Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm self-publishing my first novel. Don't really care about making money off it. I just want to get it out to as many people as possible. Does anyone have experience marketing in low-price markets? Can dropping the price too low devalue the book in the eyes of potential readers causing them to lose interest?

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As for devaluing, that's entirely up to you. People price their books at all different levels, from free up to $10 or more. While the price will factor into whether someone will buy a book (I personally won't pay over $5 for an ebook), that's not the only factor.

Well, for example I really wanted to read And I Darken but it was $12 on Kindle - I'd have never paid that!

The best thing is when I see a book I'm on the scales about and it's just a couple of dollars/euros in ebook format. So I wouldn't advice going over $3 if you can (length will factor into what most publishing sites let you select during pricing).

I also wouldn't put it as less than $0.50 because then I expect bad quality and the description has to be supreme for me to buy it, or alternatively it should have a nice big following online/great GRs reviews.

This is all a personal opinion. I can't guarantee it's a good sales strategy.

Ok--I don't sell many copies, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I currently have one book available, with two more books in the series to follow. The current book is priced at $3.99, and I plan to keep it at that price, at least until I release the next book in the series. I do this for two reasons: 1) I think the price you charge plays into your overall brand strategy. However you price it, that's what you're saying your brand is worth - especially if you only have one book available. 2) I spent a lot of time & effort writing my book (as other authors do) and I don't believe it's good business to simply give it away.

But, then again, as I said, I don't sell many copies and I'm okay with that.

David wrote: "Ok--I don't sell many copies, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I currently have one book available, with two more books in the series to follow. The current book is priced at $3.99, and I pl..."

"I spent a lot of time & effort writing my book (as other authors do) and I don't believe it's good business to simply give it away."

Bravo! I love your attitude!

No one is going to develop a "following" by giving away content.

There are, at last count, 17 gazillion books on Amazon. To be discovered is difficult. If you have sales, that's a start. Congrats on that!

J.D. wrote: "No one is going to develop a "following" by giving away content."

There are best-selling authors in this group that would argue this isn't true. I'm a reasonable selling author and I'd argue that isn't true. Again and as always, what works for one person (or doesn't) will not work (or will) for all. By all means, don't offer your books for free, especially if you've only got one, but know that this strategy will work for some people.

All your advice (though somewhat conflicting) has been quite useful in helping me select a range to sell in. Thanks!

To add to the answer to your first questions, a couple of things that I have noticed while selling my self-published book at free, $0.99, and $2.99:

1. In the promotions that I've done (Fussy Librarian, Bargain Booksy, ENT), I've achieved the best results when the book has been $0.99 or free. I've seen a higher read % with $0.99, but a lot more "sales" with free.

2. In the UK, there is a theory that readers won't pay more than 99 pence or an e-book. My own experience backs this up, but I must admit that the sample size is small. I've heard the same about India, but don't have any evidence.

Christina - I would tend to agree with you, provided the free/low-cost offerings are done as part of an overall marketing strategy. With just one book available, I personally cannot see the wisdom in offering it for little to no cost at this point. (Perhaps when I have other offerings, this will change.)

Unfortunately, it seems that many new authors tend to go in this direction when their books don't sell right away, thus damaging their overall brand over the longer term. When you start out selling your product at a low cost, or giving it away, that is what your audience will expect.

I also question how much actual readership free books receive. You may get a lot of downloads, but are they actually reading your book? If someone has a monetary investment in your product, they're more likely to actually read it.

My two pennorth. I sell (a little) and I have the following observations.

Free gets a lot of downloads but I’m not sure how many reads. Seems to depend. Sometimes a short freebie blast has garnered reviews (the only yardstick we have to measure reads) other times not.

99p/99c has been good to me, but I am slowly creeping into the $2 bracket. It does seem that if people have paid a little they are more likely to read.

Where I think people may be getting themselves a bit muddled is the idea that a price needs to be fixed. It doesn’t. Have a sale every now and then. That’s what I have had success with.

And don’t fall into the trap of looking down on free or 99c offerings. For some they are the highway to success.

David wrote: "Christina - I would tend to agree with you, provided the free/low-cost offerings are done as part of an overall marketing strategy. With just one book available, I personally cannot see the wisdom ..."


Jane and David make excellent points.

Pricing is not important. Good writing is.

Think about it:

Every successful writer was a novice and started where everyone else started. The Beginning. Successful writers cultivated a following because people liked what they read and made recommendations to friends and family.

Amanda Hocking is a great example. She needed money so she self-published some stories. She didn't give away her content. It was her writing that attracted readers not the pricing.

There is elasticity, of course. No one is going to spend $100 for a paperback. $0 isn't attractive, either. There is a concept of "perceived value." If something is priced at zero, what is its worth?

Your writing is worth something. You worked hard and you're entitled to earn something from your work.

I'll go with J.D. on this. I've had this exact discussion with my husband the other day because I was getting worried about pricing my new children's book too high, afraid nobody would buy it. I have the ebook set at 5.99€ - not expecting much sales there - and the print book at 9.95 €. I wanted to do a sale for the release and he said no, don't do it. Your work is valuable, so set a fair price. He has worked for a big retailer and said in his experience, if people get something cheap, they think it's cheap. They won't value it.
And if I really don't sell anything, I can still do a sale. But I will not offer these books for free. I have a short story that serves as a teaser for my full length novel - I tend to offer that for free once in a while, but that's a different approach. I'm hoping people will buy the novel after reading the short.
I'll let you know if my husband's approach worked in about two months!

I absolutely think we indie authors price their books too low in general. We tend to think that if we go as low as we can, readers will take a chance on us. In my experience, that's simply not how it works. People don't value "cheap" books. They're also used to new books by famous authors being priced way too high, so if they see something cheap, I assume they think the book must be bad.

All I know is that when I priced my books at 2.99, they never sold. Now, at 4.99, I'm having a sale every other day. That said, if it's a short story or novella, pricing it anywhere from .99 to 2.99 makes sense, just because it's not a full novel. Readers world feel ripped off if those were priced too high.

But overall, I REALLY think we need to stop pricing too low. It only damages the reputation of indies. Freebies and sales once in a while is fine, but the everyday price should reflect what you feel it's really worth.

Lyra wrote: "I absolutely think we indie authors price their books too low in general. We tend to think that if we go as low as we can, readers will take a chance on us. In my experience, that's simply not how ..."

Again, this is a personal choice and what works for one may not work for another. Price your books where they work for you, but remember, we're not here to dictate what every author does.

I somewhat agree with you Lyra. If one can get sales and keep your prices "high" (I don't think 4.99 is high), by all means go for it. And I have found that my longer books tend to sell better with the price "high".

However, I'm not sure I agree that lower pricing is somehow damaging to all Indies. If someone is finding success by giving a lot of free stuff away, by all means, they should continue.

My marketing strategy is this...
I am not a fan of 99c books in general because I feel it devalues an author. However, that being said, in order to build a fanbase I highly suggest publishing a first book at 99c with a great title, proper editing, a nice cover, blurb, and marketing to back it up. Including at least 25 honest reviews to go live within 24 hrs of it going live. This helps built amazon algorithms in your favor.

If it is the first of a series, I would keep it at 99c indefinitely or make it perma free once the 3rd book comes out in the series. If it is your first book and is a standalone. I would still keep it at 99c but never free because you don't have subsequent books to offset the income. This is to help build further readership and I have seen a huge benefit from this.

My first book of a 4 book series is FREE. I kept it at 99c since it was published. Then after the 3rd book in the series was to go live, I got it knocked down to perma free. It was one of the best choices I ever made.

I also charge $2.99 for all of my new releases as a sale unless it's the first in a series, or a novella. Then I raise the price up after 2 weeks to a month.

Yes, authors devalue themselves with 99c books all the time but it's a sound marketing strategy to build your name to start low and build.
I published my first book 3 years ago come November.
I did a pre-order ( I do not suggest ever doing this bc it messes with algorithms in a bad way.) In the 60 days it was up for pre-order I sold 36 copies at 99c.
I was discouraged.
However, when the book went live I had a sound marketing strategy behind me and within the first 2 months I have over 100 reviews and I'd sold close to 2000 copies.
Since then, I've followed my similar path... and I've had highly successful books. Including 1 hitting Top 100 in all of Amazon for over a week.
While I can't attest to what works for others. This is my experience.

The higher the rank on amazon and better marketing, the more people's hands you're going to get your book into.
Hope this helps at least some.

Again folks, feel free to give your opinions on what works for you, but do not make general statements about how certain prices devalue everyone. You have the right to price your book at whatever price is comfortable for you. Keep the conversation positive.

And then, there are us folks who don't have much choice in the matter. My indie- publisher set the price, and when I balked, they explained the cost was based on the size of my book (514 pages), and nothing could be done about it.
Well, this left me down-hearted, as it is my intention to provide insights and spread hope with my tale, but who is going to pay a high price for a paperback?
E-version is much less expensive, but still.

Previous post deleted as it is a duplicate and off topic. We welcome comments, but please try to keep them relevant to the conversation and within the rules.

I always set my ebooks to $2.99, should I consider raising the price a dollar or more to some?

Wow, what a great discussion! For me, I love a good sale every now and then and a discounted price to $0.99 will certainly help me make an impulse buy when I wouldn't pull the trigger otherwise. (My personal Kindle library backs this up!) However, I agree that far too often I let some of those impulse buys stack up longer than usual before I read them. BUT I think that's just part of seeing so many potentially good reads out their for the taking and limited time to read. Regardless, I forget this fact when I see $0.99 on a book with a beautiful cover and blurb. It's just plain hard to pass them up!

However, I think there is something in my mind that really likes to see the book valued at the pre-sale price and knowing I'm a) getting a deal, and b) it was previously valued at $1.99 or up. I do kind of relate value to price tag, though I know you can never judge a book by it's cover, price, etc. There are hidden gems everywhere!

With my own book, I've not offered it free just yet (but will run limited time free promos once the sequel is available for pre-order.) But I have gotten great success at sales promos at $0.99. Bargain Booksy, Bookcave, etc. These ads create urgency.

BUT...when not running ads and I tried the $0.99 regular price mark, I sold far fewer books than I did at my prior established $2.99 rate. Like waaaaay fewer sales. Not sure if that was a genre thing, but it was clearly visible after 4 weeks or so of tracking.

Again, different books and different marketing techniques all play into results. Someone else could have done amazing with a lower fixed price.

I appreciate this discussion thread. As a rather new Indie author, I've often wrestled with the decision of what price to offer my books. When I began, I checked on a "typical" price for an e-book from what seemed to be newer authors, and decided to go with $3.99. One of the factors I considered was exactly what many of the writers on the discussion board have mention. I didn't want to devalue my work or give the impression that my books weren't worth the time to read them. On the other hand, I don't have too many sales because I don't have a following yet.

I do tend to offer my books for free if I hit rock bottom with sales. I'll usually "sell" a lot on the giveaway, but I don't see it translate into feedback. That makes me think that they're just resting on kindle libraries and there's no incentive to read them.

Guess I still have to play with finding my own marketing algorithm.

Interesting. I relate price to the length of the book. My book is nearly 500 pages and Amazon doesn’t allow for me to lower the print version below $12.00. I have it priced at $13.99 and make just over a dollar per sale. As for the ebook, I set the price to $5.99. For the amount of work that went into it, I feel this is a fair price. I’ve sold a decent amount, but nothing to write home about. How do all of you make any money if you’re selling it for .99?

Marcia wrote: "How do all of you make any money if you’re selling it for .99?"

Like everything else about publishing, pricing isn't a one size fits all option. I know authors selling thousands of copies at 99¢ and authors selling zero copies at higher prices.

I currently have a series on sale for 99¢. It's 700 pages and normally sells at $7.99, which is already a discount off the price if you were to purchase each title individually. I make 35¢ per sale, but I advertise and make more sales than I would normally, which boosts visibility. Since my book is in Select, this also puts it in front of KU subscribers, which is where I really make money since even when rates are low, I get more than the full price royalty if someone does a read through.

And remember, not everyone writes to make money. This may be my job, but it would be foolish to assume sales will always be steady.

I have several of my books at different prices and I think the price of your book depends on your strategy.
For a series, you may want to have the first book as permanently free to hook in readers.
For Non-fiction if you have both the kindle and the physical copy at higher prices (and your book is subscribed to matchbook), this may sell more paperback copies as the reader gets both versions at a bargain price.
There is also the issue of perceived value if you have a book in KDP select will readers read it as part of kindle unlimited if it is only $0.99.
Rather than looking at it from a writer's perspective, look at how you purchase books. Are you a bargain hunter or do you ignore cheap books?
When we spend hours and hours writing we may feel that our book is worth more than $3-$4 but remember that you aren't aiming to just sell one copy.
I always remember Jack Canfield talking about the relatively low royalties he envisaged for "Chicken Soup for the Soul". He was focused on the volume of the sales and that's how he accrued a lot of money by a small margin.

I think it all depends on perspective.

For newbie writers like me, pricing it at 0.99 is a non-issue. Newbies are unknown. No following. No track record. Before publishing, I thought I would be happy if I get 500 people to read my book. I did go with a freebie though for 2 days. I thought it wouldn't be fair to my readers in the free website where I first wrote since KDP rules required no other digital copies in circulation.

Came out with a mobi version, priced at 1.20. Sales were okay so far even after a month. Actually, the KU reads have jumped and the daily paid sales have reached a steady average. I am very thankful for the lucky break.

I guess pricing would depend on the author and his marketing strategy. If you're a writer of long standing, pricing would be a concern as it ties in with a definite marketing strategy and experience.

For newbies, pricing a book 2.99 or below could be crucial as what we need as new authors is exposure and for readers to give us a chance.

My two cents. Thanks.

I think personally, you can price a book too low. If I see a book being priced for a few cents, I, as a consumer, am going to suspect the book is going to be low quality, and I'd rather save myself the time of reading it. Harsh, but I only have so many hours in the day to read a book. I'd rather give myself over to a book that has an intriguing blurb, a professional looking cover, and a decent (but not over priced price). I think $2.99 or around about is a good price. This leaves you open to do sales for holidays and events, so you can slash prices for that without undervaluing the quality of your book.

I know making money off of it isn't your main goal, but I think if your goal is to get your book in as many hands as possible... I don't think pricing your book REALLY low is your best route.

One other thing you could do, is find book reviewers online. Most will review your book for free, and post their review on their site and on places like amazon and wherever else you have your book listed. You can find book reviewers all over the internet if you search Google for a few minutes.

Hey all,

Wanted to throw my two-cents into this conversation as I've had an intersting experience. This year, I have really thrown myself into the writing AND advertising part of my indie author publishing and had wondered the same question posed. My firt book, which we'll call Novel A, was published at 99 cents and was a decent sized book. It didn't really move, even at 99 cents. When my publication platform did a site wide discount, I priced my book for free and over 8 copies were sold in a matter of hours. I was like, "Okay, I guess people want free books."

That didn't prove the case as Novel B, smaller and priced at $1.99 sold well except when it was free. The only thing I can think of is that it has to be with the audience as each book was in a different genre.

That's my thoughts!

I've been pricing my novels on Kindle at 2.99 and dropping to.99 for promotions, but I will not drop them to Free. When an author drops a book to Free the customer is still charged .99 + tax! Why drop to free and get no royalty at all when the buyer is still going to pay .99? I called Amazon when I saw I was being charged for the supposed free books and they said it was the cost of processing.

This is directly from Amazon. I am always charged .99 and tax for a book marked free. If it's through Kindle Unlimited, then there is no charge, but if an author drops their price, the customer is charged. I called Amazon and was told it's their processing fee.

I grab tons of free books all the time and have never been charged for any of them. Check with Amazon again. There's definitely something wrong.

Eliza wrote: "I think personally, you can price a book too low. If I see a book being priced for a few cents, I, as a consumer, am going to suspect the book is going to be low quality..."

There are consumers like that, yes. There are some who will not pay more than a few cents for an ebook. There are some who will not even pay for one.

I have bought some books for 3.99+ and found many errors, poor sentence structure, etc. I have also picked up free books that were fantastic. Price has nothing to do with the quality of the writing.

Lori wrote: "This is directly from Amazon. I am always charged .99 and tax for a book marked free. If it's through Kindle Unlimited, then there is no charge, but if an author drops their price, the customer is ..."

If the price of a book is $0.00, you are not charged anything. If you are buying a book at 99¢ but that book is also enrolled in Select, you will see a price of $0.00 for Kindle Unlimited. You are likely looking at the Unlimited price and not the retail price. Free books and books priced within the 35% royalty structure have no processing fee and books in the 70% royalty structure have a fee that is assessed to the publisher, not the reader. I don't know who told you otherwise, but it wasn't Amazon.

Christina wrote: "Lori wrote: "This is directly from Amazon. I am always charged .99 and tax for a book marked free. If it's through Kindle Unlimited, then there is no charge, but if an author drops their price, the..."

This is all very confusing. I download books all the time. If I download a free book fro Freebooksy or Book Scream they send me to Amazon and the book says .00 I press buy now and my bank card is charged 1.07. That is .99 + .07 for sales tax. I was surprised by that and I called Amazon. They are right here in Seattle. The woman AT AMAZON told me they always charge .99 and tax unless you belong to Kindle unlimited.

My two cents worth--a friend told me not to give away Free books during a promotion because it attracts Trolls who will give you one-star reviews. I tried it and sure enough, she was right.

Lori wrote: "The woman AT AMAZON told me they always charge .99 and tax unless you belong to Kindle unlimited."

Yes, *if* the book in question is currently retailing for 99¢, you will be charged 99¢, however, if the book is retailing for 0.00, you pay nothing. Keep in mind you need to look at the retail price, not the Kindle Unlimited price.

As to the newsletters, they specifically note that the prices are verified to the best of their ability, but you should check the price before clicking the buy button. Many promos are time sensitive. I ran a promo with BookScream yesterday. Three of my books were free. You can go look at yesterday's newsletter and see each of my books listed at $0.00, but when you click over to Amazon, you'll see that they are all back to their regular retail prices.

Anne wrote: "My two cents worth--a friend told me not to give away Free books during a promotion because it attracts Trolls who will give you one-star reviews. I tried it and sure enough, she was right."

First off, I am not even seeing that many one star reviews on your books and the two I found on Amazon seem to have legitimate complaints, therefore are not "trolls".

Second, publishing a book is another way to get an occasional one-star review, but none of us have let that frighten us.

Third, ALL reviews are nothing but the reader offering an opinion on your book. They are nothing more, nothing less.

I have gotten negative reviews after having freebie offers. I've also gained new readers. Some people are going to love your books, some are not. Don't let the latter or their reviews frighten you.

Faith wrote: "Is it fair to give the highest rating to a short sample burst, which doesn't test all aspects of writing craft, higher than you would give to a more developed and layered piece of story telling which may be of an equal standard page against page but is also consistently good over a longer stretch? Reviewers could be forgiven..."

Readers should be free to review any book they pick up, whether free or otherwise, whether a short story, sampler or full novel based on whatever criteria they feel necessary.

This topic is sliding into discussing reviews more than price of books. We're not here to discuss reviews as per group policy.

Free books are a great intro to new writers. There are many many free books, from special giveaways to Prime First to the top 100 free kindle on Amazon. The more you publish, the less you mind giving something away.

I've self-published three books in 2015,2016 and 2017. My goal is to release at least one book a year going forward. From my perspective, the issue of pricing also needs to take into account one's future goals. Does the writer wish to make it his/her full time occupation? Or, is it just a hobby?

Those writing for the sake of their personal enjoyment with no aspirations of making enough money to transition their occupation to a full-time professional author may have a different perspective about pricing. I am committed to making this transition with the goal of earning enough money from my books to make a living. As such, I've priced my books at the higher end of the spectrum equaling those by the top end authors.

However, as a marketing effort, knowing that each year, I continue to add more new books to my resume, I utilize targeted releases of free paperback versions. I decide who to give these freebie books to based on geographical location and their center of influences. Some people are centers of influences because of the number of FB friends they have, their occupation (i.e. Librarian) or their hobby (i.e. book club, Goodreads, etc.). The geographical location helps me strategically place books around the country as opposed to just around the area I live.

I also try to give away only my best work, which in this case is my most recent book. Although there have been times that I only had one of my earlier books available to give to a new contact, I am making a concerted effort to use only one book as the give away. My goal is to use the freebie as a teaser. A means to build readership with the hope that these readers will become motivated to not just spread the word about me as an author, but also motivate others to "purchase" my other books.

Using the paperback version gives me the opportunity to personalize the book with my signature and a word of thanks. Although an ebook version is available, my hope is the personal touch is the key. My vision is "steady-Eddie" for the long view. Each of these freebies has the potential to leapfrog into full regular purchases and word of mouth referrals. During my recent 35th High School Class Reunion, I was contacted by the committee to donate a collection of signed books for the reunion (which I gladly did). I then dove-tailed an impromptu book signing event the day before the reunion in my hometown, which went great! Those that came for the first time, purchased all three of my books at full price.

Anyways, I wanted to share my philosophy on using freebies in a selective and strategic manner while still offering my books for sale at the higher end. As an on going marketing plan, I will continue to price all of my books the same while utilizing the "freebie" book as a way to build readers and grow my overall sells.

I'm a new writer with only one book on Amazon so far. I put my price at $0.99 but then my friend said to price it more so that people will think its higher quality and will buy it. Is this true? I tried raising it to $2.99 but nothing happened. I don't know if I'm just bad at marketting or bad at writing at this point.

@Lionelson. It could also be a problem with marketing as well, a good price always helps, but no one is going to buy your book unless they know/hear about it from somewhere.

M.L. Roberts wrote: "Free books are a great intro to new writers. There are many many free books, from special giveaways to Prime First to the top 100 free kindle on Amazon. The more you publish, the less you mind givi..."

True. +1000.
Wreaks havoc though with one's paid book ranking.

Edmund wrote: "True. +1000.
Wreaks havoc though with one's paid book ranking."

With a limited time promotion, you're actually more likely to see your paid rank go up, assuming the book is in Select. KU subscribers often use promo newsletters to discover books to download.

Christina wrote: "Edmund wrote: "True. +1000.
Wreaks havoc though with one's paid book ranking."

With a limited time promotion, you're actually more likely to see your paid rank go up, assuming the book is in Selec..."

Thanks, Christina. It does help in the long term. Had a one-day free promo last 06 December as Christmas gift to readers. Free Book ranking went up to the top 1000s. Though when the paid ranking came back, it was about 7 tiers down. Took a few days to climb back up. But it's now higher than before (crossed fingers) so I guess it worked out in the end.

But for new authors (like me), don't be surprised if the BSR rating does go down, it's based on sales anyway. A free book day also means no sales so others get ahead in the list.

Giving away free books is a good idea. It may be the exposure, a way to drum up interest in your other books, or even as a way to give back something to readers.

I meant that a promo will give you an immediate boost because if a reader downloads the book with unlimited, your paid rank will go up even though the book is currently free. For example, my last free day, my book was sitting at a low rank (around 500k) on the paid charts on the day before the promo. During the promotion, I only saw the free rank, however, when the book returned to paid, the rank was around 25k, indicating that a handful of people had borrowed it. This is not uncommon if you advertise your freebie with an established site.

Dwayne wrote: "Anne wrote: "My two cents worth--a friend told me not to give away Free books during a promotion because it attracts Trolls who will give you one-star reviews. I tried it and sure enough, she was r..."

I know that brickbats are part of the game, and I agree that with freebies one can gain new readers--which was my hope. The issue I had was that with one in particular, it seemed that the complainer decided to say the exact opposite of what nearly everybody else had said about the book, including respected professional reviewers. And the comments were all generic, comments which could have been applied to almost any book. Seemed a little fishy to me.

Anne wrote: "The issue I had was that with one in particular, it seemed that the complainer decided to say the exact opposite of what nearly everybody else had said about the book, including respected professional reviewers. And the comments were all generic, comments which could have been applied to almost any book. Seemed a little fishy to me. "

At best, you had one reader who didn't care for your book and did you a favor by reviewing it (yes, even negative reviews are a good thing - be thankful). I'm not sure why a "professional" reviewer should be respected and this other one not. They didn't like your book. Let it go.

At worst, you really did have a troll, one troll, decide to take the time and effort to give you a negative review for the fun of it. If this is the case, yes it sucks, but don't let it bother you any more than it has. Let it go.

Keep in mind, complaining about reviews online can spiral out of control and can lead to more nasty reviews. We've seen it happen, which is why we discourage discussions of reviews here. Don't make yourself the target of more trolls. Let it go.