Pricing E-Books to Read vs. Buy

Came across this article from Chuck Wendig today. Steve Weddle talks about e-book pricing from a reader's perspective and compares it to pricing in stores. The article eBooks Bought, Never Read is definitely worth a read — especially if you're an author unfamiliar with retail from the business side of things.

When you offer folks a bargain price for your ebook, you'll get folks who are looking for bargains. Not all of these folks care about a good book. — QUOTE: eBooks Bought, Never Read

Powerful statement and very true. Here we get back to the value of an e-book. Does the price reflect the potential for readability? Weddle argues "Yes." I say: "Let's find out for sure."

There should be a technical way to track digital files read and/or opened on an e-reader. I'm not aware if this big brother-ish tactic exists, but I'm thinking more along the lines of iTunes and personalization at its finest.

I feel a lot of these pricing initiatives boils down to how much authors want to become a merchant in addition to a publisher, too. e-Commerce is a different skill set that adds on top of crafting a compelling tale and publishing it in a specific format. Not to mention, what works for one author doesn't work for every author, either, and with online marketing there's a high learning curve.

If you're interested in hearing about my own experience with pricing, read The Queen Of Crows, a One Year Retrospective.