How do you advertise and sell $0.99 books?

[Guardian]

I'm curious how you guys are selling books in the $0.99 pricing range and what is your strategy. I'm asking this, because regardless what I do, what reviews my $0.99 has I sell very minimal from that title (It has the sell ratio of 1:4 comparing to my other title which is usually between $4.99 and $8.88.). So I'm curious what is the trick.

[MrPLD]

We tried at 99c as well, but I think the market perception has changed with it.  How are you seeing the 99c market buyers?  We moved up to $3.99+ and have seen better results, but that's not what you're asking, I know

[Guardian]

The problem is that my 0.99 is a 8,3k long novelette, so I don't want to ask more for it.

[MrPLD]

Understood - though you could probably push to $1.49, simply to get away from the 99c "stigma" that might be hindering (for others it isn't a stigma, again, depends on who you're chasing or perceiving as your buyer).... I've even seen some people use $1.33 with a nice reason why they picked $1.33

[Guardian]

Okay. Thanks. I've changed the price to $1.33, then we'll see what is going to happen.

[ETS PRESS]

I agree. Try $1.29 or $1.49. Is your book enrolled in Select? If so, then perhaps you should give going free a go and see it if helps you to push it out there.

[Guardian]

My next one will be a KDP select only title. I want to run the present two without KDP select as I want to learn how to sell efficiently even without free titles.

[Millard]

I always felt that was a price point that gets really underutilized in marketing, so back in November, I decided to really make the most of the 99 cent angle and drew up a bunch of flyers for the various social media places I post on. Here's a couple.



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Far and away the best month of sales I've ever had.

[Guardian]

Thanks Millard. I'm going to try this one as well.

[otterific]

So, since I've only been published for a little over a month, I'm hesitant to increase the price on my books. I started with 99c because I'm "new". Are people hesitant to buy 99cent books? what is the "99c stigma?"

[MrPLD]

So, since I've only been published for a little over a month, I'm hesitant to increase the price on my books. I started with 99c because I'm "new". Are people hesitant to buy 99cent books? what is the "99c stigma?"

The stigma is "99c = trash".  You'd be surprised though, starting at $1.49 might work out better.  Not that I have any data points for you on that.

[otterific]

interesting. Maybe I'll take the leap to $1.49.

[RuthMadison]

Millard, those are hilarious. So cute!

[Millard]

Thanks 

[ChristinaGarner]

It's amazing how fast things are changing in the e-publishing world.

Just 6 months ago, putting my novel on sale for 2 weeks at $.99 (regularly $2.99) had me triple my sales for that period. I did it again a couple of months ago (right before KDP, but still after the glut of $.99 books hit the market) and I barely moved the needle on sales. My conclusion was that the market had been saturated and people's Kindles were full with titles so cheap they might never read them.

Now with KDP Select and so many quality books going free, the $.99 price point seems obsolete. Which, btw, ruins my plan to lower the price of Gateway once Book 2 comes out next month. Time to adjust my strategy...

[Millard]

When I first started posting here in the summer, the in opinion then was that if you were a new KDP author and pushing anything over $0.99, readers would be thinking "$2.99? Who does this guy think he is?", so it was better to at least have something at 99 cents that they'd be happier sampling. But now the wind's changed, and everyone's all about 99 cents inferring low quality.

[KayBratt]

I don't think 99 cents equals trash at all. Sure there are some out there for 99 cents that isn't worth it, but there are some that are great! I always look at the 99 cent books to see if there is something interesting to me. I think it is the perfect price point for a short story. My short, The Bridge, is 1.99 but it is 17,000 words so closer to a novella. Personally, If I paid more than 99 cents and got a book that was only 9k words (about one hour or less reading time to me), I'd be a bit peeved.

I'm a busy bookworm, and that is just my two cents re: 99 cents!

 

[soyfrank]

I have a collection of 12 short stories (35K words) priced at 99cents for the last 6 months. All of the stories were published in lit journals and anthologies and represent my very best work over the last 8 years. I thought of it as a loss leader, but maybe I should increase the price if the 99cent-price is thought of as trash. Is that really what readers think? Yikes. 

[Jim Franz]

I don't know how effective it is, but I'm trying to remember to bump my books' threads in the Book Bazaar, while mentioning the price in the subject line.  Given how quickly I fall from the front page, though, many authors are joining me in this approach.

[SentientSurfer]

Understood - though you could probably push to $1.49, simply to get away from the 99c "stigma" that might be hindering (for others it isn't a stigma, again, depends on who you're chasing or perceiving as your buyer).... I've even seen some people use $1.33 with a nice reason why they picked $1.33

I really don't understand this. As a buyer do you really care if the book is 99cents or $1.33? If the book looked intriguing I'd buy it at either price, and if I was unsure, I'd be more likely to buy it for 99cents.

I don't see how making the price unusual helps the book stand out in a meaningful way. I, for one, don't click on books that have unusual prices just for the novelty. :shrug:

[ETS PRESS]

I don't think 99 cents equals trash. The strategy is similar to wizards and vampires. The first ones out that skyrocket to popularity will bring an influx of copycats and eventually saturate the market. There are a lot of 99 cent books to choose from now. The strategy is not as effective now, but that doesn't mean it won't work. There are other factors that play a role in successful book. I've read that Amanda Hocking worked tirelessly marketing her book through social media. I think the price point by itself is not enough. You have to roll out a multifaceted plan.

[Guardian]

Yeah ETS. You're right. Basically this was the primary reason to price my flagship up and presumably this is the reason that one sells much better than my $0.99 (Which is not 0.99 anymore. I'm curious how the price change is going to affect the sales from now on.).

[MrPLD]

Please note: I didn't say or even imply that 99c was trash, we all know better than that - I was saying though that there are  levels of consumer perception that 99c = trash.   Small but significant difference.   My advice was that trying a slightly different price point ($1.33 / $1.49) can side step that at times. 

[otterific]

I went to $1.49. No change so far in number of books sold on average. I might bring the first book in my series back to 99cents at the end of the month when I pub Book 3 in the series.

[Bards and Sages (Julie)]

ALL AUTHORS ARE UNKNOWN TO A PORTION OF THE BUYING PUBLIC!!!

Yes, I'm screaming, because I hate the whole "Gee but I'm a new author so I have to price low" tripe.  Do you people think Stephen King and Patterson and Rowling and Meyers and all of them were born with publishing contracts coming out of the womb?  NO!  They started as *GASP!* NEW AUTHORS!  And their publishers did not ever bargain basement the price of their books.

The reason why 99 cent use to work was "perceived value."  When all of the other books on the market were priced at $9.99, the perceived value of an ebook was $9.99.  So seeing a book for 99 cents equalled a bargain to customers.  But remember, at the launch of the Kindle, the average customer didn't even know self-publishers were selling books on Amazon.  Customers assumed if a book is for sale on a major retail site, it must be through a publisher. 

Over time, the public began to realize that the low-priced books were all self-published.  Because it is difficult to pay for editing and proofreading when you are making 35 cents a sale, a great many of these books were notoriously bad.  As the marketplace has matured and developed more of an understanding of the nature of self-publishing, 99 cents has become a giant red flag to a lot of customers that equals self-published.

Of course, now you have the "free is the new 99 cents"  with people rushing to make their books free.  Pretty soon we'll be paying people to download our books. 

[Krista D. Ball]

I don't want to chase around after people who can only afford free and 99 cent books. I don't want to be scrapping for a few scraps to get noticed, hopefully picked up by a big blog promotion, or have someone popular cite me on their website.

What I want is readers who are willing to pay for my work.

I don't have a lot of them, sure, but I have some and a few more with every work I put out. My publisher didn't say how I was unknown and price me at 99 cents. No, they priced me at $4.99, which is still a great price for an ebook (the print is $13, again, great price). Readers have paid extra for me to ship them autographed copies of the print book (I went through a box already and will need to order another now). They tweet about my work, they recommend it to their friends...they are my readers.

I'm not saying that bargain readers aren't loyal; some are. However, studies of the retail world show time and time again that bargain basement shopper generally are loyal to the price, not the store. They will change stores if they see something cheaper elsewhere. There's plenty of books for those folks. I'll stick with a different demographic, who want to say "this was a great book" not, "this was a good book for being 99 cents" or "this was good enough, I wouldn't pay for it of course."