If you are selling your eBook, you may wonder what the best pricing model is. Everyone has their own opinion, but there are some standards, which everyone seems to follow. The pricing models also seem to vary by website, type and genre of eBook.
For short stories collections and smaller non-fiction eBooks on Amazon, most authors tend to price them at 99 cents. With a 35% profit, this will earn you 35 cents, and it adds up. If you sell four at the rate that is $1.40, profit which is not awful. I tried setting my prices higher and I sold none. My short story collections do sell on Amazon at this price and currently I have four up there. I am not making much of them but it has only been a few months.
Many people think nothing of spending under a dollar to read something by a new author so this is a great strategy if you are a new indie author.
Most Indie authors believe their book is worth more than the .35 cents that rate will bring, and it is worth much more than that. You might be able to get your family or close friends to purchase an e-book at a price you think is fair, but the public does not know your book is worth that much. Most of the times they will pass buy your book, unless you have many reviews until you are well established on the book sites and build your own reputation. 99 cents does not mean it is an awful book; many good books start out at 99 cents and do well.
In fact many best sellers will price the first book in a series at 99 cents or even free to get readers hooked. Then the price for the other books in the series is $2.99. They show people with the ninety-nice cent price that they can write and it serves them well. Do a search on Amazon for Amanda Hocking or any of the other best selling indie authors on Amazon. Of course, all of these bestselling authors have entire novels (+50k words) set at that .99 price line, but it works for them. If it works for them than with hard work it can also work for the rest of us.