Are eBooks Too Cheap?

I luv Twitter!


Not only can you network and share your thoughts but you can also pick up on some useful and interesting information, which is what I have done this weekend.


Looking at, 'The Trends' a few nights ago, I found an interesting article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/ebooks-cheap-price_n_1160383.html?ref=books), arguing the pro's and con's of selling your eBooks at 99 cents or for free.

Reading through the article, the main points seemed to be:

• Traditional publishers are scared at independent authors selling their books so cheaply as most of the public (especially in the current climate) will obviously go for the cheaper options, leaving the traditional publishers struggling to gain custom,

• Some independent publishers are not happy to give away their work for free (or for 99 cents) as they feel that the time and effort they have put into creating the book has been in vain,

• Some publishers (both traditional and independent) have a problem with books priced at 99 cents, believing that they maybe of poor quality due to many of the books in this bracket been of substandard value, and;

• Before an eBook is published, "there are other associated costs to publishing a quality book, including cover artists ($125-3000), editors ($800-5000), marketing, etc. If you add up the average cover cost of $350, average editing job of $1400, then divide by 34 cents, the author would have to sell 5,134 books just to break even, and that’s nearly impossible without an additional amount for advertising".

After reading this article, I was left with more questions than I started with. However, after doing my own research into the self publishing world and using my experiences with traditional publishing houses, I realised the following:

• Looking at the top 10 successful self publishing stories, all of the authors used the same approach of setting their first books as 99 cents to get readers interested then increased the price, once they had a following,

• If you do the research of the other books in your genre and these are priced at 99 cents and you place yours at $9.99, you are already alienating your target audience as they would want to see why your book is priced so high and if you do not have reviews from readers to back up your book price, you will find it difficult to sell any copies, and;

• Although some traditional publishing houses claim that they do not rate books becoming successful in the 99 cents category, of the self publishing sector, this should make you wonder why they feel so strongly about this? As many traditional publishing houses do not take on new authors as they cannot foresee your success, however, if you already have success with your 99 cents books and have obtained a following, this should be the green light for all traditional publishing houses to snap at your heels with offers as many have done with Amanda Hocking and John Locke!

So, although everyone is different, my approach will be sell the first copies of my novels at 99 cents and then when I gain a following increase steadily, depending on the number of pages!