Got some great responses…

Got some great responses to the pricing discussion over on G+. Here's where I ended up:

• .99 - story singles (pricing it on the lower side because I'd rather sell more of them and encourage more book sales and word of mouth)
• $10 - eBook (to start -- may drop the price in a year or two (great idea, Dave); mostly pricing it on the higher side so that supporters don't feel taken advantage of)
• $15 - trade paperback
• $25 - hardcover

Jed commented that "limited edition signed personalized illustrated books can cost a lot more. Then again, I think limited editions are usually intended for the collector market, and collectors will pay a lot. Then again, I suspect collectors are often expecting really fancy production values: special paper, ribbon bookmark, slipcase, etc."

Since I'm hoping to make the physical books beautiful, with lovely cover design and interior illustrations, but will probably not be able to add all those fancy printing details through POD (I'll check, but I really doubt any of that's available), I'd be hesitant to price the books higher than a normal trade paperback or hardcover. It would have been nice to do the print run that would allow for that kind of fancy thing, but I think I would have had to budget an extra few thousand for the Kickstarter to afford it in advance. Maybe on a future book someday!

At this point, I'd rather the pricing 'feel reasonable' to the reader, and make a little less per book. And hey -- I suppose if a lot of pre-orders come in over the next year, maybe by next September (the deadline I promised), I'll have enough extra funding that I could do a print run rather than POD, and maybe add a fancy detail or two. Will have to crunch numbers then and see!

Thanks, everyone who responded. This was really HUGELY helpful. If you have any further thoughts, please feel free to chime in.