Well, whaddayaknow? I found out I actually have a Go Ahead & Buy price point.
Ready to download a sample for Lisa Gardner's Alone, I noticed it was priced at $2.39. Since Gardner is not a new author to me, there was little risk, and for $2.39, why bother with all the extra steps? Mark that one SOLD.
This came as kind of a surprise to me because I hadn't actually considered I had a price point for purchase without inspection. Would I have bought it at the more traditional $2.99? I don't know. But more than $2.99, I'm pretty sure I'd be sampling first.
For example, I love Dean Koontz, but rather than bankrupt myself, I have about five of his in my sample folder to test before I buy. Purchasing every book I WANT would probably lead to household angst, not to mention an empty refrigerator.
I don't think the variety of pricing will impact much of anything. I will buy what I want to read. Period. If that's Koontz for $5.99 or $24.99, or a 'new to me' author for $1.99, I'm likely to sample first. If I like the story, the writing, I'll purchase it. Rather then denigrating the value of an author, I'm simply tickled pink at what I paid for something. A bargain is fun. Those in publishing know where the paychecks are going, and why.
But it seems, at least for one moment, with one author and one book, my price point was $2.39.
Have you discovered yours? That magical price where you throw all caution to the wind and take a wild gamble?
CR: The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (who has the grand plan to blog for 365 days straight).
It's all better with friends.
Hi, Peg --
ReplyDeleteFrom a writer's perspective, there's a HUGE difference between $2.39 and $2.99. At $2.39 (on Amazon, anyway) you get a 30% royalty. At $2.99, you get 70%.
I just pulled my Simeon Grist books off Kobo because they discounted the series to $2.35 or something, and Amazon will react automatically and reprice to match or beat Kobo. So that costs me more than a dollar a sale, and when you're making, say, 1200 sales a month, that adds up.
Thanks for mentioning my blog and QUEEN in the same post - and on the blog today I talk about e-books and how they're going to free publishing of the "stodge" factor.
Tim, good to know! Now I feel like I want to go back to Amazon and suggest they mispriced the book and I owe them sixty cents.
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