Is self-publishing driving authors into bargain basement hell?

Brian G Turner

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Amazon has a two tier royalty system, that offers a royalty rate of 35% for books under £1.99/$2.99, and 70% for books priced above that.

Now, the big advantage of self-publishing I see underlined in every article on the topic is that 70% royalty.

Go authors! You get to keep most of your royalties!

And yet, my observation is that self-publishing is primarily driven by bargain basement pricing - chasing those £/$0.99 offers. Which means those vaunted self-publishing profit projections disappear real fast - 35 pennies per book to make a sale is hardly competitive with traditional publishing.

Additionally, I fear that consumers are becoming accustomed to these bargain offers - that they are becoming increasingly hesitant to try new titles unless it's on offer. Simply put, unless that reader is pre-sold to buy into you, then you need to entice them to buy with that 0.99 offer.

The original theory was that if the reader likes your work, they'll buy your next book at full price.

But - before they can do that, they've got other offers to look at first. The danger is that those follow-on books end up being prices at the 0.99 offer to keep readers buying.

There's a lot of competition, too - big publishers can now routinely throw in those £/$0.99 offers to compete.

Point being: is self-publishing as a trend pricing itself out of the competition? Are the bargain offers the big drivers of sales?

Just wanted to explore this topic, as while I'm ready and prepared to self-publish if I need to, as a business decision it would look less appealing if I'm going to have to resign myself to bargain book pricing.
 
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I don't keep mine at 99p but do the odd promo week at that price. When I do, because I am kindle unlimited, I keep the 70%royalties.

I did play with perma-99p in the hope higher rankings would equal higher readthroughs (which have their own pricing structure) but didn't feel it paid off.

But, yes, we've downgraded the value of books. Where that takes the writers to, ultimately, remains to be seen but, given the average earnings fall and keep falling, I don't think any of us can give up the day job soon.
 
I think there is a sweet spot still at 2.99 and up. The huge selling indie guys are now selling at even higher

Victory US Amazon

He is ranked 150 overall on the US at $6.00. People will pay but he has earned their trust and it is the third book.

Like Jo said, as a publisher, I will be in the 2.99-4.99 range with some quarterly promos at .99 - 1.99 at the 70% rate as per their program. I am paying royalties on the sales to the authors for all the collections and there is no way I want them to have to work on stories for 1/13 of 35% of the dollar. Even the books that I'm paying for the story upfront, the authors still get a healthy royalty because I want it to be a benefit for them to publish with me, not a favor.

I just bought the first 3 Gail Z Martin books in her new fantasy series because they were on promo for the 4th books release. I payed 3.50 each I think...still got 1800 pages of awesome for just over $10.00. People will pay this money I think but again, the book has to be good at the same time. Needs exposure, a good cover, reviews, and all of that, and a decent price, and I think they can sell. It may be a slog at times but I think that people with Jo's determination are bound for something special in this business.
 
I think I'll put my stuff on 4.50 to 5 range and do .99 promos, while I gather interest and gain name. There is no point for me to put myself in low range permanently for the amount of work and love I've put in my stuff. And I think buyers see that as well, because to be honest, if they like the product it's not a pain to put down that sort of money. But if I'd put it on trad publish over tenner, or even twenty range, I wouldn't be doing myself a favour.

.99 range is reasonable for promos, short - under 10k - stories.
 
Honestly? 35% of zero sales at 99c is the same as 70% of zero sales at $2.99. Bargain basement is just not worth it anymore. That basement is over filled with trash and your books are stuck behind them all before you even start, with the way Amazon is pushing things these days. A bargain basement is only useful if a book is already selling well. At which point, why bother?
 
I don't keep mine at 99p but do the odd promo week at that price. When I do, because I am kindle unlimited, I keep the 70%royalties.

Oh! So just to clarify - when the same book is available to Kindle Unlimited, you get the 70% rate? Does KDP have anything to do with that?
 
This isn't a perfect data set [partly, at least, because I cocked up the marketing (and had less idea what I was doing in other ways)] but of my two self-published stories (at $0.99 and $2.99 respectively) the former has sold bucketloads more.

I think that's also partly due to the cover design (the first has a single figure halfway through a transformation, and the second [whilst I really like the artwork] is of a ruined city, and I feel, as a cover, the former was a better idea).

I do think a free or very low price book can make sense as bait for readers (I have the first two Honor Harrington books on that basis and may buy more in the future). I don't think making all your books very low price is a good idea. Still toying with how to price Kingdom Asunder (either $3.99 or $4.99. May go for the former and make the other entries a dollar more. Still not megabucks, of course).

I've spoken to some readers who aren't into writing at all, and the response was interesting, if unhelpful. Some would actually refuse to buy a book that was less than £5. Others weren't bothered. A lot were dubious of books that were super cheap (under £2, for e-books).
 

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