This is the bit where I give you the bad news first and the good news later. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m going to be charging more for some of my books. Basically, I’ve been charging $2.99 (or the equivalent in other currencies) since I started publishing my books. I think it’s a good price for a typical ebook, though I don’t usually argue with slightly higher prices when I’m buying. Anyway… Costs have gone up, cost of living has gone up, and I need to face the fact that I need to charge a little more.
For now, I’m sticking with $2.99 for the shorter books. Most of my recent ones have come in between 70k and 80k words. That’s likely to remain the average, so most of my books will stay at $2.99. The longer ones are going to go up to $3.99. I haven’t entirely decided where the threshold is, but over 100k is definitely over that threshold. Which means that I’ll be charging $3.99 for True Dark, but on the plus side, there’s more story to read.
In other news, I’ve started writing Liberty, which will be Ultrahumans 7. I seem to be in a super-human mode at the moment and I have no idea why. True Dark might not be called that by the time it’s released, though the darkness theme is likely to be maintained.
Hope you’re all having a good summer. I’m going to go back to melting now.
Witches and Ray-Guns 
Considering that some people think they can charge 0.99 for a 10,000-word story, yours are still on the cheap side. Not to forget that most eBooks in Germany are in the 9.99+ range.
I generally just let the computers scale the pricing for region. I could probably charge more in some areas, but it doesn’t seem fair. Maybe if I were getting them translated I’d charge more. In fact, I’d probably have to. Of course, in Germany I can usually rely on people understanding English. The same cannot be said of German in England. 😦
The 99 cents thing is because that’s the minimum anyone will let you charge (aside from free, and Amazon don’t allow free). What gets me is the 10,000 (or fewer) word books that people put up for $5-10. And you somehow know they’re going to be really bad.
If you are interested in German translations of your books, contact me by email.
If the word count corresponds well to the writing effort, then that sounds like a good plan. OTOH, you find that some books require more research or other background work, then you might want to consider roughly tracking your hours worked on a book, then use that to determine price.
While the miser in me wants to encourage you to maintain your below average prices, the geeky fan’s yelling, “I’ll pay anything! ANYTHING!”
That said, another factor to consider is your body of work. A first time indie author probably should charge $0.99. If the book takes off and the good reviews pour in maybe they can bump the price up on their next book, but I think most folks are like me – really leery about paying much for a first effort.
You left the newbie category behind long ago. Earning enough to live well is one of the benefits of career experience – an Admiral makes more than a Commander.
Looking forward to whatever you come up with next!
i have no problems with bigger prices, if i know the book is part of a good story . and as the ultra serries is awesome , then a bigger price is ok by me ..
Not a problem with me purchasing, at least you are basing the price on output and you do need to be profitable. BTW Sydney out west was -3 last night, my place would have been around zero. Trade you for your temperate 28C days.
Well, today is a lot more temperate here. I’d accept that trade, at least short-term. I sleep a lot better when the nighttime temperature is cooler.
I think what people forget is that the UK isn’t used to any form of ‘extreme’ temperature. We can usually handle cold okay (except when it snows, or rains heavily), but we rarely get continental heat so our houses just aren’t designed for it. My house was built 200 years ago and the ventilation sucks. The Victorians just didn’t think you needed to worry about heat in the northwest of England!
That time isn’t called “The Little Ice Age” for nothing…
Honestly I’ve always considered your books to be a bargain at $2.99 USD for the enjoyment I get out of them, and would personally still consider them a good value at $4.99 USD, and would pay more as long as the technical quality was high.
So, no, being asked to pay more so you can make a living wage and keep entertaining me is not bad news. I realize not everyone will agree, but there you are.
Also YAY for Ultrahumans 7!
+1+1+1
Dude I’ve gotten so many hours of reading (and rereading) your books I’d pay twice what you normally charge and not even blink.
Missed a bit there… “hours of entertainment…*
Most author’s charge 9.99 for their books and I don’t have a problem paying that, especially yours. For eighty thousand words most charge 6.99 so don’t worry I think most of us will have no problem paying a higher price cause if your other fans are like me I can’t get enough lol
Don’t give Niall too many evil ideas 🙂 The problem is that we fanboys (and -girls) are most likely a tiny fraction of Niall’s readership. And there are always some people who consider raising prices a personal attack.
Most indie authors seem to price $5.99 or lower, with $7.99 or higher usually coming from authors going through a publisher and $6.99 being a sort of crossover price from what I can tell. And lets not even get started on the whole pricing of a new release ebook at a physical hardback book price that some of the publishing industry seems stuck on. Paying for a physical book costs more because of printing and production so Im willing to pay that, but an ebook just takes the initial formatting and then all copies sold dont cost the publisher anything. Greedy bastards.
The books are plenty cheap either way; that’s certainly not a price anyone can reasonably complain about.
Any reason specific reason you don’t like KU? Seems to work well for many indie authors (or something like book 1 in a series on KU).
Kansas University? I can’t say whether I like or dislike KU because I don’t know what it is. 🙂
Kindle Unlimited? Doesn’t that imply Amazon exclusively? I like to buy Niall’s books on smashwords. I always imagine they give him a bigger cut than Amazon.
Ah, yes, Kindle Unlimited. Sorry, brain malfunction. It’s also not called that in the Amazon publishing system (or wasn’t). That is Amazon exclusive. I’ve considered it a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be able to publish on Smashwords (which means no iBooks, B&N, etc) and it makes the income very difficult to predict. If I put out one book on that, I’d more or less be locking myself into putting any further books out the same way.
Right, I’m not sure how I forgot about that part of their scheme … I suppose I’m just so used to many indie authors automatically going that route these days.
Anyway, makes sense.
And yeah, it’s called KDP Select or something.
Amazon do tend to encourage it. Based on the fact that they do, it’s fairly easy to suspect that it’s a better deal for Amazon than it is for the author.
Hrrm, I wouldn’t go quite that far. I think it’s possibly a good deal for both sides, only more so for Amazon than for the author (but, heck, that’s pretty much true for whatever you are doing – Amazon has barely any cost with publishing ebooks. They can only profit). But especially with indie authors just starting out – in the jungle that ebooks these days are, it’s incredibly tough to get started; get noticed for the first time.
So I’d say with a hurdle of “doesn’t cost me anything” for anyone who’s got KU people are more likely to give it a try. If it’s no good, well, no harm done, right?
But after that it probably depends a lot on what type of author you are. Do you have a loyal following or is it more like random people dropping by because your books are always very different? Which genres do you cover? Do you write a lot, or only one occasionally? Is it all somehow connected, or not? Do you have other marketing stuff going or is it just on Amazon and that’s it? etc. I think that stuff is why if you casually look around recommendations for new authors nobody has a good answer.
Works for some, doesn’t work so much for others. Probably decided by many factors plus random luck …
I must admit that in fact, it was an Amazon “others bought” ad that first brought me into Niall’s world. None of the other platforms (at least none of those I use) do it that way.
Which platform (Amazon, Smashwords) gives you the author the best cut. I’ll buy from that one!
Smashwords gives the best percentage. Amazon does have some advantages, but the best cut is Smashwords.
Smashwords is DRM free as well, I much prefer that to Amazon.
This is kinda off topic, but I was wondering if or when you’ll be getting back to the Misfit Witches? I really want to know what happens next!
That’s a good question to which I don’t have a good answer. I think I can safely state it won’t happen this year since I think I know what I have planned until New Year (and enough self-awareness to know that I might not keep to the plan). I’m going to try to get the next Misfits book written next year. It was aimed at being a trilogy, and that will clear the decks, so to speak. When exactly? No idea.