How Much Would You Pay?

UPDATED on 6/22–I should mention that if you have your own blogs, feel free to link to this discussion so we can not only get as many opinions as possible, but also get this project in front of as many eyes as possible. Price is important, but ultimately endeavors such as this stand or fall on word of mouth. I’ve got over 100K words; now we need the mouths.

In several weeks, on July 8, Crazy 8 Press will be going live, and I’m looking for your input on pricing.

For those who came in late, C8 is a group publishing endeavor being launched by Mike Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Howie Weinstein, Glenn Hauman and yours truly. We’ll be offering both original and previously published material directly to you, the audience. It will be available on all standard e-formats and also (with any luck) print on demand.

The first book is entitled “The Camelot Papers.” I’m not going to go into plot details at the moment, because the first chapter will be available for free shortly and you can get a feel for it yourself. Basically I’m just putting forward the format: an original, satirical Arthurian novel with a political bent (although not related to “Knight Life” trilogy) by me, 454 pages, (over 100K words) cover by J.K. Woodward.

I’m interested in what you think it should be priced at. There’s no clear cut guide. Ebooks run the gamut from free to $12.99 and higher. The POD version is a different pricing issue and I’ll be handling that separately; I only want people to weigh in on eBooks right now.

Now, to be up front with you: I reserve the right to follow my own impulses on this. I’m interested in your input, but I don’t want anyone to be offended if I wind up ignoring them because, let’s face it, I’m going to wind up ignoring SOMEone. Plus ultimately I have to put it out at a price that I’m comfortable with, and I trust you guys will respect that.

Interested parties can check in at the site, which is here.

PAD

115 comments on “How Much Would You Pay?

  1. Not sure about the whole pricing aspect.

    But I would only be interested in a Print On Demand version of whatever you produce for the site.

  2. I’m with Jay, I’m afraid. My experience with eBooks is extremely limited, so I’ve no idea about pricing issues there.
    .
    Print-on-demand is something I’d be very interested in, though. I got all the B5 and Crusade scripts that way through CafePress and Joe’s whole initiative, and have been really satisfied with how that worked. Those books were $39.99 apiece, or $29.99 if you got it in the first week or two.
    .
    Sorry I can’t be of more help for the eBook part of it, but I certainly hope the whole thing goes well!
    .
    TWL

  3. .
    I’d probably use the Amazon Kindle and their ebook prices as a rough guide since that’s fast becoming the common (or at least popular) standard. You’ll be priced to profit without pricing yourself out of what newer customers who may be unfamiliar with the works of the whole crew doing this see as “reasonable” compared to other comparable works they can get from Amazon or a bookseller’s website.

  4. I’ve been almost exclusively a Kindle reader for about two years now. While I love the idea of the writers making a whole lot of money, I’d hesitate if the price were the same or more than a paperback would cost – since no paper is involved. Price it a buck or two under that and I’ll snap it up instantly.

  5. I know how to come up with prices based in general ways upon what other people are charging. What I’m looking for here is gut feeling. There’s a new book by me of this particular length on this particular topic. What would you feel comfortable paying in the eBook format?
    .
    PAD

    1. .
      See my comment above for my answer. I was before and still am paying market value for your books. I would continue to do so in the electronic formats. Granted, it would be really cool to see specials and bargains pop up regularly, but it’s not a deal breaker if it doesn’t happen every other week either.

  6. Love the idea. I’ve been looking forward to it since I first heard about it.
    I’d say that no less than $5.99 would be a good starting point for a full length novel. If it was a novella or a short story, then definitely less. I have a hard time paying over $10, from time to time. Depends how much I like the author or are looking forward to the book.

  7. I’m a strong believer that e-media should be made cheaper based on the direct connection to the consumer and, of course, the lack of physical printing. Thus, I’d say $3.99 is a great price for your readers for say an old paperback turned e-book. For new releases, maybe $7.99. I’m with Robert above. Anything over $10 is a bit extreme.

  8. There is a school of thought that, as hard as it is to swallow, 99 cents may actually be the sweet spot for ebook prices. The reasoning is largely psychological – 99 cents is mindless impulse purchase for many people in a way that even $1.99 isn’t. Even though the margin is razor-thin at 99 cents, the volume will be enough to make up for it.
    .
    There is also some empirical evidence supporting that notion, but it is largely anecdotal (from what I’ve seen). Unfortunately, since its still early days for ebooks, I’m not sure you’ll be able to find anything beyond anecdotal evidence.
    .
    Of course, I understand that betting on the proposition that sales volume at 99 cents will be more than 100x greater than sales volume at $9.99 is a very big risk, especially for a new venture without established revenue from other sources (if I’m understanding the situation correctly). But it has worked for some, so I thought it was at least worth mentioning.
    .
    In any event, best of luck and I look forward reading “The Camelot Papers” on my Nook!

      1. The worth of individual copies of a book is determined by the consumer. For some, it will be worth significantly more than a dollar, but not for others.
        .
        For the author, it is a matter of what one’s time and creative effort are worth. That is compensated by overall sales, not the price of individual units. Setting a lower price for individual units does not necessarily undervalue the author, if it leads to higher overall net income.
        .
        But I suppose I’m answering the wrong question. PAD didn’t ask “Which price will make me the most money?”; he asked “How much would you pay?”. And since I don’t know for certain the answer to the former but I do know the answer to the latter, my answer was doubly silly.
        .
        For a new PAD ebook, I’d pay up to $9.99 without much further thought. For catalog titles, I’d probably pay $4 to $6 before I’d start checking the library catalog.

      2. It’s going to be the subject of a lot of study over the next few years – I do believe the major publishers, save on a very few highly technical publications that will never sell more than a few dozen copies, are pricing themselves out of the game right now.

        I know Nathan Lowell (www.nathanlowell.org) is doing a lot of analysis of it in his Talking on My Morning Walk blog. I’m thinking the $2.99 area is where the eventual real sweet spot is going to end up. After all, with e-books, there is no print-run, no real cost of warehousing extra copies, and the book never has to go out of print.

  9. I agree with the comment about 99 cents. It’s easy to drop 99 cents on something without any kind of fear or remorse. As a reader, it would be nice to find a good book for less than a dollar. And truth be told, you can actually find many books, physical books (especially autobiographies by Jimmy Carter) at the 99 cent stores. However, POD is an accomplished writer with a large following of fans. I don’t think he needs to go that low. 99 cents is for unpublished writers trying to catch a break, like me.

    But a POD book at 99 cents would be very generous!

  10. I’d like it to be 5$ but honestly think that the price of a new paperback would be fair. I admit that I haven’t bought a paperback in a while so that’s–what?–seven or eight dollars?

  11. Peter, I’m going to go buy anything you right, cause I always know I’ll be entertained. I just got a nook color and love it and no longer buy paper books. The last book I did by was your last Star Trek Frontier novel, so that I can get it autographed at Dragon*Con.
    I have no problem shelling out up to 5.00 for an e-book and for yours I defiantly would go all the way up to 12-13, but I’m usually most comfortable paying about the same as a paperback book.

  12. I’d probably be willing to pay up to $9.99 for that book.

    Perhaps you could follow the traditional publishing model where the book is first released at a higher price and later discounted. So, you could reduce the price to say $5.99 after 6-12 months, and more buyers then.

    Another option would be a subscription rate in addition to a la carte pricing. If you’ll have a steady supply of original material, you could charge an annual subscription rate, or for the next X number of books/stories released. This might get you more revenue since you’ll likely have lower transaction fees, and you may get more repeat customers.

    I’d probably err on the higher side of pricing than lower when starting out.

  13. My first instinct is to say eight dollars to follow the name of the company. However, a work that’s 454 pages, with a Woodward cover and your words, eight might be too little. Maybe some multiple of eight. Or $8.88.

  14. For me, if a book is over $10, I don’t buy it; I go to the library. That’s not a commentary on what a person’s skill and art is worth, but just what my budget dictates.

  15. $2.99 and under is an impulse price point for me. If I see a novel-length work in that price range by an author that I like or have been wanting to try, I’ll buy it without a second thought. (That would go for any ebook by you, BTW.) However, I would pay up to the price of a new MM paperback ($8.99 or $9.99) and feel that it was well worth the money–probably would download a sample first, though, and might not purchase right away because my to-read stack is enormous already.

  16. The thing that gets me about pricing on electronic media, whether it be mp3 or ebooks or what have you, is that the price is close to the actual physical product a lot of times.
    “So let me get this straight: I cut out all the expenses having to do with the old way of getting a product to me (such as printing/manufacturing, transport to the stores, and maintaining inventory) by allowing you to offer the product directly to me, with your only expenses in that regard being bandwidth, and I have to pay a similar price?”
    To offer an example, one of your recent books Tigerheart is currently selling on Amazon for $10.20 for the book, or $9.99 for the Kindle edition. I have a Kindle and Amazon Prime, so we’re talking only 21 cents difference between an actual book that will be shipped to me or sent to my Kindle in a minute. I know, I know, the publishers set the price. And the used sale price is lower, but that isn’t germaine to this conversation, since we’re talking about a publishing endeavor, and publishers and authors don’t make anything from used sales.
    I would say that not only the right price for an ebook be lower than the actual physical book, but $2.99-$5.99 would be the right price. Why? Because the royalty on Amazon for Kindle books sold for $2.99 and up is 70% (as opposed to 35% at prices below that point) You know any comics publisher that’s getting 70% of anything they publish? I suggest up to $5.99 because you’ve got a proven track record in this area (although I would suggest that while you play up your Knight Life books, I would emphasize this is a new endeavor in that field when it comes publicity time)
    Finally, I’d like to make a couple of suggestions that will help you in this new field. First is the website of writer J.A. Konrath who has moved into ebooks and never looked back: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
    And an ebook I read tonight: by John Locke (neither a philosopher or Lost character) called How I Sold 1 Million eBooks In 5 Months! I discovered this writer after getting my Kindle, downloaded one of his books, and got hooked. And the thing is, he sells them for 99 cents. The How To book is $4.99, but let’s get real: how much stock would you put in a how to sell book for 99 cents? He’s got some good ideas of how to sell eBooks that you’ve hit a lot of them already, just some fine-tuning should help you do a better job.
    Hope this helps.

    1. “So let me get this straight: I cut out all the expenses having to do with the old way of getting a product to me (such as printing/manufacturing, transport to the stores, and maintaining inventory) by allowing you to offer the product directly to me, with your only expenses in that regard being bandwidth, and I have to pay a similar price?”
      .
      I don’t want to send things off into a debate, but that’s not the right way to look at it. Putting aside that my time is worth something, and the people who are doing the copy editing and the formatting, their time is worth something, and JK Woodward’s time is worth something, so basically out of conscience (if nothing else) all those people have to get paid before I keep any money for myself…
      .
      My expenses are mortgage and electricity and phone bills and cable bills and taxes and all the expenses everyone else has. If the publishing paradigm is truly shifting to authors doing these things themselves, then these endeavors need to pay the bills.
      .
      That’s what the price of admission gives the author; the ability to keep doing this and remain solvent.
      .
      PAD

      1. Sure, and you’re handling the publishing duties as well, so your organization needs to be compensated for those as well.

        There are a lot of questions that circle around e-publishing:

        What’s a reader willing to pay? (Which is where you started here. In my case, I’m not yet buying e-books, so I’m not your market.)

        What price produces maximum profits? (And is that your goal? It doesn’t have to be.)

        How do you get someone to find and buy your book in any case? (You start out with a fairly substantial fan base, so that helps a lot.)

        My brother-in-law, Jeff Duntemann, is getting back into SF writing after a long hiatus running various computer publishing companies and has been wrestling with these questions too. I won’t spam you with his website address here, but if you’re interested in what he’s found on the subject, Google his name and you’ll find his blog posts fairly quickly.

        Good luck!

      2. I’m not devaluing the authors’ contribution. In fact, I’m all for creators getting more money. But if there is a similar cost between a physical book and an eBook, then I’ll get the physical book. I don’t have to worry about crashes, losing data or anything like that. Plus, I can resell the book if I want to. No way that printing, transport and market costs are that insignificant.
        If there’s a similar price, the money that would have been spent to print and get that book to the store and me to buy it is going somewhere. If its going to the creators and people who work on it, great. If its going to the businesses and executives trying to get as much as they can, then I’m against it.

  17. I’m of the opinnion that electronic books and comics should be vastly cheaper than the physical versions. Something in the ballpark of 2-3 dollars for a big novel.

  18. My gut says…nurgle.

    I suggest $5.99 as the asking price. To me that is a comfortable price to pay for an electronic media publication.

    1. My gut says…nurgle.
      .
      You might want to see a gastroenterologist about that.
      .
      PAD

  19. Personally, I think that a good “sweet spot” for original novel-length ebooks is about $6. It’s about what I would pay for a mass-market paperback with a Borders coupon or Amazon’s 4-for-3 offers, so it seems like it’s on perpetual sale without undervaluing itself. 🙂
    .
    Perhaps not so coincidentally, that’s what Baen charges for its frontlist titles.
    .
    Now, I’d be willing to pay more, and have, for your ebooks. But the $6 price point just feels right to me.

  20. I should be getting an E-reader within the next couple months so this is interesting to me.

    .

    For me, it doesn’t matter who gets what cut of what price, when I buy a book I am paying for content. If I buy a paperback book for 8 bucks it usually means I’ve waited a year for it to come out and I think the content inside is worth 8 bucks. On the rare occasion I buy a hardcover it’s because I’ve decided the content is worth the 25 bucks and the immediateness of reading it is more important then the annoyance of the over sized object, or I’m supporting a favorite author. I’m not happy about it, but it’s the system in place. I could go to the library but I do like to re-read everything I buy several times over the years so re-readability is a factor, as well.

    .

    So, back to the original question. With an e-book, I figure I’m paying for immediateness and content. Again, I care not for who is getting what cut and which middleman is getting cut out. I don’t think that’s any of my business, really. Just because a middle man gets cut out doesn’t mean the content is worth LESS to me. I’m actually baffled by the sentiment that somehow a brand new full length novel is only worth .99 cents. In any event, it is my understanding that you can store e-books, if you so choose, so re-readability is still in play. The only thing cut out is paper.

    .

    So, long answer short, I don’t think anything from $7.99-$14.99 is unreasonable for a brand new novel from an established author. I would be fine with paying anything in that price range. That’s about what a paperback or over-sized paperback costs so I think it’s comparable, plus we’re still paying for content, immediacy, and re-readability and not undervaluing your work.

    1. Let’s invert the equation. If you’re saying a eletronic version, that is essentialy the cheapest material imaginable (because it isn’t even there) should be worth the same as a paperback because it’s the same content, then do you think a book with a gold-plated cover studded with diamonds and the most deluxe paper possible should also cost the same as a normal paperback, as long as the content and immediacy is the same?
      .
      I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest .99 cents, because it is a 400-page novel. I think .99 cents would be good for short novels and comics. A big book like that, maybe 1.99.

    2. Not to mention that we have to be realistic. With the ease it is to acquire pirate copies of eletronic books and comics (and pirate comics with the same quality), it’s just economical suicide to charge as high as 10 dollars, IMO.
      .
      I think people should face facts and stop pretending electronic piracy doesn’t happens. A good price for legit eletronic product should be high enough to make good profit and low enough to still make it attractive to those tempted to get pirate versions.
      .
      If I were a bigwig at Marvel or DC, I would make all of the company’s old comics (say, anything older than 2005 or so) available for 25 cents a piece, in a easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate website with a COMPLETE catalogue of back issues for all titles and high-quality scans and download speeds.
      .
      Maybe 50 cents per issue for comics from 2006 to 2010.

      1. While I really want to debate piracy and related issues with you, Rene, I’m not sure PAD wants this thread to turn into that. But someday I’m sure a thread will open up and I’d love to delve into the subject with you a little more. Not that you’re alone in your views, certainly not, but I am fascinated by some of your takes.

  21. $5 to $6 sounds right to me. I’d pay up to $10, I think, but for a self-published eBook, gut feeling seems to be that it should be a little cheaper than full mass market publications.

  22. Mr. David, please don’t value your work any less than I would. In a world where everyone seems to be on a mad race to the bottom, I would prefer to see you respect your craft. For your particular brand of writing, I would be willing to pay 9.99. While I always appreciate a sale, I also appreciate well-crafted writing, and yours has never failed to be satisfying. I look forward to your new venture.

  23. I’m most likely going to be buying a Kindle in the next two weeks, and so this is something I’ve been giving some thought.

    I agree with Harlan that artists should *get paid*. So it should be priced where the artist is compensated for the entertainment they’ve provided me and the hard work they’ve put into the, um, work.

    I also have a friend who’s an editor for *REDACTED* and heard a bit of the “Publisher’s side” on why they’re pricing ebooks at pretty much the same price as the physical book. That marketing and such is a good chunk of the cost, and the “physical” part of the book is not as much as people believe it is. Still not sure that I swallow that, but ok.

    So, where I’ve settled at is that it “feels right” to pay slightly below up to equal to “normal” paperback prices for most authors. Somewhere in the six to ten dollar range. I know that I’ll be getting quality work, and supporting someone that has entertained me.

    On the converse side, I’m acutally a bit leary of these $.99 books. I’m not entirely sure why, I know there are a lot of great books out there at that cost, but it gives me pause when you have to price it where you’re pretty much giving it away.

    On the convex side (this thing has many sides, it must be a refugee from Lovecraftian construction), I also think that “older” books should be priced a little lower. Maybe even down to the $.99 level for anything over several years old.

    I also think “bundle pricing” is a good idea, and I believe that there are several authors who do that.

    Anyway, those are my thoughts, sorry if I rambled.

    1. That marketing and such is a good chunk of the cost, and the “physical” part of the book is not as much as people believe it is.
      .
      As just one example, I’d really like to know then how much ‘marketing and such’ Pocket Books does that they charge $7.99 for 25 year old Star Trek novels.
      .
      No, don’t swallow that argument, because it’s bs.
      .
      As for the argument about the $.99 price point, I think that’s fine for individual songs and even old comics, but not full novels.
      .
      I’m thinking $4.99 (or a flat $5; it’s time we move beyond the change issue) is the point for e-books.

  24. Interesting that several people have already mentioned the price that jumped into my head (this really is just my gut reaction): $5.99.

    .99 is an interesting experiment that may or may not pan out – I share the other poster’s hesitancy, the question “Wait, OK, why am I getting this for so little?” needing to be answered before I buy it – but six dollars is the point past which I start giving thought to whether I really want this.

  25. I fear I’m an old fashioned paper lover, and have never bothered with eBooks, and thus can’t comment on what would be a good price. But as I’ve seen a few others comment, I may be keen to know when the Print on Demand versions of things are available.

  26. My initial instinct out of the chute was $9.99 as I consider this to be a hardback grade release, and that seems to be a fair price for those.

    If you were envisioning it as a paperback to start, $5.99 to $6.99 to start.

    This illustrates the dilemma in e-book pricing when there is not a comparable dead tree version, in this case I went with the fact that you have had many hardcover releases.

    One other note – this being the first launch of a new imprint, I would consider going a bit lower (not too much, don’t want to set expectations) as a ‘launch special’ for maybe the 1st 30 days. $8.99 or $5.99.

  27. I usually buy ebooks when a print copy is not available. The print on demand is interesting to me.

    What you asked for though, was what price for an ebook I think would work for me. I would pay up to about 12 bucks for a book that you wrote in ebook form. I would prefer the pricing to be on level with buying a paperback version of the work.

  28. My gut reaction is $4.99.

    Coincidentally, another blog I follow posted some interesting thoughts on ebook pricing. Here are some links:

    http://kidlitapps.com/2011/06/21/ebook-price-point-discussion/

    http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/7-ebook-price-points-defended_b32724

    http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-revenue/

    Good luck with your business venture. You would seem to be well suited to the opportunities in this market: well known and loved, genre writer, backlist to which you might own the digital rights.

  29. I say $8.88 because:

    1. It has a nice marketing ring for a book being publish by Crazy 8 Press.
    .
    2. In my mind e-books have to cost less than printed books and $8.88 is less than what I paid for your latest New Frontier book in the enlarged paperback format.
    .
    3. It is close to the $9.99 absolute max that I would pay for an e-book that it is not available in printed version for an affordable price (less than $20).
    .
    I wish you good luck and big success in this new enterprise. I am looking forward to The Camelot Papers.

  30. I paid $9.99 for the latest New Frontier novel by PAD to read on my iPad (no pun intended). And it did it gladly and without thinking since he’s an author I love and its a series I’ve read before.

    But the new novel is a little less obviously one I think I’d love. So my gut says that a $4.99 or $5.99 e-book would be one I’d buy and download without too much thought. $9.99 or $8.88 might work but I think about it more and rationalize it to myself.

    However, for readers who don’t know PAD or the other authors, perhaps an even lower price of $2.99 or $1.99 or $0.99 would make it an impulse purchase of an unknown author and subject. I can’t say I know for sure.

    But my take on this is that Crazy 8 ought to follow a modification of the hardback/paperback model. Start it at $9.99 and then later on (a year later?) drop the price to $4.99 to pick up people who don’t know you and are more price sensitive.

  31. Can we back into it? As an overall figure, what would you the author like to gross on the book? Then what is your estimated volume. Obviously, you want to sell as many as you can, but what is realistic?

    For example, say you want to get $50k out of work and you expect to get 25k people to buy. Then a $2 price would get that. Now I have no idea what an expected audience would be or what your expectation of gross revenue is for this work (or any of your work for that matter), but you should have better insight into these numbers based on what you have earned in the past and your knowledge of sales numbers other work you have done.

    I’m curious what this type of analysis would give you.

    1. BTW, the $50k is a gross figure. That would be the money that you would have to divvy up to the editors, artists, and anyone else you would want to pay as you described earlier. Then you get the leftovers.

      1. I forgot to include my comfort level with what I would pay. As you described the work as 450ish pages, to me that would equate to a typical mass parket paperback right? If so, then I would seem to think that in paper format that these would go for $8 to $10.

        My opinion is that since digital is cutting out the manufacturing process that this should cut that out of the pricing. For me that means $6 to $8. Though now that I think about it, the even though the physical printing process is gone, it is replaced by different costs (e.g. hosting, bandwidth, web design). So maybe the same costs apply.

  32. PAD,

    I would pay the same amount as similar books by favorite authors that I buy on Kindle which probably comes to $10. If it were available right now at $10, I would purchase it and download it to my Kindle app on my iPad and be reading it in a couple minutes. Please advise on this site when the book is available. I’ve enjoyed everything you’ve written so have no qualms about purchasing this.

  33. I would say between $6.99 and $9.99.

    That’s what I see many Kindle books going for (aside from hardcovers which are usually $13.99 and up).

  34. $10 was my first thought. I really hate the whole $_.99 thing. But really… it depends on my interest. Since my interest in this initial offering is low EXCEPT for it being PAD, it would need a pricepoint to make it worth overcoming that lack of interest. If it was related to Knight Life, that would be different. If it was someone else writing it, also something different. $10 is a good starting point but I could see me going up to $15 or more for the right product.

  35. I’m not into e-books yet but…

    I don’t really have a feel for how thick 450 pages is or what an e-book looks like sitting on my shelf next to my other prized litary loved ones…%^)

    But, if its a typical paperback sized volume like your ST:NF or the Fables book $5 sounds right. It might get me into ebooks. If it’s an author I really like I might go as high as $10 per book.

    1. okay first, that should be “literary” and second, since it reads differently than it sounded in my head, yes, you are an author I really like.

  36. I’ll go ahead and add my voice to the “five to six dollars” crowd. However, shouldn’t you guys be called “Infinity Press?” After all, we’re not as thick as the press media.

  37. Ideally (for authors and publishers, which is pretty much the same thing here), it’d probably be something like $12 at release, cut in half after eight months or so (Plus 3 on POD for printing costs). That’d keep it consistent with trade and mass market print prices. If it goes much lower, there’s no profit. Being a start up though it might need to come down on the early releases until Crazy 8 builds a following (ten at release? Someone mentioned $8.88. I like their style, but worry about the margins). Honestly though, if there’s two things I love it’s fantasy and politics, so you’ve got me regardless.

  38. I have to say pricing on ebooks has been on my mind since last christmas when I got a Kindle. The prices on Amazon are all over the place and it irks me when they have the hardcover price listed for the ebook and then slash it to the cost of a 9.99 paperback and call it a sale. Anyhow, my opinion on what an ebook should cost is the following. I think for a paperback sized book (300-500 pages) around $5 or $6. If you have greater than 500 pages probably near $10. I think about it that way because there feels like there is a rhyme and reason to the pricing, which doesn’t feel that way now. I don’t know the real costs associated with standard publishing costs versus electronic. Part of the mindset, I should say my mindset, is that electronic should be faster, cheaper and therefore cost less and the selling price should reflect that. I could be totally wrong with that assumption.

  39. Are e-book and POD the same price? ‘Cause if you can charge different prices for each version, I’d say e-book = $4 and POD = $9. If it’s one price fits all, I’d go with $6.

      1. Yeah, then I’d say e-book $4 or $5 and POD $9-$12
        .
        Not entirely sure what paperbacks usually go for nowadays, last novel I bought was the latest New Frontier in trade format, and before that, I really can’t remember.

  40. I would suggest a standard fee of at least $6.99 per new book, $4.99 for books at least 2 years old, and a promotional “jump-in” package of $19.99 for five books of ANY shelf-age to lure new readers in.

  41. For myself, I’d say somewhere in the $5-$7 region would probably work for me. In order to boost sales among those benighted masses who have yet to become your fans, I’d recommend putting some of your older works on the site for download for a lesser price – say, $1, if you can afford it (I suppose the publisher will still demand a cut), or even free for the first novel or two in a series. (That’s how John Ringo hooked me on his Posleen War novels, after all – the first two volumes are available at the Baen Free Library, and I’ll be getting the others as soon as I can afford them.)
    .
    Of course, I have no idea what the overhead is like for e-publishing; my suggested price points might not work out.

  42. I don’t want to offend anyone, especially Peter since he’s one of my favorite authors, but I personally believe that e-books are *ridicuously* over-priced. $12.99 for an e-book is completely outlandish to me, considering the total lack of printing or shipping costs, paltry bandwidth demands, and inclusion of DRM. In a perfect world, brand new titles would be $1.99 or $2.99 and I’d be able to read that digital book anywhere, on any device.

  43. I want to exclusively buy for Kindle, as well as replace all the books I own with digital versions, so I wish you were able to put all of your works on the Amazon Kindle store— those I’d currently own in paperback would get sold, given away, or donated to the local library. Honestly, though, I feel the pricing should be less than a MMPB— preferably no more than $4.99. So, $4.98 it is?

  44. I’d be willing to pay whatever the current mass market paperback price for a volume that size would be. I will admit to some ignorance on that exact figure right now, though, as I’ve been unemployed for two years and haven’t had the spare pennies to buy a book in that long.

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