You may remember that I mentioned something a little while back about changing the pricing for my books. And you may also remember my staunch insistence a longer while back on keeping my books at $2.99. So what changed?
Well, I've been considering things. Mulling them over in my head. Stewing on them.
It seems to me that comparable books to mine are priced higher than mine. And yeah, there's the whole perceived disrespect for $2.99 books. And... Yeah... well, I'm trying something to maybe shake things up a little sales-wise.
And since, right now, the majority of my sales come from Kindle Unlimited page reads - which are unaffected by the list price of a book - I figure I can't hurt anything by switching things up a bit.
And since, other than page reads, the majority of my sales come from discounting my books, the list price really isn't affecting those sales either.
But maybe, just maybe, having a higher price will make some people more likely to buy my books or read my pages - especially when they DO go on sale and I have advertising in place...
Eh, it's worth a shot.
To that end, Project Hermes went up to $4.99 over the weekend. As did Blink of an I. Like I said, it seems to me that comparable books in length and genre are priced at that or higher.
Now comes the tricky part. Amazon won't let you change a price within 30 days of a Kindle Countdown Deal. Either you change the price and have to wait 30 days to have a KCD or you have a KCD and have to wait 30 days to raise the price. This means that the sales I'm planning for Dying Embers and for Wish in One Hand (July and August respectively) will junk up when I'm able to raise the prices for those series. So, SCIU and OUAD will remain at $2.99 each for at least the next couple months. After that, those two series will increase to $3.99 each.
I think I'm going to leave the Dennis Haggarty Mystery series alone at $2.99 each for now. That feels like it's in line with similar books. And I'm planning on Sleeping Ugly launching at $2.99. It's a shorter, snarkier paranormal novel and that's what those seem to be priced at when I go to buy them.
We'll see how this goes. I could fall flat on my face. But I'll never know if I never try. And doing things the same way I've been doing them isn't getting me better results than I've been seeing.
And that's where my brain is at right now. Any questions? Comments?
Good luck with it! I like $4.99 for my most recent books. The one time I went to $5.99, it was a disaster with readers actually posting negative reviews because of the price! So I'll stick with the $4.99 and under range.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth. Wow, I wouldn't have thought you'd catch crud over a dollar. But I have no clue what readers expect. I'm just feeling around in the dark here.
DeleteThe other thing to consider is that with a higher price point, you have to sell less copies to make the same or more money. I keep toying with that idea and will probably do some adjusting later in the year. I've just put mine all back up after a way-too-long sale. I didn't want to jump them too far so I'm taking incremental steps. I'll be curious to hear your results.
ReplyDeleteYep. Always something to consider. Or as Hubs likes to joke "if you make the price high enough, you only have to sell one."
DeleteWell, here's hoping I actually have some results to hear about and not just 'well, that didn't work'.
Let us know how it goes. Maybe $2.99 *is* depressing sales. Perceived value is an odd thing.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of having another sale, but no one noticed my last one. I may need to break down and get on social media. Yuck.
Indeed it is, Deb.
DeleteHey, I didn't even *know* you were having a sale. So, yeah, you kinda need to get the word out there more. Let me know if I can be of any help.
Thanks! Sooner or later I'll remember to set it up. ;-)
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