ROBUST discussion

Found an interesting thread over on KB: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php....** The topic was nothing new, same-old, same-old debate about pricing. The interesting part was that many said they had or were about to raise their prices because they felt that those looking to borrow books might see more value in borrowing books with a higher perceived value.

Not going to go into my thoughts on pricing, y'all know where I stand there I am sure. But perhaps finally, indies will gather enough courage to price their books a bit higher than bargain-basement levels.

That would be a good thing for all I think, and it may even encourage indies to take the time and care to make sure their writing is the best it can be.

But now I have a dilemma. Should I raise my price even higher to distinguish me from everyone else?

** Last I looked, the thread had degenerated into one of those silly no-win catfights. The first couple of pages are where it gets interesting.

I saw that, too, Sharon. It would be good if they could get out of the 'give it away' mentality. I'm not selling many at $2.99, but it's no worse than at 99c and I do feel like I'm selling to actual readers now.

Off to put my books up to $100 each...

...or maybe not.

That's the stuff, Katie!

I considered the value of switching to higher prices when Kindle Select was announced because I figured it would attract more borrowers in the lending library. In the end, I decided not to raise my prices. No doubt there are plenty of Kindle owners who'll never use the library, and those with just the Kindle app can't use it. I don't want to scare off those potential readers.

Now I'm glad I didn't raise my prices. It looks like a lower price is more, not less, competitive -- even in the library. With my books no longer free, I'm seeing a significant increase in sales. Significant for me, I mean; not significant to someone who's been selling lots of books.

No one sees my books on the freebie lists anymore, but they're finding them somehow. It's my belief that they're finding them in the library. Some are borrowing them -- but even more are purchasing them. I suspect they bought them rather than "waste" a borrow on such an inexpensive book (and wouldn't have bought them if they'd been priced higher).

In the three days since the promo ended, I've had more sales than I've had in a typical month. Every time I check the numbers, more have sold. Seems to me KDP Select is going to be an outstanding tool for indies. Thank you, Amazon.

Thanks for the link, Sharon. I'm off to read it now...

Saw Maria Meromana on that link and wonder why she isn't here...

There was talk of putting all our ebooks up from £2.99, which is a special offer price to celebrate the 21st birthday of IdITAROD, to the normal price of $4.99 in the new year. I left them to it. The argument is that the books are selling pretty well at $2.99.

We're going to use Dakota's first book with Select to see if it is a good introductory tool. Looks like Sierra has it right. If you price low, you get sales instead of borrowings. I don't see anyone borrowing a 99c book or even a $2.99 book when they can borrow a $12.99 book instead.

You ask me, with my old management consultant's hat on my head, I'd have to say the CoolMain success in selling unlikely books (literary criticism, a crossover YA book about a snow race) into the top of their categories for a whole year is due to quality and surprisingly attractive pricing. (Unfortunately, that doesn't explain why another quality book at the same price doesn't sell...)

I have to wonder if Select will change that permanently. Perhaps Select will create a quality end of the market that will be viable.

Amazon doesn't do things haphazardly so I'd guess they already know what will happen with this program. What's interesting is the payment scheme for borrowed books. Not only are authors competing with other authors, they're now competing with themselves.

It limits Amazon's downside cost while passing the costs of success on to the authors. Typical. Wish I thought of it first...

Good observation, Patricia...

Andre, I wondered if you would put Dakota's story on Select, thought it would be a perfect way of introducing a book, and especially a series...

BTW, thanks for the adroit plug on Amazon UK!

We've already decided to put Andrew's MEYERSCO into Select; nothing to lose

But all the other books do well on Apple, and there is every reason to believe Dakota's books will too, so the decision isn't straightforward.

You can pull her books out after three months and put them anywhere. Meanwhile, you get the boost of the freebies.

This is a question of who's her best longterm market. The owners of iPads fall smack in the centre of the socioeconomic classes who support the sports Dakota writes about. We don't want to go for establishing her fast only to find out later we established her in the wrong place. On the other hand, you can be too smart for your own good, over-analyse everything, and get nothing done... After the successes the ROBUST Pathfinders & Girl Guides have had on Select, I must say I'm warming fast towards the whole idea.

Also keep in mind that Kindles weren't always so cheap. And there's this: many Kindle owners also own iPads. They simply prefer the Kindle for reading, and the iPad for other activities.

Pathfinders and Girl Guides? Hmmm....

The program is definately worth considering. It depends on how many books you sell in other markets. I'd been at zero sales for a couple of months.

Gordon Ryan says of his two days free on Select:
"Closed out the 48 hour Free period with 12,098 copies given away."

There's the benchmark you want to try for next time.

Andre! Leave the girl alone - she did a fantastic job. Why compare?

We're not comparing. We're looking at a guy with lots of books and a twenty-year publication history. There's a lesson here for indies, that it pays to promote less and write more. Generally speaking, for each author in her genre and quality niche, results in these freebies will be related to the number of books she has. Kat did a mart thing when she bulked out her appearance on the net with her mom's short stories.

I agree with you, Andre. I have largely given up on major promotion and I am focusing on getting more books out. Too many ideas and no writing time though!

Patricia wrote: "Also keep in mind that Kindles weren't always so cheap. And there's this: many Kindle owners also own iPads. They simply prefer the Kindle for reading, and the iPad for other activities."

This is me. And it helps having a partner who likes gadgets and gets to play with them due to the nature of his job.

Thanks for defending me, Katie!

Gordon had sales and a fan base going into his 2 free days.

I had NOTHING - except my friends - going into this. Hadn't had a sale in 3 months.

So I'm pleased. I've gone ahead and looked at the numbers. There have been 150 sales in the UK, for 166 total sales since the promotion ended.

This was 'Let's Do Lunch' - not 'Swallow the Moon' so I've got some thinking to do about the 2nd book.

It may be in my best interest to give this a couple weeks and see what happens with sales. If 'Swallow the Moon' picks up I'll leave it be. Otherwise, I'm going to clear the channels.

Darn! Been too busy to check who was giving books away free. Would have downloaded some of Ryan's.

C'est la vie, I have more books on my Kindle already than I could read in a lifetime...

Seems to me Kat did at least as well as Ryan, from the perspective of years of branding, numbers of books and genre.

The most interesting thing to me is that Ryan chose to participate. One would have thought his books would be right up there in the demographic of ibooks, so to take that sales oppotunity away for 90 days over the tradionally best book sales time of the year says something about his faith in Amazon.

No doubt about it Kat, you rock!!

I don't know what y'all are so defensive about. I posted Gordon's numbers because a) he's a smart cookie with a good track record and b) I thought that compared to a known quantity Kat did rather well.

It was just the way you put it, Andre. It was like Crocodile Dundee - "That's not a good giveaway. THIS is a good giveaway." I know you didn't mean it that way, but that's how it looked to me.:)

I know, Katie. On the other hand, y'all sat up and paid attention to how well Kat did, even compared to a bruiser like Gordon.

Ha ha, and I didn't even know I was being defensive. I was delighted to see that Ryan had thought the program good enough to join in. I admire the man and his works. He would truly be one to listen to.

It's all good information.

But it makes me feel really good to be able to say of a friend: Kat rocks!

Well, I'm coming back down, rather like going down a steep slide.

The book has already vanished off the US Chart, and the Erotic chart rating has dropped from 1st to 3rd. Still #5 on Romantic Suspense for the moment.

Next weekend might see a few US sales, however, I think "Let's Do Lunch" will continue to sell better in the UK.

Hang in there in the UK. I put you on some prime real estate, and eventually the readers will arrive; there's already more than a trickle.

Andre - I'm all over that place now, so feel free to use my space for someone else, if you haven't already. And thanks again.

"Lunch" has clawed its way up the UK 'Paid' chart - to a staggering high of #339 out of ALL PAID BOOKS.

I'm selling, really selling, about 30 books a DAY.

This is better than the freebies. Popped back into #1 on the Erotic Chart again. (wince) More returns coming, I've got 10 so far.

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #339 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Books > Fiction > Erotica > Adult Fiction
#5 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
#5 in Books > Fiction > Romance > Thrillers & Suspense

Off the charts in the US - can't find 'hide nor hair' of it.

Good for you, girl!

The program is worth playing with.

Are you still getting sales, Patricia?

Nope, nothing to brag about. Still had some yesterday, but none so far today. A friend tells me he now sees no sales bump following his free days. Looks to me like you're the star, Kat.

I'm putting a kids' book into a five-day freebie run tomorrow. Just loaded it last night; written under a pen name along with John Philpin many years ago.

Yeah, it was great while it lasted. Now I've got to decide what to do to keep a few sales coming in for the rest of this season.

I'll pass you the crown for your YA book.

Sic 'em!

It's not a YA book. It's for itty bitty kids too young to read it themselves (somebody's gotta read it to them). Unfortunately, there's a major goof in the beginning, which I corrected, then I uploaded the new version -- but the Look Inside feature does not reflect that correction. Chagrin. I've written to KDP to ask them to fix it, but I doubt they will (or can) in time. This is a time-sensitive book because it's a Christmas story.

They're pretty quick right now. They put Dakota's book up in five or six hours, instead of several days as used to be the case. If they want to help you, they can.

Yeah, it didn't take long to post the book. But correcting Look Inside seems to be something else entirely. Not fixed and no response.

I'm desperately trying to claw out some time over the holidays to actually work on my books, and I have to admit some of these anecdotes make me wonder about experimenting with KDP Select a bit more.

C'mon in, J.a. The water's fine.

Okay - don't take our word for it.

Take KKR's word for it - She calls it the Halo Effect.

http://kriswrites.com/2011/12/22/the-...

She's not a statistician's backside but a real statistician would have screwed that pooch with a chi-square -- but Rusch came home with the right answer exactly because she's an artist.