Someone called me the e.l.f. Cosmetics of independent publishing last week.
I am choosing to take that as the highest possible compliment.
Here is what happened. I priced my books low. yep… Totally on purpose. Other authors told me I was crazy. Someone suggested I speak to a pricing expert. I am fine, people.
I also enrolled Maternity Abroad in Kindle Unlimited. Which means if you already have a Kindle Unlimited subscription you can read it as part of your existing membership. No additional cost. No decision required. The book is just there when you need it.
Here is why I did both of these things and why I would do them again.
My reader is not scrambling for money. She is making considered choices about where it goes. She is the kind of person who researches before she buys, reads the studies, and takes her own experience seriously enough to invest in understanding it. She deserves a book priced as if her time and her decision matter. Quality and affordability are not opposites and I refuse to accept that they are.
It started me having a laugh with AI… but I mean I would wear it. Wouldn't you?
Relevant and quality information should be affordable and easy to find. That is not a pricing strategy. That is a belief. The price is just what happens when you build around the belief instead of around the margin.
e.l.f. Cosmetics spent two decades being dismissed as the cheap option while every expensive brand ignored the customer they had decided was not worth serving. Then e.l.f. hit a billion dollars in revenue and bought the hottest brand in the industry for a billion more. I am not saying I am building a billion dollar company, but deciding your reader is worth serving at a price she can actually afford is not crazy. It is the whole point.
I also donated copies of Maternity Abroad to libraries in Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The libraries in Australia and Portugal confirmed receipt and Amsterdam was delivered. The British Library in London — I walked in and handed over the copy in person. I have never received a confirmation. If anyone sees it there, send me a picture.
My First American Coloring Book is not on Kindle Unlimited and that is intentional. That one is a physical book on purpose. The whole point is to get children off screens and onto pages with crayons in their hands. A digital version would defeat the argument.
Parenting Unpacked is not yet on Kindle Unlimited. When it is I will tell you here.
Until then: Maternity Abroad is in your Kindle Unlimited library right now. The ebook is priced as if the person reading it matters. Because she does.
I am fine, people.
Jessica Gabrielzyk
