ROBUST discussion

Experience, results and conclusions of Seb Kirby's month-long pricing experiment.
http://noveltakenomore.blogspot.com/2...

I don't think his 99-cent sale was tested long enough for comparison purposes. Many authors have posted that June was a terrible month for them in the US because of the flood of free books and then the Sunshine Deals.

Others have posted that June was a superb month for them. My sales trebled over May, which itself was a good month.

One person did however say that in a similar experiment she didn't see a result from the 99c price for a few months. You can't ask anyone to take the financial hit of running an experiment that long.

I'm inclined to accept Seb's results at face value, because those are also my conclusions from running the same experiment.

I don't have big numbers, but my comparison in recent days shows just the opposite of your results. I made no sales at $2.99 for many days; lowered to 99-cents and made several sales.

Also, the "financial hit" Seb would take from extending the test is tiny if you're talking about the US numbers (comparing a drop of fewer than a handful of copies from May to June) if the pattern continues -- then there's the upside outside the US.

Because of the Amazon royalty structure, here's no upside until the writer, any writer, not just Seb, sells more than six times as many copies at 99c as at 2.99. Seb was selling 3 times as many copies in his best market. That's a financial hit.

Of course, if you start at zero copies, anything is an improvement.

He was a bit off on the royalty. He said 30%, but it's 35%. At the higher rate, there's also a delivery charge deducted, so the math isn't as clear-cut as stated. But you and I are looking at his report differently. I'm seeing growth (except for that tiny dip in the US), and would expect the expanded audience to bring him more and more sales over time as people talk about his book. Then, as he adds more titles, I'd expect those folks to be repeat customers (because his book is good). I don't think he can measure the money in terms of a few months of sales. It'll take time to build an audience, and that's what I think a 99-cent price can do for him.

I do know that he promoted like crazy. I saw tweets for his book just about every day, multiple times per day in fact, and I joined in promoting him.

Since all my work is free on smashwords this month I'm taking a big hit. But I'm doing it for a reason.

Mid-June was the first time I'd sold books in 10 weeks.

Now all my work has references to the new book - I'm telling myself that in a couple of weeks, when StM comes out - there will be people looking for it.

BTW - I've got a sales plan.

I'm going to release StM on B&N because Paranormal is hot there and they are willing to pay higer prices. I HOPE I can release it at $3.99 a copy and sell some. Then when it goes to Amazon (August) there will be some demand for it.

I can afford to advertise on Nookboards - most of my sales take place there.

If I release it on Amazon, then I have to sell it at $.99 - and I don't want to do that. IF it bombs on B&N I can always drop the price.

(Fingers crossed.)

The first essential of a good plan is a fallback position. That's a super plan.

(Except that I like 2.99 better than $3.99. I haven't however tried $3.99 as I used $4.99.)

Thanks - $3.99 is a compromise - between $4.99 and $2.99.

It has a pro-cover and was copy edited. It's my 'second' novel, so all the flaws of the other were corrected.

Actually it's my 6th, the first 4 weren't good enough to publish.

I'm looking at having it out for next weekend. B&N takes a long time to process.