How to price an ebook for different countries?

A question for people who self e-publish on Amazon and the likes:
How does one price an ebook for different countries?

I'm going to publish ebooks for the first time, starting with Kobo.
You can set the price in your own currency, and then either have them convert the prices to other currencies (which fluctuate all the time), or set a fixed price in that currency.

Do you guys set the prices for all currencies, and if so, what's acceptable?
(And if not, what are your reasons?)

I like to set the price (for a short story) to € 0.99 (I live in Europe).
What are considered normal prices in other countries?
Something like this?

- US: USD 0.99
- UK: GBP 0.99
- Canadian dollars 0.99
- New Zealand dollars 0.99
- Hong Kong dollars: 99
- Japanese yen: 9.99

I esp. have no clue about what's acceptable in Hong Kong or Japan...
Any help is highly appreciated, thanks!

Thanks for the quick responses everyone, I really appreciate it.
Would love to hear from other people as well, so keep them coming!

RLMcKeown said:

I think I just went with the option of letting them convert the prices since it seemed most fair, though.

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Seems most fair to me too.
However, since I set my price in euros (for Kobo anyway, for Amazon.com it will be in dollars), the American dollarprice for example, is automatically conversed to $1.30.
Which seems a bit steep for a short story if I look at the general pricing on Amazon.com, so this might be unattractive for potential buyers.
And since the US will probably be my biggest market...

I just asked my partner his opinion on honest pricing.
He just answered with more questions: 'What is honest? Is it honest that the Americans decide something should cost 99 dollar cents, and that Europeans have to adhere to their prices? Who decides the price of things?'

That made me think: there is a difference in the costs of living between Europe and the US and other continents as well.
There's even a difference between European countries and even within the countries themselves (think about living in Amsterdam, New York or Paris, or just living in the countryside in the same country).
According to this table, the cost of living in Northern European countries is higher than in the US:
Europe: Price of Goods in US$, which in US would Cost $1

So I thought perhaps I should keep that in mind.

slhuang said:

The OP's question makes me curious. Does anyone try to account for different average purchasing power in other countries as well as for the exchange rate? (I've been party to a fair number of discussions about how fundamentally expensive books are other places when compared to average income, particularly in the context of why demonizing piracy is imbued with some amount of privilege. Maybe one socially-conscious solution would be to make prices cheaper in those places? Makes me think!)

Hope you don't mind me tacking on to your question, Judy!

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Not at all! I think it's very interesting.

In general, in the Netherlands pbooks (paper books) are more expensive than for example in France, or America.
Has to do with our tiny market. Production costs are high, but the market so small, it is hard to make a profit.
Expect to pay up to 10 euros (=$ 13) for a Dutch paperback edition, and almost 20 euros ($26) for a hardcover.

Unfortunately Ebooks here are expensive too, the prices are set by the same trade publishers.
Also, there's 21% VAT on ebooks opposed to 6% on pbooks.
I do understand that trade publishers have to break even b/c of their paper books, only a lot of people here in the Netherlands think 10 euros or more for an ebook is too expensive.

Research shows the Dutch are willing to pay 7 to 8 euros max for a digital book (against 17-18 euros for a paper one). There are some ebooks in that price range, but not much (and for several reasons, there isn't happening much on the Dutch self e-publishing market yet).
So in the Netherlands, last year's book sales comprised of 2.7% ebooks (2% in Europe in general), compared to 23.55% in the US.

People are willing to pay though, as long as the prices are reasonable.