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Michael Parker

22 Aug 2011, 09:51 AM | Post: #1

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What Price?

Sapphine Desforges (hope I've got the name right) managed to sell enough of her Kindle books (two of them) to launch her into the top six (one at No.3, the other at No. 6) after only seven days on Amazon. Her prices for both books were £0.86p (about $0.99). So, is it the price that sells? I've asked for the Kindle price of my novel A COVERT WAR to be dropped to see if it has any effect on my sales. I plan to keep it low until my third book, ROSELLI'S GOLD is available, which should be about the end of September. At the moment, sales of ACW are almost non existent, although I sold one yesterday, but it will be an interesting experiment. I've nothing to lose anyway!

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Simon Smith-Wilson

22 Aug 2011, 10:59 AM | Post: #2

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RE: What Price?

(22 Aug 2011 09:51 AM)Michael Parker Wrote: Sapphine Desforges (hope I've got the name right) managed to sell enough of her Kindle books (two of them) to launch her into the top six (one at No.3, the other at No. 6) after only seven days on Amazon. Her prices for both books were £0.86p (about $0.99). So, is it the price that sells? I've asked for the Kindle price of my novel A COVERT WAR to be dropped to see if it has any effect on my sales. I plan to keep it low until my third book, ROSELLI'S GOLD is available, which should be about the end of September. At the moment, sales of ACW are almost non existent, although I sold one yesterday, but it will be an interesting experiment. I've nothing to lose anyway!

I think price can be a factor, but it also a bit of luck and getting people to give you a chance. Under my old pen name I had a book out at £0.99 and it never left the best seller rankings, but then another book same price just struggled, also some people with expensive books are doing very well. I think it is a combination of luck, time and word of mouth.

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Susanne Reading I Woke Up This Morning by Stuart Ayris

22 Aug 2011, 11:17 AM | Post: #3

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RE: What Price?

For me, price is a factor - up to a point. With indie authors that I haven't read before, I'm prepared to pay up to about £2 provided the book looks like something I might really enjoy and there are some decent reviews of it (not just the author's friends!). However, just because a book is cheap, doesn't mean I will necessarily buy it. It has to say something to me. Somehow, the author needs to be able to capture the reader's imagination in the description.

For authors I know and like, my limit is usually £5, although it is quite rare these days that I pay that much.

I have read Saffina Desforges' book Sugar & Spice. It was a very well written book and well researched, although slightly too long in parts.

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb

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Phil Reading The Village of Lost Souls by Sam Kates

22 Aug 2011, 04:33 PM | Post: #4

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RE: What Price?

This post was last modified: 22 Aug 2011 04:36 PM by Phil.

I agree with Susanne, price is only one factor. I think having what sounds like an interesting well written book in an appealing genre is much more important.

Getting big sales numbers and getting on the topp 100 etc just builds momentum, more people see the book and the good reviews and then boost the sales further. How some people get that initial boost is for me what makes the difference. Did she fluke it and get her book listed on Amazon's home page, get reviewed in a magazine or website, be mentioned on TV ? Thats the luck factor.

{edit}
another one I thought of is a back catalogue. Having other books available from day one, so when one book takes off, people immediately have another book to purchase. A lot of the successful ebook authors have been people with several books all released at the same time.

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Susanne Reading I Woke Up This Morning by Stuart Ayris

23 Aug 2011, 08:21 AM | Post: #5

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RE: What Price?

Saffina is a member of the forum, so maybe she will tell us more. Smile

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb

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Michael Parker

23 Aug 2011, 10:07 AM | Post: #6

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RE: What Price?

I didn't realise that Saphhine Desforges' book had been published last year and sold very well. Perhaps that has something to do with it's success on Kindle. I had a look at the sales and pricing of my two books available on Kindle. One is selling moderately, but poorly, while the other is so far behind it hardly registers. So, I've dropped the price of A COVERT WAR to £0.86p ($0.99), but left NORTH SLOPE as it is. I want to see if it makes any difference. I'll keep that price for a while, probably until my next POD comes out (ROSELLI'S GOLD), which should be beginning of October. It will be interesting, to me anyway, to see what happens.

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leep

26 Aug 2011, 06:40 AM | Post: #7

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RE: What Price?

This post was last modified: 26 Aug 2011 06:41 AM by leep.

I've certainly read a few stories from authors who have dropped their price and seen sales soar.

Ian Hocking, a relatively small-selling author, has some great posts on a couple of sites about his sales experience and mentions keeping the price low has meant the number of sales is higher, which keeps him in the best seller list, which means he gets more sales. A virtuous circle. I've pulled together links to most of Ian's articles here.

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paf2011

26 Aug 2011, 01:36 PM | Post: #8

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RE: What Price?

Hi everyone,

I think price helps, but then as an indie author, I think customer reviews must play a part too. I will happily buy indie books, often they are low cost, and there is some great stories out there. I guess it all just comes down to luck at the end of the day.

Would you die to stop a curse?

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JimBronyaur

30 Aug 2011, 02:09 AM | Post: #9

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RE: What Price?

Price is just one piece of the puzzle here. Some people like John Locke sell a million books at $0.99. But look at James Patterson. Sure, he's a big 6 guy, but he sold a million kindle books at, what, $10 plus per ebook.

It's a number of factors that play into it all.

The first is your books. Get them ready, get them published.

Personally, I've set two prices for my books...

My novels are $3.99. No questions, no hassles. If you see $3.99, you know it's a full length novel by me.

Everything else - short stories, novellas, poetry, etc. are $0.99.

My reasoning... if someone sees $3.99 and is worried about the price, I'm confident that if they buy a $0.99 book, they will enjoy it and be back for a novel. And hey, if not, and they continue to buy the $0.99 projects, I'm still doing my job! Smile

But so far, this month, my novel (The Devil's Weekend at $3.99) has out sold all the other books.

-jb Cool

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