Anyone else notice how ridiculously indie authors are pricing their books, especially in the last few months? I’m an indie author myself, so I see the other side, and that fuels the fire, because I know how much they’re gouging. But even if I wasn’t an indie author, self-publishing royalties are common knowledge. A quick Google sesh will tell you exactly how much in royalties indie authors make from a sale based on their book’s page count.
As much as it annoys me, I understand when books are expensive from traditional publishing houses because of how much overhead they have, but when it’s an indie author who’s only paying themselves… come on, man.
The standard indie books SHOULD be in US dollars, based on page count:
☆ ebook – $2.99-$6.99
☆ paperback – $11.99-$19.99
Now I’m seeing $6.99-$9.99 coming up way more often for ebooks, and $19.99-$29.99 for paperbacks! That is absolutely 💯 unacceptable. My fellow indie authors: you’re pricing yourselves out of your own market!
Rage-inducing examples:
• Pam Godwin’s Hills of Shivers and Shadows: $8.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback, $43.99 hardcover 🤯😡 When a traditionally published deluxe special edition hardcover is only $32.99 at max price, you need to chill out, girl. The book isn’t even special edition, and it’s astronomical!
• Another gross thing I’m seeing is when indie authors go viral, they raise the price of the viral book, knowing people will spend more out of FOMO.
• Some indie authors take advantage as well with series *cough* Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti *cough* knowing you’re already hooked and you’re going to buy the next one anyways… so why not make you pay an arm and a leg for it while you’re at it? 😡 There’s no reason the last installment of Zodiac Academy needs to be $29.99 🙄 and the series doesn’t need to be that long either… which is a whole other indie author topic of milking their fans’ wallets. When this happens when I’m already in the middle of a series, like Zodiac Academy, I’ll finish the series so I know what happens, especially because I already invested my time, emotions, and money into it, but I’ll never read another book by the author(s) again. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
As an author, you’re also a consumer and a reader (I would hope), and wouldn’t you want your books priced fairly?
As an indie author, I am a hardcore indie supporter—my Kindle is mostly indie books. However, this price gouging is making me turn around and start buying more traditional published books again because it’s impossible to keep up with that price point, and most indie books aren’t available in libraries.
If anyone brings up in the comments about how indie royalties aren’t enough to live off of (if you’re not viral), I know that pain very well, first hand—That’s what day jobs are for.
Authors are people, and readers are people. Price fairly, review fairly, and the world goes round happily. 🌎
by shamanbunny37