What is a good ebook price, and why would I be changing mine?

That is the second subject that brings groans to the lips of my fellow writers. We are not able to really determine what a good, fair ebook price really might be. We would like to, but we have less control than you might imagine. Since I cannot actually tell you this answer, but really want to know, you are only going to read my opinion - balanced with some of those I've heard in the last few months. On this, Indie authors seem to agree on a few things.

1. We desire readers above all things. To try and attract them we give away a lot of books (print too) and we come out with a 99¢ price in all the retail locations that let us.
2. We are not allowed to have prices that low in many locations. Some of our retailers are very harsh about pricing. Some of them demand to be the lowest, and they still set the minimum price. (See, not even the retailers really know a fair price for ebooks.)
3. Some of our favorite retailers are jumping off points - that is, if we put our book there, that retailer will share us out to other affiliate sites. At this point, pricing can become a nightmare. Did you know, some retailers will tack on whatever markup they desire? We must have been daft to think they wouldn't. That is the way retail works. But, if they increase the price, do we get more commission on that sale? We must have been daft to think we would. That is not the way retail works.
4. Because we have different prices everywhere, and sales really happen in the sites most convenient to the reader, authors cannot really tell if a reduced price is causing sales. It takes a good handful of sales to see trends, and like me, some authors only sell a book or two a week. There is no marketing strategy for that. Believe me, I've looked for one. I sell just as many ebooks at $2.99 as I do at 99¢.

What do I take from those four important points then? Something similar to the guess from most of my friends. Amazon is the biggest fish out there, and they have a $2.99 minimum. To ever have a promotion or sale price lower than that, they decide who and when. We are not allowed that freedom. On Amazon, we have virtually no control over our own price. I'm thrilled it can be as low as $2.99.

That one price, if we all seem to think it is fair, seems to drag a very troublesome question with it. Aren't our books worth more than that? Certainly print books are. But those are a definable commodity. Ebooks are less easy to price, because they don't cost anything to store and deliver. Regardless of what retailers tells us, they have no operating cost on any electronic information they deliver. But as an entertainment item, it has value, and retailers want their piece of that. Authors are Ok with that, and mostly feel that ebooks just shouldn't be priced the same as print books.

Major retailers are selling a lot of ebooks at print prices, though. How the hell are they doing that? That might have a simple answer. 80% of the book buying public may have never hear the word Indie. Unless they have an author friend on Facebook, readers in general may think ebooks are faddish, gadgety - in short...toys.

At this point, ebooks do have a problem we would like to overcome. Ebooks exist in almost too many forms. There are quite a few types of formats. We really won't get into that subject, because formatting is the first thing that will cause an groan to escape an author's lips.

Ebooks are still trying to find the most user-friendly state of existence. Gadget builders want to produce the very best screen view, and some are even playing with color screens. The reading public is less confused about cell phones actually, than they are with which type of ebook reader to buy. Cell phones have been around a very long time now. Ebooks still feel new.

Does that answer much then, about how to price these things. Yes. Ebooks should be priced at the dollar the author desires. Only the author really knows what they want to accomplish with their book. I believe that retailers should be less formal about this, but that is not going to happen. For myself, all I can do is set my price as low as I can get it, and have that price be uniform in all my retail locations. That is appearing to be $2.99. I will still give away books wherever I wish. One or two of my retail sites will allow me to drop to 99¢ when I desire - I will still have promotions and sales. But, I won't be confused about my price after May 1st. Hopefully, neither will the readers who find me on twenty different websites.

'Ashes' - Clara Gray-Stallings...for the children of Darfur.

As a project for her class at Animas High School in Durango, Clara Gray-Stallings wrote this stark, haunting song, for the children of Darfur. Clara is fifteen years old.

*used by permission. All rights reserved. (©BMI 2011, Clara Gray-Stallings)

We may sometimes be surprised how world events affect our children, and in what form their compassion may be expressed - for things we all barely understand.

This is entirely new. Clara wrote and performed all the instrumentation and vocals. Her father helped engineer the recording, a classmate performed the rap section. It has been recommended that Clara consider performing this for a video. If that becomes available, we will share it with you here.

Please enlighten yourself to the conflict in Darfur, by visiting Amnesty International's USA website.

Ashes

My ebony skin is being revealed by the sun

I’ve been on my feet all night getting ready to run

Already been burned, lived through the bullets of a gun

And the knots I tied for life have all been undone

Look at what you did; now the world’s unglued

And you’re treating me like the crushed bug on your shoe

But bugs have six legs – I have two

And someday I’ll stand up on these legs, level to you

The world that we want is so far away

And my memories haunt every step that I take

Please tell me this is just a dream

People never turned into killing machines

I’m gonna wake up, or so I’d like to think

But I know, deep down, it’s really happening

Take me back to the town that you burned to the ground

With my family in it – now I’ll never hear the sound

Of my little sister laughing with a friend that she found

She’s with my parents who are scattered on the ground

All the people I knew turned into ashes and chunks

And I’m not brave enough to clean them up

If I want to cross the street, I’ll swim through bodies and blood

That wouldn’t be there if the world had love

Please tell me this is just a dream

People never turned into killing machines

I’m gonna wake up, or so I’d like to think

But I know, deep down, it’s really happening

Mom, Dad, why’d you have to leave?

I’m alone with a baby and I’m only fifteen

Give me a sign that you’re here like I need

I won’t let your ashes blow away in the breeze

They call the blacks people in the USA

I pray that’ll happen in Sudan someday

They say, “Genocide is to exterminate.”

So why is there torture? Why is there rape?

Answer this; tell me what kind of coward

Kills kids who can be so easily overpowered?

I wouldn’t call you human with your soul so sour

Do you know the pain your victims felt their last hour?

You don’t even know mine, and I’m still alive

But I think I’m doing worse than the people who died

Because I’m in misery, trying to find a place to hide

And the opportunity for justice hasn’t arrived

See this little baby that I have to feed?

He’s the product of a painful memory

I’m raising a creature that’s half Janjaweed

He stole my childhood – and he’s too young to see

Please tell me this is just a dream

People never turned into killing machines

I’m gonna wake up, or so I’d like to think

But I know, deep down, it’s really happening

Mom, Dad, why’d you have to leave?

I’m alone with a baby and I’m only fifteen

Give me a sign that you’re here like I need

I won’t let your ashes blow away in the breeze

Mom, Dad, why’d you have to leave?

I’m alone with a baby and I’m only fifteen

Give me a sign that you’re here like I need

I won’t let your ashes blow away in the breeze

The world that we want is so far away

The world that we want is so far away

‘Ashes’

Clara Gray-Stallings Copyright 2011 BMI 2011

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