Go to Kindle Store, log out of your account, and you'll be able to see the price of your book in different regions

Self-publishing is changing. I think that in 2012 indie authors should go global. One of the important topics to raise is how to price books for international customers. My advice is simple: keep them low.

The report on top self-published Kindle books of 2011, which I’ve recently released, shows a downward trend in both the number of self-published books in Top 100 and the average price. One of the major reasons is the growing price competition.

The perception of $0.99 is not only affected by Kindle Daily Deal, but also by the fact that more and more legacy publishers offer their titles for $1.99 or less. Those books easier become popular, because they convince price-sensitive users not only with a price, but also with a reputation of the publisher.

This means that tagging the book with $0.99 price is not as effective as it was a year ago, when there were $0.99 self-published books and $5.99+ books from legacy publishers.

There is also one more factor, which encourages self-publishers to increase prices. If they enroll their books in KDP Select, they sooner or later come to the conclusion, that for a Prime member, who is eligible to borrow from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library only one book per month, getting for free the book with a regular price of $0.99 is not a deal at all.

Authors who sell books at $0.99 earn $0.35. They were able to earn $1.70 in December from a single KOLL borrow. The fund Amazon gives to support KDP Select is raised in January from $500,000 to $700,000. It doesn’t mean that a single borrow can give a royalty higher than $1.70 as there are more books in KOLL and more people who can borrow them. But it means that the deal is still encouraging enough to sacrifice regular sales.

So, where is the pricing for international ebook users? I think, that even if you decided to raise prices of your books for US customers, keep them low for readers from abroad. 

There are a few extra factors to keep in mind, when it comes to prices for users from different countries:
1. Many books from big publishers are not available outside US – for more details check this report on international availability and prices of Kindle bestsellers,
2. Many books are priced by publishers higher that in US – what this comparison of prices of Steve Jobs biography shows,
3. Prices are higher due to taxes,
4. Prices are higher because of international fees (in case of books from Kindle Store US).

Readers from abroad are aware that they have to pay more for the books. In fact, they hardly experienced $0.99 price shock from the beginning of 2011. So, the low price strategy which worked so well in US, seems to have chances in other countries.

How to keep prices low? There are two things you can do:
1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores,
2. Get rid of international fee.

1. Offer lower prices in localized Kindle Stores

In the KDP dashboard the author can set up prices for Kindle Stores in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain either automatically (based on a price from US) or manually. If you increase the price in US, it doesn’t mean you have to do it in other Kindle Stores.

Here’s what I did. My flash-fiction geek stories, Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed are a very narrow niche, but they were doing unexpectedly well in KOLL in December. It’s probably because of the fact that they’re addressed to geeks, like the ones who have bought/received Kindle Fire. New owners of this device have one month of Prime/KOLL free.

I’ve increased the price of books to $5.99 (bargain for KOLL users), but in other Kindle Stores kept prices with $0.99 tag in respective currencies. To do that I had to select 35% royalty option – there is no possibility to choose different royalties for different locations.

Set different prices in different Kindle Stores

2. Get rid of international fee

International fees applied by Amazon to Kindle ebooks sold to users from abroad are a serious issue. They influence the way international readers buy the books. Therefore they should also influence the way authors price their books.

Kindle ebooks are being sold to over 170 countries and destinations. If you set up in KDP the rights for your book to “all territories”, readers from those 170+ locations will be able to buy it.

The fees are different for different regions, but they are usually up to $4. For example, the $0.99 book costs usually $3.44 in Poland, where I live.

You can check how much your books cost by going to Kindle Store US, selecting a region and searching for your book. Read this post if you need a detailed tip on how to do it.

Is there a way to get rid of the fee? Looks like it is. What I’ve observed is that the charge is applied only until the certain amount of books is being sold. I sell my books from Kindle Store, also the ones written in Polish, so I’m determined to keep their prices low in Poland. I’ve counted that if you sold around 100 copies, the price of the book goes down to the level set up in KDP dashboard.

What you can do is to raise the price of the book in Kindle Store US only after there are no or little fees in other territories.

I wonder whether giving books for free within KDP Select affect the international fees. If anyone has noticed that, please share it in the comments. If this works, the easy way to get rid of the charges it to run a 5-day promo and raise prices afterwards.

What is also good to keep in mind is that Kindle Daily Deal books cost the same in all countries – there is no international charge applied, no matter how many books were sold to different regions. This means that $0.99 KDD book costs $0.99 (and it’s a one-day deal), while your book, supposed to be a constant deal, costs $3.44.

* * *

When thinking about international readers it’s also very good to analyze other distribution channels. Kobo and Smashwords are best picks. First, their offer is available without territorial restrictions. Secondly, they don’t apply fees like Amazon does.

If you want me to write how the distribution could look from a perspective of a European self-publisher, please let me know in the comments.

Hope it was a helpful post.

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"Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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"Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 07.08.2011" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Phoster offers 72 free design templates to choose from

Phoster is a fantastic application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, perfect to create posters, cards, invitations and, yes, ebook covers.

I’ve used the word “create” instead of “design” because it better describes what you’ll be doing.

You don’t need to design a layout, it’s already done by the developers of the application, folks from Bucket Labs – Phoster comes equipped with as much as 72 layout templates. All of them are top-level design. Thanks to that the application can be a very powerful tool to create professionally looking ebook covers.

Below I’ll show you how easy it is to create a cover. The general advise is to keep things simple and not to change the layouts too much. They are perfect as they are and there is no need to improve them.

4 steps of creating a cover with Phoster

I’ll create a cover for a book about mobile natives (I hope one day I’ll write this book).

1. Choose a template

I’m sure you’ll find a template which is closest to your needs. Layouts differ in selection of fonts, position of text boxes and a general style. For each of the template, in a next step you can add a picture. You can also leave a background as it is or just change its color – this would make a nice non-fiction book cover.

When you’ll be selecting a template just keep in mind that you can’t add any more text boxes. So, pick up the template, which is closest to what you want and has enough number of text fields positioned where you want them to be.

For my book I’ve chosen the template below. I like simple design and I want to use a picture which will work best with the title aligned to right. I also need only three text boxes – two for the title and one for the author.

After choosing a template, tap on a Next button at the bottom right.

2. Insert a photo or choose a color of the background

Use an icon of a camera to add a picture, either directly taken or from a photo library. You can make basic color adjustments within the application (brightness, contrast and saturation) by tapping on a slider icon.

Remember, you can always use one of the photo applications, which can give a stylish look to your picture. I’m sure you have one of them: Instagram, PictureShow, Camera+ or Hipstamatic.

Second option is not to add a picture, but only change a background’s color. To do that, tap again on a slider icon – you’ll see at the top a set of predefined colors to pick up from.

I’ll be using for my cover a photo previously edited in PictureShow (by the way, you can see a #1picstory made with it). As you see it’s dark enough to use against white letters and there is a lot of space in the upper right corner. That’s where I’ll place the title.

3. Type the text

To change text tap on a “T” icon. An edit box will appear, where you can replace the existing text with your own title. Use Previous and Next buttons to switch between text boxes. Alternatively you can open the edit box if you quickly tap on the text.

You can change the color, the size and the font style of the text. There is a plenty of typefaces to choose from, but I recommend to keep the predefined style. Any major change may break the original design idea of the template.

If you want to move a text box, tap and hold it until you see a shadow.

I moved the title a bit to the right and higher. As you see, I didn’t change anything else.

4. Choose the effect

After you’re finished with texts and pictures, tap Next to move to the last step – applying the effect.

This is the most enjoyable part of the work. There are 19 style available. You can select one of the vintage styles, including paper and dust textures, or you can decide to use color stripes or patterns (see picture below).

I’ve selected a simple pattern and the cover looks like this. What do you think?

Although Phoster is positioned as a tool to create posters, cards, invitations, I think it’s an awesome way to create professionally looking ebook covers. It’s one of those mobile applications which redefine our approach to creation. You can focus solely on finding a concept and big picture, leaving the craft to the application itself.

Phoster costs $1.99 (iTunes link). Consider it as a money spent for a professional cover artist, who gives you 72 proposals of the layout.

Remember to include credits to Phoster in your ebook. Write down a link to both the application at iTunes and the developer’s webpage: http://www.bucketlabs.net.

Read also about another great tool, Wordle. You can use it to create great-looking covers based on a word cloud from your book.

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"How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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"Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 10.07.2011" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Below I’d like to share a major outcome, and in my opinion the biggest surprise – John Locke didn’t make it to Kindle Store’s Top 100.

The author of the Donovan Creed series recently joined Kindle Million Club as he sold more than 1 million ebooks. This fact was largely covered and analyzed in media and blogosphere. It helped his books climb the charts again, but was not enough to get included in the June list.

Amanda Hocking was a superstar at the beginning of the year, but already in April her books were sliding down the bestseller lists. John Locke in a very clever way leveraged Hocking’s success to gain popularity. In April, he had 8 titles listed in Top 100.

As Locke claims, he sold 1 million ebooks in just 5 months – it’s a fantastic result and a golden example of successful self-publishing. Nevertheless, the next one million is not going to happen this year. Locke doesn’t have much to offer – prices are lowest possible. The only way is to write and publish new books.

The examples of Hocking and Locke are worth keeping in mind. So far it looks like self-published bestselling authors live short in Top 100.

Check the full post for interesting tables, comparisons and explanation how the lists were created.

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"Best Self-published Books in Kindle Store in June, John Locke Out of Top 100" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Two e-books, priced $9.99 and $0.99, start two completely different purchase processes. The price level is affecting how eager we are to get a pirated copy. In case of e-books it’s combined with, in my opinion, the biggest solution to piracy – convenience.

Digital goods (especially the ones under a magical level of 1 dollar) – music, e-books, applications – join a group of impulse purchase products. It’s not only because of a price. It’s because of possibility of immediate consumption. You can use a smartphone to download an e-book or a song. It usually takes a couple of seconds and your effort can be described as a couple of taps. Instant reward is crucial – $0.99 e-book wouldn’t be an impulse purchase if you had to wait for delivery 24 hours.

In the age of instant access to content of any kind, willingness to piracy can be described as “how much will I save for the effort I make”. Let’s analyze it on an example of a $0.99 book from Kindle Store.

"No Good Deed" by M.P. McDonald - #3 in Kindle Store on June 5, 2011

Savings

A perception of price and savings is different if you are an experienced user of piracy sites and different if you started to embrace e-books (or digital goods in general).

For a piracy site users all what’s there is free (or for a price of a premium account/features – which is another case). In fact they don’t really know how much they save, because they don’t know the price of the original copy.

The economics of downloading pirated content is that you download items in bulk. You download a folder with e-books, convert files to your primary format and upload to your device.

Managing pirated content in bulk is saving a lot of time. You’ll also save time on reading those books, because they’re just files and titles for you. You don’t know most of them, and authors of $.99 books are surely not on top of your mind.

Now, let’s move to a second example.

You’ve just bought a Kindle e-reader. You have to learn how to use the device and download e-books legally – enough for a start. You probably keep in mind that there is always a possibility to use illegal sources. The only thing is that it’s a whole new world to learn. Some people, including me, don’t want to bother with it. I want to read books, not waste my time on file conversion and adding e-books to my virtual bookshelf in a way which is not most convenient.

Kindle owner is aware of the price. It’s $0.99, full stop. She or he has a choice: to get the book in less than 60 seconds and start reading it or look for the pirated copy somewhere else. How long would it take to grab it, download, deal with DRM and upload to Kindle? 5 minutes, 15 minutes? 15 minutes every time you’ve found a book you want to read immediately.

At such a low price what usually turns on is an evaluation how much money would one earn by doing his daily job instead. How much do I earn for an hour? How much time do I waste to save $0.99 on one book?

Effort

Let’s go the pirate way first. You download, let’s say 1,000 e-books in bulk. No effort at all, you’re doing this anyway, you’re fixed on getting as much free content as possible, even if you know you’re not going to swallow it till the end of the world.

If you are a Kindle owner with no “torrent skills”, you face a simple choice: a couple of clicks versus a conversion nightmare.

You have to learn how to and where from get a pirated content. You’ll probably have to download some apps, learn some tricks, read some forum threads, fix some problems – all instead of reading a book you want.

Books are different from music. You always had to have a device if you wanted to listen to music. Managing music files and discs is natural. But books… you bought them, you opened them and your read them. Why can’t this be done with e-books? In fact it can, if you are willing to spend a couple of clicks, less than a dollar and a bit of courage to read a book from an unknown author.

* * *

Saving time and money is one thing, but there is also one thing piracy is about. Somebody wants to drain your wallet by setting up a price which is too high. You are the hand of justice and get a pirated copy instead.

In case of $.99 it doesn’t work this way any more. This is a very fair price, set up by the author itself. You are not penalizing all the middlemen, you’re penalizing the man who wants to be honest with you.

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"Pirating $.99 E-books – Is It Worth the Effort?" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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• Kindle for the Web: Free Web Book Previews – Where to Find Them?
  March 30, 2011
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• Add Books to Kindle for iOS via Mobile Safari
  May 22, 2011
  Anyone who used Kindle for iOS application knows that a Kindle Store button at the top right of the home screen pushes to quick Kindle and open mobile Safari. Why don’t you use Safari in a first place? Here are a couple of tips how to optimize the experience. Open Kindle Store Don’t be afraid to...
• Best apps for e-reading - Mobile Apps
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"Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 19.06.2011" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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"Links on Mobile E-books & Self-Publishing 05.06.2011" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

1. iOS is a very versatile system, allowing the author to distribute books via different sets of tools and channels.
2. iOS users are more willing to buy the content – due to convenience (in-app, one-click purchases) and the nature of iOS ecosystem – a huge offer of apps, many of them for free or sold in a freemium model.

That’s why many authors want to find and define the best way to enter the iWorld. However, it’s not that easy as in Kindle Store. There are many factors which have to be taken into consideration.

To make the analysis as clear as possible I’ll split it into two stages: distribution and promotion.

Distribution

If you have a Kindle e-reader, you can buy e-books from Kindle Store. If you have a Nook, you can buy e-books from Barnes&Noble. E-readers are dedicated not only to reading, but also to e-bookstores. The device is the access point.

Tablets and smartphones are multi-purpose devices (MPVs) and this is what makes a difference. The access point to books is not a device itself, but the application. Many apps. There are so many of them, that the user at a certain point will want to limit their number to most important and useful ones. This applies also to books.

There are three main channels through which books in the iWorld are sold:

1. AppStore
2. iBookstore/iBooks
3. E-reading applications from other bookstores

AppStore

Apple’s store with applications is in my opinion a true phenomenon. Currently there are over 350,000 apps offered. At the time of the iPad/iBooks launch there were 120,000 book apps in AppStore – twice as much as books in the iBookstore.

AppStore is a strong alternative to typical bookstore. You buy an app from the application store, not a book from the bookstore. This can be a promise for many users to find something unexpected, fresh and as attractive as other apps. By “attractive” I mean: enhanced with audio and video, interactive, animated, using all the possibilities iOS interface is offering.

AppStore is also the golden example of how generous iOS users can be. Buying an app is not a big deal for us (yes, I’m also a heavy application buyer). A dollar or two, you can spend it to test the app, even if you’ll never ever use it again.

Besides e-reading applications, which are the access point and reading interface of e-bookstores (like Kindle for iOS, Kobo, Nook, Google eBooks), books are sold here as standalone applications. To produce such a book you have to either be a web developer or hire one. The cost of producing a simple book app is usually a few hundred dollars.

However, simple book apps are not attractive at all – if they are compared in the same category with enhanced ones.

You also have to keep in mind that the price of such a book should be comparable to other apps – which in most cases is 5 dollars at most.

iBookstore

Many iOS users associate books with iBooks and iBookstore. They usually start reading books using iBooks – until they discover better alternatives.
Practically, the only advantage of using iBooks is convenience. You can buy books from iBookstore within the app. This is the competitive edge Apple has over its competitors like Amazon or B&N. To buy books from the apps of those e-bookstores, you have to switch to Safari browser. Amazon’s famous 1-click purchase doesn’t work on the iPad or iPhone.

There is also one more thing we have to keep in mind. Apple has changed AppStore rules. Now if the e-bookstore wants to sell book from outside the app, it will have to enable such option inside the app. Result: Apple will take a cut from every book purchased, because users will choose the in-app way, which is more convenient. What can this cause is uncertainty about the presence of other e-reading apps in AppStore. If they are not adjusted to new rules, they’ll be removed.

Other e-reading applications

Most popular applications from other e-bookstores and content providers are Kindle for iOS, Kobo, Nook, Stanza, Google eBooks. Many iOS device owners are registered users of those e-bookstores, so sooner or later they will download the proper app and play with it.

And this is where the complex nature of iOS ecosystem lies: readers are spreading among many apps e-bookstores, options and functionalities. Many users keep a couple of e-reading application on their devices, but with a time they will select one of them as a primary tool to buy and read e-books.

* * *

Which channel is most effective?

There are two scenarios, depending of the kind of the book you want to publish:
1. Enhanced book » AppStore
2. Simple book » multi channel

If you plan to create an enhanced, interactive book, full of pictures and animation (f.e. children’s book or a graphic novel), the best path to follow is the AppStore. Developers who make outstanding e-book applications for kids are Bold Creative (creators of “The Heart and the Bottle” children’s book, shown below), Game Collage and Loud Crow Interactive. Check them out, they set up the standards, what translates into users’ expectations.

For a useful advice on how to publish your own book app, visit The Bookwright, a great blog by Tom Evans.

If you want to have a cheaper option for enriched book, you can prepare and ePub file with embedded pictures and place it in iBookstore or Kindle Store. Both iBooks and Kindle for iOS are capable of showing not only pictures but also of playing video and audio.

What you have to take into consideration, however, is that your book will be distributed as a book not as an app, and that means you’ll have to spend more time and effort to tell users about it – your amplified book will be available not where they expect it to be.

Second option: your book is text based and what you just want to achieve is to make sure it’s available for readers using iOS devices. Going only to iBookstore in my opinion is not worth the effort. It’s a small e-bookstore, ten times smaller than Kindle Store and it’s not growing as fast as other bookstores. It’s not intended to other platforms, but to be a default choice for iOS users. It’s also not easy to use Apple’s self-pub service, but if you’re determined, you can always try an easier option – Lulu.com.

It’s also not productive to publish a book in each and every e-bookstore separately (like via KDP for Kindle or PubIt! for B&N).

Is there a better, more efficient alternative? Sure. Use one of the self-publishing services offering multi-channel distribution. The most important thing is that you publish your book once and it’s being distributed to many e-bookstores, so that it’s available to iOS users no matter which application they use.

The services to recommend are:
Smashwords – the most popular self-publishing site, with distribution to Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Sony eBookstore and, yes, iBookstore.
Fast Pencil – the distribution list includes Kindle, Barnes&Noble and Sony eBookstore. However, this is a paid plan, you have to be prepared to pay $149.99.
Narcissus – the new, Italy-based self-pub service. The English localization is coming soon with the option to distribute your book to Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Copia and Blio.

Distribution Channel Manager at Smashwords

Promotion

If you choose the AppStore way, you have to follow the rules specific for this ecosystem. It’s a whole new world and it’s good to get a concise advice from professionals. Just watch this short video and you’ll have a clue of what you’ll have to be prepared for:

Second scenario. If your book is reaching iWorld via e-bookstores, all what you have to do is to address the owners of iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch devices in your promotional activities.

As I’m the author of geek fiction stories, I very much focus on finding ways to reach and convince the users of iOS devices to buy my books. What I’m mostly interested in is to find creative ways of promotion, which don’t involve money.

Here is a list of tools and ideas:

Target iOS users in social media

One of my book covers designed like a mobile app

You can go one step further – and tell tweeple they can buy your book directly from a link shared on Twitter. This is possible when users have Kindle application and you have a book in Kindle Store.

Share tips for iOS users

Selling books for iPad and iPhone is a complex task. So is reading and finding them. There are many apps, none of them ideal. Readers need help, and they search the web for answers. If you write a post on how to add books to iBooks without connecting to iTunes or how to read Adobe DRM-ed books on the iPad, you don’t have to find your readers – they will find you.

Show your book in iOS interface

This could be done on many levels. The easiest way is to mention the devices and applications on your blog post. You can also show a screenshot of your book made on the iPad or iPhone. Use it in a blog post together with the book’s cover.
Cover. There’s also a huge potential here. Try to paste it into the picture of the iPhone or iPad, so it perfectly fits the device’s screen.

I went even further than that and designed the book covers looking like mobile interface very similar to iOS. That way the book becomes an inseparable part of the iPad and iPhone world.

* * *

I hope you found this post useful. Please feel free to share your comments and knowledge and come back for more tips on self-publishing and mobile reading.

Recommended reading

• How to publish your book on the iPad – The Creative Penn
• How to publish your book on Kindle and iPad – BubbleCow
• How to self-publish books for iPad – Inc.
• How do I get a book on the iPad’s iBooks bookstore and app – 3ones
• AppStore lessons – 6 ways to better promote your application – Ars Technica
• How did you get on the front page of the AppStore? – Bold Creative Project Blog

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"How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

Piracy is about sharing for free a content for which you have to pay money elsewhere. But what if you find at a file-sharing site a content which is free anywhere else? And what if you actually have to pay for it?

One of my books, Hasło niepoprawne, is available at Chomikuj.pl, Poland’s most popular file exchange site. It’s OK, the book comes with a Creative Commons license and anyone is free to share it anywhere on the web.

There’s one little thing. At Chomikuj you have to pay for file transfer. There are many sites like that, naming only Rapidshare, where you pay either for quicker download or for premium features, like search option. Users have to pay for content, even if it’s offered for free by its legitimate author.

This case made me think of three issues, which are worth raising: knowledge, convenience and trust.

Most users of piracy websites assume that they are making a deal on downloading any piece of content. If they don’t know that the book is elsewhere available for free, they take it for granted they save money. What’s more, they don’t want to know whether the content is free somewhere else if they pay for a pro account at their site.

Convenience is a next big thing in piracy. Some people are ready to spend small amounts of money to save time on browsing, conversion, etc. Those who use Rapidshare paid account may not be eager to check around for other possibilities, especially that, again, they pay for a pro account here.

File exchange site with a premium account becomes a trusted content source. Content provider is usually another user of that site. He is a good guy, the curator of the content, bringing to the others the product cleared from all he cheat: price and DRM.

The biggest challenge for legitimate content providers is what to do to be more convenient and trustworthy than a piracy site.

There are more and more authors giving away free e-books and more and more such e-books will land at piracy websites. How does paid piracy affect them? The biggest issue is information ambiguity. The author looks like the one who elsewhere wanted money for his book – probably too high.

If you’re an author and somebody downloaded your free book to a piracy website, you may look like a cheater and users punish you for that by using this website, either free or paid.

This is really bad, as I believe the future relationship between the author and reader should be based on honesty.

Related posts

• 21.06.2011 -- Pirating $.99 E-books – Is It Worth the Effort?
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"Thoughts on Sharing Free Content at Paid Piracy Websites" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.