What price do you set for a new release

[alhawke]

Here's a topic that's been discussed ad nauseam but there's nothing wrong with an update--nor, I think, is there really a precise answer. I'd love your experiences and input.

If interested, here's my situation. I have a brand new paranormal fantasy Phantom of the Opera adaptation up on preorder for $0.99 everywhere but Amazon. You all know the ranking thing with Amazon (it reflects negatively the longer it's preorder). So I wait till the last minute to preorder on Amazon. Got many reviews coming through Hidden Gems--which is always nail biting because they are from ARCS outside of my fans in my newsletter (I use services for honest review ARCs for all my books).

My plan is to leave the book at $0.99 for two weeks. I applied to BookBub new release--I'm not holding my breath with my very popular genre. Alternatively, I could apply to ENT and then, if I don't land ENT or BookBub, I could let my newsletter know that the price will go up after only a few days from launch at $0.99 to $2.99. That would push initial sales and ranking and then return the book to an introductory price of $2.99. If I do this technique, promos are out (which isn't necessarily bad, I'm beginning to think, if I can't land the biggies like ENT or BookBub anyway).

Now here comes the timing headaches (I already dealt with one scheduling disaster due to trying to meet the deadline with Hidden Gems. Don't you love deadlines?) Promos have to be scheduled up to two weeks in advance, but many need reviews. Can't show reviews until the book is up on Amazon unless you put a paperback up but, I find, most don't leave reviews on the paperback anyway. 

I don't want my book to remain at $0.99 for too long. How do you all juggle promos for new releases with pricing? Can't make a whole lot of money with $0.35 royalties, right? So what do you all do?

I'll add one more morsel for others. I have used New in Books now three times and really like their services. They work very well for new releases and help organize a rush of promos at the start of a book release if your book is $0.99. But, and this is a big negative, it is very expensive. And I'm not going to advertise there for every release. Not only that, I feel like if I did, the benefit would wane from frequent new releases by me every few months.

[Eric Thomson]

I always release at full price ($4.99). Otherwise, I'm giving up a metric crapload of money. I don't do new release promos other than letting my followers know it's out via my mailing list, blog, website and social media.

[VanessaC]

Sounds like you've carefully thought it out.

I'm in KU, which I think makes a difference. First in series is always 0.99, but I also get page reads, which is nice. Next / later in series release at full price for me, and I very rarely discount them - I have done a couple of Kindle Countdown deals. 

I have no issue making the first in series cheap, and then running free promos from time to time - it really helps read through for me.

The exception is to pricing for me is a box set of the first series, where it's currently priced at 0.99 and setlling like hot cakes (for me, anyway) plus a lovely lot of page reads - it's doing so much better like that than it was at full price, so I'm keeping it cheap for now as it's making me more money.

Sorry, drifted off topic, but that's my experience so far.

[TimothyEllis]

Full price.

The only books below full price now are short ones.

I even put my book 1 up to normal full price when I worked out it was no longer the first book being read anymore, so no longer the taste test. That highlighted just how much money I'd been leaving on the table unnecessarily.

I don't discount anything at the moment.

I also think the whole 99c release strategy is shooting yourself in the foot.

Michael Anderle tried to convince me it worked, but he had a huge list and his books were making top 200 all the time, and when they went top 100, the sales brought in the money he expected anyway. And truthfully, if it wasn't 99c, he probably wouldn't have gotten the sales to get higher than 200 anyway. But as far as I was concerned, the math didn't work with 99c, even with the rank boost. He said it did, but couldn't demonstrate why. I'm not sure he does it anymore.

[Lynn]

Full price. 6.99

Thinking I might go 8.99 on the next one. Haven't decided yet. I think I'll look around first and see the company I'll be keeping if I do.

(I have a collection of short stories at 8.99 already. It sells so I'm not worried about not selling at all. Just whether or not the drop off will eat into my total profit for my novel series.)

[JRTomlin]

When I do a pre-order, I price it at $2.99. When it is released I immediately raise it to full price $4.99.

Edit: I am seriously considering raising my prices to $5.99 in December. It is tough decision.

[LilyBLily]

I agree it's a tough decision. Run a price experiment for a few weeks and you'll have your answer. That's assuming you have a steady stream of sales to begin with, not the boom-and-bust cycle that occurs with paid ads.

[alhawke]

Thanks for all your thoughts. It's tough.
The plan I've decided on is to apply to BB and ENT. Both these do very well for my books. I don't have an ASIN yet, but both will consider the book early (BB if you have another seller preorder, ENT if you send a separate email pre ASIN). If one accepts, I'll promote the book leaving it at 99c for the first two weeks (and I'll probably tack on a few extra promos). If not, I'll release it at $2.99 for two weeks. $2.99 is still a reduced price for me. All my books are $3.99 or higher.

I really believe 99c helps with visibility and ranking. I have been able to get in the top new release categories on Amazon with ENT's boosts in the past. The question is--how much does it help, when to do it, for how long ...?

[alhawke]

Run a price experiment for a few weeks and you'll have your answer.

I have data from all eight releases I've done in the past three years. My most successful was 1st in a three book series, Paranormal Romance, placed on KU for three months, and promoted aggressively through New in Books and many other promos sights at 99c launch. But ... was it the book that appealed to people, not the marketing? And isn't this how the data gets muddled? I decided not to go with KU this time with the hope that readers are starting to find familiarity with me. But launching with KU for a brief three months is yet another future consideration.

[JRTomlin]

There are so many variables in an experiment like that. World events, whether there is a holiday, which books you use for the experiment, as well as advertising and other factors make knowing whether it was an outlier very difficult.

[idontknowyet]

I'm getting to the point that i won't do promos until a book is really old. Like dead in its grave ready to be buried.

I start all books at full price.
For now that is 3.99 for 65-95K books and 9.99 for 210k+ books (boxed sets). Though I am tempted to lower my boxed sets to 7.99, they just said in a blog that 1 book 'free' for trilogy boxed sets seems to be a sweet spot.

[Pemry Janes]

Always tough to tell what price is right.

I look at length to decide how much to charge. My novella is $ 2.99 and the larger books are $ 3.49 for the 60k words book and $ 3.99 for the one that has over 90k words.

I am considering raising the price on that second book to $ 3.99 as well.

[alhawke]

I very well might be being a knucklehead here--yeah, I am--but I just realized, since I've never launched over $0.99, I don't know how to change the price at launch. How do I sell the book at $2.99 on Amazon if it's at $0.99 on preorder? Doesn't it automatically roll over with the same pricing? And how do I avoid price matching selling wide?

[DmGuay]

I launch at full price and don't discount for at least six months. I want people to know if it's new, and they want to read it, don't wait thinking they'll be a discount right around the corner. Because nope. There isn't.

Unless it's a new series I want people to try, then I might do 99 cents. But I don't have a set time frame for raising the price. I wait to see how it goes, if the ads do well, if the also boughts on Amazon populate with the books I want to be in there. And then I decide. But it doesn't stay 99 cents forever.

[Writer]

I launch at full price (usually $4.99) and use pay-per-click ads to drive sales, instead of discount promos. I don't do discounts until the book is 6-12 months old and, even then, I don't discount for anything but a Bookbub free feature. I've got a deep enough catalog at this point that just keeping PPC ads pointing at my most recent series keeps sales steady, and the occasional Bookbub gives a welcome bonus boost about once per quarter.

That said, I might have a different approach if I was writing paranormal, romance, or urban fantasy. Different audiences expect different things.

[alhawke]

I launch at full price (usually $4.99) and use pay-per-click ads to drive sales, instead of discount promos.

Thanks! That's yet another consideration. I do run new release ads, but I don't usually spend much on them. It might work out not costing much more than new release promo marketing.

[JRTomlin]

I very well might be being a knucklehead here--yeah, I am--but I just realized, since I've never launched over $0.99, I don't know how to change the price at launch. How do I sell the book at $2.99 on Amazon if it's at $0.99 on preorder? Doesn't it automatically roll over with the same pricing? And how do I avoid price matching selling wide?

I change the price just before it goes live. The people who preordered it at a lower price will still be charged the price when they preordered. That way it goes live at the regular price. (Except for Germany where all preorders are canceled if you raise the price, but I've never had a preorder from Germany I'm pretty sure 🤷‍♀️)

I actually don't run much in the way of new release advertising. I do a low-cost preorder ad on BB a few weeks ahead of release and then depend on the free notices to followers and my newsletter.

[alhawke]

I change the price just before it goes live. The people who preordered it at a lower price will still be charged the price when they preordered. That way it goes live at the regular price. (Except for Germany where all preorders are canceled if you raise the price, but I've never had a preorder from Germany I'm pretty sure 🤷‍♀️)

I actually don't run much in the way of new release advertising. I do a low-cost preorder ad on BB a few weeks ahead of release and then depend on the free notices to followers and my newsletter.

This is very helpful. Thanks!

How many days before launch do you change the price? One day? Two to three? I didn't even think about it, but I could run into price matching problems for wide retailers, so I have to consider when to change the price on others as well; and whether a price change will affect the other sellers too. ?

I did order a BB preorder release for a week before launch. And I'm creating BB ads as we speak to push the book more.

Bookbub didn't take my book. I'd be willing to continue a 99c plan for two weeks if ENT promotes it. We'll see. ENT is strong enough for me to give me a big ranking boost and high visibility. But if they're out, I'm out on using promo companies and setting the price at a steal. Plan B is ads, waiting for more reviews and possibly trying for another promo in a month (if it's still within new release category range). Or running a promo much further along in 3-6mos.

[JRTomlin]

Amazon isn't clear how close you can change the price so I change the price on other retailers 4 days ahead to let those change first. You can't change your ms on Amazon past 72 hours & I'm honestly not sure if that applies to prices. I *think* it does so just to be sure I change it a little more than 72 hours previous. It would actually make sense to email and ask them, but I've never done something that sensible. 🤦‍♀️😜

[alhawke]

Thanks. I think if I end up going with $2.99, I'm just going to start the Amazon preorder at that price and set increase the other retailers 2-3 days before (I don't set the Amazon preorder until the last minute). This will be safest if I want to control pricing. We all know how much a pain in the butt it can be to change pricing wide with Amazon price matching. I don't know why I didn't think of this problem before.

[JRTomlin]

That works too and avoids any hassle with price matching. I haven't had that happen with going live but that doesn't mean it couldn't.

[alhawke]

Update. I listened to all of you. I appreciate all your input. I probably will do a slightly reduced price or full price in the future. But for my current release, I've changed course. Last week I brought my price up to $2.99 preorder on all markets except Amazon, because, being that I'm one of the most impatient persons you'll ever meet trying to sell books in one of the slowest moving trades (you know, our writing industry), I didn't wait for ENT's response. Well, this morning ENT accepted my book without an ASIN. So I'm going to bring all the preorders back down to $.99 and set up Amazon at that temporary price. ENT can hopefully provide a visibility boost and help my new ranking under hot new releases. It might not. We'll see.

Between problems with another member of my team nearly missing a deadline, I'm getting a stress headache. Does launching a new book ever get easier?

[TimothyEllis]

Does launching a new book ever get easier?

Yeah.

When all you do is set a price based on length, and what you normally put on full priced books, and release it without doing anything else.

You never get over the jitters during the release period, but the release itself is straight forward. All I do extra is a mail out to my list, and posting announcements in my group and page on FB. Very easy.