STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT E-BOOK PRICING

I am kinda loss as to why people are always complaining about E-book prices. Why they try to figure out why would an author make a book free: who complains about Free stuff. Then the people that refuse to buy $0.99 books crack me up, as if John Grisham offered Kindle book for $0.99 anyone would complain. This is like the billionaire that only shops in Prada and scoffs at K-mart bargains. In my opine, some sales is better than no sales.

E-book pricing is a very tricky and funny business. If you're not savvy or not paying attention to trends and watching the numbers, you will lose. When I had one book out, LAUGH NOW, I had it priced at $9.99 and I honestly had 0, yes, ZERO sales for the first month, and only one (1) book the next, and I couldn't understand why. Bottom line, no one would support me as a new indie author at that price.

I wasn't discouraged, but as a business man, I lowered my price to $2.99, and my first check after that was $350. When I release CON TEST, I opened with $4.99, and sales were OK, but the two books worked out to me getting about the same $350. I rode that wave for a few months and then came DIE LATER, my third book and a sequel. At different times, I had all three books at $2.99, $1.99, $0.99. And guess what, the cheaper the book the more sales. Now here is the catch. When they were $0.99 that forced the number of sales to go up, along with my Amazon rank. When the rank went up, so did the price on my end, and guess what, I earned $850, the first month that I tried this.

When the KDP program offered the option to make books free, I added CON TEST only. First of all, you can only make the book Free on 5 days out of a month. What I did was, make CON TEST Free for a day at a time. That garnered no less that 4,000 downloads a day for CON TEST. But additionally, about 100 straight sales of LAUGH NOW, and DIE LATER, because people get the free book, and buy the other two.

After seeing this bring in four-digit checks, I added LAUGH NOW, my first book to the KDP program. It's a no brainer because people will buy the sequel along with the Free book. The only problems that you must remove your books from Nook and iTunes and Sony to be in the program. I have only sold 280 Nook books as a whole, and only 45 in iTunes. So, I removed them, and now, I rotate the free days and each time that I do, the next two days the paid sales jump considerably, because the Amazon rank is higher.

Additionally, my sales in Foreign countries have also been jumping because of this new formula.

I have just released, MURDER IN GERMANTOWN, on Tuesday, April 23rd, I have scheduled a free Con Test giveaway and Saturday, while I am at the Newark Harlem Book Fair, I have a Laugh Now Free giveaway scheduled. I am looking to garner attention to my new work. My expectation is this: If readers pass on the paperback, I can send them to get the Free Laugh Now, in hopes that they read it and then get the sequel, or just buy all of them at that time when they get the free one.

I do not know about all authors, but I am not looking for fans from free sale days. If people love my work, and become fans that's great. In the end, it's all about the next day sales for me, and yes, I get it right with the editing, typesetting, and cover design. I write for a living, not a hobby, and not to spread any messages. I write to entertain in the thriller/mystery/African American genre.

Just please scrutinize books based on the synopsis, cover, and sample, and make a decision. But the consistent bashing of all authors is getting played out, and I hate to say that it's such a Black thing. I am in other groups on FB, and members of blogs sponsored by white people and it's such a breath of fresh air to see peace and harmony and effective tools to get to the next level, not constant complaining that a book is to high or to cheap.

Thanks for your time and attention to this blog,

Rahiem Brooks

Web Site: http://www.rahiembrooks.com

E-mail: rahiemb@prodigypublishinggroup.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rahiembrooks

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rahiembrooks

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Why would an author do a book signing?

For me to order 10 copies of DIE LATER it costs $50.09 to include shipping and taxes. If I go to a signing in Philadelphia (my hometown) and I sell each book for $10 and split with the store 50/50, I earn $50, which puts me in the hole $-0.9. Add in $8 for a roundtrip downtown on the local train and food/drinks for the day $10, I am in the whole $-18.09. Now, suppose I go to NYC for this signing with the same number of books. I paid $20 roundtrip on Greyhound, I spend $10 to eat, and local train fare $10. I am now in the hole $-40.09.

If, I sell the books for $15 and the split is 50/50, I get $75, so I make $6.91 in Philadelphia. But if I travel to NYC, I am in the hole $-15.09.

There is something seriously wrong with this picture. I am doing a business plan for MURDER IN GERMANTOWN, and book signings are becoming very low on the list of priorities. I mean at this rate, why not sell an E-book for $0.99 in Kindle store. At least you'll make $0.35. There has to be some sort of standard or oversight committee set up to fight for the rights of authors. Book stores and vendors, should not make more money than an author. In my opine anyway. What say you?

For more information about Rahiem Brooks, read my bio at http://www.rahiembrooks.com.

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