Monday 10 October 2011

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!

1 comment:

  1. So many tricks to the pricing game, my friend. Up and down, free, coupling, and cost leaders. Seems I've learned a lot from you in this regard. Your FB ads advice works very well.

    There is no doubt that free or .99 sells more copies, but the profit margin certainly is stymied. I'm doing a little experimenting right now with coupons and such, as well as adding in other venues of sale.

    Thank you for your advice, kind lady!

    Blaze

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