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I skimmed those threads and they do seem to cover the economics class curve I was talking about, but I don't see anything about the benefits of selling more to get onto "also bought" lists, or taking the Kindle borrows into consideration. I'm making squat on my book sales, but a ton on my Kindle borrows.... if I raise the price, I might lose out on those borrows.I apologize if I missed something.
@Miss Annabelle: I'm not on Select so please forgive my ignorance... *grins sheepishly* ...but are you referring to KU? If so, I thought this was not dependent on price? Umm, someone set me straight, pretty please? ^_^
Or did you mean something else by "borrows"?
In any case, the "black hole" of sales (based on studies and shizz) seems to be $1.99. Sooo I'd personally go $2.99 as a minimum. Just me, though.
Hugs,
Ann
Yes, KU is Kindle Unlimited. And it works in weird ways.Basically, if you are selling lots of copies, regardless of the price, your KU pages read seems to increase. Rapidly. So selling 100 copies for $10 is better than selling 10 copies for $20, because when you sell the 100 copies, it increases visibility and therefore increases your KENP read.
Ah, gotcha! I really gotta brush up on my KU knowledge. Meh. You currently have your book at 99cents, eh? May I ask what you considered raising it to?*scampers off to find info about KENP royalties*
Hi Annabelle. Certain genres work better on KU than others. I know that genre fiction, especially sci-fi, romance, and erotica tend to have higher KU reads than sales, whereas other genres, and most nonfiction do very little in terms of borrows. As for that being affected by your price, I really can't imagine why it would, but do look into other threads in this folder. The topic of price point as well as KU borrows has come up many times. You will likely find what you are looking for, especially if you search out any discussions where Owen R. O'Neill has weighed in as he is our resident numbers guru.
Annie: I was considering $2.99, because that's when the royalties go to 70%. But I earned about $500 last month just through borrows for one book, which isn't that bad. I don't want to lose that.Christina: I looked through the other threads again and I still don't feel like I have my answer. I agree that everything being equal, I'd never sell my book for a dollar. But my KENP read has been really high, and I think that's partially because people have been buying my book for a dollar, and then pushing it onto the Amazon "also read" lists. If I raise the price and sell less copies, then I might lose "borrow money" and ultimately earn less.
Hi Annabelle,If it helps, I have released 4 books now and can tell you that the "also bought" rumor is not true. The day I released book 4, even with just a couple of sales, it was already on also bought lists. So, there's that :). I have read about other authors raising their price and actually having more sales. It doesn't seem to pan out logically, but it does happen sometimes :).
You can have your books priced at 2.99 and also have them on KU. $500 is excellent income for a month of borrows. You are doing great!
Annabelle wrote: "I earned about $500 last month just through borrows for one book, which isn't that bad."Ummm. Methinks it's pretty freakin' fantastic, actually. ^_~
@Mr Daniel: I just noticed your mod title for the first time. It's so incredibly accurate. Cuz of the bowtie and all *smirks*
Annabelle wrote: "Annie: I was considering $2.99, because that's when the royalties go to 70%. But I earned about $500 last month just through borrows for one book, which isn't that bad. I don't want to lose that...."Wow, first congrats on the 500$ KU. If I were you I wouldn't change a thing. You are obviously doing something good. Maybe it's just me but I'd say most authors do not do as well so why ask us what we think is best when you seem to have found the ideal combo already? :P
Keep up the great job. :)
GG: i'm asking because I plan to publish other books in the near future, and I'm not sure if the tiny bit of luck I've had is a fluke or due to the pricing. You guys are the expert, so I figured I should ask! I really find the borrows very confusing. Like if a book is free, how come people keep borrowing it?
Annabelle wrote: "GG: i'm asking because I plan to publish other books in the near future, and I'm not sure if the tiny bit of luck I've had is a fluke or due to the pricing."Hmm. I reckon it's neither, which is a goood thing, eh?
Your other books all have 300+ ratings each so I'd say you have a very impressive fan base. Awesome job! Keep it up!! ^_~
Hugs,
Ann
Thanks, Ann, but my other books were published by a small independent publisher, so had I had nothing to do with any sales or other success they received (well, aside from writing them). The publisher is now defunct, so I'm going at it alone this time.
Annabelle wrote: "Annie: I was considering $2.99, because that's when the royalties go to 70%. But I earned about $500 last month just through borrows for one book, which isn't that bad. I don't want to lose that...."
Wow, I had no idea you could make so much on borrows! I had no idea you could make that much publishing independently period!
You could try raising your prices and see what happens to sales/borrows. I have a feeling that things wouldn't slow down very much. 2.99 is still a very reasonable price, and you have some momentum now with such a good sales/borrow history. Plus if you raise it to 2.99 for a few months you could probably do a BookBub and give it away for free and that would probably give you a big boost too.
Tim Grahl has a Hacking Amazon course that explains the sales algorithm a bit. The free version doesn't mention KU but the paid one might and the free one is still super helpful.
I'm no expert but can share my experience. When we released our first book, we started the price high ($7.99) then lowered it to $2.99 then finally to $.99. Somehow that got us noticed and we were having a decent amount of sales ($150 per month between sales and borrows). We decided to capitalize on our success and raised the price but sales dropped off. We don't know if it's because we messed around with things or it was just the fluke of the market, but we wish we hadn't touched it. If you're releasing another book soon, I'd advise to leave the current one as is and start the new book at $2.99 or a little more. Sounds like you're getting a following which will hopefully lead to sales of the next book.
I know if there is some sort of curve in economics that shows how you can optimize your net income by increasing the price of a product until sales drop off. That's about all I know though. I probably should have paid better attention at Trump University.
Anyway, I'm not sure the curve applies to Amazon sales. Because the more books you sell, the better chance you have of landing on those "also bought" lists, which results in more sales. So it might be better for future sales to sell more books for less money. My theory is that sales beget sales. Plus Kindle borrows pay out pretty nicely, regardless of the books price.
What do you think?