This is a recurring theme, as I’ve already posted twice on the subject: Pricing your ebook: Is free the new paid? and How to price your Indie book both deal with this.
I’m writing about it again, as Written Word Media recently published an excellent post on pricing one’s e-book. As Taylor, its author, points out, the answer depends on whether your immediate goal is to reach new readers and generate sales (along, presumably, with reviews), or to make a profit.
Price your e-book at $0.99 to maximize readership
If you’re looking for ways to increase your book/author rank and generate reviews, This graph explains why $0.99 is the best price to reach new readers, with $1.99 not far behind:
Price your e-book at $4.99 to maximize revenue
Amazon skews the results here by offering authors 35% of the earning for prices under $2.99, and 70% over that. As a result, you should price your e-book at $4.99 to maximize your revenue. You will have far fewer sales, but far more revenue.
Price your e-book at $2.99 if you want it all
If you’re like me, you’re already looking for the sweet spot where you can both reach new readers and make a small profit out of it. In this case, all you need is the graph below.
In summation…
The main takeaway from all this is:
- To reach as many readers as possible, go for $0.99.
- To have some revenue and acquire new readers, go for $1.99.
- If you want to maximize revenue more than you want to acquire new readers, price your book at $2.99.
- If you just want the money, price your book at $4.99
You know, I was having a HARD time going permafree with my first book. Not because I’m losing sales but because I’d be a needle in a stack of other millions of other needles. Considering that most of my books aren’t in KU anymore Amazon tends to make it difficult to do a FREE sale outside of KU. No matter, I’m glad to be expanding my platforms.
But the question I had is who ISN’T free? You mentioned it. People will download absently but not necessarily read it. My first book is more established so I have no problem making it 99¢ because it’s got the stars to make it a good buy for the reader. For the others, I want people to read them and review them so I’m more open to making the sale 99¢.
So this helped me change my strategy to perma-99 for my first book and not free. As far as the other pricepoints, I’ll figure it out but my objective is readers.
Thanks
Have to say I am inclined to agree with Ali, I think there is something to the concept that money breeds money – I tend to raise an eyebrow at 99p books now, because there are so many its hard to differentiate quality. EVERYONE prices their books at 99p. So I don’t go for them unless I know the quality, unfortunately I tend to assume higher price means higher quality. EVEN though I know thats not true, its an automatic reaction. Now I have to read reviews or know the person and the writing before Ill snap to buying a book just cause its 99p
That’s why I love examining things from a reader perspective. Thanks for that 🙂
Just a thought about those figures — are they based on how many copies are read or how many copies are bought? For instance, I should imagine there are a number of people who will download a copy for $0.99 because it’s a bargain but never get around to reading or reviewing it. Whereas, if they spend $1.99 or $2.99 it’s not so likely to be an impulse buy, which means it will get read and, hopefully, reviewed. …That’s the logic behind my Kindle version being priced at $2.99 at the moment. I will be testing out at lower prices in a countdown deal in March, so maybe the answer to my question will be clear then!
Do share when you find out! I don’t know of any way to measure pages read, with the exception of KENP. But that doesn’t count books sold; just pages read by Prime subscribers.
Ahhh ebook pricing, the eternal conundrum! Right now I have both my books at $2.99 — not too expensive, but not so cheap that I’m making practically nothing from the sale. I think that when I eventually get Cerulean Bound out (one day! fingers crossed!) I will try dropping the first book down to $0.99 and see if that helps bring in more readers. But with just the two books, I don’t know if the loss of revenue is worth it. Maybe it is? If they read the first, they’ll definitely read the second (or I hope they will, at least.) Hmmm …
One thing I’ve noticed is how changing the price to $3.99 dropped my sales but increased my KENP. At the end of the day, I make the same money, mind you 🙂
Very interesting – but I’m intrigued as to why it doesn’t mention the 3.99 price point at all! I’ve always thought it’s the sweetest spot along with 2.99…
I agree. Diane Tilbert said something similar 🙂
Not long ago, Smashwords released their review on the eBook world. One of the things they covered was pricing. Their sweet spot–according to the many eBooks sold through their site (this includes sites they distribute to such as iTunes)–is $3.99. $0.99 cents was still good for gaining readers, as was free.
$2.99 was the other favourable price, but less so then $3.99. $1.99 was the worse price according to their stats.
Their findings are relatively similar to the ones you found, except that sweet spot: $3.99. Of course, the sweet spot is different for some writers become some want to gather more readers, while others have readers and can price their books a wee bit higher.
Personally, I price my short stories at $0.99, my novellas at $2.99 and my full-length novels at $3.99. I have two free short stories. They’re to gain readers for my full-length fantasy novels.
To read Smashwords full report, visit their blog: https://blog.smashwords.com/2015/12/SmashwordsEbookSurvey2015.html
Thanks for that! I’ll post something about it 🙂
As I was just telling John, I’ve noticed that, after increasing my prices to $3.99 from $2.99, I get a lot more KENP reads than sales. Before, it used to be the other way around. Profit-wise, it evens out, so it’s not a problem.
I’m not sure I agree with the 99c theory. I think it just pushes your book into the ‘shit’ category, and serious readers don’t even go there. 99c is the new free… people snap em all up but never get round to reading them. 1.99 is good for a novella, but not a novel. The rest is all good though. ?
That’s the beauty of Indie publishing. We can experiment with our prices all we want 🙂
Excellent post. I’m assuming you are talking about full time pricing not short term promotions.
Yes, absolutely. I probably should have made that clear… 🙂
Just wanted to confirm. Thanks (I think it is clear enough)
Hello Nicholas, Another great post as always. I have found that if I have a £0.99 on amazon.uk it sells better than $0.99 on amazon. com. I have no idea why, but I struggle to sell on amazon.com.
That’s so interesting! It’s the other way around for me 🙂
Good information. I think if you’re trying to establish yourself then $99 can really bring in new readers, but once you’ve got some fans then you can put the price up for further books. I think established authors who have some following can easily charge more for their books, although I still belong to the group of people who’d rather hold a physical copy of a book rather than an ebook, if I am able to :).
Couldn’t have put it better myself :
Interesting and great info. I think once I have control of my pricing, I’ll probably do a bit of a mix. I’m looking forward to it 🙂
Isn’t the ability to experiment with prices one of the reasons you turned Indie? 🙂
Yup 🙂
This is very informative! thanks a lot! From the POV of the buyer, anything that it’s under 4.99 $us always seems a bargain for me. So it’s good to know that you can still get a good revenue for that value.
As a writer, it’s good to know that you have so many options and so many strategies. I’ve initially thought about traditional publishing, but Independent publishing is beginning to call my attention.
Thank you so much for providing the all-important reader perspective, and welcome 🙂
Indie publishing does have many things going for you – as does traditional publishing 🙂
You may wish to have a look at:
https://nicholasrossis.me/2015/07/21/what-a-publisher-cannot-do-for-you/
https://nicholasrossis.me/2015/04/07/guest-post-by-alex-hurst-what-can-traditional-publishing-offer-authors/
and
https://nicholasrossis.me/2015/03/13/the-ups-and-downs-of-indie-life/
Thank you! Interesting –
Thanks, I’m glad you thought so 🙂
Great tips from the Tips Master as always. if I ever publish an e-book, I will be heading for that $2.99 sweet spot!
Best wishes, Pete.
Lol – thank you, Pete 🙂
I remember reading that $1.99 was a bizarre dead zone as far as pricing goes. Not as effective as 99 cents or $2.99. Wondering if that changed after the last 2 years. Forgot the explanation too. Something about just how it looks visually. Maybe more people are using it, so it doesn’t look odd among the other prices.
More people are using it, but there’s still the Amazon “penalty” of not giving you a 70% cut. So, it’s pretty hard to turn a profit.
Good point. Maybe works best for something you do for fun instead of profit.
Doesn’t everything? 🙂
Yes! yes.
Your words were great. I learnt so much about the pricing of Ebooks today. I strongly believe that offering your books for free is a waste of time. Most people who download for free, never bother to read. There are thousands of free books each week so how can they read them all. I realized that this was happening when I saw readers downloading from Japan. They had never paid for an Ebook when it was 99c.
Thanks Nicholas.
Thanks 🙂
Free books can work wonders – if used as part of a strategy. But you usually need at least 3 books (often more) before it can become profitable.
This is exactly the advice I needed 🙂
Lol – yes, I thought about it when I received your email the other day. Glad to have helped 🙂
A very informative post and I have to say I agree. Late last year a well known sci-fi author on Amazon had his latest trilogy on pre-order for close on $8.00 and although the story sounded really interesting I decided, that for me, the price was just too much. Just after the first book was released in November, the author dropped the pre-order price of the other two books to $2.00 – I snapped them up and the series has proved to be pretty good. As a reader I can honestly say that ebooks priced between $.99 – $5.00 seems to be a very fair price and is guaranteed to suit most people’s budget as well as providing a profit for the author. The trick after that is if readers are willing to write a review that would encourage others to read the book. Best of luck in hitting that happy medium where you gain both new readers whilst earning a nice profit, Nicholas 😀
Thank you so much, Catherine! I always love to hear from you, as you offer the reader’s perspective.
Keeping ’em crossed 🙂
Hi Nick! It would seem like .99 cents is the way to go for a first novel, and climb the ladder afterwards.
Good point, with an added twist now that KENP is available. I found that increasing the prices of my books has pushed my KENP up and my sales down, but in a way that I actually make more.
I’ll remember this when I finally get my book edited. Still plodding along, but I’ve got some new shorts to put out there soon. 🙂
Hence the problem, I’m troubled about what to do with the price of a short single once the book is available.
Shorts usually sell for 99c, regardless of the book 🙂