The Peculiar Business of Putting a Price on Imagination
There is something inherently ridiculous about putting a price on a book.
Consider what you're actually buying.
Several months of somebody else's life.
Approximately seventeen gallons of coffee.
Countless hours staring at a computer screen.
Three arguments with a fictional character who refuses to behave.
At least one moment when the author announces, "That's it. I'm becoming a gardener."
And, eventually, an eBook.
Price: $2.99.
Seems a bargain when you put it like that.
Independent authors approach pricing in all sorts of ways. Some deliberately charge more because they believe readers associate higher prices with better books.
They may well be right.
Others price lower because they're trying to attract new readers.
They may be right too.
Publishing is wonderfully helpful like that.
My philosophy is simpler.
I'd rather somebody bought the book and read it.
That's one reason I've increasingly embraced direct sales through my websites.
Selling directly gives an independent author/publisher more control. It also means books can often be offered for less than through the large retail platforms.
Notice I said less, not cheap. On my websites there are no cheap watches, cheap garden chairs and cheap umbrellas which turn themselves inside out at the first sign of weather. I do not publish cheap books. I publish books at prices I hope readers consider reasonable.
And buying directly doesn't mean entering some strange technological wilderness armed only with an EPUB file and a screwdriver.
My websites use BookFunnel to fulfil purchases.
Readers can download their books to a computer, transfer them to supported eReaders and reading apps for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and Nook, or read online.
And if technology decides to be technology and do some strange stuff, BookFunnel provides reader support.
So the reader gets the book. The author gets a larger say in how that book is sold. And fewer intermediaries are required to stand between the two of us holding out increasingly large hats. That seems a rather sensible arrangement.
After all, I didn't start writing because I wanted to sell expensive electronic files. I started writing because I wanted people to read stories.
Everything else is just bookkeeping.
Copyright © Tom Kane 2026