[JRTomlin]

I have resisted setting my novels at 99 Cents as a permanent price. As a sale price, I could see it, but particularly for historical novels that take a huge amount of work, I just didn't want to.

The thing is when I had Freedom's Sword at 99 Cents it got onto some good "Also Bought" lists of other historical novels. Soon after I put it back to $2.99, it dropped off. It has excellent reviews and quite a few of them. I don't think there is much else I can do for promotion than what I am doing. Any bumps I get are nothing more than that: temporary bumps.T

I do lose money having it at 99 cents since the additional sales aren't high enough (about triple) to make up for the loss in royalties, but to draw readers to ALL of my novels I am convinced I need to have at least one on the "Also Bought" list.

So I just dropped the price on Freedom's Sword (my highest selling novel by far) to 99 Cents and plan on keeping it there. Might I eventually change my mind? It's always possible, but I don't think so. *sigh*

 

[KVWitten]

As a reader, I generally ignore 99-cent books on the assumption that they're not very good.  (Please don't jump all over me, I know that's not always true but I'm not the only person that does this.)

Anyway, the only exception is when it's the first book in a series.  I know very well the author/publisher is publishing it cheap hoping the reader will become interested and buy the rest of the series at a higher price - but it works.

I hope it works for you.

(On a side note, both your books are already on my 'buy' list.  But I'm holding off until next week because I'm getting a color Nook for my birthday (!!!!!) and I want to put it on there.  I'm so excited!!)

 

[JRTomlin]

As a reader, I generally ignore 99-cent books on the assumption that they're not very good. (Please don't jump all over me, I know that's not always true but I'm not the only person that does this.)

Anyway, the only exception is when it's the first book in a series. I know very well the author/publisher is publishing it cheap hoping the reader will become interested and buy the rest of the series at a higher price - but it works.

I hope it works for you.

(On a side note, both your books are already on my 'buy' list. But I'm holding off until next week because I'm getting a color Nook for my birthday (!!!!!) and I want to put it on there. I'm so excited!!)

No jumping all over you. I realize some people do that. This is the first in my series of Scottish historical novels although not all are or will be sequels, technically speaking. But they are all closely related and will appeal to the same readers.

I understand what you're saying.

You might want to pick up your Nook version at Smashwords. I feed to B&N through there and unfortunately price updates to Nook take longer than they should. (I may change doing it that way for that reason, but right now that's my practice) Thanks for putting it on your 'buy' list and congrats on the new Nook!

 

[Patty Jansen]

Joanne,

I just did the same for all my books. I'd like to get a few more reviews. So far, so good. I do intend to put the price back up later.

 

[Chris Northern]

I think your reasoning is sound, Joanne. It's a tough call and I don't think there is ever a 100% right answer. But your experience shows that this helps numbers and that brings exposure to your other work. Maybe worth considering creeping the price up a tad on the next book released...and steeped in the history as you already are the third book will go that little bit quicker?

 

[JRTomlin]

Joanne,

I just did the same for all my books. I'd like to get a few more reviews. So far, so good. I do intend to put the price back up later.

I'm not doing it for reviews. I have a fair number of reviews on Freedom's Sword. Of course, I want more. Don't we all? But what I am much, much more concerned about getting a good placement on "Also Bought" lists.

I'm not doing it for all my books, only the first of the historical novels also. But good luck with your strategy. It may work better than mine. I'm just punting.

Edit: In order to get reviews I gave away a LOT of review copies. It's what I suggest for getting reviews.

Chris my next book is already released which I'm keeping at $2.99. I'm averaging a sale a day on that right now so not exactly setting the world on fire. The one after that which will be out before Christmas MAY be priced at $3.99 IF I am having the sales to justify it.

 

[Lefty]

If you like historical fiction, read this book. Well written and a good tale.

His name escapes me, but a gent on this board jacked his prices as an experiment. If you are making one sale/day, maybe you should try the same. Start a company called Grampian Press and market it under that name. I was a member of the Houston Grampian society - I am sure there are other chapters. Could be a start. Does Bernard Cornwell know about your book? Perhaps he should.

Hook 'em.

 

[Sarah Woodbury]

Daughter of Time is back to 99 cents after a trial of about a month at 2.99.  The price raise coincided with the Gaga incident, plus the sunshine sale, so maybe it wasn't a good test, but I'd much rather sell more copies as the lead in to my series, than have the extra money at this point.  Maybe I'll change my mind once I get more books up, but for now, it seems a wise choice . . .

 

[JRTomlin]

Daughter of Time is back to 99 cents after a trial of about a month at 2.99. The price raise coincided with the Gaga incident, plus the sunshine sale, so maybe it wasn't a good test, but I'd much rather sell more copies as the lead in to my series, than have the extra money at this point. Maybe I'll change my mind once I get more books up, but for now, it seems a wise choice . . .

That's pretty much my thinking, Sarah.

CB, I appreciate the feedback.

 

[bjm]

As a reader, I generally ignore 99-cent books on the assumption that they're not very good. (Please don't jump all over me, I know that's not always true but I'm not the only person that does this.)

Fascinating. I wonder then if it's better to list a novel at $9.99? Will it appear much better then? Never thought of this approach, but it just might work...

 

[SuzanneTyrpak]

J.R. I understand your frustration. Historical involves so much time and research, it's hard to price it at .99 cents--especially when that doesn't generate ten times as many sales.

I had Vestal Virgin--suspense in ancient Rome priced at .99 cents when I first brought it out, as a promotion. But now it's priced at $2.99. Sales are building slowly. I plan to write a sequel eventually, and when I bring that out, I may drop the price of Vestal Virgin. But right now $2.99 seems fair.

I plan to bring out another historical (not a sequel to Vestal Virgin) this winter, Agathon's Daughter--suspense in ancient Greece. I'll probably offer it at .99 cents for a limited time to generate sales and reviews--but then I'll raise the price to $2.99 or even $3.99. The costs for bringing out this book include: visiting Greece, constant research, cover, formatting, editor...etc, etc. I love writing historical, but it's not easy!

 

[SuzanneTyrpak]

(On a side note, both your books are already on my 'buy' list. But I'm holding off until next week because I'm getting a color Nook for my birthday (!!!!!) and I want to put it on there. I'm so excited!!)

That's cool Barbara! Happy almost birthday.

 

[SteveKarmazenuk]

The way I look at it, it's more important to me to get read then get paid, though as it would be nice to do both, I re-set my books at 99 cents.  At the $2.25 or whatever price I had it before, very few fish were biting.  Since dropping the prices of my books down to 99 cents, my sales have more than doubled; I'm hopeful that by the end of this month I'll actually have my first 100-copy selling month.

In the long run, I'll still need a "day job", but at least I know that people out there are reading - and presumably enjoying - my work.

 

[ashel]

Edit: In order to get reviews I gave away a LOT of review copies. It's what I suggest for getting reviews.

Can I ask how many a lot is? I don't remember seeing these particular numbers thrown around before, but I very well may have missed it.

 

[jonathanmoeller]

As I get more books up, I'm going to try having a variety of price points.

Like, "Demonsouled" and its sequel "Soul of Tyrants". Right now I'm writing a third book in the series, "Soul of Serpents", that I hope to have up by November/December. I think I'll keep "Demonsouled" and "Soul of Tyrants" at $0.99, and set "Soul of Serpents" at $2.99. Or I'll set "Demonsouled" to zero at Smashwords, hope Amazon price-matches, and set "Soul of Tyrants" to $0.99 and "Soul of Serpents" $2.99.

I think it helps to have more books and several series, since you can play with the price points more. Of course, it might take a few years of work to reach that point. 

 

[Alan Ryker]

As I get more books up, I'm going to try having a variety of price points.

Like, "Demonsouled" and its sequel "Soul of Tyrants". Right now I'm writing a third book in the series, "Soul of Serpents", that I hope to have up by November/December. I think I'll keep "Demonsouled" and "Soul of Tyrants" at $0.99, and set "Soul of Serpents" at $2.99. Or I'll set "Demonsouled" to zero at Smashwords, hope Amazon price-matches, and set "Soul of Tyrants" to $0.99 and "Soul of Serpents" $2.99.

I think it helps to have more books and several series, since you can play with the price points more. Of course, it might take a few years of work to reach that point.

I agree that it's nice to have enough books to try difference prices. My new book is .99 right now, but will be going up to $4.95(!) once my peeps have gotten it for cheaps. Then I'll have books at .99, 2.99, and 4.95. Of course, my .99 is a play, so it's not the best judge of how a book will do at .99. But once I've published enough short stories for a sequel collection to Pulling Teeth, I'm going to permanently price it at .99.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I have all my books (except Leon Chameleon PI) permanently at 99c because I have them on so many websites and bargain blogs etc that there's no way I could go round changing them all, or removing them.

I've sold over 12 000 copies of But Can You Drink The Water? and some reviewers actually said they gave it a try because of the 99c price, so it does work in some instances.

 

[balaspa]

I wonder about this as well.  Currently I have most of my novels on sale for 99 cents and have said I will keep them there "all summer long."  At the same time, I wonder when, or if, I can get them back up in price.  I keep hoping people snatching up the 99 cent ones will also like them enough to buy the few I have around $2.99.  It hasn't quite happened.

 

[Laura Lond]

I have several 99-centers, mostly short stories and a novel. The novel is the first book of a trilogy. It is not historical, but it had still taken tons of work. I thought about raising the price but decided against it. It seems like a good strategy to attract new readers for the trilogy.

 

[Monique]

Moving to 99 cents has been a boon for me. I gained far more than I lost. I know there are those who won't read books at that price point, but that's their loss (no offense). There are oodles of fantastic books that free too. I don't understand ignoring all other merits and writing something off simply because it's inexpensive. *shrug*

I had originally intended to raise the price again, but decided against it. My second book in the series will be priced at $2.99. At least that's the plan.