When I first started putting my ebooks up on Amazon last year I had no idea
what to charge for them. I put my first book "Classmate Murders" there and was
asking $7.99 for it, I sold one. Then I saw what others were pricing their books
at and adjusted accordingly. After putting my 8th book on Amazon, I was seeing
a trend towards .99 cent books. I personally felt that my books, along with all
the thought and work I put into them, was worth more than the price of a candy bar.
But the need to get my books out to the public caused me to start giving away
my first book free as an incentive to buy all my books eventually. I started to
give that first book to whoever wanted it, mostly on Twitter and Facebook for
just an email address. The purpose I had in mind was to have people read the
"introductory" book of my characters. Then they hopefully would want to read
more about them in later books.
Recently I have been fooling around with pricing on Amazon for my books. I'm
now offering my first book at .99 cents only to get people to read it. The rest
of the books will remain with a price that I feel is reasonable for what they
are getting. I'm selling the rest of the 17 books from $2.99 to $4.99 depending
on how new the book is.
People go into Starbucks and spend about $4.00 for a cup of fancy coffee that
they will drink down and later piss away. What do they get for the price? A
moment of pleasure from the drink, which I don't know about because I don't
drink coffee. But to pay the same thing for an ebook and get a number of hours
and pleasure, plus the ability to read it again, well is it worth the price of
a coffee?
There is one person I know who is selling all his books for .99 and that is
his business. Is he trying for shear numbers of sales or gaining an audience? My
worry is that people MAY eventually look at this as a normal price for ebooks.
Will this person eventually raise his prices? Will he lose sales? Hard to say,
but he's only making 35% on that .99 cents, .34 cents for each book sold and
are his books worth that. I wouldn't feel that was enough for my efforts, at
least not for all my books.
So far my books on Amazon have been selling well. The one .99 book is selling
the best of course, but the other books have gained in sales also. I'm presuming
because the first book piqued their interest in the rest. Maybe. My sales have
been increasing every month from the last and I'm happy with it.
I'll keep my first book at .99 but I doubt I will go that low on the rest.
We'll see.
This is my personal opinion and I don't expect anyone to agree with me, it's
like politics and religion, there are too many people out there with their firm
beliefs in things that will never be resolved.
(update: Sept. 2011, I have lowered the price on the first four books to .99
cents now, to get people interested in my characters and to make it easier
for them to buy.)
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