I'm thinking of raising my prices. Going to $3.99 was a pretty big move for me when I did it. When I priced the Valens Legacy series at $3.99 I was worried about it. There are people out there who literally write me hate mail and hate reviews because I 'charge too much' at $3.99.
But I found that even the guy who copied me is charging $4.99.
Think about that. He's charging more than I am. Hell, damn near everybody is now charging more than I am, and I'm supposed to be one of the top authors in the field? *shakes head* Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna go raising the prices on anything that's already out there. But I'm seriously thinking about raising prices to $4.99 on everything I write from this point forward.
Oh, and I've checked page counts. Yeah, some are writing longer books (about 10 to 15 percent longer). But a lot of them are writing the same length. Or less.
Weigh in below...
Wouldn't bother me, I tend to buy all your books as soon as the come out.
ReplyDeleteI don't think $4.99 for a book every month is unreasonable... I'd say go for it.
ReplyDeleteQuality costs - good quality costs a goodly amount. While I would be sadder to increase my spending on ebooks by 20% for your books, I would still do it. And if the increased revenue makes it more likely for you to write more? Win-win(nish) ...
ReplyDeleteDoesn't bother me I buy your books as soon as they come out read the first book and I got hooked on them
ReplyDeletetheir isn't anything wrong with 4.99 for a book. if it was the first in the series it might be worth keeping it low, but if someone has read all the books so far one buck price hike isn't going to stop them. Maybe lower the price when the audio book comes out to make it a cheap alternative to Audible.
ReplyDeleteAudible controls the pricing. Authors have no say in it.
Deletewow, things I didn't know. Kinda lame. Shame you don't have valens legacy on graphic audio, but wow are /they/ ever expensive! though honestly all of the brandon sanderson books they did were marvelous
DeleteHeck, I was willing to pay extra for the paperbacks. $5 would be fine by me.
ReplyDeleteGo for it your books are worth it.
ReplyDeleteI would pay $4.99 for your books.
Go for it. As long as the books keep coming your real fans will buy them .
ReplyDeleteBack in 1965 you could buy a car for under $2000. I'm 1965, you could buy a three bedroom home for$10,000. Well, it's not 1965, and today aan " extended cacanb pick-up will set you back around $50,000, and that same $10,000 house will cost around $80,000 (Michigan home prices have always been insane) $5 for a good book isn't out of question. If you've got KU, it's $10 a month! For as many books as you can read.
ReplyDelete80,000 for a house isn't bad. is there work in michigan?
DeleteIn OR you're lucky to find something for under 200k. Around the city under 300k would be a miracle
Deletei would still buy your books at $5
ReplyDelete$4.99 for your books....No brainer, no problem. If I had bought them in paperback (back when I read paperbacks all the time) I would have bought 2 copies each time (1 to save and 1 to wear out reading it over and over). I still remember gas at $0.70 a gallon and I still drive. I remember buying Copenhagen snuff at $0.60 a can, it is over $5.00 a can now and I still dip.
ReplyDeleteSo raise the price. I will keep buying them and reading them.
Valens is well written and even after 14 books hasnt gotten old. I still get excited whenever a new one comes out. I say go for it if it will increase your revenue. I would still buy
ReplyDeleteDo it. I am surprised you haven't. I usually see an upward pattern in the series' that I read. #1 $.99, #2 $2.99, #3 might stay there, might go depending on how long the series is going to be. You should step it up! You are on my by immediately list anyway :D
ReplyDeleteI frankly lost interest in the Valens books some time ago, I now mostly read them out of habit. I normally read around 400+ books a year, average one a day. Thank God for Gutenberg.org. Raising the price, - then I think you may loose me. The rest of your books (almost all), I would happily pay 6 dollars each.
ReplyDeleteI'd be willing to pay the extra buck, as it's not too big of a deal for me, but it could decrease the pool of people willing to do so such that it might end up leaving you in the same spot financially but with lower readers, or even result in less money overall.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how well it's aged, or if/how much it would apply to a series rather than standalone, but a number of years ago (2013 I believe) Smashwords had a blog post talking about sales at different price ranges. Setting $10 as the 1x level they found that the $3-3.99 range sold 4.3x more, whereas the $4-4.99 range sold 2.7x more, a notable dip.
If you're iffy about raising the price it might be worth trying with the next book to see how/if that impacts sales. If it works out better than before you could set that as the new default price, and if there's a notable drop in purchases/profits you can go back to the previous $3.99.
I found the books. And holy hell...
ReplyDeleteHe claims not to have copied? BS.
I even kept my honour and did not buy it.
Anyhow. 4.99 is still OK for me.
$1 more, per book? No worries. I buy so many ebooks, yours included, from several running series, that cost $4.99 each, that I hadn't even noticed that yours were still priced at $3.99. As long as you keep writing, I'll keep buying, and $5 a pop is fine by me.
ReplyDelete$4.99 for a 200-250 page book is a reasonable price IMO. Alot more reasonable than charging $10+ for a book of the same length like some publishers do, or taking each book from a series published more than 20 years ago and splitting each in half and charging $7.99 for each half like one series I know of. Oh, and then releasing the volumes at random and long intervals. Im not tweaked about that at all. Nope, not a bit.
ReplyDeleteWith a long running series like yours I don't see a problem, and anyone who stops buying your books from a $1 prize bump are IMO not really fans.
ReplyDeleteI'm of two minds on this. On the one hand I like your books so I don't mind paying more. On the other higher priced books are less of an impulse buy for me. $3 or less is my sweet spot where if something looks interesting I'll pick it up for a try since it's just a few bucks. $5 is where I start thinking, do I really want to risk some money on a chance or do I just get the sample. Then it goes into my samples along with dozens if not hundreds of others and get's lost unless I'm really into the premise and not currently ready a book. Also I do figure in book length for the price, higher prices get more leeway since you get more out of it (but I love long books/series). Not sure if this applies to the long running series since I'll pick it up anyways but it's what I'm thinking of when I look at pricing.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the extra dollar as long as the book is around 250 pages or more. I will not pay five dollars for a book with less than 200 pages.
ReplyDeleteI'd pay $4.99 for your books.
ReplyDeleteHey keep it under 10$ and im fine with it!
ReplyDeleteI'd pay $4.99 or $5.99 easy. Good to hear that you don't plan to raise pricing on older books. I need to go back and buy them now that I've learned how crappy KU can be for authors.
ReplyDeleteWhat i consider reasonable for an ebook is 6$ for a book that is around 300 pages, 8$ for 500 pages, and on the high end i wouldnt want to pay more than 14$ for say 2000 pgs. All that is to say 5$ is eaily acceptable and to me that seems like your still lowballing.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a fair price for the quality books that you produce, you might consider a scaling price point where the earlier books are still less expensive and as the story arcs shift (and the readers are hooked in for the long haul) the prices increase.
ReplyDeletemy two cents:i dont like spending more than a dollar per 100 pages for an E-book. it doesn't much matter as long as they stay in KU though.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead, you write it, I'll buy it. 1$ won't change my life
ReplyDeleteI would have noproblem with a price increase or two even. i love the books so far. A start of a series with 6 or 7 dollars may be too rugh for most casual readers, unless one follows the author from some other book already.
ReplyDeleteWe who are hooked see nothing wrong with 5 dollars.
I see $3.99 as a price point at which I'm willing to try new Authors. For Authors I already know and like, I'm fine with paying more. I am happy to support Authors who are producing content I enjoy.
ReplyDeleteDisclosures: I live in Australia where minimum wages are higher than in the US. I have a full time job.
IMHO, I agree with the other comments about $4.99 being where I start to consider my purchases more closely. I would be fine with paying $4.99 for any additional books in the series or another as I have truly enjoyed each book and I'm impatiently waiting for the next. But, I think when you start another series, $3.99 for the 1st book or 2 may be a good approach to keep impulse buying up.
ReplyDeleteI do KU because I'm a budget restricted senior. I'm really grateful that you publish in KU.
ReplyDeleteEspecially for a long series, those dollars really add up. But there's nothing wrong with charging a fair market price. You can always lower it over time or if sales diminish.
A happy thought: Maybe that "other guy" has to charge more due to lower reader volume? And then there's an additional drop off when he gets figured out or just outed?
I have no problem with $4.99 for your Valens Legacy. I pay $14.99 for some new ebooks, so $4.99 for the Valens legacy is still a very good deal.
ReplyDeleteRaise it. $4.99 isn't bad at all.
ReplyDeleteI'll gladly pay 4.99 for the valens books.
ReplyDeleteI'd pay 4.99 without a problem, go for it I'd say.
ReplyDeleteMaybe raise for the next book and check how it compares against the previous books in the same period of time.
would not bother me i still pay for your books. is there any news for when the audio books will be coming?
ReplyDeleteI use a general rule of thumb of $1 for every 100 pages, when looking for new material. Authors I follow get more leeway. As a readaholic, $4.99 for 250+ pages is in my bandwidth for quality writing.
ReplyDeleteI guess if it stays KU it wouldn't matter, but if not then no. I enjoy the series but, it's not breaking 250 pages on average. I'll pay 4.99 for 350-450 pages and 5.99 for 450 and up.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree, I joined KU because I could not afford my reading habit and was tired of rereading books I owned 8x. I will buy a book every now and then that's not KU but it has to be around $3 or be at least 500 pages if it's around $5(and it has to really call out to me).
DeleteYa'll some savages write a 500 page book then maybe you'll buy. Damn im stuck at 10 pages for my book that will never be finished. Man has to come up with quality content and has 13 books (not to mention his other pen name series) and your saying what that if tomorrow he put out Valens 14 made it 4.99 and took it off KU you would what drop his series, pirate? cause ya'll sounding like ungrateful heathens that need to write your own stories or read those same books again
DeleteSeems entirely reasonable to me D:
ReplyDeleteRaise them you work hard for for us. Now get back to work please I need my fix.
ReplyDeleteI'm an author as well. I raised mine first of the year from $3.99 to $4.99. Its the trend. $0.99 is the new free. Why not go up a level? Still cheaper than a cup of (good) coffee.
ReplyDeleteI wrote and developed software for over 30 years. This first thing I ever learned was that a product's price has absolutely nothing todo with cost of development. Price is strictly dependent on market factors. Cases in point;
ReplyDelete1: The ass-hat copying and re-selling you is getting over a buck more than you. That definitely tells you that you are under-selling
2: Viola Grace, another author, is getting $5-6 for 50k-80k word books. Yes, she's good too. She bangs out 2-3 books per month.