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Well The 99 Cent Book Craze is Over!
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I tried a lot of .99 books, found most of them to be unedited crap. I'm very wary of where I spend my money on those books now. I simply haven't found one yet that was worth reading. Unfortunately too many of them not bothered to get their books edited. I don't know if the mindset is that a reader shouldn't expect a professional product at that price, or what is going on, but it's absolutely awful. I'm glad the craze is over. I think it devalues books when people are practically giving them away. I don't expect to pay less than the price of a cup of coffee for good literature. I think the best way for a self-pubbed author to get noticed is to produce a good product in the first place. I think the "price it cheap to get noticed" model encouraged way too many inexperienced first-timers. The editing process can serve as something of a filter between the writers, and what I've come to refer to as the uploaders. I wish more self-pubs would go through professional publishing at least once, and not jump out there with their first book. There is much to be learned from going through the professional process at least one time.
The impression I got from some people pricing their books this low is that they mostly felt like readers shouldn't expect quality or complain because the book was only 99 cents. What kind of attitude is that to have toward your own work? I could throw some first drafts on Kindle and call it a day but is that right? That's what ruined the craze because readers turned their backs once they realized that most of the books were just being thrown out there. You have some authors who had good 99 cent books and worked hard but most were, like you said just horrible. I TRIED to read several and couldn't. They weren't even worth 99 cents to me to be honest. I felt like I paid way too much. LOL!
It was a crutch and nothing more. A lot of authors even said they knew they wouldn't have sold anything if there books hadn't been so cheap. But I knew it wouldn't last and I wonder what those folks will do now that the crutch is no longer there? If you put out decent books then it won't matter, you should still sell. But I am speaking of those who threw anything up and expected it to sell just because it was 99 cents. What will THOSE folks do now that they don't have that crutch?
Stacy, I'm curious to know what you've seen that makes you think the 99 cent price point is fizzling out? Based on conversations in the author groups I'm in, authors still think it's a good strategy and are encouraging other authors to do it. Just this morning I read an email in the RWA selfpublishing forum where an author said her book became number one after she priced it at 99 cents and her backlist books started selling well as a result of the additional exposure. Sites that advertise low cost Kindle and Nook books have a waiting list of authors seeking to advertise their low cost books.
I've had good luck with 99 cents books that I've read, but I tend to be kind of picky because I only read a couple of books per month. Even at 99 cents, I'll only download books that have been recommended, I know the author or I'm familiar with their writing, or the reviews are stellar.
BTW, when I self-published The Temptation of a Good Man, I released it at 99 cents. Most authors will price their backlist books at 99 cents, but I wanted my regular readers who purchase my books to get the benefit of the low price instead of paying the regular price and then seeing it at a lower price later on. I think it helped to generate a little buzz around the book, too. After a couple of weeks, I bumped it up to the regular price of $2.99.
I'll probably do it again with another new release some time next year, but I may leave it at 99 cents even longer.
I don't judge a book by its cover or by its price, only its content.
What will THOSE folks do now that they don't have that crutch?Either they will do the work to actually produce a BOOK, or they will stop uploading unedited crap. Either way, the reader benefits. As I've said before, it's the Wild Wild West out there. We've gone from having a very arduous filter in publishing to none at all. The only thing that will determine whether a writer sells is the market. And people will not buy unedited crap even if you give it away cheaply.
Delaney,From writing groups I've been reading posts on, self-published authors themselves, blog posts, and articles, that's where I am seeing this. Maybe we're looking in different corners of the industry. Not sure but I've seen many blogs and articles about readers and authors turning against the 99 cent books.
Even on the Kindle boards the authors are talking about how they don't want to price their books so low anymore because it's given people the wrong impression. Also on various message boards, readers who once supported the 99 cent books have turned on them.
But there are tons of self-published authors who are also turning against the price. So no in my opinion it is definitely not the hot thing anymore.
If you are with a PUBLISHER and have a 99 cent book, that might be selling fine. But when it comes to SP books, a lot of readers have said they have been burned too many times. There are some SP authors who have released good, quality books at that price but unfortunately most people think they can just throw up anything and expect people to buy it.
Most self-published authors are now pricing their books at 2.99 and up these days. Many themselves don't wanna be associated with the stigma of the 99 cent ebook and it's the ones who threw things up there that are to blame and ruined readers against the other writers who worked hard.
I won't say it's not still working for SOME, but it's not working for the majority of SP authors anymore because they are complaining about it and pricing their books higher because it's no longer a guarantee that 99 cents will sell and that's what a lot of folks relied on.
Once again I am NOT speaking of folks with publishers, who have a fan base or who are doing backlists. I am speaking of brand new, never-been-published-before SP authors who are busting in NOW at this moment. It's not as easy to just put up a 99 cent ebook and get sales like it might have been at one time.
Roy, the cover especially is what most people judge a book by because if the cover is horrible, believe me no one is gonna buy that book. So covers are extremely important for sales and most readers do judge books by them. If it weren't for the cover, readers wouldn't pay attention to a book to be honest.That's the first thing they see and gets their attention. But I respect it if you don't care about covers. *shrugging* But covers are VERY important for any author or book. A bad one can make people not even give the book a chance.
I have to agree about the .99 price point. It was ok at the start because I think it was a way to build discoverability especially for pubs and authors who didn't want to go the free route, but still wanted a way to introduce readers to a maybe mid-list author. Or a way to burn off some back-list. And also for new authors/pubs to get their brand out there.But with the meteoric rise of self pubbing and the more and more noticeable lack of quality control in some areas, I believe that the perception of a .99 cent book has slowly become more negative than positive. Basically, the idea goes, you are getting a book that is worth .99 cent.
While some people philosophically won't care if they ultimately end up with something that is almost illegible or only 5,000 words, (after all it only cost less than a buck) those types of products can become indelibly identified with the .99 cent price point in some people's minds so that anything offered at the price becomes suspect and tainted by association. The only books immune to that would be traditionally pubbed back-list books that have been converted to e-book and are being offered at a special price.
I have always priced my e-books at $2.99, but always keep one at 99 cents as a come-on to get new readers. It works like a charm.This month I put everything on sale for holiday shopping. On January 1st, with the release of my new novel, they all go back to $2.99 with only my last release remaining at 99 cents.
Chicki Brown
Interesting. O thinks its a good way to broaden ur reader base. I've heard many success stories of this helping, especially newer authors to increase readership
@Chicki, if I see an author who has most of her books at $2.99 + and one or two at $0.99, I'll give her a chance. If they're all $0.99, I assume s/he is a crap writer. I also am huge about reading samples. So far, I haven't been burned. What really annoys me is when authors put their short-short stories at $2.99. As a reader, I'm like, "No, this needs to be $0.99." However, I've been burned a couple of times by authors who priced their e-books at $2.99 and haven't made it evident that this is a short story -- not a novella, but a very short story. I really do wish that Amazon would adopt some kind of standard on this.
@Theodora-I've gotten so burned on paying 2.99 or 3.99 for an e-book with 7,000 or 8,000 words that from now on, I won't buy an ebook unless a) the book has also been published in dead-tree format so I can see the pagination or b) I know the word count.
Consider, the average Harlequin Presents is @55,000 words and you can get them from anywhere from 2.70 to 3.50. A mass market pb is @ 70,000 words. I agree, I think Amazon should list at least a word count. AllRomanceebooks includes a word count on their site so that is nice.
I've gotten burned on the short stories as well. I think $2.99 is a decent price point for a novella (25k words). $3.99 for a short novel (40k) and 4.99 for a full novel (60k). It seems to me that if a writer invests in a decent cover (covers are irrelevant to me, but I know they're VERY important to many readers) and editing it's very hard to recoup their money at the .99 price point. Apparently many have chosen to skimp on the editing and that's just nuts. That being the case I don't buy .99 books anymore, so yeah I can see why the trend might die or be dying. These are the early days yet, and presumably the uploaders will be left on the wayside, at least I hope so.
The price has nothing to do with the quality of the book. The Kindle million sellers - Konrath, Hocking, Locke have all sold their books for only 99 cents. Indie e-book sales work very differently from traditional book sales. Volume is what makes up the difference, and author royalties are 3-5 times higher on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords than those paid by publishers. Also, indie author overhead is so low - no signings, no need to purchase stock, no traveling, minimal paid advertising (most marketing and promo is free), we can afford to offer our books at low prices.
Here are two great articles that explain e-book pricing - http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.c...http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/...
Oh, I agree that pricing is not indicative of quality. There are plenty of 26.99 books that are utter crap. But it is about perception of worth. People have been trained that 'you get what you pay for.' That is a bone deep maxim that many people either consciously of subconsciously internalize. I remember reading about an experiment once where they took a few identical designer dresses, took the name brand off and put them in a high-end dept. store. On one dress carrel they kept the regular retail price something like $400.00 and on an adjoining dress carrell they marked the dresses as $49.99.
Even though women looked at the identical dresses on each carrell, more often than not the women ended up picking the higher price dress. When asked they said it was of better quality, even though the dresses were identical is construction, fabric etc.
It's brainwashing, and nowhere is that more evident than in the publishing industry. The traditionalists will have to make a major paradigm shift, because everything is changing. The old rules just don't apply anymore ...
I don't think anyone would bat an eye at buying a .99 book from an established author, especially if it's simply their backlist. But from a newbie? Speaking from a consumer standpoint as someone who has bought more than 50 of them and been burned on every one--I would not again. When I'm in a reading mood I read a lot. Sometimes a book a day. So I go through a lot of books. I realized going in that maybe 50% of the .99 books would be bad. I have very unique tastes and usually don't like what everybody else likes. 50% bad is one thing, but 100%?!? And when I say bad I'm not talking about the storytelling. I'm talking about basic writing mechanics like spelling and grammar. Some with dozens per page. Yeah I was furious. (And still am, can't you tell?)As for low overhead, I don't know about that, I guess it depends on what you choose to invest in. I agree that promo and such is free, but certainly editing and cover art is not, at least not for most of us. And if you're not investing in the quality of your product regardless of how many books you sell eventually it will turn around and bite you in the butt.
I agree that the old rules don't apply anymore, but the basics of good writing will never go away. People will initially be very excited about getting cheap books, but just like anything else the novelty will wear off and people will realize that ultimately you get what you pay for. I think it's unfortunate that what could've been a good gimmick to stir up interest has ultimately been ruined by those who choose to behave in such an unprofessional manner. Bottom line, I don't care what the price is, if I'm paying my money I expect a PROFESSIONAL product. Otherwise just give it away for free.
Well, I can't argue with my sales, and with repeat buyers. To each his own ...
Of course. I don't think I've read any of your books. I assume that you produce a quality product, especially as you have repeat sales. And you've been doing this for a while so you might have gotten in before the backlash, but I definitely perceive a backlash. I've simply talked to too many people who are furious about the quality of the books they've bought. I think anybody starting out new might want to seriously consider the .99 price. Publishing is in flux and will continue to be so. What might have worked a year ago, or even 6 months ago might be anathema now. Each author will have to consider her own situation and act accordingly. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't care as long as they can get a book cheaply. Certainly I've read too many 5-star reviews of books that were DNF for me to believe otherwise. It might never balance out, but like I said there is definitely a growing backlash.
I've only been in this game for 18 months, but I've released four books during that time. You're right, things are changing daily, and it's fantastic! For those of us who are deeply entrenched in the electronic indie world, we don't see a backlash only an ever-expanding market of readers that have open minds and open pockets! :)
When I regained the rights to my old Loose Id release (Samurai Captive)I thought it would do well as a self-pub because it had been selling pretty steadily--not a lot but at least a dozen or so copies a month before it came out of contract.The original publisher price was $4.99 I priced it first $3.99 (in July when I self pubbed it)then dropped it over the months by a dollar then another but still not many sales. I made it 99 cents a couple weeks ago. Still not much than a handful.
I'm wishing I'd have either kept it in print or tried a different pub.
Barbara, the key to getting e-pub sales on Kindle and Nook no matter what your price is to do your marketing and promo where the "e-people" hang out. They don't frequent regular books sites. There are hundreds of indie book pages/sites/blogs where you can promote for free. The paid sites like ERN are good for hundreds, if not thousands of sales from a single feature.
To go back to getting burned on $2.99 short-shorts, just discovered a neat way to tell if the story is shorter than you'd want it to be. Read the sample! Basically, Kindle automatically downloads 10% of the book as the sample, so if the sample is really short, so is the book. Basically the sample represents 10% of what you'll be reading.
That's a good idea. I never thought of that. I usually look at the file size to get an idea of the length.
In my experience the .99 cent books have truly been hit or miss and honestly it is the same with books in the $2.99 and $3.99 price points. I have found some amazing books by authors I didn't know (i.e. Amanda Hocking and Latrivia Nelson) but I have had some real duds in all three price points. I think it all boils down to how serious the author is about putting about quality material for the readers. From my perspective, if an author puts out a crappy .99, $2.99 or $3.99 novel than that to me is the kiss of death for them because I will NEVER lay down my greenbacks again for them regardless of if they end up releasing revised editions or end up being published! I definitely agree with the notion that if you price a book really low and grab the readers attention, pricing your following novels at more reasonable prices can be a good strategy. Eliminating that price point altogether seems kinda silly when certain authors have had extraordinary success with that marketing strategy.
Theodora wrote: "To go back to getting burned on $2.99 short-shorts, just discovered a neat way to tell if the story is shorter than you'd want it to be. Read the sample! Basically, Kindle automatically downloads 1..."Well I just noticed today, that on Kindle books AZ is now giving an approximate page count. So that is a great step forward and it leaves out some of the guesswork. They must've listened to one of my whiny emails. LOL.
I have actually been raising my prices, which are currently between $2.99 and $3.79 for single eBooks (with my backlist title at $2.99) and my others higher priced. But I believe there are still plenty of $.99 books out there. It seems that many authors have been making their books free as well. If anything, I think "free" is the new $.99.
I just raised my prices back to $2.99 after my December sale ended, but I signed Have You Seen Her? up with the KDP Select program to make it free to Amazon Prime members and to get in on the five free promo days.We'll see what kind of results that brings.
I have to agree with you, Bettye. I've seen a ton of books listed for free lately. It might have to do with the new KDP Select program.
I still have and read 99 cent and $1 stories. *shrug* But I've also published solely short stories so far, and so IMO, as a new author seeking readers, those prices made sense.
Mod
As for the 99 cent question, I have no expectations that a book is going to be crappy just because it's 99 cents. I have had some good luck with indie/newbie authors in the eformat, and I can't say that quality has been less just because some of them are cheaper. I've shelled out $10 bucks for a few IR books and definitely wanted my money back. I must also add that I get very hesitant to buy a new author who prices an ebook for more than $5.00. It's too much, IMO. I believe that for $10 or more I should have a real book in my hand. That's just my opinion as an avid book buyer of both ebooks and paper books.
So if you want to price your books for 99 cents, I don't judge you for it.
I'd agree with that LD. I don't see myself spending over $5 for a virtual read except in special circumstances (i.e. it's one I've heard really good things about or have wanted to read it for some time). But I also would see myself reading an author who offers only 99-cent reads and not feeling that they're just going to be sub-par because they're cheaper. Perhaps because I'm an author who knows how much work can have been put into an even dollar-priced offering - probably also why I'm more apt to give a writer a second or third chance, even if I didn't adore their first creation. It really depends on the writer, at least that's been my experience.
I really don't care how much a book is as long as it's under $15. I'll spend $10-$15 for print, and under $10 for an e-book. I'm usually attracted to the cover, the excerpt and the search inside this book feature. I can look at the kilobytes to tell how long the book is. I've bought books for 99 cents that turned out to be a really good read, but generally I spend $2.99 and up.With that said, I think the price point should take length into consideration. My book is over 500 pages so it isn't going to be $0.99, let alone $2.99. I paid a lot for my cover and for editing. I put a lot of time and money into it, and have started investing in the next book. It will be more like $4.99, which I think is a fair price for a large novel and the print will be around $15, which is standard for 500+ page novel. However, because I'm self-published I'm not against offering sales and incentives to attract new readers. Say like a 99 cent day or something like that.
Chaeya
Chicki, I'm still trying to make up my mind on whether or not to offer an eBook for free. Many authors are reporting great success, but I'm concerned about whether or not my book will be noticed among the glut of free titles. I wouldn't expect many borrows for a modestly priced eBook...I think that economics dictate that readers who can only borrow one book for free a month are going to go with something priced at $8.99 or $9.99 than $2.99 or $3.99. I've only had a handful of borrows on my 3-book bundle, which is priced at $8.29. But, of course, in order to make our books free to all readers they have to be listed on Prime. That's probably why I've seen $.99 books listed on Prine, because I can't imagine anyone using their once-a-month free loan on a $.99 book! LD, I have one interracial title, but if I do offer a title for free, it won't be that one. I think those books have limited appeal, and I'm looking to increase my readership.
Chaeya, I used length to determine cost of my books as well, unless they're eBook versions of backlist titles, which I'll continue to price at $2.99. I've seen other authors ask for $4.99 and $5.99, but I don't have the clout they do.
Bettye, I understand your concern. That's the reason why I wouldn't put my new release on KDP Select. Instead I signed up my bestseller. Since that's the book readers seem to like the most, I figured it's a way to get new readers. If they enjoy that story, they're more likely to buy my others.
Interesting thinking, Chicki. I agree that I wouldn't make a new book free (although making it eligible to be borrowed is something I'd still consider). I'm actually considering one of my titles that has been underperforming. But all of my books have been picked up by Sony, Kobo, and Diesel from the Smashwords catalog, and I don't really care for the idea of removing them.To free or not to free? That is the question, LOL!
I love this thread. I rarely will spend more than $6 on a title and, really, I don't want to spend more than $5. The reason is that I just read too much. I'd go broke if I was paying over $5 for the majority of my titles. However, if I know and really love the author, I'll go as high as $12.99.Bettye, my book is on KDP Select and honestly, other than its hopefully overall quality, I think that's why it's done way better than I expected it to so far. There are very few IR authors on KDP Select, since many of the bigger names are with e-pubs and don't have control of their work -- I'm just assuming this, I could be totally wrong as to why there's a dearth of IR in KDP Select. However, Prime users seem to be seeking them out, so it's been great exposure. I'm getting a lot of borrows this month, though, so I'm anxious to see what that pay out looks like in February/March.
I only have one book out, so I see no reason to offer OWNER for free. But I'm toying around with doing so when I release my next book in March. If people like OWNER hopefully they'll pay for the next book. So I guess I'm leaning toward "to free" :)
Theodora,Since I have a new release, I decided to put an earlier book on KDP Select just to see what happened. I used one of my five free advertising days on Friday, and the results were unbelievable!
On Friday from 6 AM until Midnight, 10,300+ people downloaded my free book. I would never have been able to reach that many readers in one day. Since Saturday morning, I've had 115 paid sales of all my titles.
Once you put out a second book, it's worth trying.
I appreciate you always sharing your experiences, Chicki. I'm not in the program, but I've thought about writing a book specifically to put into the program. I'm paying close attention to what other authors are saying. I think even if the payout isn't great, the additional exposure may be worth it to use the program as a form of marketing.
Since the sale ended Friday night, I've sold 300+ at the regular prices. It's definitely working! :D
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Least it looks like that everywhere I am looking. It seemed to fizzle quickly and a lot knew it would. Once millions start jumping on the bandwagon something is bound to lose its magic. The 99 cent price might have helped some authors get noticed but it's hindering authors now to the point where you can't hardly find an author who will price their book 99 cents these days. It's like the kiss of death and authors, like readers are pushing away from the price fast.
Looks like the new trend is 2.99 but I don't think it is gonna catch on like the 99 cent one did, especially where readers are concerned.
I find there are two kinds of people when it comes to this. People that flocked to 99 cent ebooks and people who ran from them. Some felt the price meant the book wasn't of quality. That wasn't always true but the bad apples spoiled the rest in the bunch.
So did you guys read 99 cent books? Did the price make you wanna give the author a chance or turn you off from trying the book?
I just wonder what will happen now since so many new authors relied on this price to get noticed. Do you think self-published authors especially will have a tough time competing with publishers now that they don't have the 99 cent angle?
I think it will hurt self-published authors because there are a lot of epublishers who release books for 2.99 so now SP authors will be competing with those books and not just other self-published titles.
What do you guys think? It's amazing to see how fast things in the industry change from day to day.
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