Clever Pricing Sells Books...

But does it really make more money?

I've got a number of titles out now, all at prices varying between free and $2.99. There's no doubt that my 0.99 priced eBooks sell well, yet they need to sell a lot in order to make up for the low royalty rate.

If I sell one $2.99 book on Amazon, I'll net $2.07 of that which is pretty good. If I sell one $0.99 book, I'll only make $0.35. So for every one copy of a $2.99 book, I need to sell six $0.99 books.

A couple of months ago I switched my $2.99 novella, Deadly Beauty, to $0.99. I definitely saw a rise in sales, from selling between 2-5 copies a night at $2.99 to selling 10-15. However, at this higher sales rate, I still wasn't making the same sort of money. In fact, I was making half the amount. I left it at the 0.99 price tag for two months to see if it would hit the best-seller list. It did, briefly, but then dropped back out again. Last week I switched the price back to $2.99 and I'm back to getting those few sales but making more money. I'm happy with that.

Pricing books depends on two things; whether you want the book to be a steady income earner or if you want to have a go at getting the book on a best-seller list and selling a lot for it's category (though be warned, this won't last!). When 'Some Love it Hot' was at its peak, it hit #11 on the Amazon best-seller list on Amazon and sold around 80 copies a night. I don't need to tell you that even at 99 cents, 80 x 0.35 is a decent sum.

In the next month, I hope to have two more titles out. One is another short story collection, which will have the $0.99 price tag. The second is a novella and I'm still undecided about its pricing. To match Deadly's pricing, it should really be at the $2.99 price tag, but there's always that voice inside me, saying 'take the chance at the 0.99 price tag. This might be the one that really sky-rockets'.

Perhaps I'll launch the novella at 0.99 and see how things go... Or perhaps I'll just stick with $2.99 and hope it brings in those two or three sales a night that really add up quickly. Who the hell knows what the right answer is (or even if there is one). I guess its still just a case of play around and see what happens!

I'm a Guest Speaker at Eroticon: 2012 - Writing Sex Right!

This past couple of weeks I've become an even bigger fan of twitter than normal. Through twitter I learned  not only was an erotica writer's conference happening in the UK, but it was happening right up my road! Straight away I wanted in and contacted the organisers to see if I could get involved in any way. Though my sales have slowed somewhat over this past month my resume is still pretty impressive and the organiser emailed me back almost immediately. I told her I'm a bit of a chicken when it came to standing up in front of a big group and talking but that I'd love to work with smaller groups, looking at individual's writing and giving edits/critiques and advice.

So the writer's workshop was born! I'll be running two sessions with writers either emailing me their piece a couple of weeks in advance for a more in depth edit, or else bringing a piece with them for a quick critique on the day. I'll also be available for people to chew my ear about what has worked for me and what hasn't.

I'm really excited to be involved and I'm now willing March 2012 to roll on round.

Keep reading for some more info on the conference.

I hope to see you there!

Eroticon 2012 : Writing Sex Right

What is Eroticon?

Eroticon is the UK’s first conference for Sex Bloggers and Erotica Writers.

Eroticon is an all day event open to anyone writing about sex online from novice bloggers to published authors, the conference will provide a safe space to learn, share and network.
The schedule will include workshops and panel sessions covering a wide variety of subjects from writing inspiration, tech-skills, photography, intellectual property rights, getting published and more.
We are also working on having an evening event of sublime sauciness.

When is Eroticon?

Saturday 3rd March 2012

Where is Eroticon?

Eroticon will be held at Armada House in Bristol, UK.

How do I find out more?

Stop by the website and  Follow the hashtag #eroticon2012 on Twitter!