[daveconifer]

I've always been skeptical that there are many readers out there who would ignore a book because it's priced too low.  But last week I was rapping with my spouse, who buys at least 1 Kindle book a week, about prices.  She told me that if something is below five bucks she thinks to herself "I wonder what's wrong with that book?"  There's one of them living in my own house!  I can't believe this never came up.

So maybe the price hawks were right and I've been cutting out a swathe of potential readers with the price.  Now is the time to find out.  Wrecker had a nice run at .99 but it's been plummeting.  I"m not even sure if it's in the top 1000 anymore (I've been an absentee writer/poster for a few weeks).  It's still appearing in "also bought" bars on Amazon, so I better try this soon.

So, anyway, some time next week the price is bumping up to $ 2.99...

 

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

Good luck, man.

 

[Guest]

Considering the exposure you've gotten, the book should be strong enough for $2.99. Keep an eye on it and I hope it works for you.

 

[Monique]

Hope it works, Dave!

 

[daveconifer]

You'll think this is BS (well, it probably is, actually) but I'm not really that concerned with the number sales or dollars anymore.  I was completely freaked, in a good way, at how many copies this book sold and deep down I feel like it's maxed out by now.  I'm honestly curious about what happens with the higher price, though...

 

[Mel Comley]

I tried to put mine up to Dave, thinking along the same lines as you, but they're both being price matched. I raised the price on smashwords last week but it hasn't kicked in at the other stores yet.

Good luck 

 

[daveconifer]

I tried to put mine up to Dave, thinking along the same lines as you, but they're both being price matched. I raised the price on smashwords last week but it hasn't kicked in at the other stores yet.

Good luck

Yikes, thanks Mel. I better crank the price on Smashwords today so Amazon has a chance to notice...

 

[Will Write for Gruel]

If you really wanted to be daring, you could try $3.99 or $4.99. If there really is a perception of quality tied to price, $2.99 may not be high enough for that perception to kick in.

 

[NickSpalding]

I've been rocking some pretty decent sales over at Amazon UK at the 70% royalty bracket, so you should do ok with the platform you've built

 

[Guest]

I've been rocking some pretty decent sales over at Amazon UK at the 70% royalty bracket, so you should do ok with the platform you've built

Hey Nick, you finally wrote some new books. Congrats!

 

[daveconifer]

Yeah, Asher, that would make more sense for my experiment. I don't know that I have it in me.

Thanks, Nick. I hadn't even seen the Australian flight book yet, and now I see you have another new one. Keep them coming...

 

[swolf]

Good luck Dave.  I'm interested in seeing your results.

 

[MonkeyScribe]

Good luck. Remember, nothing is forever. You could leave it there for a few months, then see if it has the legs for another 99 cent run. Why not?

 

[Michelle Muto]

Good luck, Dave!

I'm always interested in these price posts, mostly because I truly would like to know the reader's mindset when it comes to price vs. perceived quality. Yes, we're all readers. But, before going indie, how many of you thought the same thing as Dave's wife?

ETA: as of my post, you are #831 in sales, Dave.

 

[Philip Chen]

Good luck, Dave!

 

[WilliamEsmont]

I've considered doing the same thing with my big seller (~14K copies so far)..  maybe after the holiday weekend..

I priced my my newest (Fire - the first in a series) at $2.99 and I've sold 70 or so since it went live on the 8th. It's not enough to make up for the volume I'm making on Patriot at 99c, but it's a solid start and gives me confidence to leave it there.

 

[MonkeyScribe]

I've considered doing the same thing with my big seller (~14K copies so far).. maybe after the holiday weekend..

I priced my my newest (Fire - the first in a series) at $2.99 and I've sold 70 or so since it went live on the 8th. It's not enough to make up for the volume I'm making on Patriot at 99c, but it's a solid start and gives me confidence to leave it there.

I think 70 is darn respectable, especially if you haven't done any big push. As we seem to be writing more or less in the same genre, I can tell you that my first month with The Red Rooster sold 105 copies, followed by close to 500 so far this month, so they definitely can build some word of mouth over time. By 500/month, you can make a good living if you just sustain that rate and bring a new book online every 4-6 months.

 

[WilliamEsmont]

Yeah - I'm pretty happy with 70. The only marketing I've done is to have a banner ad on my editor's site the weekend after release. I do have a few guest-blogs coming up in the next month where I'll get a chance to pitch it.. plus I've submitted it to a few bloggers for review. So we'll see. I think there's a fair amount of cross-pollination between thrillers and horror. My current timetable has the sequel to Patriot coming out in the fall and the sequel to Fire coming out in early 2012. I may squeeze a novella (in the Fire series) in there as well

 

[MonkeyScribe]

I think there's a fair amount of cross-pollination between thrillers and horror.

Absolutely. My first several short story sales were horror and my books have a strong element of suspense and dread that I draw from that background. If I were to write horror, I'd put a thriller-sounding spin on it to try to get some crossover.

 

[Fredster]

I think it's a wise decision, personally. Unless your sales drop to less than 1/6 what they were, you're going to make more money, and that never hurts.