Tuesday, February 22, 2011

More on Kindle—a .99 Experiment

I recently read a Blog post on pricing your book for Kindle sales and I’ve decided to try an experiment. My books sell “pretty good” on Kindle and I’m “satisfied” with the results I’ve seen. But after consulting with another author who also has her books listed, I’ve decided to drop my Kindle books to 99 cents each for one month. See a list of my books with their links to Kindle in the left column of this Blog page.

For 15 years I ran a small business in California. My theory was, if I marketed quality service along with a great product at the lowest price possible, I would excel above other businesses in my field—it worked. At age 42, I was able to sell the business and retire. Not a bad deal!

Now I’m not insinuating that by lowering my book prices to 99 cents I will become a millionaire, but if I presently sell only 20 books a month at $4.99, wouldn’t I be better off selling 200 books at 99 cents? The nice thing about e-books is that there are no additional expenses related to the sale (printing, shipping, etc.) and no real risk on my my part.

So this will be my experiment with Kindle and I will be sure to let you all know how successful it is. And if you’ve ever wanted to read any of my books, and you have a Kindle Reader, get them now, because I have a funny feeling I’ll be re-setting the price tag next month—but we’ll wait and see!

14 comments:

hank quense said...

I'm curious how this works out for,Carol. Relevant data is hard to come by with all the changing technology

Unknown said...

I look forward to hearing what has happened. Do report back.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

What a smart idea. I'm following along to learn something. I already have your e-books, and I hope your sales ski-rocket!

Hanny said...

Can't wait to hear how this turns out!

Mary Deal said...

In the coming couple of weeks, I will be uploading two books for amazon Kindle. I am going to jump right in and start them at 99 cents. I am assuming I can chance the price anytime I wish. Is that correct? Your comparison between $4.99 and 99 cents makes a whole lot of cents....er... sense.

Toyin O. said...

This is so interesting, I was just thinking about starting my own business too, but I have no idea where to start. Will you mind sharing the kind of business you had in California. I like your strategy, it is certainly recipe for success. Any tip will be appreciated:)

Carol said...

Hi Toyin,
I had a horse farm - public, with hourly rentals, a tack store, events, and boarding (150 head).
To all,
Don't jump in yet, it's not looking very good after the first 3days! I will update as things progress.
Thanks for stopping by the Blog!

Sheila Deeth said...

I'd be curious to see where this goes. The trouble is, kindle's got so many free books at the moment too.

No said...

Great stuff! I just placed my first book on Kindle at $3.99. I'm also waiting to see how it goes. I've heard tell that free ebooks bring in more clients. I'll try that next. Let me know how you fare.

Byron L. said...

I just discovered your blog and wanted to add my 2 cents. I own the B&N Nook. Every Friday is Free Friday where one (usually) book is free for download. This strategy has worked well on me as a customer. I try things that I might not have tried before and if I like the first book, I usually buy a second. This probably works best for fiction, but you never know. I have no idea how you get to be the featured free book, but getting on that list alone is good advertising.

Anonymous said...

I'm very interest in what happens with this. In not very long I'll be sending my first query letter out so I have a feeling your blog will help me a lot.

Hosted SharePoint 2010 said...

That sounds interesting!

Mary Deal said...

My how-to book, Write it Right - Tips for Authors, Vol I, is now live on amazon Kindle for $3.99. We all know that in order to get our books sold, we must promote, promote, promote. So off to work I go...

Charmaine Clancy said...

I think it's a great idea. I buy lots of books at different prices for Kindle, but when I come across a 99cent one, I tend to buy it without thinking twice. Hope you experience a great influx in sales (heading to check out your list now).