as reference material or because it requires more rigorous research — take your pick; I told you it was arbitrary. Finally, anthologies (regardless of length) have to be at least as much as novels because the profit is split between the contributors.

Make sense? That's okay; it barely does to me.

So that's my last word on e-book pricing. Until such time as I change my mind, that is.

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