When it comes to e-book pricing strategies, they are pretty sensitive. So, how do you perform the best pricing strategy?
First of all, if you have set your e-book selling price and haven’t changed it since you published it, perhaps this would be the right time to have another look at the price before you make any moves.
And if book sales aren’t that good, you need to consider changing the price a little to suit the state of the economy at present.
That said, when it comes to e-book, they’re said to be retail products, and if you do think of any retail store of any kind, you need to know that prices don’t always stay the same. A good e-book pricing strategy is about what a consumer perceives rather than what you get in your pocket.
Why do I need an e-book pricing strategy?
The aim is to sell more copies of your e-book. There are techniques to follow when it comes to this. So your price is of secondary price, and that’s because, at any price, a bestseller is still a bestseller.
Ask yourself this, would you prefer to sell 2000 books at 99 cents or 200 books at 10 dollars? This post will tell you all the details you need in changing your selling price as often as you wish to find the best price at a certain point.
8 E-book pricing strategies to consider;
Increase your Price
This may sound a bit off, but this juncture is simply talking about people who seem to struggle to get any sale. And a higher price does work pretty well on two fronts. When it comes to a higher price, it often gives a potential buyer the sense of you giving a better product or e-book, and secondly, sales at higher prices do increase your ranking a little more. We can call this psychological pricing.
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For example, Mrs. Nanny comes to a shop and sees two similar books, one is sold for 5 dollars, and the other sold for 2 dollars. Depending on the moment and Mrs. Nanny’s income—if she’s pretty well off, she might want to ask questions why they are sold at different prices, and if the seller replies, ‘Well, it isn’t me ma’am, these are the decision from the owners.’ If Mrs. Nanny got much money, she would ignore the 2 dollars and opt for the 5 dollars; why? You might want to ask; the reason is that highest income earners do not trust ridiculously low prices—it’s psychological, as I said.
The Down and Up technique
This method does help you find the best price for your book, and it’s one of the best e-book pricing strategies. I recommend reducing the e-book price by 1 dollar every four days until you reach 99 cents.
Here’s how we do it, wait three days and raise your price in 1 dollar increments up to perhaps, 5 dollars. If you see an increase in sales at a specific price point, repeat the same exercise and check how the flow turns out. If you don’t see enough sales, then try again for another six days.
Book One needs to be very Cheap:
If you have published a series, do sacrifice the price of the first book, and make it very cheap, maybe 99 cents for a start. This tends to hook readers.
Then go ahead and set each subsequent title in steps of 1 dollar to 3 dollars for the latest title series. This is a good e-book marketing strategy that helps to gain more marketing share.
Find your Genre
For every e-book title you’ve got, you’ll need to do a little research. Begin by identifying your genre and working with that. This helps in giving the best e-book pricing strategy. Let me give you more reasons; each genre has various reasons for pricing the way they do. For instance, a well-known self-help guru can price his book for 20 dollars without blinking an eyelid. And that’s because they’ve got a crowd of readers who are willing to read their book and understand the value of the book. This makes it a sound investment for the reader’s mental, emotional well-being.
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But when it comes to a fairly known self-help author, they may not have the e-book pricing strategy to make their book successful. But that isn’t the end; this author can help out by simply lowering the price of the e-book—this is one long-term benefit.
Increase your Paperback
Amazon Kindle is said to compare the price of your Kindle version with the paperback version on a book sales page simply by placing a strikethrough line across the print book price above the Kindle price. This is done because it makes it look pretty cheap and cost-effective. I recommend you make a bigger discount, and this is done by increasing the price.
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High and Low
Now, here’s what I mean. A high price would return much more profit, but a very low price would deliver more readers. Nonetheless, it’s worth it all if you believe this e-book pricing strategy would work for you.
For instance, if your e-book is 2 dollars, try to change it to 99 cents for at least two weeks, followed by two weeks at 4 dollars.
Different US and UK prices
When it comes to these two e-book markets, they are said to be very different, especially when it comes to price sensitivity. Most English book buyers are a bit reluctant to buy books priced over 1.99 pounds, and most of the e-book sales in the United Kingdom are 0.99 pounds. So, it would help if you weighed the facts before you delve in.
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Sell many Copies
For various authors, especially those in the early stages of their career, getting their books into as many hands as possible is necessary. The more sales you get, the better Amazon helps you look for more buyers of your book. If you are an Amazon user, you probably have identified a fleet of other similar products just below the one you are purchasing, and that’s how it works.
In addition, the more readers who read your book, the more reviews you’ll get, and the more email signups you’ll receive, and the more fans you tend to attract.
Conclusion
That said. There are no strict rules to follow for e-book pricing strategy, except when you do nothing about it and expect to gain more share in the market, which is a pipedream if you ask me.
One good approach to follow in e-book pricing strategy is to watch the prices of competitive books in your genre or category and use that to your advantage. If you do notice they are on the high side, why don’t you reduce your price a little and work with that for the main time? And the price does vary a lot between short stories, full-length fiction, and novellas.
If your price is way above or below the average, you’ll need to think about tweaking the price of your book. By simply experimenting on the e-book price, in combination with the online book promotion, you’ll surely have a headway by taking proactive steps that can help you in a long while.
