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for better or worse, I've joined the 99 cent army

3K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  Patty Jansen 
#1 ·
... at least for the time being. I don't like it, but really need readers and reviewers more than I need money, so there we go. I'll give it a try.

You may all howl at me now.
 
#13 ·
LOL Welcome to the Dark Side.  It hurts, I know, to lower a price to .99, given as some people with their noses scraping the ceiling seem to feel that reflects on the value of the book itself...which is rubbish.  Stores do it all the time as loss leaders.  I've done it a couple of times...even gone the Free route *gasp* (and have one free over at SW at the moment) and I have to say my sales have increased each time.  It gives a reader who may not know your name or your work a chance to try it.  For .99 what do they have to lose? And if they like it, you have everything to gain.

Be brave, Grasshopper *s*  and yes, I mix metaphors.
 
#14 ·
I have a free at Smashwords, too, but that story never cost me anything. I made the cover, and it was pre-published, so was already edited. The books, yes, ouch. I did pay people to do the covers. I am an editor (for a magazine), but swapped books with another editor and proofed his book while he proofed mine. So yeah. Ouch.
 
#15 ·
Congrats, on making a move.

100% of 0 always has been and seems to always will be 0. With that being said at the end of the day one of the goals is to earn a substantial profit from your writing and publishing efforts. After all if it were totally about the read and not the sell you could simply give your books away for free.

The good thing about publishing on Kindle is you may change your pricing relatively quick, so one price doesn't have to be a long-term pricing model should you find the need to adjust. At least one person has already mentioned about pricing one or two of your books at .99 and then raising the prices on other books. This is a pricing strategy that has worked for Amanda Hocking writer/epublisher and others in becoming very successful and earning a tidy sum $1,000,000+.

Keep publishing more books and price them between .99 to $9.99. As books continue to sell, you may not be so concerned with one or two priced at .99 if they sell a substantial amount of books over the long run. Additionally, those sells may lead to greater sells of your higher priced books. "THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE!"™
 
#16 ·
I am just contemplating this strategy today. I'm contemplating it so much I haven't written a single word on my WIP (novel #3). <sighing here.> Somewhere I read that the pricing strategy has nothing to do with the quality of the work and one must keep the focus on gaining more and more readers. I like that philosophy. It jives with the objective as a tactic to gain followers by fiddling (like that word) with pricing.

Good luck to you. I'll see you soon.

Katherine Owen
 
#17 ·
Well, overnight, I got more sales than I've had for the past two weeks, so it's working, at least as an promotional exercise. I still don't know if I'll leave it like this, but I need reviews, dudes. More sales = more reviews. I'm sure I will get the reviews eventually even with the higher prices, but I'm not a very patient person. So maybe this is the thing to do.
 
#20 ·
.99 is purely for marketing.  To try to attract readers.  Everything takes time.  One problem I keep seeing over and over again is a need for instant information-- it didn't work for three days, better change the price.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
.99 is a good lead for a series.  I think the fair price for fiction is $2.99 to $4.99.  But the reality is a lot of people troll for .99 books.
 
#21 ·
I'm an unknown with some shiny awards, but basically an unknown, so yeah, it's for publicity. I'm getting there, and I will raise the prices again, but I want to get things moving.

Anyway, over the past 24 hours, I've had more sales than the previous two weeks, so something is working. Whoever you are, I appreciate that you bought my work (and I'd appreciate a review/rating)
 
#22 ·
Bob Mayer said:
.99 is purely for marketing. To try to attract readers. Everything takes time. One problem I keep seeing over and over again is a need for instant information-- it didn't work for three days, better change the price.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
.99 is a good lead for a series. I think the fair price for fiction is $2.99 to $4.99. But the reality is a lot of people troll for .99 books.
Thank you for this reminder, Bob. I attended your all day workshop (it was great!) at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association last year (July 2010). I actually won the Zola Award for Seeing Julia at the conference, but a lot has changed in the last year; hasn't it? : )

Katherine Owen
 
#24 ·
It may be marketing for a lot of people (and some for me) but part of why I chose to start with the .99 cent price point is because I personally do not wish to go over about $5 anymore for book purchase. I flat-out read too much to justify paying more. There are so many great books priced between $.99-2.99 now; with low cost and great reviews, who really needs to go higher unless they have a few favorites [authors]?

When it came time for me to publish, I made a commitment for all [my] first titles be priced at .99 cents, and subsequent titles at $2.99. It's about writing well and selling to many; in a word, volume. Additionally, I thought readers would love being able to count on consistent production and price from me as an author (that's the goal, anyway! :)). It would be an attractive thing to me...as a reader.

I love the: Hocking, Konrath, Locke "Indies..." I know I can buy good books at a low cost. And the "wish list" just keeps getting bigger while trolling for great reads! ;)

Good news about the increased sales!
 
G
#26 ·
Hey, Patty!

I think we used to trade reviews on the OWW! I dropped writing for a while but got back into it last year and plan to stick with it this time. I'm loving the e-publishing so far and could even see this becoming the day job eventually.

Good luck with your 99-centers. You'll probably have better luck with the adult stories than the MG one (that's how it's been for me anyway--not many kids with kindles yet, I guess).

I sold my novels for $2.99 the first few months and they did sell, but I dropped Book 1 to $0.99 in the middle of May since I was getting ready to release Book 2 ($3.99). Sales of Book 1 doubled, which means less profits on that first book, but the tactic has resulted in more sales of my other ebooks, so I'm ultimately making more.

Not that this is all about money, of course, but I just wanted to say that the 99-cent lead book can be a good strategy for your work as a whole.

Again, good luck!
 
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