Amazon has a two tier royalty system, that offers a royalty rate of 35% for books under £1.99/$2.99, and 70% for books priced above that.
Now, the big advantage of self-publishing I see underlined in every article on the topic is that 70% royalty.
Go authors! You get to keep most of your royalties!
And yet, my observation is that self-publishing is primarily driven by bargain basement pricing - chasing those £/$0.99 offers. Which means those vaunted self-publishing profit projections disappear real fast - 35 pennies per book to make a sale is hardly competitive with traditional publishing.
Additionally, I fear that consumers are becoming accustomed to these bargain offers - that they are becoming increasingly hesitant to try new titles unless it's on offer. Simply put, unless that reader is pre-sold to buy into you, then you need to entice them to buy with that 0.99 offer.
The original theory was that if the reader likes your work, they'll buy your next book at full price.
But - before they can do that, they've got other offers to look at first. The danger is that those follow-on books end up being prices at the 0.99 offer to keep readers buying.
There's a lot of competition, too - big publishers can now routinely throw in those £/$0.99 offers to compete.
Point being: is self-publishing as a trend pricing itself out of the competition? Are the bargain offers the big drivers of sales?
Just wanted to explore this topic, as while I'm ready and prepared to self-publish if I need to, as a business decision it would look less appealing if I'm going to have to resign myself to bargain book pricing.
Now, the big advantage of self-publishing I see underlined in every article on the topic is that 70% royalty.
Go authors! You get to keep most of your royalties!
And yet, my observation is that self-publishing is primarily driven by bargain basement pricing - chasing those £/$0.99 offers. Which means those vaunted self-publishing profit projections disappear real fast - 35 pennies per book to make a sale is hardly competitive with traditional publishing.
Additionally, I fear that consumers are becoming accustomed to these bargain offers - that they are becoming increasingly hesitant to try new titles unless it's on offer. Simply put, unless that reader is pre-sold to buy into you, then you need to entice them to buy with that 0.99 offer.
The original theory was that if the reader likes your work, they'll buy your next book at full price.
But - before they can do that, they've got other offers to look at first. The danger is that those follow-on books end up being prices at the 0.99 offer to keep readers buying.
There's a lot of competition, too - big publishers can now routinely throw in those £/$0.99 offers to compete.
Point being: is self-publishing as a trend pricing itself out of the competition? Are the bargain offers the big drivers of sales?
Just wanted to explore this topic, as while I'm ready and prepared to self-publish if I need to, as a business decision it would look less appealing if I'm going to have to resign myself to bargain book pricing.
