Two months ago I asked my Twitter followers to tell me the most they had ever paid for an ebook. The answers I got ranged from a low of $0 to a high of $24.

On New Years Eve I tweeted a book recommendation for Digging Into WordPress and 5 minutes later four of my followers had paid $27 for a PDF file (one actually bought the ebook/print combination for $67).

Throughout the past year we’ve witnessed heated debates over the issue of ebook pricing. Publishers want to charge as much as they can for new releases, whatever the format. Meanwhile, Amazon has pretty much set the standard by pricing the Kindle ebook editions of most hardcover and trade paperbacks at $9.99 or less. As a result, consumers increasingly expect ebooks to be cheaper than their print counterparts.

So, what changed on New Years Eve?

After thinking it over I’ve decided that nothing changed. Rather, I think the incident serves as a reminder of some basic marketing principles that apply to ebooks just as much as they do to print books. These are principles that will ultimately determine how much publishers can expect to charge for an ebook.

First, I should note that the book in question is an in-depth software guide. It seems unlikely that I would have had the same response from my Twitter followers if I’d tweeted a recommendation for a $27 e-novel. In other words, I’m not sure my New Years Eve experience tells us much about ebook pricing for trade fiction. Regardless, there are still other valuable lessons to be learned from the experience that apply to all books.

• Trusted recommendations sell books. This has always been true, but recommendations take on added importance in a media landscape saturated with a glut of digital content. This applies to all books by the way, but, obviously, if you’re going to charge a premium for an ebook, then trusted recommendations carry extra weight. Twitter, by the way, happens to be an incredibly efficient environment for recommendations to spread.
• A book isn’t expensive if it provides real value.. Consumer perception of value is influenced by any number of factors. In the case of Digging Into WordPress, the book’s authors provide value by bringing readers comprehensive and up to the minute coverage of a fast moving technology, combined with the promise of free updates for life. Further, the book is sold without DRM, thus assuring consumers that the book won’t self-destruct at some future date. Compare this to most print editions of WordPress books that sell for around $30, and are typically a point release behind by the time they hit the bookstores. It’s pretty clear which product provides consumers with more value.
• Free sells. By providing a free sample that included the complete table of contents and a sample chapter, would-be customers are able to see exactly what information is covered in the book, the quality of the writing, and the quality of the design (the book looks great, by the way). By the time I had skimmed through the sample chapter, the authors had a sale. It is extremely unlikely that I would have paid $27 for an ebook without first reviewing a sample chapter.
• Consumers are willing to pay for information they can get for free. Not only is the web full of excellent WordPress resources, the authors of this particular book have made much of the book’s content available for free on the book’s blog. Yet consumers will gladly pay for the convenience of having quality content aggregated in a nicely formatted package that provides a great user experience.

Disclosure: I’ve linked to Digging Into WordPress using an affiliate code. As a general policy I only recommend products I’ve actually purchased at full price. I only recommend products that are exceptional in some way. Digging Into WordPress meets all of those requirements. If you’re looking for a WordPress book I give Digging Into WordPress my highest recommendation.