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This is really just a simple post for me to think out loud. Won’t even be that long and I’ll be away from my computer for most of the day. So, I’ll be checking comments, but not replying until the evening. Guess that’s a disclaimer.
A year or two ago, I dropped all of my books to 99 cents. I thought this would help sales since it was a low price. It worked for a bit, but mostly on Legends of Windemere where the first book is free. The other books didn’t move that much and eventually died, including the new releases. Then, the book series died and I haven’t sold a book since December 27th. Free ones move at times, but that’s really it. Even the pages are low. If this is at 99 cents then what do I do?
To anyone who suggests giving away all my books for free . . . No. I’d like to make some money on this.
So, I’m thinking of changing all of the books (minus the freebie) to $2.99 come April or maybe the summer. Why? Because it’s a 70% royalty on that price and it isn’t like the lower price is selling. Might as well go bigger and hope for the best. Maybe people see 99 cents and assume it’s priced low due to sucking. It’ll take a day to get Ichabod, Legends, Nytefall, and Bedlam back up to $2.99 though. So, I may be leaning towards either the summer or even doing it over the February break if I have the chance.
So, any thoughts or should I just follow my heart? Not that the thing has done me any favors lately.
Legends of Windemere 
I have set all my eBooks at 2.99! Why not.
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Do they sell?
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I’ve done that dance myself. I finally put a few of them back at $2.99. It didn’t hurt sales at all. (I did it quietly.) I have a couple of free anthologies that I’m in, the Notebooks are still 99¢. My thought is if people want a test-drive they have options. My mainline stuff is all $2.99. On a side note, everything flatlined after Christmas. No idea why, but I haven’t been doing promo at all. I’m holding back until I decide to release the next Hat story. The hat series are short novels, so they don’t qualify as short stories. I have them at $2.99 and have no intention of changing that.
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Not sure I can hurt a trend of zero sales, which is good. I’d probably put everything except Beginning of a Hero up to $2.99 if I do this.
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Sounds reasonable to me. You already know it isn’t hurting anything.
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I think the 99¢ thing works on a short-term promotion. I would go to $2.99 and then come back and do 99¢ features,
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I could try that. Though I’d have to promote the price drop.
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There is that.
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I might just make sure I have no more ’99 cent book’ posts coming up and start the shift today. At this point, I’m not really risking anything.
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I agree.
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Price changes sometimes get noticed for a few moments, but mostly I’ve found you might as well just go for a price that sounds right to you and hope for the best. No guarantee of sales either way. Some people won’t buy the more expensive books, others will assume cheap means poor quality so won’t buy the cheaper ones. It’s a no win situation to be honest. Go with what feels right to you for pricing, and cross your fingers someone shows up to buy your books from time to time. That’s my opinion anyhow, for what it’s worth.
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Thanks. I think I’m going to do that. Changed everything except Legends, which I’ll get to over the weekend.
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My sales are as bad as yours, Charles. 😦 I tried putting all my books on KU in the hope that it would make them more visible, but the truth is they’re /only/ visible if/when I do a promotion of some sort. When I put each book up for a free period [over 3 months], I had quite a few downloads and I received a lot of new reviews, which was the reason for the promotion in the first place, but it took so much work to promote ‘free’.
I suspect there is a kind of ‘critical mass’ in reviews/sales that determines how visible an individual book becomes. If you can afford advertising AND you already have a certain critical mass, your book can leap forward in terms of visibility. But…
I can’t afford advertising, don’t have the time or energy for heaps of marketing/promotion, and haven’t got a clue on pricing. I think the other commenters are right about the 99c price point though. If it’s not working then you may as well raise the price.
Good luck and please keep us updated on how things go.
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Thanks. I’m in the same boat as far as no time, money, or energy. I’m hoping to have all of the prices pushed up to $2.99 by the end of the weekend. The exception is the freebie because I figure a no risk introduction to my world isn’t a bad thing.
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I agree re the no-risk intro to the world. Unless you have literally thousands of reviews and a fan base bigger than Ben Hur, you need something to make new readers take a gamble on an unknown. I read a lot but can’t afford to ‘waste’ money on a new author I might not like. Once I do find a new author though, I tend to read everything they’ve ever written. lol
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