Should You Price Your Ebooks Differently in Different Countries?

I was listening to Mark Lefebvre (Director of Self Publishing/Author Relations at Kobo) chat with the gang on the Self Publishing Roundtable the other day (link: Horror Writing And Selling More Books On Kobo), and one of the things that Mark mentioned is that you can choose different prices for your ebooks for the different countries where they’ll sell.

You’ve doubtlessly noticed this in your dashboard before (not just at Kobo, but at Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well), but have you ever done anything besides let the computer choose the price based on the exchange rate? I usually pick my own price, just so it will end in a 5 or a 9, a typical number, but I’ve rarely thought about pricing a book significantly higher in another country. (I’ve gone lower in countries such as India where the average book price is much less than it is in the U.S, but not higher.) Mark pointed out that in some countries, readers are used to paying more than in the U.S., so a Canadian or Australian reader might not bat an eye if your USD $4.99 ebook is $5.99 or $6.99 there.

I haven’t gone in and bumped up the prices of any of my ebooks in those countries, as I tend to be a fan of fairness whenever possible, but it’s interesting to think that my policy may be causing me to leave money on the table. It’s interesting to think, too, that a reader might be less likely to trust that a cheaper ebook will be a high quality ebook, because they’re used to paying $10 and up to read books in their country. (Lower prices and reader perceptions get debated a lot when it comes to 99-cent ebooks on Amazon, so I won’t get into that further here.)

The $9.99/70% Ceiling

One other thing that Mark mentioned on the show is that Kobo doesn’t have the $9.99 limit that Amazon imposes for authors who want to earn the 70% cut on ebook sales. Even if your ebook would sell wonderfully at $12.99 in Australia, for example, there’s little point in pricing it that high, since you’ll receive a lower sales percentage than you would selling it at $9.99. But on Kobo, you can go ahead and list your ebook at that higher price point, if you wish.

This would mostly apply to authors publishing non-fiction, since readers are accustomed to paying more for that, but it could also apply to those of you putting together boxed sets. I have one for my first three Emperor’s Edge books, but I’ve never seriously considered putting together a set for the whole series, because I wouldn’t want to sell over $20 worth of books for a mere $9.99. I may have to rethink that and put together that boxed set for Kobo users (and perhaps sell it on my own website as well).

But that’s a bit of a diversion. As far as pricing ebooks differently in different countries, what do you think? Is it something you’re doing? Something you’d consider? Something you don’t want to do? Let us know in the comments!

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