Pricing an ebook

Do it youself, self-help and get rich type non-fiction has its own rather inflated price schedule. It is all about trying to find the 'price point' where you make the most money, rather than maximising volume of sales. In which case it depends entirely on your content and authority. Stuff on trading stock can be priced to the roof, stuff on bee-keeping, not so much.

I'd never pay that much for something that short. IMO $7 is a full-length.

15 to 20 pages should be iunder 15K, which is a short story. In my budgeting that's one to two dollars... maybe three but that would be pushing it.

There is no set 'magic selling point' for items. Depending on what you have, the market and your overhead expenses the magic price changes. If I was selling a physical copy of a book, my set price would be determined by print costs, packing materials, handling, storage, having the items shiped to me, my trip to the post office to send it to you... etc. With all that my sell point would need to be over $7 to break even.

With an ebook, my cost would be minimal. I'd have to consider the distributor commission, my advertising and promotional costs and possibly my website. This means my price pint can be set as low as a dollar and garner a profit.

I agree that for a short only a couple bucks. I would never pay more than $3.00 for short, and it would have to be something very important to get me to even pay that much. What is the content?

Keep in mind that direct sale non-fiction is an utterly different deal from fiction.

I set pricing for e-books. Unless this non-fiction e-book is a how-to guide on how to turn sand into gold, I wouldn't price it at more than two-three bucks if I wanted it to sell.

The why is generally that a lot of ebook non-fiction is silver bullet stuff about how to pick up chicks or get rich. Charging more for it makes people more likely to think it is real and will give them "secrets".

KathrynLang said:

I am getting that fiction readers expect to pay less than non-fiction. Not sure WHY that is, but it's a trend that I'm seeing.

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Because that is how fiction is priced, by the word. It's true in everything from magazine short stories to BFF (big fat fantasy.) I wouldn't price fiction that short for more than $3.

Non-fiction is a different game. What do similar books in your subject go for? Be careful though, if you price it too high, buyers may be bitter when they discover the length and return to leave you nasty reviews.

My two novels have been listed on Amazon since 2006. The Kindle versions, priced at $5.99, sold in low numbers. After reading about a newbie author who priced his novel at $2.99, resulting in good sales, I followed suit. I saw an immediate spike in Kindle ebook sales (accompanied by some renewed self-promotion). These sales have been accelerating. My books have taken on a second life. Very pleased. And it required little extra effort on my part. A review of ebook fiction on Amazon shows that pricing is all over the map, with the bestseller authors generally still priced at $12.99 and above, which, in my book, is unncessarily high. For us unknowns/little knowns, I recommend pricing lower so as to gain a foothold in the market. Also, Amazon now gives the option to choose 70% royalty vs 35% -- a no-brainer. My modest but growing royalties are deposited directly into my bank account like cash gravy.

I purchased a non-fiction ebook for $.99 that was about 15 pages. The information in this particular book was no more informative than online searches I'd done on the subject. I was mildly miffed, but I figured that at $.99 cents, it wasn't worth going back to complain. If I'd paid two or three dollars...you bet I'd have left a comment!

Dean Wesley Smith has a good guide for pricing fiction on his blog. I strongly suggest anyone looking into epublishing their fiction check his blog out and read it all. It's very informative (and opinionated, but he's earned the right in my opinion).

KathrynLang said:

Right price for non-fiction ebook, 15 to 20 pages.

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For something that short, I'd say $0.99.