Here are the one month details for my pricing experiment.
Lowered price from $2.99 to $0.99.
As you can see, on March 26, I sold 52 units and my royalties at $0.99 matched the highest daily royalties at $2.99. But, I still did not make as much money on the book in March ($246.40) as I did in February ($371.85).
But, looking at the royalties chart, it looks like the trend line will match the old revenue in about another month.
February average daily sales = 6.6
March average daily sales = 24.3
February average daily royalties = $13.21
March average daily royalties so far = $8.50
Raised the price from $0.99 to $2.99.
February average daily sales = 6.7
March average daily sales so far = 9.7
February average daily royalties = $2.34
March average daily royalties so far = $19.48
Is Dead Dwarves, Dirty Deeds riding coat-tails?
Another question is, does a low price on one ebook increase the sales of other books by the same author? Check out this chart:
The answer seems to be a very strong yes. The trendline for Dead Dwarves, Dirty Deeds sales increased dramatically after the price decrease for Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance.
What this means for me
My total royalties for February were $472.55 and in March they were $884.76. So, a net gain from my price changes.
Even though the price decrease on Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance hasn’t yet achieved previous royalty rates, the trendline looks good. I’m hopeful that I can meet previous levels in another month. So, I’ll keep the lower price in April.
Even though the price decrease on Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance hasn’t yet achieved previous royalty rates, the trendline looks good. I’m hopeful that I can meet previous levels in another month. So, I’ll keep the lower price in April.
Despite a wide valley in sales around March 27th, my Format Your Ebook for Kindle in One Hour price increase has resulted in a very nice increase in royalties: from $65.45 total in February to $584.81 total in March. I’ll keep the price of this book at $2.99 for the rest of April at least.
What this means for you
If you experiment with price, be prepared to give it a couple months so you can get good data to make a long-term decision.
Other reports on the pricing experiment:
The question is, did you actually increase the readership for Dead Dwarves, or did you just accelerate the sales to people who would have bought it anyway. If the former, cool. If the later, you left a bunch of money on the table.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that's a question that's impossible to answer. So I guess I'll just say congratulations on the great month!
:)
michaelkingswood.com
This is great stuff Derek. As always. I love your methodical approach!
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I've been "experimenting" a ton as well, albeit in a much more "feel" based approach. I tweak each of my books when I see the sales begin to stagnate, as I've found that price change appears to sometimes kickstart new sales.
Not sure if there is any real reason behind why that might occur, but it certainly "feels" like it does. However, at the moment, after much tweaking, I seem to have found the sweet spot on most of my books. So some are at 99 cents, some at 2.99 and a couple are a shade over 3 dollars, and they are mostly all selling to some degree and seem to be allowing me to maximize both volume and profit.
I sold over 1500 copies in March and I believe I made close to 800 dollars.
Hopefully I can make a thousand dollars or more this month...
Thanks for keeping us educated!!
Best,
Aaron
That's really incredible! Great job, Derek :)
ReplyDeleteWhen is Elemental Odyssey slated for drop? I'm curious how quickly that will pick up as well as the halo effect it will have on your other titles. (Twelve Worlds, also, but that will effect a number of us, as far as our other titles!)
Shackled
Cheat
At this stage of your writing career is it really about the money? or is it about future readers who will stay with you and bring along other friends and readers for the ride? What is the long term effect of the .99 cent price point? In five years you could have ten times the fans with a .99 cent book. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteBy the way I like that cover of Dead Dwarves--who did it?
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