the pricing experiment: day 4

It's not going well.

That is to say, I'm not getting the results I'd hoped for. My rankings are tanking big time (I apologize for the unfortunate rhyme). Sales have dropped by about half. Interestingly, Ordinary World still seems to be holding its own. Faking It, however, is not.

Indeed, this was a huge risk, raising what is, relatively speaking, quite a price hike even though it's only 50 cents. Percentage-wise, it's a high markup. Add that to the fact that most people slashed their e-book prices, some down to free, for Read an Ebook Week, while I actually raised 'em. Points for me being gutsy, yes?

Groan.

Have decided to wait until the end of the week, then I will lower the price to $1.19 and see if I fare any better. The downside is that for some reason, when you lower your price, Amazon takes the book offline for 24 hours. (Why don't they do that when you raise the price?) So I'll have to lose a whole day of activity, and lord knows how that will affect my rankings.

Alas, this is what business is all about. If you want to make an omlet, you've got to break some eggs. There are important lessons to be learned here. I just hope I can reclaim my former rankings.

pricing experiment: the first 24 hours

Well, it happened. After 44 consecutive days on the Kindle Top 100 Bestseller list, Faking It fell to #107. Ordinary World, on the other hand, jumped from #337 to 292. Go figure. There's nothing worse than a broken streak. I have no idea whether this is the result of the price change, or if it was on its way down already (it kept threatening to, fluctuating between the upper 80s and lower 90s), but I sure hope it wasn't the former. And it's not like sales have tanked so horribly that they're down to nothing (#107 ain't bad, and it's still #1 in special categories!), but still...

Of course, I'm tempted to restore the original price. Another option I'm considering is to keep OW at $1.49 and reduce FI to $1.19. I may just have to give it a few more days.

I remember a musician saying this about becoming famous (namely, topping the charts): The work you do (mental and physical) trying to get there is nothing compared to the work you do trying to stay there. I get it.

The activity at Smashwords, however, is exciting and encouraging. In fact, Smashwords has been so overloaded with traffic that people are having trouble getting in. Keep trying, though! I'll keep you posted throughout the week.

Read an Ebook Week

So, this is officially Read an Ebook Week. I'm not sure how the brick-&-mortars feel about it, but I think it's pretty neat. Many indie authors are offering their books for free at Smashwords, or slashing their prices by 50%.

I, on the other hand, just raised my Kindle price to $1.49.

I either just shot myself in the foot or practiced smart pricing. Time will tell.

So why would I do such a thing?
For one thing, it was time. Faking It and Ordinary World have been selling at 99 cents for at least six months now. They sold over 37,000 units for January and February combined. Sales have been slumping for the last few weeks (I thought perhaps this was due to the Olmypics, but I've seen no improvement). As far as I can tell, the sales have plateaued. It's time to raise the price, even if only by 50 cents.

For another thing, the book's value added has increased significantly thanks to the success of the last two months. I still have to wrap my brain around the magificent thing that happened. I may still be an indie author, but I'm no longer an unknown author (at least not to 37,000 readers!). Besides, several reviewers admitted that they would have paid more for my books. When I hear that, I know I've got something of value. Those in business will tell you to give customers what they want. If they're willing to pay more, then charge more. Besides, I always thought they were worth more. I think they're worth more than a buck-forty-nine, but it's a reasonable raise w/out price-gouging.

Third, with Amazon doubling royalty rates in June (provided authors set base prices at 2.99), I'm gradually preparing for that. With my writing partner's approval, I'm planning to charge Why I Love Singlehood 2.99 right out of the gate once it's ready (and can now do so thanks to FI and OW's success). I'm curious to see what other indie authors do come June, and how Kindle readers respond. Will 99-cent books disappear? Will this be a factor as e-reader prices come down? Time will tell.
But Elisa, why not give your book away for free? It's Read an Ebook Week, after all...
I respect authors for being so generous, and if I was going to do such a giveaway, I would do it for one day only, perhaps (I gave away lots of print and e-book copies of FI and OW to lucky winners throughout the blog tour last month). Call me a greedy capitalist (and I know several who will), but I believe in charging money for my books. Yes, I have always maintained that I wanted a readership more than I wanted royalties. But I believe as self-publishers we should also be entreprenuers. That is, we should sell our product for a price. That's just me. Feel free to disagree, and give a boatload of books away this week. I'll still support you.

The hardest part about being a self-publisher is just that: you are no longer just an author engaged in the process for the love of writing. The moment you decide you want to sell your book, your creation becomes "product", and you are the "publisher" (not to mention marketer, distributer, and seller). You have to take the risks that any businessperson will take. You will undoubtedly make mistakes. The smartest businesspeople see mistakes as stepping stones to future successes. The rest see mistakes as failures.

So to indie authors and self-publishers, don't be afraid to take a risk or make mistakes. But, learn as much as you can about the business to minimize your mistakes (or, at the very least, the consequences).

To the rest of you, try an e-book this week! You can go to Smashwords to check out all the free or reduced books this week (including mine), or download Barnes & Noble's e-reader software to your computer for free (you don't need a Nook), and check out their catalog of free ebooks. Finally, don't forget that you can download the Kindle app to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Black Berry if you don't own a Kindle.

And, as always, a heartfelt thanks to every single reader who purchased and read my books, regardless of what you paid (or didn't pay) for it.

Happy reading!