A common question authors ask is: How should I price my book?
When it comes to pricing your book, you should look at pricing as a highly effective marketing tool. There are good reasons to adjust your price low, ($0.99 or free) and good reasons to keep your book a full price.
Consider dropping your book price to$2.99, $0.99 or free in these circumstances:
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- When you are running a book promotion
- When you need book reviews
- If you have nominated and been accepted for an Amazon-sponsored sale, such as Kindle Deals and Prime Reading.
- If it’s the first book in a series.
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It’s best keep your book at full price when book sales are going well.
Lowering your book price for a promotion
In a typical book promotion you pay a book promotion site to feature your book in a newsletter, social media channels and on a blog/website. Typically, promotions are designed to drive sales or free downloads of your book for one day. Book promotions can cost anywhere from $10 to $500 depending on the service that you use. The goal of the book promotions is to boost sales, gain more reviews, increase your reader base, or drive your book into a top 10 ranking position within your genre.
To amplify the effect of the book promotion many authors time it with the following activities:
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- Kindle Countdown Deals
- Price drops
- Organic or paid social media posts
- Amazon Ads
- Blog tours
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But what about price? What is the optimal price for a book promotion? Free, $0.99 or $2.99?
Pricing factors to Consider
There are two main questions you should ask yourself when planning your eBook promotion. First, how should you price your book for the campaign? Secondly, is your goal to increase your audience or boost your income?
In general, reducing the price of your book during a promotion is a smart move. When you lower the cost of your book, you increase the conversion rate of readers who land on your book’s detail page. Here are 3 factors to consider when pricing your book for a promotion:
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- Genre: Is your book in a genre that has many free and low-priced books, such as romance and mysteries? Or is it in a genre that has less discounts such as YA or non-fiction books?
- Royalty: Which royalty structure are you comfortable with? Amazon’s royalty structure is 70% for items priced between $2.99 and $9.99. If you go above or below that price range, you’ll only earn 35% royalty.
- Promotion site audience: Are the readers who subscribe to certain newsletters expecting to pay under a certain amount for their books? Or does the book promotion site mandate a certain price such as free or $0.99? You may need to ask the book promotion service you are using these questions.
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When to price you book for free
It might sound counter-intuitive, but pricing your book for free can actually increase your income in the long run! For example, making the first book of a series free will encourage more people to check it out, and if they love it, they’ll likely buy your next books. Other benefits of a free book promotion include:
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- Increased ratings and reviews on Amazon
- More followers on social media
- Improved chances of people signing up for your newsletter
- More enthusiastic fans of your work
- Increased audiobook sales
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If you choose to list your book for free, you need to create a careful campaign to ensure that book promotion sites will lead people to your content. To be safe, set the price of your book for free a day before your promotion officially starts. If you have a pricing issue on Amazon, you’ll have plenty of time to fix it before readers come to check out your book. From there, leave your book listed as free for the duration of your marketing campaign.
"How to Price Your Book for a Successful Book Promotion" was first posted on freebookpromotions.com on October 11th, 2021. Each day we feature new free and discounted Kindle books in the Advice & How To genre as well as all other genres.
Authors: if you would like to see you book promoted on freebookpromotions.com, please visit our book promotions page.