I'm finding that $4.99 is bringing me in just as many sales as $3.99 was even a few months ago.

Almost everyone does, I think.

Apart from the people who don't look at $4.99 books themselves, as readers, project their own price-sensitivites onto their prospective customers, decide that nobody else will, either, and don't even test it.

since a lot of traditional publishers have kept their prices high on their own ebooks and not discounted over the past few years like the rest of us self-published authors have, could that be making the average reader/buyer get used to seeing those higher prices on ebooks now?

The average reader has no idea whether a book is trade-published or self-published. Nor is it relevant to them at all.

Are those establishment publishers doing us indie writers an actual favour by keeping their own prices high?

Actually yes, I think so. They have rather more collective publishing and pricing experience than we do. I've always followed their pricing examples, myself, and am pleased that I've done so. But to some self-published authors I think it's so instictively essential to try to compete on price that they take no notice anyway.

 

Absolutely.  Which is why I wish them the best.  LOL.

 

I'm glad some people are drawing a line in the sand and not giving in to ridiculous discounting . It's sad to watch some authors selling boxed sets of 4 books for 99 cents. That works out to royalties of 8 cents per book. They'd do better opening a lemonade stand outside their homes.

 

They'd do better opening a lemonade stand outside their homes.

Well, you know what they say? When life gives you lemons ...

 

Hm... lemonade stand. I like it.

I've done some price experimentation and I'm sticking with $4.99 for novels for the foreseeable future. It's a competitive price, about the cost of a latte or a small popcorn at the movies, and it's several dollars cheaper than a supermarket paperback. It just feels right to me.

The short story collection doesn't sell at any price. I'm thinking of raising the price to a million dollars. Just have to sell one....

 

It's important to not observe 2.99 vs 4.99 etc. but simply have a set pricelist system for your catalogue. Be consistent. It is something I am constantly updating my mind about, but at the moment I'm content with selling a 10k story for 2.99. I raise the price one dollar for everything 20k after that. But don't overthink it. Because you can always change your mind at a moments notice.

 

My books started out at $1.99, but I raised the price to $2.99 about a year ago with no drop in sales.

A jump to $4.99, especially when so many romantic suspense novels are priced lower, scares me since I don't want to flatline. My guess is that $4.99 attracts a different reader than a less expensive book.

Does anyone know if rank is tied not just to number sold, but also to price? How has a $2.00 increase effected sales?

 

Talking as a reader, most books I buy are at $8-12.. 

Also, every market has cheap buyers, normal buyers and those who want something expensive. Same with books. And quite often cheapest market has the worst customers (big expectations which can then result in bad reviews etc). You just don't appreciate something you get cheap. $4.99 is probably the lowest limit I'd go for in ebooks. No reason why Indies can't charge $8 for a book. But KDP Select's influence probably made such an impact authors are still afraid to charge more..  There might be some variations for genres but still, there are buyers at each price level. Middle of the market probably is bigger than the bottom...

Honestly, no one knows if the books is Indy or not, no one cares. Prices can be the same for both.. It's your choice.

 

I'm glad some people are drawing a line in the sand and not giving in to ridiculous discounting . It's sad to watch some authors selling boxed sets of 4 books for 99 cents. That works out to royalties of 8 cents per book. They'd do better opening a lemonade stand outside their homes.

ridiculous and sad for you is money in the bank for someone else.

 

Well when I launched my first novel at 4.99 it tanked.    Whereas I regularly sell pretty well with shorter-length stories at .99 - 3.99 price tags.  It may have been a different reason, though.

 

ridiculous and sad for you is money in the bank for someone else.

Further, there's a lot of assumptions that people are just idiots and don't know how to sell books. If I make more money selling at $.99, then I make more money selling at $.99. It would be ridiculous and sad to raise a price to $4.99 and make less money. Some of us actually do know what we're doing, so it's probably best not to think that all those people selling at lower prices are just poor souls who never thought to raise prices and rake in the extra cash.

 

Briteka, I'm curious whether you tried 2.99 for your serial. For how long and what the results were vs .99 cents.

 

And some authors mistaken think that cheap readers give bad reviews or don't read what they pick up.

Little food for thought.  Do not make assumptions about readers. 
Oh and if everyone is selling in your genre for $2.99 then you would probably go bankrupt at $4.99.
Same theory applies the other way too.

 

It's important to not observe 2.99 vs 4.99 etc. but simply have a set pricelist system for your catalogue. Be consistent. It is something I am constantly updating my mind about, but at the moment I'm content with selling a 10k story for 2.99. I raise the price one dollar for everything 20k after that. But don't overthink it. Because you can always change your mind at a moments notice.

I like this as I am consistently changing my mind about consistency too. In the end, I manage consistency on weekdays, but not always.

 

Briteka, I'm curious whether you tried 2.99 for your serial. For how long and what the results were vs .99 cents.

I usually price at 2.99 for erotic romance serials.

Certain niches, I'll price at $.99 (specifically gay erotic romances) for several reasons, including that I sell more than 6 times at that pricepoint than 2.99.

My backlist is about 70 percent 2.99, 20 percent .99 and 10 percent 3.99+ for bundles. Next release I'm thinking I'm going to release at $.99 for a week then raise to $2.99. I have no idea what that'll do, but it'll be interesting! I'm starting to think that I want a lower price while a release is in its active cycle, then a higher price when it slows down and becomes another old title that sees a few sales a month.

 

So would you say, Briteka, that unless you are writing in a niche such as gay erom, pricing serial sequels at 2.99 is the best collective?