Mark Coker of Smashwords has released his 2014 survey of the indie ebook market. He always revels some great info on where the market is going and things we need to pay attention to. Smashwords.com is one of the major distributors of indie e-books
Some key points from the 2014 survey
• The e-book sales power curve is extremely steep
• Readers prefer longer e-books
• Pricing, always a big questions, sweet spots seem to be hanging around $2.99-$3.99 with $3.99 a pretty good spot for fiction
• Free still works for now. Take a look at Amazon Select for this, also your own site
• Preorders yield sales advantage, also building anticipation for your book
• Series yield sales advantage, Amazon has recently realigned itself around this
• Best-performing series have longer books
• Free series starters pack a punch
• Non-fiction earns more a higher prices.
You can read a nice summation at Smashwords.com, below is a copy of the presentation.