Amazon pricing help

[K.]

Though I'm delighted the bulk of my movement is through Smashwords because of the analytics available, I know the bigger audience is on Amazon.

I fished the price around a little, and finally let it settle where it is right now ($2.99), but with the second book in the series out for preorder, I would like to see the Amazon price drop to free on the first book. I mean, permanently free. But, I can't get Amazon to let me do that. (Or I'm trying to do it from the wrong screen.)

Any help would be most gratefully accepted.

[G.G.]

Usually when people want their book free they have it somewhere else such as Smashwords for free and they ask people to report to Amazon having seen the book cheaper elsewhere. I never tried it but it seems the only way to do that.

[Christina]

GG is correct. Amazon may price match if you have it at a lower price elsewhere. How long that takes depends on how long it takes to notice. There is a button that says something like, tell us about a lower price, but I suggest having someone else do that for you. According to some authors who have, Amazon sends you a nastygram if you do this yourself.

[K.]

All right. Thanks. I know there's a way to set it at free when you first publish, but I wasn't ready to drop the price just yet. I had thought it was easier to drop it once it was published.

Though, if anyone wants to pay for the book, I'm also not going to turn away the sale. While I admit to being crazy, I'm not THAT insane.

[Richard]

Hi K. I'm curious about the motivation for making it free. I guess you're thinking it'll drive sales for the later books in the series, but I'd be concerned about the effects on author ranking (if that matters). Given-away copies don't count, as I understand.

[K.]

Yeah, I'm using it as a loss leader. I'm not so worried about author's rankings yet.

I've been keeping an eye on Smashwords, where I can see the page views, and even though I'm gently pushing on twitter, I'm just not getting the exposure for for Shadows as I'm getting for Darkness. So, right now, I've got to use the book that's moving to draw folks into the new material. And, the reason Darkness is moving in Smashwords I think is because it's free.

After this series, I'm hoping I won't have to loss-leader the first book in the series, but from everything I've read, it's about the only way new authors have of getting folks to take a risk on them. And, Darkness already has some strikes against it to start with. I'm just not willing to change the format to eliminate those issues. It destroys, or waters down, the atmosphere I built early on.

[Christina]

I'm currently keeping all of my books with Amazon, so I run the free promos every so often. While they aren't nearly as effective as they once were, they do drive sales, not just to the rest of the books, but to the free ones after they've gone back up.
Perma free can have a disadvantage because they will slip in ranks over time. You might consider when you have several series out, rotating which one is the loss leader could keep you more visible.

[K.]

Will definitely do that Christina. Right now, I'm still arguing with the first series, so I've only the one to offer. Though, once I'm through with this one, not sure the next one will ever quit. The way I write my fae, they live a long, long time. And, I've got scenarios bouncing around in the back of my mind that alternate between something more modern, and stuff from around the dark ages. When I finally sit down to start pulling that one out of storage, it's going to be interesting to see how (and what) comes out into the open for me.

[Christina]

I'm so glad you understood that. I have no idea what happened to my grammar in that last sentence.

[G.G.]

Funny, you want to offer it free (which I'm tempted too sometimes) but right now, I see ebooks sold for nearly 10$ that seem to sell like hot bread (and no, they are indies not trad pub), so I'm half tempted to raise my prices to 2.99$. :/

[Christina]

Honestly, GG, I was going to recommend that you do. Your books are worth way more than $1.

[G.G.]

Thank you Christina! That has to be the nicest compliment I've ever received.

[K.]

From what I've read on Smashwords about pricing the $.99 mark is really the slushpile price. Most of the books that fall into that category are ones that the authors have not taken the time to have properly edited/reviewed/beta read, and are generally unsuited for publication (yet). There are a few gems hidden in this price range, but not very many, so most shoppers aren't willing to sift through to find them.

I've debated about upping the price again, once I get the revisions out, especially now that I'm closing on the 200 books downloaded mark. But, I really, REALLY want to hit the 500 mark before I start creeping the price back up. At least on Darkness. The preorders, I'm debating about putting out a 10 or 20% off coupon, but since Shadows follows the more "accepted" format in the book - like actually using dialogue - and I don't want to put it out for half price right off the mark, the debate is weighing in heavily against. Mostly, it's because I'd like to see about 50 clear the shelves before it goes live. (Or is that being greedy?)

Christina - I am quite fluent in typo. That includes grammatical typo as well. Besides, since I'm mangling syntax for speech patterns of some of my characters, I'm not sure I'd even recognize when grammar DID get mangled. I'd read right through it, and not notice.

[Owen]

K. wrote: "Though I'm delighted the bulk of my movement is through Smashwords because of the analytics available, I know the bigger audience is on Amazon.

I fished the price around a little, and finally le..."

As an indie author of a whole two (2!) books, I'd recommend against the whole "loss leader" concept for getting your book out there and noticed. In my "vast" experience (take that for what it's worth), it did not work. For a new author, I detected a feeling out there that "you get what you pay for". And I believe there is something to the idea that if you are offering your work for free or for $0.99, you (the author) don't value it much and didn't take the time put a well-crafted. polished professional product.

Reviewers even stated they were leery of buying our first book because the price was too low (and we set it at $2.99). We did also try offering it for free to "get the word out" and it hurt us.

Since then, we've gone with Amazon exclusively and it has helped us a great deal. That is just us, and YMMV.

[K.]

Owen - thanks so much for your insight. I'm working on my third book, so am still facing the steep learning curve associated with this whole bit. I've hit tripple digits on my first book, and doubles for the preorders on the second. I wasn't sure if I should start moving the price up on the first book, or leave it where it is. I know the second I'll bump once it goes live. Give the folks who pre-ordered the feeling of reward for jumping in early. Guess it's time to start playing with it, and see how the buyers react. What's the worst they can do? Stop buying and leave a snarky review?

[[deleted user]]

My first novel has been priced at $3.99 for a long time and rarely sells a copy. I priced my new novel at $4.99 and it's selling far better in the first 10 days than my cheaper novel ever did. Go figure. I'm thinking of raising the price of the first one to match, but not sure it would be wise.

[Owen]

K. wrote: "Owen - thanks so much for your insight...."

Most welcome. When we released our second book, we dropped the first to $0.99 on a countdown deal. I'm not sure it helped. We might have lost a little bit of money on it, based on the sales in the week before and after. (The book is normally $2.99.) When we release the third book, we might try that again, but we probably won't drop the price of the second book. We are still learning (and blundering about).

K. wrote: " I'm thinking of raising the price of the first one to match, but not sure it would be wise."

I'm in no position to offer advice, but so far, our experience has been the relationship between price and sales has been weaker than we expected. Our sci-fi series sells pretty well, and we have not changed the prices of either book, except for countdown deals, which sometimes pay off, but other times don't.

My co-author does have a fantasy novel out there, and it doesn't sell much at all. We've tried a couple of different price points, with no effect. And (obviously) the success of our sci-fi writing isn't translating to another genre. So far, we just haven't been able to get the fantasy novel in front of the right audience. Price is not major a factor.

That all tracks with what I have heard from readers we've queried. They say that they don't really care about price less that $5-$6 or so. Under that range, whether a book is $2.00 or $3.99 or $4.99 doesn't influence their buying decision. (Some say they don't much trust $0.99 books.)

Based on all that, our position is to pick a price and leave well enough alone after that. (Except for countdown deals.)

[Richard]

If you want an example of the randomness of pricing policy, I got a tweet from a guy whose partner wouldn't let him buy any more books. I pointed out it was only $2 in ebook and he responded he prefered 'analog.' Sounds like he'll splash out the $7.99 eventually!