While I was researching how much the typical self-published ebook author makes per year, I stumbled across some fascinating figures for ebook pricing versus revenue.  The chart on the right is produced from the data on Joe Konrath's blog and shows that, at least in his scenario, the lower you price your ebook, the more money you make.

Pricing your ebooks at the impulse buy level makes a lot of sense, but will it work for everyone?  The internet is chock full of self-published ebooks priced absurdly high, often $50 to $100 apiece, which suggests that clearly someone has decided that selling a few books for a high price makes more sense than selling a lot of books for a low price.  Konrath sells his ebooks through Amazon and he also has a built in customer base, so he presumably doesn't need to spend any money advertising, and I suspect that may be the trick to pricing your ebook low.  The question is, does Amazon's search function provide enough "free" advertising that an unknown ebook publisher can sell an appreciable number of books without external advertising?

Mark pointed me toward a beautifully animated and flawlessly researched video by RSA Animate that pinpoints what motivates us to do our jobs better.  For those of you, like me, who seldom watch videos, especially ones more than a couple of minutes long, make an exception --- this video is worth watching not just once, but twice.  To make it easier, I've even embedded the video for you so all you have to do is click play.

The one point that really leapt out at me when I was watching the video is the idea that employees crave autonomy, that self direction makes them more engaged in their work so they create more interesting results.  One company has four Days of Autonomy every year where the employees are allowed to work on anything they please, with the only limitation that they have to share their results in a party at the end of the day.  After hearing about it, I immediately wanted a Day of Autonomy on the farm.

Now, Mark and I are nothing if not autonomous since we spend every day making up our own schedule, but at the same time we have so many big projects going on that most of the week gets sucked up in basic homesteading like chopping wood in the winter, weeding the garden in summer, and everything in between.  Mark has dozens of inventions just waiting to make their way off the drawing board, and I have an equal  number of writing projects that are itching to see the light of day.   So we've decided to try out implementing Tuesdays as a Day of Autonomy on the farm.  Stay tuned to see how it works out for us, and feel free to chime in if you give it a shot in your own business or life.