Prices for ebooks have been steadily
declining over the past year. Some of this is due to the publishers'
settlement with Amazon. Although this affects books by the major
publishers the fallout affects prices for self-published books, too.
If you self-publish, you can set the price for any amount you want
with certain minor restrictions. However, if best sellers are selling
for $7.00 and some as low as $.99 it doesn't make sense to price
yourself out of the market.
If you want to make money, you have to
follow the price trends. This means most self-published books should
be priced no higher than $3.99, unless you have a niche market that
guarantees sales. The problem is that if you price your books between
$3.99 and $.99 you have to sell a lot of books to make any money at
all. Unfortunately, although there are some best-selling
self-published authors, most of us are not in that category.
Most self-published authors don't make
much money from their books even with higher prices, so the question
is why do you write. In today's market, more of us can become
published authors, but very few of us will become rich. For me, this
issue is: how much do you love writing? If it's something you have to
do to make yourself happy, it's easy. You keep writing no matter what
the prices are and even whether you get published. If you want fame
and fortune, in today's market you may be better off trying to get on
Survivor. For me, I'll keep writing. I treasure the people who buy my
books, and I will keep trying to do my best for them . . . no matter
what the price, or how much money I make. It's the psychic rewards
that are important.
