Pricing depends on a lot of factors. At Amazon, your commission structure depends on how much you are selling your e-book for. If you price your e-book between $2.99 and $9.99, you can qualify for the 70% commission rate. However, charge between $0.99 and $2.98, or $10.00 and $199.99, and you only qualify for a 35% commission on Amazon.
Barnes and Noble will pay 40% as opposed to 35% in the same situations as Amazon, and 65% where Amazon pays 70%. The Apple iBookstore doles out 70% regardless of your price point. (The last section of this e-book covers the top publishing websites where you need to be selling your product, as well as the commissions they pay.)
Understand Your Market and Competitors
Look at the competition. Find e-books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble that are similar to yours. What do the price points look like? You should understand your market as well. E-book buyers on Amazon flock to the lower price points ($2.99 and lower). With Barnes and Noble and Kobo, price doesn’t seem to matter as much.
Length Really Does Matter
If your finished product is under 50,000 words, you will have a hard time getting more than $2.99. Your price point should be dictated by what you are writing about, as well as the people that are going to be buying it, but the length of your book is extremely important too. If your book is decidedly shorter than 50,000 words, aim for the $0.99 price point at Amazon, and the $2.99 slot elsewhere.
The Type of Information You Are Selling Matters
Information products in e-book form sold on websites like JV Zoo and ClickBank routinely go for $27, some more and some less. Alternately, you will probably never find an e-book with that type of price tag on Amazon, unless it comes with hundreds of dollars of free bonus material. Also, how-to books that solve important problems or deliver incredible results will attract more money than fictional romance novels and mysteries.
Remember You Can Always Change the Price
Don’t let this be a big stumbling block for you. Slap on a price tag after doing some competitor/market research, and move on. It is very simple to change the price in the future. This is the easy part. You have done all of the hard work. You are extremely close to actually having your product online and available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection! Do a little research, use the advice above, and choose a price. You can always change it later.
