The two things in the title have absolutely nothing to do with each other. LOL. First, I want to let all of you know about the Easter Egg Hunt where Zoe Winters is giving away big prizes. I won’t elaborate…go to her site and check it out! Zoe Winters’ Easter Egg Hunt
Okay, the pricing dilemma. The gnome book I wrote was supposed to be a full length novel. It didn’t turn out that way. It’s ALMOST a novel. From what I’ve been reading on different sites, you can claim a book as a novel if it’s at least 40,000 words. This book comes in at about 39,000. Yep, almost. And, really, I’m more comfortable calling something a novel if it’s closer to 50,000. My other novels are over that word count and one of them is over 60,000. So that gives me a dilemma on pricing. I was going to price this at $2.99. But should I cut a dollar off the price because of a lack of 1,000 words? And a lot of people are charging up to $5.00 for novels. I was going to charge $2.99 for novels and $1.99 for novellas, although I’m going to keep my backlist at .99. So, what to do? Should I go ahead and price this book at $2.99? I really don’t think that’s unreasonable. But will others think it is? I’m just not sure what to do. Any advice?
lauralynnelliott.com 
I’ve always heard/been told that a novel is 50k and up. Unless you’re dealing with children’s books or MG, when it can be 40, so I’d still consider this a long novella.
That’s what I’ve always thought, but I’m seeing things around the internet that say 40,000. I feel more comfortable with the 50K count being a novel.
I would call 39k a novella. Generally I would be nervous calling anything below 60k a novel, unless it’s in a genre in where shorter novels are common. Because, trust me when I say, the biggest complaint people have about short work is its shortness, even when you’re actually clear that it’s a short story or short novel. So I’m just thinking saying novel at that short may generate some bad feeling.
That said, I’ve got no problem seeing a novella priced at $2.99. I know a lot of people are doing that now. And you are now an established author. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for you to price a novella at $2.99.
I was leaning toward novella, too. Actually, I’ve been trying to remember to include the word count in the description so there will be no doubt about the length. Of course, Smashwords does this for you anyway.
If the novella was 25,000, I would probably price it at $1.99. But given it’s longer length, and the fact, as you said, I’ve pretty much established myself at this point, I think you’re probably right. I think I’m going to stick to $2.99.
It’s funny you mentioned people complain about shortness. I kind of like short works. Mostly because I have such a huge TBR pile that I feel like I’ll never get through it. So when the work is shorter, I can read it faster and then go to the next book. The exception is when a story draws me in so deeply that I NEED it to be longer. 🙂
Maybe during edits/finishing you’ll get your 1000 words in! Then, dilemna gone! I just went through this whole pricing debate with myself. I’m feeling good about the $2.99 -$3.99 for a novel and $1.99 for novellas. You’re right on the cusp of novel status, so I think whatever way you decide will be fine. Besides, spending three dollars never makes me sad when I’ve gotten a good story!
Nadja, I’m not sure I have 1000 more words in me for that story. LOL. Besides, I really don’t feel comfortable calling it a novel unless it’s 50,000. I’m still planning on charging $2.99 for novels and $1.99 for novellas that are about 25K. But since this one’s kind of in between, I don’t think $2.99 is too much to ask. Many authors are now charging $4.99-$5.99 for novels and $2.99-$3.99 for novellas. I think .99 is a good price point for brand new authors to start with, and I also think it’s ok for back lists. But I think it’s now too little for new works by established authors, and since I have 11 works out there right now, I think that qualifies me as established. 🙂
What are your current prices for novellas and how well do they sell at those prices? Have you sold a book in the 39,000-word range at $2.99 and had good sales?
I know your pain in thinking of having to go lower than $2.99. As much as I hate to do it, I will have to make a full-length novel in one of my series free because it doesn’t have any traction (even at $0.99). I’m waiting for the next book in the series to come out before I move it to free. I’ve found with some books (no matter what the length), I just can’t make it move at a certain price point, and I have no idea why.
So I’d try to aim for the price point that will enable me to hit a good enough traction where i’m happy with the number of sales I’m getting and the amount of money that’s coming in.
Also, you could mention my friend’s ebook that is about to come out. It’s 40,000 words and $9.99. A subsidy publisher set the price (and I advised her against going with the publisher but she wanted to). But then after you mention the $9.99 book, you can say, “But don’t worry, guys! My novella isn’t $9.99. It’s only $2.99!” So it looks better when you compare it to the other price. 😀 I said all that as a joke, but when you put it in perspective, it makes your price look a lot better. BTW, I’ll post the gnome book up on the Nook blog when it’s on B&N so be sure to let me know it’s up.
In my LIbby Fox trilogy, the first one is .99 and the others are 1.99. The .99 one doesn’t sell any better than the 1.99 ones. I priced the trilogy together at 2.99, and there have been some sales. I don’t have anything else out at 2.99 because that’s a new price point for me, so I don’t really have anything to compare it with. My thinking is that’s it’s better to try 2.99 first and see how sales go, and then lower the price if I have to. This is the thing, too. I have to sell about 6 books at .99 to get the same royalty that I get for 1 book at 2.99. So I can sell 1/6 of the amount to make the same money. It’s all crazy. If Amazon and B & N would give the same royalty percentage at 1.99 as they do at 2.99, I might consider using that as my high price point. I just wish more readers would buy off of Smashwords directly. We would all make more money with the nice percentage they give. And I’m as guilty as the next person of not doing this, mostly because Smashwords doesn’t have the capability to send books directly to our e-readers. Maybe someday. But then they might have to lower our royalties to pay for the technology. LOL. But I love Smashwords because I know Mark Coker really cares about his authors.
Thank you so much for your support, Ruth.
You’ve always been kind to me on Self-Published Author’s Lounge, so I’m more than happy to do whatever I can for you. 😀
I think $2.99 is a good price. One thing that surprised me (in a good way) was that when I started pricing books at $2.99, no one complained. I had books that were $0.99 but from 65,000 to 100,000 words, and I thought for sure, someone would complain that I dared to charge $2.99 for 65,000 words. But they didn’t. I think there’s a time when you have priced books at a low point for so long and then it’s time to move up and see what happens. I’ll pay $2.99 for anything 30,000 words on up without thinking twice as long as the book cover is great and the description grabs me. I would much rather have a page turning novella at 39,000 words than a 100,000 word book that drags because the author was aiming for more words.
I agree with the problems of downloading form Smashwords. Everybody who purchased my book off Smashwords wrote to me complaining that they couldn’t get it onto their ereader and I had to write back explaining how to do that. There should be better directions on Smashwords website on how to transfer it to your library then send it to your ereader either via email or a simple usb cord.
As for your pricing dilema, start with how you feel and adjust from there. I’ll buy it for 2.99. But I agree, that to me (and I did rant about this not to long ago) a novel should be, at minimum, 60k. The thought now a days is with the ereader format, 40k is a novel. Not sure why the ereader changed the idea, but that seems to be the new concensous.
Some people just aren’t very computer literate. I actually read the directions (although I figured it out myself with no problem when I bought my first Smashwords book) and they seem pretty simple to me. But I’m kind of a nerd. LOL
I consider 50K a novel. That used to always be the norm, so I was surprised to find several sites where they were talking about length and pricing, and they started “novel” at 40K. I consider that a long novella. But I still think a long novella is fairly priced at $2.99.