Price Profit and Marketing

[idontknowyet]

Trad pub's have been raising the price of their ebooks to ridiculous prices (imho).

But as they raise their prices, I've been noticing some indie authors doing the same though not quite to the same sky high levels.

I personally have noticed that raising my first in series to full price has actually increased my profits and read through. This has me thinking about raising my overall book prices by a dollar.
Are you thinking about raising your prices?
Do you think it's a crazy idea for indies to ask more of their work. Or is it only something that big name indies should do?

Thoughts? Opinions? Random comments?

[notthatamanda]

I raised one of my books to $7.99 once, just to make a 99 cent deal more attractive to bookbub. That didn't work, but I got sales. Each price point is a kind of a different market so you may reach different readers at different price points. I also tried experiments a while ago with AMS. Raised one of my standalone romances that I never sold more than 20 copies to $7.99. Ran AMS ads. First page placement. No clicks because it was too expensive for romance but the algos loved it. Higher prices give you more margin for ad experimentation. My info is dated, I've been out of AMS for a while, but that was my experience.

Kid wants a llama

[JRTomlin]

Trad pub's have been raising the price of their ebooks to ridiculous prices (imho).

But as they raise their prices, I've been noticing some indie authors doing the same though not quite to the same sky high levels.

I personally have noticed that raising my first in series to full price has actually increased my profits and read through. This has me thinking about raising my overall book prices by a dollar.
Are you thinking about raising your prices?
Do you think it's a crazy idea for indies to ask more of their work. Or is it only something that big name indies should do?

Thoughts? Opinions? Random comments?

I'm not sure how high you consider 'raising prices' to be. I raised my most of my prices above the $2.99 - $3.99 range quite some time ago for exactly those reasons. They are still very inexpensive in comparison to the trade published ebooks, but I think that for some (maybe a lot?) of people being too inexpensive indicates poor quality.

I refuse to raise my prices over $5 though, trying to hit a medium, charging enough to make a decent profit and not look 'cheap' but not pricing myself out of too many people's budget.

ETA: I may eventually go over $5 of course but I'm nowhere near ready to take that plunge. I suspect I would lose more than I would gain at this point.

[idontknowyet]

I saw an indie with 8.99 books today. That i consider high.

I've see trads upto about 13.99-15.99 for an ebook.

[JRTomlin]

I agree that is high. I keep an eye on novels at that kind of price point. So far, I'm not convinced that it's a good idea.

Bernard Cornwell's Warlord is priced $14.99. That is pretty typical of what I see in trade books in the genres I read. I prefer to not go above 1/3 of that, but change happens.

[TimothyEllis]

I'd like to get all the Jack Reacher books for my Kindle app, but that wont happen any time soon due to the price of them.

I did recently get the entire Quiller series, after I found that I only had less than half of the paperback books, and never knew the others existed. They were mostly in the $6 range ($A), which was ok for a Trad, with 1 exception which was in the $13 range, but I paid it anyway. Obviously OCR'd without an edit afterwards, but still better for me these days than the paperbacks.

I increased my prices from 2.99 to 3.99 at 3 years in, then to 4.99 at 4 years in. Leaving book 1 at 2.99 as the taster.

When I got to series 5, I figured book 1 was no longer the main entrance point for people, and put it up to $4.99 as well. It continued selling just as well, and made me wonder how much money I'd been leaving on the table for how long?

I did mention price increases to fans at one point, and they were fine with it, although several said they'd rethink if the prices went over $5US.

That seems to be the main barrier, and I've no plans for going over it at this point.

[Lorri Moulton]

I've noticed in Women's Fiction that $4.99 seems to be the new $3.99.

[idontknowyet]

I've noticed in Women's Fiction that $4.99 seems to be the new $3.99.

I'm soo close to pulling the trigger on the 4.99 price point.

Though all my boxed sets are currently 9.99. I'd probably do better with 7.99.

[LilyBLily]

All my women's fiction titles are $6.99. I'd probably sell a few more at $5.99, but I like seeing a royalty over $4.00 in all markets and some of the wide markets only pay around 60%. It seems a reasonable price considering all the trad pub high prices, and it's right in the middle. Lots of 99-cent and $1.99 deals, lots of prices around $4.99.

The first of my western romances is $2.99 and all the others in the series are $3.99. I've considered making it 99 cents on a permanent basis to attract more customers. Haven't done it, though. It sells better than the rest of the series, so the question is, should I raise the price or lower it? There are legit arguments in either direction.

[JRTomlin]

Ugh. Now you are making me reconsider and raise my prices to $5.99. 🤔

But going over $5 is a tough one. I will definitely have to think about that.

[alhawke]

I haven't found any benefit in $2.99 versus $3.99. So I've stuck with $3.99 as my lowest price point. I keep my books later in my series at $4.99. They don't sell as well, but that's all right.

I can't get myself to sell at $.99 yet. I feel it's ridiculous to get a bunch of 99c sales when I can get one $4.99. Maybe this would change if I had as vast a library as some of you. $.99 also limits future promos.

Let me share how weird prices work for my books. I don't get it. I have a boxset selling at $9.99. People don't buy it. Well they do, but they don't buy it nearly as often as the three book series for $13.97. Why? It's the same exact three books! The only thing I can figure out is that the series is listed right under the book on Amazon. But with new A+ content, my boxset is sitting in front of their faces if they scroll a little farther down. But they don't scroll down, do they? Or do they? Maybe people are willing to spend $4 more dollars for the individual books ??? I really don't get pricing.

[TimothyEllis]

Let me share how weird prices work for my books. I don't get it. I have a boxset selling at $9.99. People don't buy it. Well they do, but they don't buy it nearly as often as the three book series for $13.97. Why? It's the same exact three books!

That was my experience of the 2 box sets I did, neither of which exist now.

People preferred to buy the original books.

[Simon Haynes]

If you charge $4.99 for an ebook in 2021 you're making the equivalent of $3.99 in 2010 dollars (inflation has eaten around 25% over the past 10 years.)

So, 4.99 really is the new 3.99

[notthatamanda]

Let me share how weird prices work for my books. I don't get it. I have a boxset selling at $9.99. People don't buy it. Well they do, but they don't buy it nearly as often as the three book series for $13.97. Why? It's the same exact three books!

That was my experience of the 2 box sets I did, neither of which exist now.

People preferred to buy the original books.

My guess is people don't want to risk the full amount, even though it is cheaper than buying the books individually, before they know they will like the series. I have a box set promo coming up on Kobo, it isn't at a huge discount, but we will see.

[alhawke]

My guess is people don't want to risk the full amount, even though it is cheaper than buying the books individually, before they know they will like the series. I have a box set promo coming up on Kobo, it isn't at a huge discount, but we will see.

But that's the super weird thing. I see all three books in the series bought at once with one sale. They do take a chance with the whole series. Of course, I can't guarantee they're all bought by the same person, cause Amazon doesn't show series sales, but I assume it as they're purchased all at once when checking sales.

[Crystal]

The safe bet is looking at prices for comparable books and picking something in the middle.

But there are benefits to pricing higher than average. Or pricing at trad level. Readers aren't going to check if a book is trad or not. If an eBook appeals to them, and it's priced in their range, they'll buy it. If it works for trad, it works for indie too.

We lack certain tools trad has. But we have the same ability to advertise on Amazon.

I'm releasing my new series at 4.99. That seems around average for my genre. I've considered raising some of my 3.99 backlist to 4.99--well, I am going to raise prices on one series when I change covers--but IMO the books still look too much like other 3.99 books. And that's important. Price is a part of the packaging. If the price and packaging have a disconnect, readers will be confused.

If you want to price higher, you need to bring the quality readers associate with those prices to every part of your brand: social media, website, emails, covers, blurbs, editing.

In romance, I mostly see higher prices for indies who are writing romantic suspense or dark romance. Billionaires too. I don't see it as often in other subgenres.

[notthatamanda]

My guess is people don't want to risk the full amount, even though it is cheaper than buying the books individually, before they know they will like the series. I have a box set promo coming up on Kobo, it isn't at a huge discount, but we will see.

But that's the super weird thing. I see all three books in the series bought at once with one sale. They do take a chance with the whole series. Of course, I can't guarantee they're all bought by the same person, cause Amazon doesn't show series sales, but I assume it as they're purchased all at once when checking sales.

Agreed, super weird.

[Lorri Moulton]

I don't remember who told me this...I think it was a reader.  They always bought individual ebooks because they liked separate books.  They liked to catalogue them that way and preferred the separate covers. 

Does it make more sense to spend less?  Probably...but this person knew what they wanted. 

[JRTomlin]

Honestly, if people prefer to spend more and get separate books, I'm not going to argue with them. 😜

[LilyBLily]

You've convinced me. I just changed the price to $3.99. That was my only $2.99 title.

[littleauthor]

I raised my prices on all the 0.99 offerings because I didn't see them working in leading to more sales and I like the higher royalty. I recently rebranded the romance name with new covers, blurbs, interiors, etc and raised prices a buck. My feeling is that the indie industry has matured and the quality is there. Readers seem comfortable moving away from 2.99. Gut feeling, nothing more.

[Lorri Moulton]

Pricing...sometimes, I think throwing darts at a board makes as much sense as anything else. 

I may try raising my prices a dollar at the end of the summer.  How do we know if we don't try, right?

[JRTomlin]

For the time being, I'm sticking with $4.99...until I don't. A dartboard would probably work. 😜

[LilyBLily]

Always a possibility of a goat sacrifice, too. 

[JRTomlin]

That's always worth a try.