Being able to slap whatever price tag you want on your own work is one of the most freeing things about self-publishing, but it can also be the most challenging. Not all writers are marketing experts, and, as far as we know, a guide on How to Compete in the E-books Marketplace — with its various publishers and platforms and e-stores — has yet to arrive on every freelancers' doorstep.

A while back, when we looked into how to publish a Kindle Single, we touched on pricing. But what if you're using Amazon's self-publishing platform or others to release a full-length book? This post on Media Bistro's Galleycat asked seven writers and publishers to defend their e-books' price points, from $14.99 all the way down to 99 cents (the novelist use offered up his book at that bargain price sold more than a million copies, by the way).

Whether you want to sell a full e-book, a piece of long-form nonfiction, or even negotiate a fee with a publisher, hearing the reasoning behind these individuals' pricing strategies might just make you reconsider your own.