High or Low? How should you price your e-book?

If you’ve been following the DOJ lawsuit against Apple and several big publishing companies, it may have gotten you thinking about the pricing of your own e-books.

If some of the major publishing houses are allegedly trying to raise their e-book prices, should you raise yours as well? Would they sell? What are people willing to pay for an indie published book?  Should I lower my price to be more appealing to those who are disgusted by what Apple and other publishing houses are accused of doing?

These are all questions you have to answer for yourself, but take the time to do some research and ask around. In fact, come back to this blog on Thursday and I’ll have some data for you (help take part in adding to that data by answering this quick 10 question survey)!

Some opinions of mine:

– No full length novel should have a permanent price of $0.99.  I *KNOW* the kind of work that goes into writing and editing and formatting a novel. Your work is worth so much more than barely a dollar. I think it’s perfectly acceptable for a short story or as a short term sale price.  Don’t sell yourself short.  For some extra insight, read this article about the DOJ lawsuit paying special attention to the last two paragraphs.

– Don’t be afraid to put things on sale or change your price permanently. Things are changing and people are willing to pay more than you might think for an indie published book.

– If you’re working on a series, there’s nothing wrong with pricing the books differently. Perhaps you make the first book cheaper to entice and hook the reader and then raise the price on the following books. I often find subsequent books in a series are longer as well so that’s another reason to consider raising the price.

– Keep an eye on other books in your genre. See what the pricing trend is and consider following it. Remember if someone buys one “vampire” book for $4.99 then they’re likely to be willing to spend the same amount on other “vampire” books.