When I published my first book, I priced it at £4.99 because it felt like a round number that said "I'm a serious author, but I'm not taking the mick." I had no strategy. No research. No clue. I just picked a number and hoped for the best.
That's how most indie authors price their books, and it's costing them a fortune.
The 70% vs 35% Royalty Cliff
Before we talk strategy, you need to understand how Amazon's royalty structure works, because it changes everything.
If you price your ebook between £1.99 and £9.99, Amazon pays you 70% of the list price. Below £1.99 or above £9.99, you get 35%. That's not a sliding scale — it's a cliff edge. Price at £1.99, you earn roughly £1.39 per sale. Price at £1.49, you earn about 52p. Same reader, same book, dramatically different income.
That doesn't mean you should always price at £1.99 or above. It means you should understand exactly what you're doing and why.
The Debut Author Sweet Spot
If nobody knows who you are — and let's be honest, that's where most of us start — your price needs to reflect that reality. A reader scrolling through Amazon is taking a risk on an unknown author. Your price should make that risk feel trivial.
For a debut novel, I'd suggest £1.99 or £2.99. That's low enough to trigger impulse purchases but high enough to sit in the 70% royalty bracket. At £2.99, you earn about £2.09 per sale. You'd need to sell roughly three times as many books at 99p to match that.
When to Go Higher
Once you've got a few books out and some reviews under your belt, you can start testing higher prices. I've found that £3.99 is a comfortable ceiling for most indie fiction. You can push to £4.99 if you've got a strong following and consistent reviews, but beyond that you're competing with traditionally published authors who have the backing of a marketing department and a recognisable publisher logo.
Non-fiction is a different beast. Readers will pay more for a book that solves a specific problem. A how-to guide on dog training or a specialist cookbook can comfortably sit at £5.99–£7.99 because the perceived value is higher.
The 99p Launch Strategy
There's a time and place for 99p, and that's the launch window. Pricing your new release at 99p for the first few days does two things: it encourages early sales, which boosts your ranking, and it generates reviews faster. Both of those things matter enormously in the first week.
After the launch window — typically three to seven days — bump the price up to your intended level. The early sales momentum will carry you, and you'll have some reviews to show for it.
What Never Works
Pricing your debut ebook at £7.99 or higher. I've seen authors do this because they've calculated the hours spent writing it and decided their time is worth a certain amount per hour. That's not how readers think. They don't care how long it took you. They care whether your book is worth the risk compared to the thousands of other options at their fingertips.
Test and Adjust
The beauty of self-publishing is that you can change your price in minutes. If your book isn't selling, drop the price for a week and see what happens. If it's selling well, try nudging it up by a pound. Pricing isn't a one-time decision — it's an ongoing experiment. Treat it like one.