My 99 cent experiment continues...

You're probably tired of this by now, but I wanted to give another update on how things are going for me this month, with my 99 cent price experiment.  If you remember, to match my best month in sales priced at $2.99 I need to sell 32 books a day priced at 99 cents.

I just sold my 800th book for this month.  Since it's the 20th, it's easy math.  I'm averaging 40 sales per day.  Now, the first four days of the month were fantastic, and it did slow down from there.  So, I calculated out just the 5th to the 19th to get a more accurate picture of what my average sales per day are.  In that snapshot I averaged 32 sales a day.  Right were I need to be to tie my biggest money maker month.  Yay!

Now, I want to address the issue of "cheapening" by work by selling my book at only 99 cents.  I know some people think it devalues my novel, or conditions people to expect a low price for my future works.  I don't take much stock in that thought. 

I'm a totally unknown author.  People don't know my name, they don't know if they like my work.  If I can get several thousand people to try my book, and they do enjoy it, they'll pay more for future books.  It's a marketing strategy, and in my case, it's working.

Now, I don't know how many people buy my book and add it to an already long to be read pile.  But I do know that some people are reading it.  I'm getting feedback from people.  I'm getting reviews.  More people are joining my Facebook fan page.  (Yay!)  So I know that not everyone is buying and not reading.

Which is fantastic.  When I get an email telling me how much someone enjoyed my book, it makes all of this worth it.  :)

Vicki

More Sales Numbers

I know you're all just waiting for me to post more of my numbers.  Well, I won't keep you waiting any longer.  Here's what's been happening this month so far with my sales:

1st: 116 sold.  (Wow, what happened that day?)
2nd: 50 sold.
3rd: 66 sold.
4th: 56 sold.
5th: 34 sold.
6th: 30 sold.
7th: 35 sold.

As you can see, the month started off with a bang!  And things have slowed down here lately.  But I still am selling well beyond my 17 sales that I need to tie what I was doing before I dropped my price to 99 cents.  So, even though I'm slowing down, I am still happy with the 99 cent price and plan on keeping the price for now.

As for what I will price my next book at... I'm really not sure.  At first I thought I would start it out at $2.99 to see what it can do.  Then I changed my mind, wanting to make a bigger bang with rank and decided to start it at 99 cents.  Right now I keep waffling back and forth, not sure what I will do.  I might try an introductory price of 99 cents, and see what happens.  But I don't want to be locked into raising it if it's selling much better than Not What She Seems.  So I'm torn.

Have you played around with your book price?  I'd love to know if you have found that sweet spot for your book.

Vicki