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Publishing and Promoting
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What price are you setting your ebook at?
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It depends a lot on the author and the book. If you are with a publisher they will set the price. My new novel is $6.99. I set my self-published work very cheaply for a number of reasons. For that I usually charge .99 for a short story and $1.99-$2.99 for a novella, but I run promos frequently and I give away a lot of short stories and sometimes have the novellas as low as .99.
In my opinion a debut self-published novel/novella should be around $2.99-$3.99. Personally, I won't usually buy them if they are much more than that, and the cheaper it is, the more likely I am to take a chance.
Deciding on a book's price is tough. Some authors charge by word length. Some start high and winnow the price down after time. Others focus on bargain pricing. Personally, I've never bought into that whole 'new authors have to price low' mantra. Every author in the world is an unknown author to a segment of the reading world. Every single one. You don't see traditional publishers charging 99 cents for their debut authors, do you?With that said, pricing can be a barrier for many readers to overlook. The more you charge, the less likely that some readers will purchase your book. Then you have a different market of readers who only purchase books with a higher price tag because they associate higher prices with quality.
You have to decide what market you're after. Are you publishing a paranormal romance novel? Maybe your prices should be lower to make your books appealing to younger readers who don't have a lot of cash. On the other hand, if you're writing for a niche genre, you're probably better off selling at higher prices since readers of a niche genre are generally more disposed to pay higher prices because of the dearth of content in their genre.
It also depends if the book is part of a series. I usually price the first in a series a lot lower. It give the opportunity for people to see if they like the whole concept before shelling out a great deal.
is currently $2.99 it is my first release. When I release book two I plan on setting book 1 price t free or 99 cents and the second book at $2.99
All this talk about price/page length reminds me of visiting the Louvre with a young woman who couldn't believe the Mona Lisa was so small and Manet's picnic scene covered a huge wall--"you'd think they'd price Manet's work out of sight, compared to that dinky Mona Lisa" she said.
My book is a fantasy/horror book for adults and it will be a series. I've been slowly building up a following on Twitter and it was a successful Kickstarter project.It was professionally edited and I know I do not want $0.99 as I often wonder myself if anything at this price has been edited! Although, then again, I've supported self published authors at $17 a paperback and those books have not been edited either...
I'll go over and harrass some people on the KDP forum now to see what they say!
OK, did some browsing on the KDP forum, there are many opinions, but generally:-$4.99 - $9.99 pricing gave impression of quality work
-below $4.99 there is suspicion of low quality
-sweet spot supposed to be $2.99-$4.99
One person was selling his first 2 chapters of a longer book for $0.99, something I've never thought of! The full length book was priced at $5.99/6.99.
Also discovered a wonderful survey done with 822 self-publishers in 2013 by Beverley Kendall. Just on pricing:
-For earnings from $50,000 - $500,000, $3.99 is the price point of choice.
-Above $500,000, $4.99 is the price point the majority (45%) of those authors are using
-respondents who made $0 - $10,000 have their bestselling books priced between $.99 - $1.99
Look up the survey when you have a chance, lots of good info there! (Wasn't sure if I was allowed to post link so I didn't)
That's great info, thanks for posting. I was thinking of pricing my ebook (memoir) at $6.99. It took five years to write and I've spent a good amount of $ on editors and set-up costs. I know readers don't think about that when they're shopping, but if an author goes that extra mile to create a work of really good quality, it makes sense for that book to be a little higher priced. For it to work with a new author, though, I'm thinking I should try for a solid amount of interest/positive feedback in my memoir (through advanced-reading reviews and other means) before even releasing it. Anyone done that?
I give away ARCs before every book launch. That way when the book goes live, review blogs are shining a spotlight on it and helping to drive sales.In fact, that's the part I mentioned before. Promotion is key to book sales. You'll hear about authors who don't promote and still sell. Don't believe them. Almost every single author I've come across who makes good sales always promote their books even if it's nothing more than a lonely post on Facebook.
I think authors with higher prices need to especially promote their works because they're the ones who have the most resistance to their books due to the price. Whereas an author who gives away the first book in his or her series is using loss leader tactics as their form of promotion. Either way you look at it, you have to promote your books to get eyeballs on them.
That's what I was thinking. It makes sense. When there's buzz around a book, people are less surprised that it costs a little more. Ok, good to know.
Cindy, I think what some authors fail to realize is that there are different markets within the marketplace. Some readers are bargain shoppers. If they see a book that interests them and it doesn't cost much, they'll take a chance on it. Other readers want quality and are willing to pay more for it. The thing is, they're the ones that require more convincing. A high price tag won't sell the book alone. But if someone, let's say a book reviewer, recommends the book, it changes the dynamics and makes the reader more willing to pay for that more expensive book. They just want to know that they are getting value and that they're not wasting their money. The bargain shopper uses a different metric. If a 99 cents book stinks, they're only out of a dollar. The big spender tends to be more sore over the fact that if they buy a bad book it cost them time and money.
I'd say 2.99-3.99 is fair, unless it is very long or very short.
Where do I go about looking for blogs to give ARCs to? Do I generally do a search for people in the genre I'm publishing in and then email them?
Vicki wrote: "With a 0.99 book you get a different audience, not necessarily a good one. ."I can't agree on that, Vicki. I'm a good audience, and I subscribe to BookBub; so far I've only taken books that are free to 1.99. I don't base my choices on length, but on subject, sometimes even title. For an unknown author whose writing I don't have a clue about I won't spend more than that.
I find that my .99 cent and free audience is extremely assorted. I've gotten some great feedback, and I have also gotten reviews from people who clearly would not have read my story if it had not been free and did not enjoy it. I've had people buy my entire bibliography after they got a free book. You never know.
Furthermore: I do a lot of reading of well-known writers, classics, and books reviewed in newspapers and on the radio. I expect to pay upwards of $10 for these books, tho now with the Kindle sometimes less. I can't go spending a lot on authors who self-published who I know nothing about.What I think is best is to give away a sample, as Amazon does. Then the price for the entire book isn't so important, I mean you can charge more or not, because if readers want it after reading a sample, they will pay for it.
Spending low on self-published new authors I've enjoyed quite a few of the books, and even reviewed one or two, but I've also gotten two that were pure and total crap, and I do mean crap. I don't recall the price, and I don't think price has anything to do with it. In the case of most services, price does matter, and frequently reflects quality-- but somehow with books I don't see it that way.
JF wrote: "Where do I go about looking for blogs to give ARCs to? Do I generally do a search for people in the genre I'm publishing in and then email them?"You have to research bloggers and reviewers who accept ARCs and contact them. Net Galley is a great service you can use to get your ARCs to reviewers. Also check out Midwest Reviews and any review journals that review ARCS from self-published authors. In the case of bloggers, make sure to send them a friendly reminder to post their review on or around the date of your book's release.
David wrote: "All this talk about price/page length reminds me of visiting the Louvre with a young woman who couldn't believe the Mona Lisa was so small and Manet's picnic scene covered a huge wall--"you'd think..."Oh, I love it! Unbelievable ...
JF wrote: "OK, did some browsing on the KDP forum, there are many opinions, but generally:-$4.99 - $9.99 pricing gave impression of quality work
-below $4.99 there is suspicion of low quality
-sweet spot sup..."
JF wrote: "My book is a fantasy/horror book for adults and it will be a series. I've been slowly building up a following on Twitter and it was a successful Kickstarter project.
It was professionally edited a..."
JF wrote: "OK, did some browsing on the KDP forum, there are many opinions, but generally:
-$4.99 - $9.99 pricing gave impression of quality work
-below $4.99 there is suspicion of low quality
-sweet spot sup..."
That is interesting information. I priced mine at $3.99 based on advice from my editors and a friend who is a successful author. I have been happy at that price.
I look at it this way, from advice I have read and received. Price you work higher because its easier to lower the price and get extra sales than it is to raise the price and maintain sales. A higher price also allow the reader to feel they get a bargain when you do put the book on specials at times...
My books don't sell well at low prices. In fact, it's the opposite. The higher my prices, the more units I move. So I'm one of the few authors out there who sells his books at premium pricing. Unless I'm running a promo, all of my novels are priced from $6.99-9.99 and I don't see that changing any time soon. At the end of the day, you have to settle with pricing that works for your business model.
Sure thing, Dianne. Happy to present a different point of view about pricing than you usually hear. But the main thing is that you have to promote. I've been slacking off in that regard and am just trying to get back up to speed.
I hear you, Dianne. Every time I stop promoting, my sales dry up. So now, it's time to get back to hawking my wares, lol.
For my self-published book, I set the price at $2.99, and that has been going pretty well, though I agree with ALL the comments about promotion. I don't know what my publishers are going to set my new detective novel at, but this thread reminds me to ask them!
Dianne wrote: "So now I'm curious. If you care to share, what do you think are the most effective way to promote?"To be honest, I don't claim to be a sales guru. What I've learned over the years is that readers are fiercely loyal to the authors they like. Having a platform to connect with them is probably the best form of promotion there is. Why? Because those are the readers who do the heavy lifting for an author. No sales tactic is superior to an author's book sales than getting a good buzz going. It's all about word of mouth and if you have readers that will advocate for you, you've won half of the battle. That's the one area, I feel I'm lacking. I need to do a better job connecting and fostering a relationship with my readers.
Other than that, I can't deny the power of offering free books to readers (especially if you have a series). Readers don't associate a lack of quality with free books like they do 99 cent titles. I've used free in the past to great effect and have seen how effectively it works. Again, if an author has a series, I'd highly recommend using free to give a reader a chance to give their work a try.
Oh, and do make sure you have a mailing list if you haven't got one already. The one regret I have is that I didn't start one sooner. Once you have a reader's attention you need to have a way to keep them interested in your work and few things do that better than having a way to notify them directly when you have a new book available.
I met a few authors who promote by going to conventions, buying a table and selling books. Some break even and some don't. Tables cost between $100-1200 depending on the convention. Was thinking of trying one or two cons this year so I won't break the bank and see what happens.My editor advised me to concentrate efforts online via twitter, facebook, a blog, etc.
I bumped all my prices down at the beginning of the year to counter Countdown and free promos. From .99 to 1.79 and some of them were selling at 2.99If inflation continues to rise on everything else, what use to be set in gold with ebook pricing will have to change.
Now, many are beginning to call .99 the new free book. I never had good results from using the 5 day free promo but using .99 helped greatly.
I still believe that as the economy continues to improve, more readers will be willing to shell out a little more for good books to read.
Anything from .99 used for promotional purposes up to the 2.99 price work well. Going higher is a risk unless the book is truly a novel.
You have to weigh your options, more profit and less sales or more sales with higher ranking with less profit.
Hopefully, things will turn on an upswing after this nasty cold weather fades away and things can return as they were.
My short stories are all 99 cents. I haven't settled on anything for the longer stories I haven't published yet.
Just finished coming off of a 99 cents promo for the first book in my series. Total bust. I can't wait for my price updates to go through so I can get them back up to their regular prices. The bargain price model just doesn't work for me (but I knew that years ago), so I'll stick with my Cadillac prices. It seems readers like to pay more for my books. They'll get no complaints from me!
I have varied prices but now I leave them alone for my first two books. My third I am still trying to attract attention - any attention and I have tried free and just finished a countdown. Neither were successful but that's another story and there are other reasons that it might not be selling or attracting attention.I work on the coffee from well known chain principle. Is my book worth one coffee, two or even three in e-book format. I have decided that free is pointless, 99c only as a co-production i.e. part of a series and upwards dependent on the length of the book. My highest price is for my nearly 500 page second book.
Philip wrote: "I work on the coffee from well known chain principle. Is my book worth one coffee, two or even three in e-book format."I have a similar philosophy when it comes to pricing my books. As long as every time I sell a novel, I can buy a six-pack of beer, I'm happy camper.
Vicki wrote: "Absolutely the right way to see things!!!"The only thing I'm undecided about is whether I'm happier because I've gained a reader or that I get to drink more beer. Still trying to work that one out. But for now, I figure it's a win-win. ;)
Of course the quality question does come up. Something i am trying to address, but really I see some road side cafes (in the UK) selling instant coffee for over £1 which is $1.60 yet some people complain about books priced at 99c that might not be perfect - cover, editing, style. Don't want to open that whole discussion up - plenty of threads on quality of self-pubs, but unless readers are prepared to regularly pay for a product then the authors will have no income to pay for the professional services needed to polish or just prepare their offerings.
I don't want to re-litigate the whole 'race to the bottom' pricing issue, but self-publishers have no one to blame but themselves for the current market. I started self-publishing before the Kindle showed up and I can tell you I was there at the start and helped pioneer some of the pricing models (including the 99 cents craze) that you see today.When the Kindle first hit the scene I don't believe any indie author was crazy enough to price their books under $3.99. How do I know? Because there weren't that many self-published Kindle books available in the beginning and me and a few author friends of mine spent weeks combing the entire catalog of books in the Kindle store to make sense of who was doing what. Most ebooks back then were priced over $5 bucks. For example, my books were priced at $9.99.
The only books that were free back then were public domain and trade published books. What happens is that once one person figures out a marketing trick to draw in readers (as happened with the handful of authors who hit it big pricing at 99 cents), legions of authors followed suit and over-saturated the market with poorly produced, dirt cheap books. That was the big 99 cents gold-rush of 2009-10.
In late 2010, Amazon started experimenting with allowing free indie books into the Kindle store. I was one of the few authors who they beta-tested the books with (I offered the first book in one of my series for free to hook readers on the other books). Naturally, other authors saw the success we had with our free books and the rest is history. It's now becoming the standard to give away the first book in your series to draw in readers. That's the challenge that authors who charge money for their books must face today, competing with cheap and free books. Now that the DOJ ruled against Apple and the Big 6 for collaborating to set prices for ebooks artificially high, the big publishers are now dabbling again with bargain-priced books which is only making things worse. It's going to be a tough slog for indie authors to make money in this environment. Better strap on your seat belts folks and get ready for a rough ride.
Kevis wrote: "I don't want to re-litigate the whole 'race to the bottom' pricing issue, but self-publishers have no one to blame but themselves for the current market. I started self-publishing before the Kindle..."Thanks for the background info. A year into my own dabblings I am still learning how this all works
Vicki wrote: "Dianne wrote: "That's certainly one way to look at exchanging the word beer for wine!"With all the advice on this thread, neither beer nor wine's going to do the trick, I think Kevis will agree."
Agreed. More book sales might though, ha, ha. :)
Vicki wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Vicki wrote: "With more book sales we would be able to afford the good, strong stuff."Now that's something I'm definitely working on. Absinthe, here I come!
Vicki wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Vicki wrote: "You see, I'm so poor I don't even know what that is, cant even bloody pronounce it."Now that's something I'm definitely working on. Absinthe, here I co..."
LOL. Let's just say that in its purest state, Absinthe is the mythical Ambrosia for writers. Rumor is, just one sip and you'll write the next "Gone with the Wind". Needless to say, I can't wait to start selling more books cause I need all the help I can get!
Good for you, Vicki. Just in case I can't get any, make sure you save some for me, lol.
Vicki wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Good for you, Vicki. Just in case I can't get any, make sure you save some for me, lol."Absolutely!"
Ah, I can't wait. :)
Vicki wrote: "I have to ask unfortunately, how much is it?"Since you can't buy it in the US (it's banned because the original recipe for Absinthe contains some very interesting ingredients (very, very interesting), I have no idea. But I'm thinking if I can get more people to buy my books, I can get a ticket to Europe and pretend I'm Dionysus for a day and go nuts with a bottle of that cool looking green stuff. Ernest Hemingway look out. You too, Margaret Mitchell!
Vicki wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Vicki wrote: "I have to ask unfortunately, how much is it?"Since you can't buy it in the US (it's banned), I have no idea. But I'm thinking if I can get more people to buy my books,..."
I'm broke too. I'm stuck with the cheap stuff which isn't good for my liver. I'll definitely raise a cup that every author in this thread gets to drink the good stuff so it doesn't kill them before their time. :)
Vicki wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Oh yes, we have something called Stoh Rum, its also a gazillion billion trillion SA rands."Wow. That looks delicious. January was a really bad month for me (everything that could go wrong with my books did). But now, reading this thread has motivated the heck out of me. The next book I write had better be fantastic, otherwise I'll never forgive myself.
(Adding Stroh to my list of drinks-to-drink.
In 2013, the estimate number of e-books released was 300 million with 100 million self-published. I'm guessing in 2014 even more books will be released. From a survey from 2013 Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest Author Survey, the average self-published author raked in $1-4,999. Of course there are always the superstars which will make a ton more than this!
Amazon has been trying to inch its way into brick and mortor stores which minimal success. If it does happen and Createspace/Kindle books can make it into a store - the game will change totally for Indie authors who only distribute through them!
That's the battle we face. At the end of the day, it really is a game of numbers. Your one book vs. millions. Who is going to win out? The author with the best story? Or the one with the best marketing?
The one with the best story will probably last longer in history (author dies off, someone else reaps profit), but the one with the best marketing will make tons of money immediately!
Drinking is fine, but when one sobers up they need to get into battle mode!
I will be publishing a book in a few months and was wondering what prices people are selling their ebooks at?
Lately I've noticed that the price of ebooks have gone up but as a new author I'm worried too high a price will prevent people from trying my book.
Someone told me that the new price of $3.99 has replaced $2.99.
Thoughts? Thanks!