What's your 99 cents worth?

Now that we don't have to concern ourselves with the cost of covers and printing and the use of trees (for paper) and oil (for ink) or the profit motive of large publishers, what sets the price of a book?

The answer I've come up with so far reminds me of how I felt when I was a young teen who wanted a summer job. I had to have experience or they wouldn't consider hiring me, and how was I to get experience if they didn't hire me?

Names sell. A reputation as an author who delivers something worth writing makes a huge difference in who will buy and therefore the price a book can be sold for.

I agree with that. With so many great books to read, why would I want to spend time reading something awful?

At the same time, I as a new indie author don't have that reputation to lean on.

And it shows. Triple Divide, so far my one and only indie-published book (but not my only book), has sold six copies in a week.

(I wrote a book on space with my space-guy husband John S Lewis in about 1989. It's hard to connect the two, so I don't try.)

I set the price at $2.99 when Triple Divide first came out. Then I started reading that 99 cents would get me so many more sales, since I was unknown, that that's where I should start, until it caught on.

Ninety-nine cents? For my 10 years of effort to get this book out the door?

We'll see, because I'm going to try it. We'll be on vacation for a few weeks, and it might as well be working for me. That is, the book had better be out there doing its best while I'm gone.

I actually love the fact that there's a lot of competition in the indie-publishing world. Better and better books will come of it. But right now I'm one of the invisible authors with an invisible book. The challenge is to make that change, somehow. And I hope that somehow has to do with its value as a book worth reading.

Two reviewers think it is. If you read Triple Divide, please leave your opinion about it at Amazon on this page, and THANKS! (Be sure you do the same for other indie authors, too.)

So right now Triple Divide costs 99 cents on Amazon. What's it worth? You tell me.

Maybe someday I can sell it for $4.99! Maybe even $5.99! Compared to the cost of a book you can hold in your hands, that's very little. With a physical (non-Kindle / non-e-reader) book, you are paying for paper, ink, and profits of a large publishing house. Give indies a try. Vote with your 99 cents, and throw your own 2 cents as a reader through a quick comment or review on Amazon. Let the great new indie authors have a chance to build their names so the good ones rise to the top. THANKS!