Full price vs .99cent for first in series.

[idontknowyet]

For the first 5months after release, I kept book 1 in my series at .99 thinking it would increase sales.
Which it did. i sold more copies of my book, but my read through was only 5% on.
The first of this month i switched over to full price for first in series which for me is 3.99. (i'm still thinking of raising my prices to 4.99.)
My read through has increased 4x and  I'm thinking it will only go higher since there are many people that don't finish a book a week or every two weeks.

Overall I see no reason to continually discount first in series with maybe the exception of a free or promo.

Have you had the same experience or different ones?

[alhawke]

Funny you just posted this and I just dropped one of my 1st books in a series from $3.99 to $2.99. This is the first book in a two book series. But I lowered my price on a standalone book a couple months ago and saw no change in sales. So that other book went back up to $3.99 last week.

For my books and genre, $3.99 USD is my average benchmark. Many others seem to hover around $4.99. And I bet inflation will drive things higher. I've never done $0.99 unless it's a promotion. I've never done permafree. But I might do these things in the future.

In another brand new book, I raised it to $4.99. Why? It's fantasy and the painted cover and editing and size were double the cost of my other books. Will I make the money back? I don't know. I can always lower it. But I truly believe it's worth $4.99. We'll see what readers think.

So, I'm yo-yoing prices, but I'm keeping an eye on them. A much shorter way of answering this is that I think you should feel free to experiment for a month or two and adjust accordingly.

[LilyBLily]

I think you're right to give the book a normal price and collect your 70%. Give it a fair period and then compare the results at both prices. 

A lot depends on whether it is in KU, too. A higher price makes KU seem more like a steal of a deal, and possibly it generates a little more respect in the reader--even though the KU member will get to read it "free." 

My western romance series starter is $2.99 and the rest are $3.99. I don't fiddle with them except to run advertised discounts.

I think it's a good idea to change things up once in a while, especially if sales are slow.
 

[Simon Haynes]

I usually have the first book at 2.99 and the rest of the series at 4.99.

Currently one of my first books is 99c after a promo last month, because I haven't bothered to raise the price yet.  No uptick in organic sales whatsoever.