Pricing e- books

[Nick B]

I have been looking at the pricing of books on kindle for a while and their doesn't seem to be any sort of price point for new authors, it seems to range between zero and £4. A broad mix really.
Does anyone have any views or solid knowledge on how a new author should price an e-book?
We are going kdp select so there is plenty of scope for offers and reductions, but I am feeling £2.49 or £2.99 would be a fair full price. My thinking is similar to what I read recently, that odd prices like £2.37 actually turn people away, people expect to see .99 or .95 or similar shop style pricing. And under pricing might get some sales by being cheap, but it also LOOKS cheap, again, turning people away by looking like it isn't a valuable product.

What are peoples thoughts, knowledge or experience of pricing for new authors?

 

[Vertigo]

Personally it doesn't bother me too much, but then I don't 'browse' in that way. I decide what book I want based upon known authors and personal recommendations (usually from here) or occasionally recommendations from known authors. I then look for the best deal on that book. So it's only if it is a silly high price that I will think twice about buying, which I do sometimes eg. to wait for paperback release to bring the eBook price down.

So, although I a very far from being wealthy, the price is generally not a major consideration. If it's a book I want, that is, within reason, far more important than the price, and I have a wish list that is way too long to justify or require that I do any speculative book buying.

Or if you want to look at it a different way; for me, at least, I think it's far more important to get people to recommend your work than to worry too much about pricing. Set a price you think is fair and then use offers to try and entice early readers and then hope they recommend your book to others, or things like Goodreads (or Chrons) give aways with the expectation of a review in return. Not saying that approach would work for all buyers but it'd be more likely to work for me.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There's one specifically to avoid - I think it's £1.99. Mine are around £3.99 in the US and 2.24/2.49 in the UK, which seems to be pretty close to people's expectations for a selfpubbed/small press ebook.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have been looking at the pricing of books on kindle for a while and their doesn't seem to be any sort of price point for new authors, it seems to range between zero and £4. A broad mix really.
Does anyone have any views or solid knowledge on how a new author should price an e-book?
We are going kdp select so there is plenty of scope for offers and reductions, but I am feeling £2.49 or £2.99 would be a fair full price. My thinking is similar to what I read recently, that odd prices like £2.37 actually turn people away, people expect to see .99 or .95 or similar shop style pricing. And under pricing might get some sales by being cheap, but it also LOOKS cheap, again, turning people away by looking like it isn't a valuable product.

What are peoples thoughts, knowledge or experience of pricing for new authors?

Oh - and the odd prices are because the UK kindle price will be linked to your US price, so it's the exchange rate that does it. I don't think it puts anyone off.

 

[Nick B]

You can set territory prices seperately though cant you? Or do you set a single price and it converts automaticaly to everythidmg else?
£2.49 is my thinking.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You can set territory prices seperately though cant you? Or do you set a single price and it converts automaticaly to everythidmg else?
£2.49 is my thinking.

From memory - I set the US price and then the UK price adjusted to it. I'm sure you probably can override that, but I quite liked that it was the same value to people regardless where they bought from.

 

[Brian W. Foster]

Don't know about UK prices, but I've seen a lot of discussion on this from indie authors in US prices. The general consensus seems to be:

- $.99 doesn't sell as well as it used to.
- $2.99 is the minimum level for 70%, so a lot of authors go with it. Because so many do it, though, it's almost like it's become the new $.99 in signaling "may not be well done."
- $4.99 seems to be the price they think is best.

Important caveat: The thoughts above are just general observations. Genre and other factors can greatly influence things. Almost everyone says that your best bet is to experiment and see what happens.

That being said, I start all my novels at $4.99.

 

[Nick B]

Thanks for the input guys

 

[ratsy]

Quellist, I am seeing a resurgence of the indie authors taking the pricing back. By this I mean, the market has been flooded with .99 and 1.99 for the past few years, but the ones that are selling decently are getting them to the 3.99-4.99 mark. If you look at the hugely successful Nick Webb series, he is selling for $6+.

I priced Lake Manor at the min amount for the 70% and really have sold 80% of my books when I've ran promos and done them at .99, but that is for a horror collection which is a niche product. The rest of my books will be structured higher.

If I were publishing my own work right now, I think I would be looking to sell at around 3.99US and 2.99UK, and yes you can adjust per territory, which I do. Right now 3.99 US is actually 3.06 UK so it would be close and 2.99 look visually better.

Just don't forget though that with KDP you get to run a promo on sale once each 3 months, so do that in conjunction with a Book Barbarian promo, or if you can do it, a Bookbub.

I have also heard a lot of news about 4.99 being a good starting point, but you still need to get some traction early on, and get sales, which gives you ranking and visibility. Short of great marketing, reviews, and book blogs, your amazon ranking and visibility will be what gets you most of your sales.

Also, if you don't start selling hundreds, do not panic or worry. It can be a slow process. Word of mouth, reviews, promos...all these will help you

Good luck man! I am 80% through the book and I will happily be your first review!

 

[Nick B]

Thanks ratsy, your advice and support have been priceless.

 

[Overread]

Speaking as a buyer if I see an author on Amazon and all their books are £0.99 or similarly very lowly priced then a buyer assumes that the lower price equals a lower quality product. That the author has been force to sell that low and way below the market average, because the quality just isn't there.

Thus I tend to avoid those authors unless they have a massive range of positive reviews and accolades.

Undercutting the market works if you're already a big name looking to increase access to your series; it works fantastically well then because you entice a lot of people who are already aware of your product to jump on in and get started. It can also work well to undercost the first book of a series (once the series is out) to again entice people into taking that first step.


Otherwise I would say the best thing is to market at the going rate for a good author; which ebook wise is going to be just a little under the paperback cost.

At that point you're saying to the buyer that this is a serious book; that you the creator are confident in its quality to sell at that price point.




Ps I've also seen a good few amazon reviews which go "I would rate this 2 star but gave it 4 because it was cheap". Generally speaking that's a warning sign to avoid that book. As a writer you don't want that kind of review because it turns people away and shows that your cheaply priced product is poorly produced (even if its only in the opinion of that one reviewer).

 

[Vertigo]

At that point you're saying to the buyer that this is a serious book; that you the creator are confident in its quality to sell at that price point.

One word of warning on that. I don't want to cast aspersions as I've not read anything from @Quellist but... if you are pricing such that you are saying it is a serious book and you are confidant in its quality, then it better had be! If I pick up a cheap 99 pence book and the quality is appalling I tend to mark it down to experience, but if I pay a significant price say more than £3 and it turns out to be poorly written or edited I will feel fully justified in tearing into it in my review.

 

[Overread]

But of course - however on the flipside any serious book release has to come with some marketing so one would hope that marketing would help drive people of the right interest group toward your publication first and thus hope to get readers most likely to like the publication.

Of course you'll get bad reviews; no author is immune to that. The key is the balance and marketing early on to get a surge of good reviews at the release (which is why you see a lot of these launch review blocks happen - people give out early copies with the release date etc... and hope that bloggers/people will favourably review around the launch or before it).

 

[Nick B]

The promotion and marketting is starting now (and is taking much time and work...), and @Vertigo Liberator has been proffesionaly edited and has had good early feedback, so hopefuly wont upset anyone. Unless the dont like militaryish space-opera!

Thanks all, for your time so far

 

[Vertigo]

Oh and I do like militaryish space opera!

 

[Brian G Turner]

This report from Smashwords offers some pointers to pricing strategies:
Smashwords: 2015 Smashwords Survey Reveals Insights to Help Authors Reach More Readers

I seem to recall posting a study somewhere specific to pricing, but am afraid I can't find it at the moment.

 

[ralphkern]

Was going to quote the same thing @Brian Turner.

To my mind, the smashwords survey is an invaluable resource, and often anwsers people's questions - would it be worth stickying it somewhere?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Pricing is something that seems to be a case of "In what way would you like to be wrong?"

I'm thinking of making Kingdom Asunder (novel) US$3.99. Might be $4.99. Not sure yet.

It's a shame prices can't be more specific, but prices ending in a 7 get more sales. [One little quirk I learnt studying psychology. Another is that if you put stamps on at a slight angle when posting questionnaires, you get more responses].

 

[Vertigo]

Pricing is something that seems to be a case of "In what way would you like to be wrong?"

I'm thinking of making Kingdom Asunder (novel) US$3.99. Might be $4.99. Not sure yet.

It's a shame prices can't be more specific, but prices ending in a 7 get more sales. [One little quirk I learnt studying psychology. Another is that if you put stamps on at a slight angle when posting questionnaires, you get more responses].

Should that be a 7 or a 9?

 

[Brian G Turner]

prices ending in a 7 get more sales

Used to be the case, in the US at least. However, I'm sure I've seen research since that - for a UK audience at least - ending in 5 or 9 is better. I remember looking at the issue closely when I set up my online clothing shop.