pricing

I visited Amazon recently via the magic of the internet.  I wanted to get an idea of what ebooks were on the best sellers list.  Stephen King was there, of course.  His book “Mr. Mercedes” was #1 in horror on Amazon.  I had to ask myself how could that be.  The release date for the ebook was June 3, 2014.  Have I somehow slipped into a wormhole and traveled into the future?  I don’t think so.  The date on my computer says that it is May 25, 2014.  Yet, somehow he had managed to get one review.  It was five stars of course.

I looked to the #2 book “After The Virus” by Meghan Ciana Doidge.  It had 53 reviews.  This book was given a 4.1 rating.  The reason it was not higher, however, is that someone had given it a one rating.

Now, I have read neither one of them so I can’t speak on how good, or bad, they are.  But I was a bit surprised (just a little bit) on the disparity of the prices.  Stephen King’s book was $ll.99 while Meghan Doidge book was 99cents.

Okay, I can understand it.  Everyone knows who Stephen King is and he’s proven himself.  Still, it doesn’t seem entirely fair.  But Stephen King is not alone in his pricing.  At Barnes & Noble “Unlucky 13” by James Paterson is priced at $14.99.  Wow!  Give it a few weeks and I’ll be able to buy the hardback at Walmart for that much.

Most of the well-known writers that I’ve come across price their ebooks quite high compared to the indie author’s.  I guess it just comes down to the perceived value of the writer.

Maybe I’ll be there someday.  Will my pricing be a lot lower?  To be honest, I don’t know.