ebook pricing – $0.99 versus $2.99
A while back I raised the price of my book THE UBUNTU BEGINNER’S GUIDE from $0.99 to $2.99. A few people have emailed to ask how that turned out, so I thought I’d share the results here.
First, some mechanics. The book is on all ebook platforms, so raising the price is a bit of work, since some sites update faster than others, and if you raise a price to $2.99 on one site and it’s still at $0.99 on another, the first site might automatically price-match back down to $0.99. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), in particular, gets very annoyed if you have a book set to a higher price on Amazon than on other platform, and starts sending you warning emails. I wound up having to raise the price on Smashwords first, wait until the change propagated to all the affiliates, raise the price on Barnes & Noble, and only then would Amazon KDP let me get away with raising the price.
Second, I’ll only list the Amazon numbers here, since generally about 70% to 80% of the Ubuntu book’s sales are on Amazon (the rest tend to be on the iBookstore). Why that is, I’m not sure, but I’ve found it’s much easier to sell nonfiction on Amazon than on anywhere else.
Third, a caveat. By the time I raised the price, the Ubuntu book had been on Amazon for over sixteen months, had accumulated 20 positive (ish) reviews, and had become the #1 search result on Amazon for “ubuntu”. In other words, it had built up some momentum. So I felt comfortable taking a risk and raising the price. Additionally, a new version of Ubuntu came out in October, which always tends to result in a sales bump.
So, to the actual numbers.
In July of 2012, the last month the book was at $0.99, I sold 494 copies on Amazon.com
Start on September 12th of 2012, I successfully raised the price to $2.99 on all platforms.
In October of 2012, the first full month at $2.99, the book sold 310 copies on Amazon.com.
This would seem like a net loss. But recall that Amazon pays the author 35% for a $0.99 book, and 70% for a $2.99 book. So in July I made about $172.90 from the Ubuntu book sales, but in October I made about $640 from the same book by selling fewer copies of it. So the book is selling fewer copies, and generally has a lower sales rank now at $2.99 than it did at $0.99 – but I am making more money off it.
I’m not going to draw any big, grand conclusions from this. There are people, lots and lots of people, who argue that all ebooks should be $4.99, or that all ebooks should be $0.99, or that $0.99 books are destroying literature and devaluing writers, or that $0.99 books are democratizing reading. However, none of these answers are correct, and if you are a writer, price your books in a way that matches with your personal objectives and business plan. (I suspect a lot of the vitriol in arguments over ebook pricing comes from the fact that many writers seem to have this deep-seated psychological need for a teacher to give them a gold star and tell them that they’re doing A+ work.)
However, I will conclude that in certain circumstances, raising the price and selling fewer copies of a book can make the writer more money.
-JM
Thanks for sharing your numbers. I think the $0.99 price point doesn’t make a lot of sense unless your using it specifically to raise your profile. The 35% commission isn’t great either.
Yes. I think there are circumstances where it makes sense to do a $0.99 ebook – like, say, a religious or a political writer who wants to spread his message to as many people as possible. But for most writers, the higher price points are a better position.