Pricing a novel at $2.99 is painful. Even if every one of my Facebook friends purchased 10 copies, I still wouldn’t break even… even if I assign a zero dollar value to the hours I spent bringing Thief in Long Shadow to life.
But the way I’m looking at it? I need to beg, borrow or steal a bit of mind/market share of the reading public. I need to win readers one at a time, and hope that one or two or ten novels from now, those same readers will be happy to pay $25 for a hardcover version.
Like musicians making a living from concert proceeds rather than royalties from album sales… I need to keep writing, keep producing and maybe (if I’m lucky, and sufficiently persistent) I might be able to make a living doing what I love.