Expertise and self-publishing

Several years ago, a friend who lectures about how to deal with problem teenagers was telling us about her specialty. Alex asked her if she was ever asked for more information. She said 'always' and that she gives the parents a typed handout. He advised her to self-publish her notes in a book and sell it instead. She did just that and now sells enough books to have quit her day job and do what she loves full time.

Survey of Indie Authors by Smashwords Yields Interesting Insights

Smashwords does an annual survey of indie publishers results and this year's has some interesting revelations. You can read their blog here:  http://blog.smashwords.com/2017/06/smashwords-survey-2017.html 

And view the results of the survey in a slideshare here:
https://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/2017-smashwords-survey-of-ebook-trends-and-data

Significantly, they found signs that many indies who are selling ebooks well at $2.99 should probably experiment with higher prices.  In previous surveys, $2.99 and $3.99 were the sweets spots.  It looks like it's time to add $4.99 to that mix.