My surprising experience with ebook pricing

For the past year or two there has been a lot of hype about how you have to price your ebooks low in order to gain readers. Make the book inexpensive and more people will give it a chance. I gotta say that didn't work for me. At all. I started my ebook adventure last May when I self-published my third novel, Blank Slate. I had two traditionally published books out at that point, but neither was available in ebook format. Since then--because I nagged my publisher about getting them out there--the first book is just recently available on Kindle, and oddly my second one is out for Nook. I don't understand publishers....

I'm going to share actual sales numbers, even though they aren't at all pretty. I'm never going to be Joe Konrath or Amanda Hocking, but I think what I learned is applicable to all kinds of books--including those that are already selling way better than mine.

Anyway, when I released it, I priced my 85K word novel at $1.99 and sold a handful of books in May, June and July. I don't think I ever broke double digits those months, and then August through November I sold 3 or 4 per month. Understand, that if you price the ebook at less than 2.99, you only get a 35% royalty on the sales. When you reach $2.99 you start getting 70%, which means I was getting 70 cents per sale at $1.99. Before Christmas I decided to raise the price to take advantage of the Christmas sales bump everyone talked about, and so I could get the higher royalty amount of $2.10 per sale.

Indeed, there was a little bump. I sold twelve or thirteen books over the two weeks right after Christmas--and then I only sold two more in the next three weeks. Yeah, that was discouraging. 

During this three weeks I loaded my novella, Shear Luck to all ebook platforms for 99 cents. It got some face time on people's blogs since I launched it simultaneously with my fourth novel, which my publisher released in early January. In the same three weeks that I sold two copies of Blank Slate, I sold fifteen of Shear Luck.

During January I started reading blog comments from authors who said they had raised their prices and seen an increase in sales. I thought, heck, it can't get any worse, so I decided to play with prices. I raised them both $1 and did nothing else. I didn't post any links to them, I didn't talk about them online, I just bumped the prices a dollar.

Over the next three weeks I sold fifteen copies *each* for Blank Slate and Shear Luck at the higher price. Needless to say, I was shocked, and totally thrilled. I decided to try again, so I raised them bother another dollar.

In the past three weeks I sold twenty-five copies of Blank Slate, and nineteen of Shear Luck. Apparently this sales increase is related to people thinking that the book must be worth the higher price and worrying that if the book is priced too low, that there's something wrong with it.

I know, these aren't life-changing numbers, but I've done no publicity whatsoever--Blank Slate has been out for nine months. I'm basically making nothing on my traditionally published books by the time they've been out nine months, even if I killed myself to spread the word and do signings, giveaways, and presentations all over the place--and I've done plenty with my traditional books. And it's kind of fun to look at my sales numbers and calculate royalties, then look at BookScan numbers (for the paper sales of my traditionally published books) and realize that I made about the same, and sometimes *more* in royalties on my self published things without nearly as much time or wasted money for publicity. And that the royalties will continue to come in. (And yes, I know Bookscan only reports about 75% of sales, I compensated for that in my estimates.)

Now I can start tweaking things in the background like the back cover copy or putting a new cover on Blank Slate, getting a few more Amazon reviews, but put most of my focus on my upcoming projects because I'm a writer and--get this--writers write. We're not writers because we spend a thousand hours hawking our single book, we're writers because we're actively writing. I know, amazing isn't it, that I'd want to spend my time doing the thing I love instead of driving all over the state and hassling people about buying my books and posting reviews?

Now, back to writing. =)

I've been interviewed by I.B. Nosey!

When Intrepid reporter, IB Nosey interviewed me, I wasn't sure what to expect. Luckily it turned out far more entertaining than I am in real life. Check it out!

Malaprop anyone?

My husband sent me this from Ars Technica. I had to share because it was such a terrific example of homonyms, misuse of phrases, and malaprops. It made me smile.

Author interview and giveaway with Rachelle Christensen

Rachelle Christensen is a long-time writing friend of mine whose second romantic suspense book, Caller ID is being released later this month (though it's probably already trickling into some stores). I thought I'd ask her a few questions about herself and writing so you can get to know her better. Keep reading because there's a terrific giveaway listed at the end of the post:

Rachelle, this is your second novel. Can you tell us a little about the publishing process?

 I’m going to cheat here and give you a link to a timeline I blogged about. It’s a good insight into the process.  http://blog.mormonletters.org/?p=3703

*Being a stay-at-home mother of four must keep you very busy. When do you find time to read and write?

I’ve learned the magic of a minute. Seriously, I work in snatches and I read in snatches and I read pretty fast. My husband says I’m always busy and I don’t know how to relax. But that’s just because I have to be crocheting or sewing if I watch a movie with him. It is a priority for me too, and that makes all the difference. It’s important for me to find time to read and write because I love it.

Much of your book takes place in the mountains. Do you have a certain location that your family likes to go to camp or recreate? How long have you been going there? 

Yes, we love to head up Payson canyon and camp at a pretty little spot near the lakes. My in-laws have been going there for decades and I love to go with them because they have a well-stocked trailer that has a bathroom, and you know, bathrooms are kind of nice to have in the woods.

If you were going to hold a clandestine farm in the woods, what would you grow there, and why? Hmm, how about money trees? Really, I love gardening, but my garden is so small—not really, but when compared to my mom’s ½ acre garden it looks small. I’d love to have more gardening space to plant a bunch of zucchini and banana squash, so maybe I should look into this idea a bit more, huh?

You should try trellising on your back fence, I bet you could fit in a lot more. What other writing projects do you have coming up? I just finished writing/editing book one of a new “Wedding Planner Mystery” series. I had so much fun writing this novel and getting to know the characters. The title is Diamond Rings are Deadly Things and it’s set in Sun Valley, Idaho near where I grew up.

That sounds like a fun story idea. I can't wait to see it.

And now: To celebrate the release of CALLER ID, Rachelle is hosting a contest for a new Ultra Flip Video Camcorder (4GB memory, Records 120 minutes Value $149.99) and other great prizes. You can enter to win between now and April 14, 2012. Winners will be announced and notified April 16, 2012.
For how to enter, click here. You can also check out the book reviews, other author interviews and get more chances to win by visiting the other stops on her blog tour here.

To learn more about Rachelle and her books, you can check out her website or friend her on Facebook. Her books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or many local bookstores.

Also, check out her book trailer below. It's terrific!