Although
some indie authors price their books at the lower end of the spectrum (as low as.99 cents) in order to compete with better - known writers whose work is being released through traditional publishers, some readers may be put off by prices which seem artificially low, because they won't trust the quality of the book.
Most
Indie Authors price their ebooks at $ 2.99 - $ 4.99.
Instead most of
these indie authors price their book based on a fear factor, hoping they could grab readership that way that would then miraculously turn into profits some time in the future.
The graph above shows that
indie authors pricing strategy has remained consistent since 2013.
Not exact matches
I was discussing this with someone yesterday, going back and forth at possible explanations, which included that self - pubbed
authors tend to work the review mines harder than their trad pubbed peers, or have more support from other
indie authors reviewing, or get higher ratings due to the generally lower
price of the work (greater satisfaction due to a
price / performance expectation).
An
indie author considering this should understand their rationale for how they
price their book, have reason to believe this will accomplish what they're hoping for, and a way to measure whether or not it is working.
Indie authors continue in their attempt to discover the best
price to charge for their work.
I'm currently trying to figure out how to offer (
price) design, editing and setup services to
indie authors who would otherwise have no idea where to start.
By maintaining high
prices, they left the sub - $ 5.99 market for ebooks wide open for
indie authors to exploit.
Indie authors might be doing well right now selling their under
priced e-books, but the Amazon is making more money right now selling physical books.
They decided early on to fleece
indie authors by charging exorbitant
prices — when we all know trad pub pays pennies for each ISBN they use — and
indie authors decided that they weren't going to play along with this little game.
Ebook
pricing,
indie book
pricing, and
author services have all been the target of speculation for years, and it seems as though no permanent solution is coming soon.
It allows users to browse for titles,
authors or interests on Amazon, and find
indie stores with comparable or cheaper
prices that are willing to deliver the titles to you.
As an
indie author myself, I'd prefer people pay enough for my books that I get a decent royalties, that means I control the
pricing on my books.
A lot of
indie authors have POD versions available for those readers who really want paperback, but a self - pubbed
author is unlikely to ever sell a lot of them (at least without a whole lot of effort) due to the relatively high cover
price.
I know a lot of
indie authors and read a lot of
indie stories, and I'm aware of the strategies behind their
pricing decisions, so, the lower end of the
pricing structure isn't an issue for me.
Presented by award - winning children's book
author and
indie publisher Darcy Pattison, the workshop covered the nuts and bolts of independent publishing, from navigating printing, e-book, and supply - chain options to
pricing and promoting a book.
That is especially true when I can and have found
indie authors and small press
authors who sell their books at half that
price or less.
As an
indie author, you can also make edits to your book cover, your
price, and other important details based on reader feedback before you move to a final version, and this is not something traditional deals typically allow.
Indie authors can stay competitive with their
pricing, offer limited time discounts around holidays, there are a lot of creative book marketing options that revolve around
pricing.
These great new books were released Nov 2011 - Feb 2012 by
Indie authors,
priced right so that taking a chance on a new
author doesn't have to break your wallet.
I know
authors who use
indie presses and the cost of buying copies of their books from the
indie is so high, they can't make a profit on their copies unless they jack up the
price to a point where it drives potential customers away.
I'm grateful to Amazon as a reader, because it's brought me so many fresh new
indie authors and lowered the
price of ebooks so readers can read MORE books.
I imagine most
indie authors, especially those that value the «
indie» of
indie author, would take strong exception to any move by any retailer to discourage, restrict or punish via
pricing - matching
authors who support libraries.
This is an extremely common form of editing for
indie authors to utilize and comes with a middle range
price tag.
How very cool to hear another competent
author is going with
indie publishing and
pricing their books reasonably!
These are based on wholesale
pricing and many of them are 50 % splits of the receipts with publishers doing the grunt work that an
indie author would normally do themselves.
I make SO much more money as an
indie author, and sales of my self - pubbed version of the book that small press put out are much bigger because I sell at a more attractive
price (2.99 compared to 5.50) and I have a better cover (a fun, custom illustration depicting my exact characters rather than a $ 10 stock photo image.)
I know many
indie authors who use this sale - yield dynamic to their advantage by
pricing the first book in a series as either free or US$ 0.99 to promote «sales,» and then
pricing the rest of the books higher to promote yield.
I think it would have worked the same if $ 0.99 never existed and $ 2 would have been the great thing for
Indie writers to be discovered because established
authors from publishing houses still sell their ebooks at over 5 times that
price in most cases.
Like line editing, this is a common form of editing for
indie authors and comes with a middle range
price tag.
And StoryBundle's a cool form of alternative publishing, letting
indie and small press
authors join together to present bundles that pack a whole lot of reading into a
price that you choose (as long as it's $ 5 or above).
Compared to the more straightforward, non-Kindle Unlimited system that pays
authors a defined cut of the purchase
price on every book sold, Kindle Unlimited will still seem like a big gamble to many
indie authors.
They aren't paying the high
prices for e-books from the Big 5 and its ilk, instead turning to
indie authors.
Some
indie authors have achieved a lot of success by running temporary sales on their ebooks — even setting the
price at «free» for a few days.
My favorite distributor is Libro.fm because they support
indie authors and allow us to charge the
price we think is fair.
And they now make
indie authors sign with only one company instead of having a base
price so they all get the same from companies to
authors.i still order a few books from them, but Amazon and thrift books offer better deals.
Stock photos should be sold by the photo company with a variety of licenses and since 90 % of
Indie Authors make less than $ 10,000 a day, it is fair to assume they are selling less than 10,000 copies (even at the lowest
price of 99 cents).
But I ended up going to Amazon since most
indie authors were there and book deals were better and different
priced.
Stock photos should be sold by the photo distribution companies with a variety of licenses and since 90 % of
Indie Authors make less than $ 10,000 a year, it is fair to assume 90 % are selling less than 10,000 copies (even at the lowest
price of 99 cents).
Indie authors will have to pay $ 199 minimum and this
price is poised to increase to $ 299 at the end of January 2015.
1)
Indie authors take note: Amazon is, among other things, a machine designed to optimize product
prices in order to gain share and sales.
While that
price point may seem a little high for an unknown
author — many self - published
authors keep their sales at $ 4.99 or less, with $ 2.99 being a fairly standard ebook
price for
indie works — given the argument that the cost of the book is in its initial creation, it makes sense.
More importantly may be the data that shows that, despite criticism from the industry, self - published and
indie published titles did not destroy book
pricing with their 99 - cent books; however, the fourth trend did demonstrate that book
prices have taken an overall drop, but this is largely due to high - volume online retailers who can negotiate these
prices, not just
indie authors who strategize on low
pricing as a means to drive book sales.
Many tools at these creators» disposal come with high
price tags, often out of the reach of self - published
authors and
indie publishing houses.
I've spoken to several
indie authors who have tried raising the
price on their books only to see an immediate drop off in sales.
Our company was founded by an
indie author to fill the existing gap in the book cover market for high quality photographic and editing services for book covers at reasonable
prices.
In fact, it benefits me as an
indie author for traditional publishers to continue their antiquated and often asinine
pricing methods.
I have found a number of
indie and small press published
authors who understand the market and who know the fastest way onto a reader's device is to
price their work reasonably and to do away with DRM.
The sales that would go to that $ 15.99 book are going to lower -
priced books from
indie authors and self - published
authors, like me.