Pricing for Launch: Book 1 in a New Series, Go High or Low?

If you’ve been following my blog for a while (or since last Thursday), you know I’m releasing the first book in a new series next week. As an independent author, you get to choose your own price for your ebooks, and it’s no surprise that “how much is right?” is hotly debated.

Should you price low (i.e. free or 99 cents) so more people will give your work a chance (and perhaps be willing to pay more for subsequent books in a series)? Or should you price your book higher, perhaps as much as a traditionally published novel, so people might think your work is of a higher quality? Or maybe you should try something in the middle such as the $2.99 price point, which earns you a 70% royalty at Amazon (with similar setups at most other stores) and is still a deal for the reader?

I’ll tell you what I’m planning for my new book and why, but first I’d like to point out that I’ve interviewed two brand new self-published authors this year who had wonderful book launches with very different pricing strategies.

Last May, Sue London launched her historical romance, Trials of Artemis, and hit the Amazon Top 100 (that’s 100 overall, not just in a specific category) with a 99-cent price tag and not a ton of marketing (yes, she did some, and you can check out the interview to see what). Amazon invited her to pre-sell her second novel, which she priced at $2.99, and it’s out now and selling very well (#494 overall, several weeks after launch).
Last spring, I also interviewed Leeland Artra, who launched his first epic fantasy novel, Thread Slivers, at $5.99 and who also did very well, especially when you consider that fantasy isn’t nearly as popular as romance. He’s since sold many thousands of copies and recently had a great launch for the second book in his series. (I will note that Leeland used “price pulsing” and sometimes dropped his ebook to 99 cents for a short time for advertisements with Bookbub and the like.)

From these examples, you can see that it’s possible to go either way, high or low, and do well. A great story, great cover, and appealing blurb can get you a long ways at any reasonable price point if you’re willing to do the marketing to get your book noticed. It seems that the price pulsing concept (and David Gaughran talks more about that in his book Let’s Get Visible) is working well for a lot of people right now, in 2013.

So what am I planning to do for my book launch?

Good question! I’ve gone back and forth on this a bit. My new series is contemporary fantasy instead of my usual secondary-world swords-and-sorcery, and I’m sure some of my current readers will give it a try, but I wouldn’t be surprised if others thought, “Enh, not really my type of fantasy” so I’m treating this as if I’m starting from scratch.

As I’ve mentioned so often before, I love the idea of making a Book 1 free (my first Emperor’s Edge book has been free in many places for almost two years) and letting people try my work at no cost, but that’s generally a strategy people employ after they have a couple more books out in their series (if there’s nothing for people to go on to buy after they finish the free one, they had a tendency to forget about you!). I published the third EE book before I made Book 1 free. Also, as I pointed out during some earlier mulling (Is Using a Free Ebook Still a Viable Strategy for Increasing Overall Sales on Amazon?), Amazon has made it a little harder for folks to find the free ebooks. I’d definitely prefer people to see my book right alongside all the popular contemporary fantasy novels in the paid charts, rather than having to consciously click on the “Top 100 Free” and start browsing there.

So, how about 99 cents for a Book 1? This is what I’ve been contemplating, since it’s the next best thing to free and still an “impulse buy” to many folks, but it’s hard to sell enough at this price (remember, you’re only getting 35 cents per sale because of the lower royalty) to recoup your costs and keep the lights on if you’re not writing in a hot genre. Of course, once you have more books out, it can make sense to have the “loss leader” Book 1.

Something else to consider is if your regular price is 99 cents, you lose the ability to put the book on sale (unless you’re exclusive with Amazon and able to make your book free for a two or three day stint). The problem? A lot of the advertising sites are only interested in plugging “bargain books.” Considering how many copies of a book you can move with a Bookbub ad right now, it’s worth thinking about sites like that as part of your market strategy.

So, start high and run sales?

Not a bad plan, but one thing that always bugs me about starting high and running sales is that the people who support you early on and buy the book right away end up paying more than others who simply see it on sale and grab it. It seems like your loyal readers should be offered the best price from the get go.

In the past, I’ve occasionally put a book up on Amazon for $X and then sent a Smashwords coupon to the folks on my mailing list so they can pick it up at a discount. The problem with this is that it encourages readers to buy from another retailer and doesn’t help with your Amazon sales ranking (more sales and reviews there increase visibility, thus helping new readers find your books),. I have enough folks on my list now that their purchases can really make a different insofar as visibility at Amazon goes.

The final decision…

So, after much debating, I’m planning to launch the book at 99 cents for the first few days, send out word to let everyone know they can grab it at that price so long as they get it soon, then raise the price to $3.99, the price point I’ve decided on for the rest of the books in the series. I’ll keep Book 1 at that price for the first year or so, and experiment with running sales when I have new releases ready, before rethinking 99 cents as a permanent price.

For those wondering why $3.99 is the magic number, it’s based on the word count and prices of my other work. The EE and Encrypted books are $4.95, but they’re all over 100,000 words (most over 120,000). My Peacemaker novella is 45,000 words and is $2.99. The first Rust & Relics novel is 83,000 words, so it’s right in the middle. I like to find the happy middle ground where the books are affordable even to voracious readers but where the royalties can pay the bills.

For those who are wondering if there will ever be a free option, I’ll be running the first book through Wattpad and posting a chapter a week. You can follow me over there if you’re not already.

That’s enough from me for today. Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share on pricing for a series or a launch? Please leave them in the comments section, below!

Related Posts:

Ebook Pricing Strategy for a Stand Alone Novel?
Ebook Pricing: How Much Is too Much?
Should You Price Ebooks at 99 Cents When You’re a New, Unknown Author?