A interesting conundrum. His book is 'worth' nearly $0 if he's an unpublished author. His strategy is weak because he's trying to hit a home run at his first at bat while learning the game. His understanding of the economics involved is very weak because not only does he not know how to price his book he states "You have to have a good editor and some good, knowledgeable friends who are willing to severely criticize your work." So he doesn't recognize (or perhaps he does but hasn't internalized it) the value that is brought to the book by the editor (who quite reasonably might want a cut, just like the back up band gets paid if they help you do an album :-)
I suspect he may end up bitter and disillusioned if he is not careful.
A 'healthy' way to work this would be to write the equivalent of articles on the areas that he is a subject matter expert in, that are short 1500 - 2500 words. Something that can help him develop his writing voice and let him seek out and evaluate the effectiveness of various authors. Self publish these for free or a modest sum (like $0.99). The goal of this stage is to build up an understanding of what it will take to actually write your books.
Next once he has some experience and a good set of tools take take the top 10 articles he self published and organize them with a greater structure and updated to the current standards as a 'composition' book. This, if he has any audience at all, he can sell for $3 - $5. Surprisingly to some, but people will buy his articles again when they are put into this format. (magazines do this all the time they sell 'best of' books from magazine articles). He will also pick up new readers by word of mouth with other folks.
Not guaranteed of course, he may find that his writing is not well received. But the whole "I'm writing my first {e-}book, I wonder what I should charge for it?" question is backwards, the real question is "What is a book I write worth to the public?"
I suspect he may end up bitter and disillusioned if he is not careful.
A 'healthy' way to work this would be to write the equivalent of articles on the areas that he is a subject matter expert in, that are short 1500 - 2500 words. Something that can help him develop his writing voice and let him seek out and evaluate the effectiveness of various authors. Self publish these for free or a modest sum (like $0.99). The goal of this stage is to build up an understanding of what it will take to actually write your books.
Next once he has some experience and a good set of tools take take the top 10 articles he self published and organize them with a greater structure and updated to the current standards as a 'composition' book. This, if he has any audience at all, he can sell for $3 - $5. Surprisingly to some, but people will buy his articles again when they are put into this format. (magazines do this all the time they sell 'best of' books from magazine articles). He will also pick up new readers by word of mouth with other folks.
Not guaranteed of course, he may find that his writing is not well received. But the whole "I'm writing my first {e-}book, I wonder what I should charge for it?" question is backwards, the real question is "What is a book I write worth to the public?"