$.99 eBook becomes biggest earner

[snipenekkid]

now here is one thing not mentioned so far. The simple transaction overhead of a single $0.99 sale. Call it a 3% discount rate plus $0.35/transaction. That's roughly 38% of the sale to the credit card company, Paypal or whoever. Even if the seller has a good merchant account and about a 1.5% discount rate that is still ~36% of the cover price. Right there if the author is not getting enough multiple purchases the overhead all but kills off the direct to author sale of the $0.99 book. It's a ton of overhead, still it's money in the bank either way.

I guess many authors will likely opt to sell via some venue rather than direct anyway so it might not matter across the board for authors but for new writers it could be what might scare them off the $0.99 price. Maybe? Is the trade off for the direct vs. venue fees a wash? I just dunno enough about the economics from the author perspective.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

now here is one thing not mentioned so far. The simple transaction overhead of a single $0.99 sale. Call it a 3% discount rate plus $0.35/transaction. That's roughly 38% of the sale to the credit card company, Paypal or whoever. Even if the seller has a good merchant account and about a 1.5% discount rate that is still ~36% of the cover price. Right there if the author is not getting enough multiple purchases the overhead all but kills off the direct to author sale of the $0.99 book. It's a ton of overhead, still it's money in the bank either way.

I guess many authors will likely opt to sell via some venue rather than direct anyway so it might not matter across the board for authors but for new writers it could be what might scare them off the $0.99 price. Maybe? Is the trade off for the direct vs. venue fees a wash? I just dunno enough about the economics from the author perspective.

The solution here is for Amazon to become a bank, as well as a publisher, maybe it already has. Amazon does currently give a 35% cut of sales to authors for $0.99 booksales, maybe 33 cents goes to credit card companies, 33 cents to Amazon, and 33 cents to Authors.

Amazon mandated a 9.99 price for all books and the idea was rejected, so I suppose a 0.99 mandated price would be rejected as well.

[jkeene]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

The solution here is for Amazon to become a bank, as well as a publisher, maybe it already has. Amazon does currently give a 35% cut of sales to authors for $0.99 booksales, maybe 33 cents goes to credit card companies, 33 cents to Amazon, and 33 cents to Authors.

Amazon Payments handles all those bank details for a seller. For items under $10, the credit card fee is five cents plus 5 percent. Those are terms available for a seller of any product, not specifically books, so I'm pretty sure they've negotiated substantial discounts with various commercial banks.

[jersysman]

I would think that for new authors or authors not in the mainstream any price that would get their works in as many hands as they can is good. Hence, the free ebooks is a good source. You can readers by getting your works out into the community and then rely on the word of mouth of said community. If the $.99 price point helps (which I am sure it does) I'm all for it. I know that I would indeed take a chance and buy a book from an author that I was not familiar with for $.99 than I would if the book sold for $2.99. Just a matter of economics in this trying time.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

After reading the article yesterday, I've been considering whether or not this experiment might work for me. I'm currently debating either:

• Picking a book (or maybe even the three Kestral books) and dropping the price to .99;
• dropping my entire catalog to .99; or
• pricing my next new and re-released book(s) at .99.

I want to give it fair thought, because it's not just a matter of changing it in one place: I have to make changes in the Kindle store, the PubIt! store, Smashwords, and my own site, for each book (in each format). You don't want to do all that on pure impulse.

There's also the issue that my current prices ($2.99) aren't so high that this represents a huge drop.

You need to think of the price as one component in an overall marketing campaign, otherwise you'll end up like the hapless Stephen T. Harper with 99c ebooks that no-one buys. Take a look at John Locke's twitter account and take a look at the sheer volume of posts and the wide variety of tags that he uses. This is the real secret to his success - he made a simple product, dropped the price so that people would take a gamble and then marketed the hell out of it so that the word got out.

If you want to try this, then I'd recommend doing it for one book only at first, and launching it with an intensive campaign (twitter, facebook, blogs, fora, etc). Lowering the price to the 'I might not like it, but it's only a buck' level is just one component in such a campaign. The real question is whether you have the time and marketing skills to make this strategy work (many people don't, I have a couple of friends who are trying to break through as writers and shudder in horror when I talk about self-publishing and self-marketing).

[carpetmojo]

Is it concievable that .99$/£ books, e-b or otherwise, are at that price because they aren't very good ?

That have perhaps been offered at more and not sold ?

That have been rejected by publishers ?

I have to say that, being all for supporting literature and authors......... a lot of these I've tackled, and the free, more "contemporary ones I've read (and far more I didn't finish) were, frankly, garbage !

And with quite a few I've got a bit in, and thought "this is a really good, fairly original idea, ruined by dreadful writing, sad "tricks" (those italics - grrrr) and what seems a serious under-estimation of any possible readers intelligence".

So there.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

After reading the article yesterday, I've been considering whether or not this experiment might work for me. I'm currently debating either:

• Picking a book (or maybe even the three Kestral books) and dropping the price to .99;
• dropping my entire catalog to .99; or
• pricing my next new and re-released book(s) at .99.

I'd suggest dropping the prices on some of the older books at the same time you release the next book at your normal price. That way it serves to draw more readers to the older books, who might then be willing to pay more for the newer ones. It certainly works on me, for one series I got the first book free, then paid $3 for the next, then $5 each for the next two. Once I know I like something, I'm willing to pay more for it, which isn't exactly rocket science

[tompe]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I know that I would indeed take a chance and buy a book from an author that I was not familiar with for $.99 than I would if the book sold for $2.99. Just a matter of economics in this trying time.

Why not read the free classics in that case. If each book is replaceable with some other book why take a chance for $.99 when you can read a classics free were you can be pretty sure it is a well written book?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I'd suggest dropping the prices on some of the older books at the same time you release the next book at your normal price. That way it serves to draw more readers to the older books, who might then be willing to pay more for the newer ones.

Interesting strategy.

Originally Posted by charleski

You need to think of the price as one component in an overall marketing campaign...

Yeah, that's a problem: I don't have time, between day job and home life, to mount a huge marketing blitz on anything. What marketing I do does help, but it's slimmer than I'd like.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I'd suggest dropping the prices on some of the older books at the same time you release the next book at your normal price. That way it serves to draw more readers to the older books, who might then be willing to pay more for the newer ones. It certainly works on me, for one series I got the first book free, then paid $3 for the next, then $5 each for the next two. Once I know I like something, I'm willing to pay more for it, which isn't exactly rocket science

that's true for me too. i got to read some authors' free stories and now that they're publishing, i do plan to buy since they have already established their worth in my eyes

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Is it concievable that .99$/£ books, e-b or otherwise, are at that price because they aren't very good ?

Some are (probably a lot are, given the nature of self-publishing), but the ones that have become bestsellers on the Kindle charts didn't get that way because of 50,000 random people deciding that was where to drop their dollar today. If they were all poor-quality books, the sales would be spread out a lot more equally.

There's word-of-mouth, and reviews, and the sample download; those combine to tell new readers that this book is actually worth reading. And for a lot of authors, there's one book at .99, and the rest of their catalog is 2.99 - 4.99, and they sell those after readers have tried the one book that's cheapest.

We're used to price having no connection to book quality. Publishers set prices according to format & length; prizewinning books cost the same as new authors' clumsy works that will never be reprinted. Classics that are loved by millions cost the same as midlist formula romances.

[guyanonymous]

J.A.Konrath is a big proponent of price adjustment in the industry, and his blog is definitely worth following as he discusses the finances behind the scenes (posts his actually earning reports/payouts from Amazon so we can see what they look like) etc.

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/0...ohn-locke.html is the link to the related article here...

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by tompe

Why not read the free classics in that case. If each book is replaceable with some other book why take a chance for $.99 when you can read a classics free were you can be pretty sure it is a well written book?

Because this is a non-expensive way to try out new authors. I have read the classics. Time to expand and all I was trying to say is that, with everything being equal, I would tend to try out new authors at a $.99 price point than I would at a $2.99 price point.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

We're used to price having no connection to book quality. Publishers set prices according to format & length; prizewinning books cost the same as new authors' clumsy works that will never be reprinted. Classics that are loved by millions cost the same as midlist formula romances.

But this is because we expect a mainstream published book to have a certain minimum level of quality--we expect the process to have separated the wheat from the chaff. Whereas with a self-published book, it's a leap of faith to choose to read one, and price becomes a much bigger factor in the purchasing decision.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Catlady

But this is because we expect a mainstream published book to have a certain minimum level of quality--we expect the process to have separated the wheat from the chaff.

But once they've done that, they don't charge more for the exquisitely well-written, lingers-in-your-mind-for-decades books. The ones that will change the lives of readers and the ones that will be read once, pondered for fifteen minutes, and then forgotten, are side-by-side on the shelf, with the same sticker price if they came off the press at the same time.

Whereas with a self-published book, it's a leap of faith to choose to read one, and price becomes a much bigger factor in the purchasing decision.

Why? Because self-publishing authors will only charge more than $5 if the book is very good, and will know that poorly-written unedited drafts are only worth $1? My research hasn't shown that to be true.

I'm certainly more willing to take a chance on a $1-3 book by an unknown author. But that doesn't mean I believe an ebook offered for $7 is more likely to entertain me, nor do I automatically believe that it's more likely to have been carefully edited, proofread, and formatted. Indeed, what I've seen is that a lot of would-be pro authors who believe they are too "edgy" for mainstream publication price their books as high or higher than mass-market paperbacks, on the theory that they are "worth" that much.

And I can't speak for objective value, only my limits: $6 for non-DRM'd fiction ebooks. $3 for authors I don't know. Not because "no ebook is worth more than that," but because I'm certain I can find endless content I will enjoy reading for that price or less, and have no need to pay more.