Tag: ebook pricing

What Is Price-Pulsing?

price pulsing graphSo you’ve published your book, it’s on every internet book store known to man, you’ve set an affordable price and shouted the word out from the rooftops and now you’re waiting for the money to roll in. But … it doesn’t. What’s up with that?

By now, most of you may have heard of price-pulsing, mentioned here by David Gaughran and on his own blog, as well as other blogs across the internet. It’s a pricing strategy whose time has come, and many of us are using it to advantage. Continue reading “What Is Price-Pulsing?”

Tilting at Windmills: Pricing eBook Collections

John PhythyonGuest Post
by John R. Phythyon, Jr.

I’m tilting at windmills here. I know I am. This whole post is really pointless, because whether I’m right or wrong, things aren’t going to change.

But I’m a writer, so I figure I have literary precedent to get up on my figurative charger. Cervantes bequeathed it to me.

Today’s quixotic quest is eBook pricing. Specifically, I’m concerned with a recent trend I’ve noticed in omnibuses (omnibi?). Like most of us, I subscribe to discount lists – BookBub, E-Reader News Today, Pixel of Ink, etc. I try to comb through them on a regular basis, so I can see what’s being accepted and maybe pick up a book or two on the off-chance I’ll find time to read for pleasure.

Practically every day in at least one of my discount books newsletters, I see an ad for a collected series. A trilogy or longer series is offered in omnibus eBook format for a special price. And the thing is that special price is often as low as 99 cents. Sometimes, it’s as high as $2.99 or (gasp!) $3.99, but that’s pretty rare.

I can’t help but wonder how much harm we’re doing to ourselves and the market. Continue reading “Tilting at Windmills: Pricing eBook Collections”

Short Stories Have Been Priced out of the Market

John PhythyonGuest Post
by John R. Phythyon, Jr.

Ninety-nine cents doesn’t sound like a lot of money. It’s less than a buck. It’s not even enough to get something on the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s.

But 99 cents is a huge number in the world of independent publishing. It’s come to mean so very much to indie authors, and that meaning has changed in the last year.

Ninety-nine cents is the minimum amount Amazon will let you price a book. It also nets Amazon’s worst royalty rate – 35%. However, authors often think it’s worth charging (and making) so little because consumers see a book for 99 cents and figure that’s worth the risk. So you make up in volume what you lose in percentage.

But the market has changed, and the strategy behind deciding which books an indie author should price at 99 cents has to change with it. In particular, individual short stories (not necessarily collections) are no longer viable. Continue reading “Short Stories Have Been Priced out of the Market”

JD “Iron Man” Mader vs. JA “King Kong” Konrath

Konrath says to sell ’em cheap. Mader says we deserve better. There is only one way to settle this:

Steel cage death-match!

Our man Mader has thrown down the gauntlet—will Konrath answer? Do you want to see that debate? You can help make it happen. To do your part and earn a ringside seat, help us make sure Mr. Konrath knows he’s invited to the rumble. Tweet and re-tweet the living daylights out of this:

Sounds like @jd_mader vs. @jakonrath to me! Cage fight! http://wp.me/p1WnN1-1cV

Just copy and paste, then tweet![subscribe2]