Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
What I'd be interested in knowing is how do sales compare when the eBook is priced $14.99 initially and then when the pBook goes to paperback, the prices of the eBook drops to $7.99 to just pricing the eBook initially at $9.99 and leaving it there.
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One of the things that is unfair about many of these comparisons is that Amazon gives books more visibility if they sell well out the gate (rankings). So ANYONE doing well in pre-order or for the first week (consistently) is going to enjoy more visibility.
There's more to sales than just price. Part of the problem is that Amazon controls some of that visibility. So while they have probably tried all kinds of algorithms with visibility and their own profitability, there's more to the picture.
I even agree with them that in general, a lower price is going to sell better. But in the past they used to give a lot of visibility to books selling at 99 cents because 1. it was working and 2. that low price probably got people's attention because it was new/different for the book world. They don't do that anymore. Quite some time ago, they began adding price/sales into the visibility ratio. So now they APPEAR to give a bit more weight to the price--if a book sells at 2.99 versus one that sells at 99 cents, the 2.99 book may gain more visibility faster. This trend started when they began separating out "free" books from rankings/lists and visibility.
Having a book in front of readers is going to mean more sales. And from the retailer standpoint, it may make it more "worth their while" to push a book (visibility) with books in the pricing sweetspot--they may favor books under 9.99 because their overall profits are larger than if they push a book that is 14.
And what works today with readers might not work tomorrow.