How much are your books?

Celeste Carrara · May 3, 2013

If you don't mind sharing, I would love to know how much your books are on sale for. Also, if you could add if it's an ebook or print book and how long your book is that would be great! Genre might be helpful too. Oh and if you wouldn't mind adding how you came up with your prices I'd really appreciate it.

I'm questioning if I have priced my Ebooks appropriately for a new, self published author. Currently I have 3 books out in the erotic paranormal romance genre. My novel, aprox 75,200 words is at $2.99. My novelette at aprox 18,000 words is .99 and my novella aprox 30,000 words is $1.99. I have a novella coming out in 2 weeks & plan on pricing at $1.99 like my other novella.

Thanks!

Kerosene · May 3, 2013

I'm not published, nor am I selling any of my written work.

But, as a reader, I find your pricing fair. All except the novelette, which I'm a bit iffy for buying such a short work.

Alice Xavier · May 3, 2013

I write erotica/erom and all of my stuff is at least $2.99. These stories range in length from 3,600 words to 12,000 words. I have a three-story bundle that I just released the other day, and that's $6.99, for a total of 17,000 words. It's sold three copies so far. But the thing is, you need to be up-front about word count, or else you might get bitchy reviews. If erotica readers think it's far to pay me $2.99 for 5,000 words of steaminess, then that's awesome. If the $2.99 price point didn't work, people wouldn't do it. Don't sell yourself short, especially when there are plenty of readers who are perfectly willing to hand you $2.99 to get their rocks off and provide a bit of entertainment.

$2.99 is where things are at because it's the minimum for that sweet, sweet 70% royalty. And it's what erotica readers expect to pay for quality erotica. If you price your story at $.99, then you need to sell six times as many copies than you do at $2.99 to make the same amount of money.

However, charging $2.99 for short stories outside of erotica doesn't really work too well, I've heard.

For novels, I usually see prices between 4.99 and 7.99 or so.

LOTLOF · May 3, 2013

I have self published one book on Amazon. It is fantasy, humor and about 120k words. I am selling it for $2.99, and my sales have been doing very well at that price. Like the previous reviewer I chose that price because it is the lowest that allows you to get 70% royalties.

Given the word counts I think your price range is about right. If anything you might want to consider dropping the novellas from $1.99 to $.99. Just because a lot of readers will hesitate to pay two dollars for something with only 30k words. They are more willing to take a chance if it's only a dollar. Especially if you are a new author and don't have a following.

Both as a writer and a reader I believe that ebooks should always cost less than paperbacks. This is doubly true when they are self published and from an unknown author.

sarahdalton · May 3, 2013

I sell my novels for 2.99 and they're just over 80,000 words. When I only had one book published I sold it at 3.99, but my sales weren't great.

One of my books has been price matched to 1.99 but I think I still get 70% royalties because it's an offer price - I could be wrong though. I've not had my royalty statement yet.

My novellas are both about 20,000 words and 0.99.

FOTSGreg · May 3, 2013

I modeled all my e-pricing on Dean Wesley Smith's recommendations with a few exceptions. I self-publish via Amazon and Smashwords in e-editions only. My gaming manuals are priced a bit higher than my stories, but have recently sold a lot better (that might be a fluke niche-market though).

shaldna · May 3, 2013

My trade print books have an RRP of between £6.99 and £8.99. My trade ebooks have a general range between £4.99 and £8.99 or so.

My self published books have a print price of £7.99 across the board.

My self published ebooks vary - the first in a particular series is free, the second is $1.99 and the rest are $4.95

My stand alone novel - my biggest seller - is also $4.95

The reason I use that figure is actually because I tried it after Robin Sullivan suggested it, and actually it seems to work - it seems psychological - readers are now wary of self published books because so many of them lack quality - the price is often a giveaway, so by avoiding the standard prices of self published books- ie. $.99 and $2.99

Tezzirax · May 3, 2013

My novels are just over 60k words each and I sell them for $2.99. The paperbacks I have listed at $9.99 and they are not moving at all.

I am thinking of combining all three novels of my trilogy into one oversized print book with large type...I won't be able to price that until I see what the cost is going to be through CreateSpace.

Polenth · May 3, 2013

I don't have anything up yet, but your prices sound about in line with my plans. My short story collection (which is about novel length) will be $2.99. Individual novelettes and novellas from .99 to $1.99, depending on length. That's for ebooks. I don't know about print yet.

This was based on looking at other people's price points and reader opinions. Pricing longer works at .99 can have the unintended consequence of making the work seem poor quality. It also makes the single shorts seem overpriced in comparison, because they'll have to be the same price as novels.

merrihiatt · May 3, 2013

My novels are generaly 40,000 to 50,000 words, a bit too many words to be a novella, but not enough words to be a novel, even though several of them are over 50,000 words. I price all novels at $2.99 for the70% royalty. Shorter works and short stories I price at $.99 cents. I offer short stories in paperback for around $5.00 and novels at $9.95. I write in the romance genre.

milkweed · May 3, 2013

Non-fiction how-to ebooks $9.99 each regardless of page length, I sell directly from my website after having had some issues with Kindle. I offer a four book ebook combo package for $30.00 so you essentially get one of my ebooks free.

Calle Jay · May 3, 2013

I write paranormal romance and romantic suspense and price according to word count.

My PNR novels are all 50K words or longer and start at 3.99. My romantic suspense are all 80K or longer, and start at 4.99 (though are lower on AMZ because of price matching on their part). Novellas in the PNR range from 15K (my shortest paid pieces) at 1.39$+ to 35K priced at $2.99 (lower on AMZ due to price matching on a sales price that AMZ won't raise back up.)

I have 12 titles for sale--7 of which are novel lengths of both genres, and 3 novellas which are free.

I've tried a variety of price points, and these are what works the best for me. PNR sells better than RS for me.

Norman D Gutter · May 3, 2013

My 155,000 word novel: e-book $4.99; print book will be out Tuesday for $14.00

My 90,000 word novel: e-book $3.99; no print book as yet

My 42,000 word novella: e-book only $2.99

My 30,000 word history/political book: e-book $1.99; print book $10.00

The homeschool edition of the previous book: e-book $2.99; print book $10.00

My 43,000 word political book: e-book $2.99; print book $10.00

My short stories (1,850 words; 2,400 words; and 8,000 words): e-book only each for $0.99

sarahdalton · May 4, 2013

I forgot to do paperbacks!

The first one is more complicated because I went with a British POD and they based my US price on the UK price, so it's $14.95. Then I went with Createspace for the second book and chose my own US price as $8.99.

One of these days I'm going to spend a week getting all my prices the same across the board, I just always have something more important to do first. To me, paperbacks are only there for friends, family and making my ebook look cheaper.

Saoirse · May 4, 2013

I have 3 books for sale so far.

2 poetry chapbooks, which I'd originally priced at $1.99 but ended up dropping them to $.99. First time self-pubbing, was stupid as they are so short. Paperbacks are $6.99. 50-some pages each.

1 full-length science fantasy novel for $2.99. Paperback is $11.99. I wanted it to be less, but that was the lowest I could go for the price threshold and still make a small royalty. 129k.

I studied prices of other authors out there and found those to be reasonable.

Blenia · May 4, 2013

I've been all over the place with my books, but have settled on $2.99 for ebooks, $9.99 for paperback, and .99c for ebook novella. I plan on keeping the same price for my ebooks for a while, unless I see some sign I can sell the more at a higher price. I'd go up to $15 for a paperback depending on the length/cost to print.

Celeste, I think you're right on with your prices. From what I've heard and seen, once an author becomes more popular, they can raise their prices, but most people want to be able to test out someone new by paying no more then $2.99. Having a .99c novelette seems like a great way to get people interested.

kaitie · May 4, 2013

Has anyone tried having $2.99 for the first book in a series and higher for the later books?

merrihiatt · May 4, 2013

Not me.

I've priced the first book at $.99, second at $1.99 and third at $2.99. The difference in sales wasn't enough to not get the 70% royalty.

Calle Jay · May 4, 2013

Kaitie,
I started with mine at the .99 for novellas, and 2.99 for novels back in 2011/early 2012 when I first started publishing, then a few months later raised the prices just to see what would happen. I've lowered them occasionally as a sale now and then, and to be honest, I get much better sales numbers at 1.39+ for novellas, and $3.99+ for novels. This is true for older books, first-in-series books, and new releases. I'm not sure if it's a perception thing on the part of readers, or what.

shaldna · May 5, 2013

kaitie said:
Has anyone tried having $2.99 for the first book in a series and higher for the later books?

I've had the first book for $.99 and $1.99 and for free (currently) and I've found that if you discount the first book, then discounting the second alsp helps sales.

So, if you offer the first for free, then offer the second for $1.99 and then the rest of the series for $2.99 then you'll get more follow through readers.

Arpeggio · May 5, 2013

I write non-fiction so my pricing structure can be different, but I think that smaller niche lower priced books is a good approach nowadays what with customer expectations.

I'd not write any more books like my two general subject, 130 page print, large trim for £10.99 (£6.99 eBook) books, as they don't sell anywhere near as much as specific subject 40-80 page, medium trim for £5.99-£8.99 (£2.99 - £4.99 eBook) books. This is also due to more exposure through less competition than the general subject ones. If anything the big ones should work in tandem with smaller ones, the smaller books helping the bigger books.

If not for the file size of 6.5MB of my "loss leader", knowing that KDP charge for size, I'd be making the same as a published author but I'm not bothered. With mostly text eBooks that's not an issue on KDP, which is great. Because of this maybe the publishing industry will downsize, but there will be more need for companies like IPG.

vagough · May 5, 2013

Hi Celeste --

My one book that's out is not really a good comparison to yours because it's non-fiction (a guidebook). But I priced it at $16.95 on Amazon (which often discounts it a bit, with no impact on my royalties); it has 382 pages and is a 6"x9" paperback book. (I just released the 2013 edition which ended up being 16 pages longer than the 2012 version, but I kept the price at $16.95.) The Kindle version is $5.95; I priced that lower since the maps are harder to read on a Kindle. Sales have been about 5 to 1, paperback to e-pub.

Your question about pricing and this whole thread is interesting to me, though, since I'm now working on a suspense novel and have been thinking a lot about the pricing angle. Thanks for raising the question, and thanks to everyone who has chimed in!

FionnJameson · May 5, 2013

Hey there, Celeste.

I priced Waiting for Darkness at 1.99 as it was a novella with a 35k word count. Invincible I put up for at 2.99 because it was at 78k. I'm writing a novelette which will be at 99 cents. Blood Wish, which was released through an epub, is selling for 5.99 and it's at 90k.

robertbevan · May 5, 2013

Critical Failures is $4.99 in e-format. $14.99 in paperback. Not a whole lot of thought went into that.

My short stories are all $0.99. The first one was written mainly to be given away in order to entice people to buy the novel. The other two (and the one i'm working on now) are a bit longer, and I don't feel bad about charging $0.99 for them. When I get up to six, I'm going to bundle them together and charge $4.99 for the set. That's the plan anyway.

C. Greenwood · May 5, 2013

Short Novels and Novellas:
$2.99 - $3.99 for ebooks and $4.99 - $9.99 for print

Short Stories:
$0.99 for ebook and no print available

How much are your books?

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