John Locke Pricing Experiment: Wrap Up
The end of my test week is here and I've changed the price of The Soulkeepers back to $2.99. I have to admit, it was tempting to leave the 99 cent price tag as it is easier to sell copies, for sure. But in the end I did lose revenue and with book two in the series coming out in the fall, it's a little early to discount it permanently. Here's a wrap up of the results.
- Once I dropped the price on Nook copies as well as Kindle copies, my sales further increased to about 4.5 times there usual rate. Still short of the six I needed to make up the difference in royalties but significant sales growth.
- My Amazon rank also improved significantly from approximately 80,000 to a high of 10,000 but it's back in the 30,000s today as the initial spike of 99 cent buyers leveled out.
- I am certain that I reached new readers with the price change, both because I sold more in the UK than usual and had some new reviews from people who purchased at the new price, but also the "customers also purchased" section changed significantly. There are more adult books in the mix. So that price point may have enticed certain readers out of their usual genre.
The ultimate takeaway? The 99 cent price point is a powerful tool to expand market penetration when used in combination with targeted promotional efforts. It isn't a magic bullet and those who are succeeding at this price point are doing so for more reasons than price. It's true, 99 cents might get your foot in the door with some readers but you probably won't make more revenue than you would at $2.99 unless you also increase promotion concurrently. Plus, the free-99 cent readers are a different group of customers than the $2.99-$4.99 readers. So, shifting your price around is probably better than remaining static for the simple reason of reaching a varying audience.
I hope this information is helpful to you. Write-on fellow indies!
