The competition is pictured above. This is just a random shelf in the scifi/fantasy section at Barnes and Noble. I don't know if it's possible for the prices to show at this resolution, but they are almost all 7.99. That's not sale price, just the price on the book.
It sort of makes me wonder about the role of the print book for the independent or small press author. If you can't sell it at the fifteen dollars, because the competition is at half that, what do you do?
One possibility is selling it at cost. If I were to self publish, that would be the route I would be tempted to go. Just give up on the idea of making money on print books, and sell them at cost in the hopes that at least they get out there to act as mobile billboards advertising my name. It makes more sense than having them priced at a level nobody is going to buy them, and I wouldn't be making money that way either.
Then focus on marketing the ebook. Undercut the big names, and try to compete in that market. There is a lot I need to learn about that market though, so this isn't exactly a final conclusion on my part.
Oh well, this is all just musing off the top of my head.
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