Mulling eBook Pricing

With my foray into self-publishing approaching, I’ve been mulling (among many things) eBook pricing. Honestly, I’ve been mulling this for much longer than I’ve been letting anyone see the things I write because I’ve been a book consumer (a rabid book consumer) my whole life. And that can get expensive very quickly. (Yes, I’ve heard of libraries. No, I don’t personally love them. Perhaps that’s a post for another day.) So I was a relatively early Kindle adopter (2nd generation – not right on the bandwagon, but not too far behind) and I love my eReader. I’ll admit I didn’t expect to love it, because I still also love the feel of a book in my hand, the smell of the ink, the crinkle of a page. It’s delightful. But for the $13 I’d spend on a paperback these days, I could buy 3 or maybe 4 books for my Kindle. That’s math that’s not hard for me to do!

When eBooks first crept onto the scene, they were some cheaper than their physical counterparts, but not a ton. Then Amazon opened up the world of self-publishing and the concept of free days and $0.99 books took off. And since then, pricing has been…bizarre.

I, like most new eReader owners, at first glutted myself on free books. And while there were a few jewels in there, that quickly proved the saying “You get what you pay for.” It was my free downloads that changed  a life-long habit of finishing every book I started no matter what because I just couldn’t stand not to. Now…now I can set something aside, file it in the “Gave Up” folder on my Kindle, and move right along. If it ever crosses my mind again, I might try a second time. But that hasn’t actually happened. Ever. So while now, sure, I’ll browse the free books, I’m a lot choosier. If I download something for free, chances are it’s a book that’s by an author I know of and the book is free for a limited time. And even then, I feel guilty. I’m guessing authors don’t get royalties on their free downloads (I know self-pubbers don’t, so it would stand to reason that traditionally published don’t either). If the traditionally published author didn’t have a say in their book being available for free…well, that doesn’t seem right. Oh the other hand, free book that I’m actually interested in. So I’m torn.

I’m even a little wary now of the $0.99 book. It’s as if the 99 cent price point is the “new” free. (Side note: I really hate the x is the new y way of looking at things and am a tad miffed at myself for doing it. But…there it is.) Yes, it’s less than $1. Yes, that’s crazy cheap. Yes, I tend to waste that kind of money pretty easily (after all, $1.06 will get you a vanilla cone at McDonald’s. If that’s not a delicious, delightful waste of money, I don’t know what is.) And it also seems like there’s a ton of books out there at the 99 cent price point – with no rhyme or reason as to the size. You could spend that dollar and get a short story or a full-length novel (or anything in between) and never really know unless the author is kind enough to mention it somewhere on the page description.

Going up from there, you have the whole gamut of $x.99 from 1 to 4. Those seem to be more frequently traditional small presses (at least in the 3.99 and 4.99 price range, the 1.99 and 2.99 seem to be self-pubs primarily). I like all of those prices – if I know what I’m getting. I like to know how many pages I’m looking at for my not-quite-vanilla-latte substitute. But I don’t have to think too hard about spending under $5 for a book. And if I end up putting it in the Gave Up folder it doesn’t bother me too terribly. Because it seems like these price ranges tend to have higher quality content when compared to a lot of the free and $0.99 books.

Then you get into the big-six press who has the eBook as an afterthought and is planning for the author name to be enough to get you to cough up the cash. These usually don’t work for me. If the choice is $9.00 for an eBook or $12 for a physical, I’m spending the extra $3 just to have something “real”. Because anything more than $5 is real money, you’re talking lunch out with the kids or a trip to the bounce house. (And don’t even get me started on the people who release in hard back and have the Kindle priced at $15 because it’s still “cheaper” than the hardback price of $20 but then when the paperback comes out at $12 the Kindle drops to match. Honestly. It’s a bunch of electrons. It in no way compares to a hard cover book in the amount of effort and materials required to produce it!)

I’m not one who’s all that bothered by the lack of consistency in eBook pricing though. I kind of like that people can play around with the prices and find that sweet spot of what people will happily pay. I’m an under $5 gal (as you can see) – maybe there are folks who don’t cringe at the $5-10 eBooks (and if so, I need to talk to you about borrowing something I’m desperate to read, but it’s $7.99 and I just can’t do it.)

All that leaves me with two questions – and I’d really love for you to chime in!

1) Does the lack of uniformity and consistency in eBook pricing bug you? (If so, what do you suggest?)

2) What would you consider the reasonable price for a novella (30K words – that’s about 120 pages)?