[charleski]

Projecting 2 months' sales out to a whole year is obviously problematic, but that doesn't negate the fact that $20k for a book ($122k from his 6 books) is a very decent return for an author, so he's doing well even if he never sells another copy.

This sort of strategy probably works best for genre authors like Locke and Konrath, who have a large number of works on the store, all at very cheap prices - people buy one on impulse, then if it's not too terrible there's a good chance they'll go back and snap up all the rest. They're easy-to-read books that people will devour rapidly on the train to work then come back for more. It's a good fit for writing aimed at the mass-market audience where volume is everything. When Locke says, "I'm not writing for the masses," he's being deeply disingenuous - the 99c strategy is a mass-market strategy, and all the stuff about one-star reviews coming from people outside your target market is nonsense - the target is everyone (though at least Locke is a bit more phlegmatic about it than Konrath's bluster).

But there's a lot more going on here than pricing. While the price is an important factor in reaching the mass impulse-buy market, anyone who thinks that they can become a best-seller just by setting their ebook at 99c will be sadly disappointed. Take a look at Stephen T. Harper's comment on the JK blog post - his books are 99c, yet his "King's X Episode 1: Visions" is languishing down at #40,165 in the store. Focussing on the price is obscuring what's really going on here - it seems that Locke conducted a well-aimed marketing campaign on twitter that was the real secret to his success. There are lots of books at 99c now, and no doubt there will be a lot more over the next year - your book might be cheap enough to take a gamble on, but it still needs to stand out from the crowd.