Raising prices...

7423 Views 78 Replies 37 Participants Last post by MQ, Feb 12, 2013

MQ

Discussion Starter · Jan 17, 2013

I know this has been discussed to death, but has anyone actually seen an increase in sales after they had raised their prices? Also, at what price point has it been the most effective?

I currently have my novels (60k+ words) at $2.99, novellas (43k and 33k) at $1.99 (this I found the least effective thus far) and the rest at $1.29 (19k+) and $0.99 (for short stories).

I am seriously considering raising my prices, so it would be nice to know what others have done.

1 - 20 of 79 Posts

dalya

· #2 · Jan 17, 2013

The other day, I realized KDP caps books at $9.99.

That made me want to release a book for $10.99, of course. Just because I couldn't.

cahocking

· #3 · Jan 17, 2013

I raised my book prices from $1.99 to $2.99 and took the 70% royalty option. I didn't see any change in book sales, but I did see a nice change in my royalties!

MQ

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 17, 2013

cahocking said:
I raised my book prices from $1.99 to $2.99 and took the 70% royalty option. I didn't see any change in book sales, but I did see a nice change in my royalties!

Yes, for that very reason I have thought about raising my prices from $1.99 to $2.99 but then I think will someone pay that for a novella?!? On the other hand, it is only a $1 increase but the royalty return is much, much better

39179

· #5 · Jan 17, 2013

I would definitely up the prices of your novels and novellas by a dollar each. And $1.99 is a sinkhole as far as I'm concerned. Not a DWS pricer here, but your longer length books sound underpriced, and often potential readers can equate that with bargain basement quality.

nikkarina

· #6 · Jan 17, 2013

Andrew Biss said:
I would definitely up the prices of your novels and novellas by a dollar each. And $1.99 is a sinkhole as far as I'm concerned. Not a DWS pricer here, but your longer length books sound underpriced, and often potential readers can equate that with bargain basement quality.

This has nothing to do with the topic- but I gotta say I love your book covers!

39179

· #7 · Jan 17, 2013

nikkarina said:
This has nothing to do with the topic- but I gotta say I love your book covers!

Well, how nice of you to say so! Thank you, Nikki! I very much like yours, too

**We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming**

John Daulton

· #8 · Jan 17, 2013

I went from $2.99 to $3.99 on my first book and absolutely nothing changed. I probably left money on the table early on, but, bleh, none of us has a crystal ball. Just set your book at what you think is the best value for your customer, the reader, and then let the law of supply and demand regulate the rest—or the law of OMG AH NEEDZ MONAHZ!, whichever comes first.

Hildred

· #9 · Jan 17, 2013

I upped all my prices by a dollar earlier this month. Not a single thing has changed sales wise, except now I make more money.

I currently charge 4.99 for a novel, 3.99 for a novella, and 2.99 for the novelettes. I should probably mention however that I write erotic romance which usually commands higher prices for shorter works. But I don't see what you have to lose if you're already not selling much to make the difference in royalties.

BEAST

· #10 · Jan 17, 2013

Everyone judges a book by its cover/blurb. Perception is everything. If you think your writing can sell at a higher price point then go for it. If the result don't measure up, change some things up with the package, i.e. the first impression stuff. Go for the price increase, your work is worth it.

Nope

· #11 · Jan 17, 2013

.

ElHawk

· #12 · Jan 17, 2013

For the past several months I experimented with lowering my prices to $2.99 for novels. Previously I was selling my first novel for $5.99 and the sales were pretty darn good.

I did end up selling more units at the lower price, but made about the same amount of money. I found it to be worth it for the increased exposure, which has led to reviews accumulating more rapidly than at my higher price point. Now that the book seems to be on a steady roll with sales numbers staying roughly the same from month to month, I will probably raise the price for that series again, but likely not quite as high as it was before. I'm still thinking about that.

Jay Allan

· #13 · Jan 17, 2013

I think $4.99 is the sweet spot for novels. It's under $5, which makes it feel like a good deal relative to more expensive books, but it is high enough to look like s "serious" work. It just feels right to me.

Also, it let's you price novellas at $2.99 with some level of rationality compared to the novels, getting those in the 70% bracket.

Lady Vine

· #14 · Jan 17, 2013

I agree with those who say you're pricing your novels too low. Also, with regards to the $1.99 price point, I've been having success with it, and it seemed like the perfect price for my novelettes. $0.99 was too low (I might as well have just given them away at that price) and $2.99, not really too high imo, just not a price I thought I'd use to launch with. It's definitely a price I'll move to in a couple of months, when I have more books under that pen name. I use $2.99 for anything between 15 - 30k words. It's been working well for me.

Of course, the erotica stuff has its own rules, and I've very easily priced that stuff at $2.99 for under 4k words. It's reaching the same amount of sales as the $1.99 stuff... I do so love erotica.

Pricing comes down to how confident you are in your work. You have to believe that you're telling a story no one else but you can tell, and that it's a story buyers simply must have. As a rule, I never write a book any old Adam can write

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horse_girl

· #15 · Jan 17, 2013

It's nice to read others' thoughts. I've been considering raising my prices on my novels. I have series firsts at free on two of my series and am working to get another free that needs some reader love (hopefully not reader hate

)

I'm thinking of raising my novellas from $1.99 to $2.99. It's only a dollar more for readers, but it would be big jump in royalties for me. Who couldn't use a little extra money? Of course, I write SFF with some romance thrown in, so I'm not sure if my genre will sustain that or not. I thought I'd start increasing on the novels with the last in the series and progress closer to the first, which are free.

It's reassuring to read so many going from $1.99 to $2.99 and seeing no change. Thanks for sharing that!

WG McCabe

· #16 · Jan 17, 2013

C.C. Kelly said:
My opinion is that your prices are low. 40k is where novels begin (novellas are 17.5k to 40k if I'm not mistaken). I buy novels (ebooks) at $12.99 or more (and so do millions of other people). So I would think readers would pay a little more for yours. And yes you are not Grisham, but neither was Grisham when I bought his first book. Pricing is marketing. Decide what your brand is going to be and project that image. Set your prices accordingly.

Novel over 40,000 words
Novella 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novelette 7,500 to 17,500 words
Short story under 7,500 words

dalya

· #17 · Jan 17, 2013

If I have a full-length novel, I like to put it out at $2.99 just in case *maybe* this is the one that roars to the top of the bestseller charts (which are often 2.99 or .99 indies and don't go up to 4.99 until they've been on the chart a bit ...i think).

I like the idea of selling for a bit more, and reducing the impulse buys by having people download the sample first to see if they'll like it. My books are pretty consistent with the openings, so I like to think a higher price will lead to more happy customers.

ALSO, I LIKE MONEY!

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SBJones

· #18 · Jan 17, 2013

Unless you have a strategy like placing book one of a series at 99c or free as a loss leader, nothing should be priced lower than $2.99 from a business stand point. I haven't seen anyone who has posted numbers where a stand alone book at 99c made them more money than priced at the 70% royalty rate of $2.99 or higher. The simple 6:1 sales ratio is simply impossible to get.

Now, that's not to say you can't put your book on sale for a while. Also a lot of people pretend not to care about money and the number of sales is all that seem to matter. So only you can answer the question. What are your goals and expectations for the book. Most of us look for a balance between units moved and money made. With the way the royalties work, $2.99 is where it starts.

Jan Strnad

· #19 · Jan 17, 2013

There are so many variables...genre, freebies, what the trad publishers are doing, reviews, other promotion, etc. ... that it's hard to nail down price alone as factor that makes a difference.

I've decided to price both of my full-length (100,000 words or so) novels at $3.99 for the foreseeable future. It seems cheap to me, about what you'd pay for a latte at Starbuck's, but it also isn't bargain basement. I don't know.

I think that we indies are headed for a subscription plan where we make a buck or fifty cents or whatever per download UNLESS we can distinguish ourselves in the marketplace and command $7.99 or $9.99 per book. But I don't have a crystal ball. That's just how it seems to me tonight.

anotherpage

· #20 · Jan 17, 2013

I say raise them to $2.99 you put a lot of effort into writing them And $2.99 is still a steal on ANY book.

0.99 cents in my opinion is just for limited time sales or loss leaders.( those 1st books that lead into a series )

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