Kindle Readers and Authors discussion

Here's the latest update to my series on How To Price Your Book - 99c or $2.99? updated for August.

Here is the link:

http://noveltakenomore.blogspot.com/2...

I've expanded the concept a little to include highlights of some of the news and gossip on ebooks during the month.

These are the featured items:

'Take No More' Sales Figures for August

Reply from Small Press publisher on '99c or $2.99'

How much time do you spend on promotion?

Kindle published writers in the news

The move to short and even shorter

Google translate. How bad can it be?

I Write Like........

Hope you enjoy it!

Best wishes


Seb

Hi

I've kept 'Take No More' at $2.99 / £1.91 since August. Sales have remained respectable but not transformatory.

The numbers for September were:

76 US / 85 UK / 2 DE

So far, October has been slightly better in the UK but much slower in the US.

I'm now thinking of another one month only campaign for November pricing the book at 99c / 86p, but I can't fault the logic of the analysis that came out of the initial pricing experiment.

Best wishes


Seb

Interesting to hear how you keep going. Only today I raised my price from .99c to 2.99. I was only selling 1 copy every second day so I can't imagine my sales getting worse. I'll let you know how it goes.

Les

Good luck with that.

I've stopped the idea of monthly update of sales for Take No More, it seemed to be making the same point over again. But essentially, I have kept the prices the same since September.

Sales for October were: 20 US / 81 UK / 1 DE

So, about the same in the UK but much slower in the US.


Best wishes


Seb

Hi

For the US, I noticed recently that 11 of the Top 20 Kindle books are priced at over $7.00. Of course, most of these books have large publishers behind them with a good promotion budget that indies don't have. But perhaps, this reflects an association there of the kind 'what you pay for is what you get'.

The trend seems to be less pronounced in the UK.

So, against my own carefully worked out advice, I've increased the US price of 'Take No More' to $5.99 and while keeping the UK price at £1.91. It will be will be interesting to see the effect on sales.

Best wishes

Seb

I've just increased my urban fantasy & magical realism short story anthology A Matter of Perception to it's proper price of $2.99 (though it won't come into affect until tomoorow on Amazon) It'll be interesting to see what happens. Since I don't sell many, I figure I should charge the right price for it. http://amzn.to/vHMaZ6

Tahlia

Good idea to experiment with the price. One of the merits of amazon KDP. Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

BTW, my experiment with 'Take No More' at $5.99 didn't work. I now have it at $2.99 again.

Best wishes

Seb

Tahlia, I did the same with my book back in October. I'm not selling many, but I feel as if people are actually thinking about whether to buy it now, rather than just adding it to the pile because it's cheap. I'm not selling that many less than before either, so I'm actually earning more.

John

Agreed. I think that any 99c deals have to be seen to be strictly time limited and should not happen very often

Katie

I agree. There is real merit in the idea that people make a commitment when they buy and are thus more likely to value your work!

Best wishes


Seb

When I started selling my books on Kindle, I fell for the argument that books would sell far better at 99 cents than any higher price. I tried it. No Sale.

When I started pricing them at $2.99 or higher, they began moving. Apparently the rock bottom price technique sends various messages: a.) your not a professional writer and just want to claim you're an author; b.) the book is either poorly plotted, edited or written and thus not worth more in the author's estimation; c.) Either the book was dashed off with little time spent crafting the volume or the writer doesn't feel their time is valuable. Would any professional writer feel the book is worth less than one-hour of minimum wage after spending many weeks or months writing, editing, rewriting and publishing the book? d.) it's just a hobby and the writer is only seeking to brag about being an author without going through the effort.

When I raised my prices, first to $2.99, then even higher my books started to sell. Now I have two books selling at $9.99 and the newest fiction book at $8.99 and they are moving. Other books are priced differently depending on size and content.

I've published 3 short stories individually for the 99c market. I figure that's what you should expect to get for 99c. They all have advertisments in them for the 6 story anthology priced at $2.99 which I think is realistic for a short anthology of short stories.

Larry

Very revealing.

Tahlia

Yes, I think the case is stronger for 99c with shorts. Good luck with this.

Best wishes


Seb

Tahlia wrote: "I've published 3 short stories individually for the 99c market. I figure that's what you should expect to get for 99c. They all have advertisments in them for the 6 story anthology priced at $2.99 ..."

I agree on the 99-cent price for a short story. In fact, the only one I've written sells for that price.

There's some great short stories around for that price and I really enjoy having some single shorts on my ereader to read when I don't want a big time committment. I think shorts for 99c works really well.

I started out at $2.99 for the kindle version and my book sold modestly. At $0.99 it's barely moving. I'm thinking of switching back.

Timothy

Yes, it's really a hard decision. My view, after my 'experimentation' last Summer is that $2.99 is best if for no other reason that you have to sell 6 times as many book at .99c to achieve the same royalty. But it's a matter of personal judgment since there are no rules here and everyone will see this in different ways. Finding what works is the only yardstick, imho.....

Best wishes


Seb

It doesn't seem to make any difference to how many I sell unless it's free.