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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rahiembrooks
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rahiembrooks
I agree. I belong to groups where the majority is white. I feel comfortable asking questions and I don't get the sense of there being a hidden agenda. I'm sure we'll see where the ebook pricing will take us in the near future.
ReplyDeleteTrue indeed.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRaheim, You've raised some truly valuable points in this post and I too am guilty of changing my book pricing to 99 cents because I thought it will help to gain a broader audience and more sales and I feel that it really did not make much of a difference but,I did see a change in the Amazon ranking. However, in my opinion what I feel really matters is the readers reviews because they can help others decide to purchase your book/s. I also believe that when people are going to support you the price of the book does not really matter. The trick is to assure that the quality of your book, in whole specially the spelling, grammar is on point. I say this because I have fell victim and have purchased many books for a price range of 6.99 and up and when I open it to read it, it was a total disappointed, specially trying to figure out what the author was trying to say in every sentence through out the entire story. I believe as an author and publisher that we have to be in it for the love of literature. People will often support those who support them back and I took that into consideration and started the TPL project and other venues to help me gain a fan base by promoting other people doing positive work. Like my mother always says it's better to give then to receive. Much success to you and your future endeavors, hope to have the pleasure to work with you soon.
ReplyDeleteI get it FC.
ReplyDeleteThe people who get under my skin are the readers and authors who complain that an ebook that they paid $3 or less for is too short and accuse the author of ripping readers off. (No, I've never been on the receiving end of such complaints). I'm okay with running occasional sales on my books. Heck, I'm even okay with giving copies away for a limited time, but I'm sick of people whose false sense of entitlement encourages them to complain about a book being too short for the price of three candy bars, or too high. I don't price to please the discontents, I price to make a living long term and if $3 is a rip-off to any,reader of mine just because a work of mine is less than novel length then they have issues that go beyond book length and should go to a library to read for free until $3 is no longer a problem for them.
ReplyDeleteI love reading so the price really doesn't matter. I'm just not into reading books on tablets, computers, books etc. I recieved a tablet as a gift with preloaded books, its just not for me,I like the hard copies! Interesting blog! Who complains about a .99. cent sale!
ReplyDelete