Pricing Hurdles for Authors on Amazon
I discussed the opportunities and sand traps of Amazon’s category choices in the post “Category Hurdles for Authors on Amazon.” Now I am going to discuss pricing hurdles on Amazon.
At one point I temporarily changed the price of technothriller ebook LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS from $2.99 to free. Then I changed the price back.
While other sites then also changed the price back, Kindle continues to show the price as free even though I changed the Kindle info.
Based on the genius of Aggie Villanueva in her new book AMAZON CATEGORIES CREATE BEST SELLERS, I have decided to concentrate on sending people to Amazon and Kindle to buy the paperback or ebook of LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. But I do not want to give the book away.
Why wouldn’t Kindle agree to change the price back to $2.99 when I requested this?
Because on an ebook site run by Sony (and I didn’t realize the ebook was available there until the Kindle support person emailed me this information), the price remains 0, and Amazon matches the lowest price.
I have been told that, if I get Sony to raise the price or remove the book, Kindle will return the price to $2.99. Thus I have spent time with a Sony ebook customer service rep, who could take my request and send it on to whatever department does not take phone calls but might do as I have asked. (I have yet to learn what happened with this request.)
Finally, I had a surprise when I joined Faydra Deon’s Independent Author Index at indaindex.com and clicked on all the links she provides to find an author’s books on different book sites around the world.
She correctly indicates that we authors may be unaware of all the online places where our books and ebooks are offered for purchase.
This would not necessarily be a problem, although it is unlikely that anyone buying books on most of those sites has ever heard of me or my books.
It is a problem if you want to make your ebook a Kindle Select (requires exclusivity for the ebook for 90-day periods on Kindle) and you thus have to figure out how to get your ebook off all those other sites that list your ebook but are not making any sales.
FYI: Choosing Kindle Select for CIA FALL GUY enables me to choose five days during the 90-day exclusive period when the ebook is free. This is a much better solution than my own attempt to make the ebook of LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS free for a few days and then put back the price.
© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books. Her newest fiction book is CIA FALL GUY (on Kindle Select here — free for Amazon Prime members), the idea for which came from a May 1972 bombing of the U.S. Army’s Officers Club in Frankfurt, Germany.
Read more about the backstory of this book at www.CIAFallGuy.com and then email Phyllis at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com if you would like to consider writing a review on the book’s Amazon page. Phyllis will email you a Kindle mobi format, epub format, or pdf format for reviewing.
If a book is published and sold on the Amazon site, how is it getting to all of these other distributors. Even Smashwords has only about a total of seven other outlets and if they are being sold through other distributors, who is getting the commission?
Joan —
LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS was not a Kindle Select, which didn’t exist at the time I self-published the ebook. My ebook converter uploaded the ebook to Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. Then Smashwords automatically sends out the ebook to other distributors.
Then I tried out different pricing, finally changing Smashwords back to $2.99. In theory the Kindle price should have also reverted, but it didn’t because the Sony site didn’t change the price back.
As of today, after two calls to Sony’s ebook customer service, the price of LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS is back to $2.99. Now I have to get Kindle to change the price back to $2.99.
Phyllis, my co-author and I also opted to start with the 90 trial period with Amazon/Kindle. I don’t believe in giving away books for free–normally. However, YOUR GIFT TO ME is a military inspired novel, and I want to “sell” it at zero cents on the Fourth of July. However, it will be just for that day.
Your post made me aware of something I had no idea about…your Sony snafu is just unthinkable! Looks like that is one snake pit we avoided by just dumb luck. We wanted to sell exclusively with Amazon the first three months. I hope you get it worked out and I look forward to reading CIA Fall Guy!
~Bon
Bonnie —
Yes, I do believe you are definitely taking the right marketing path by first having your ebook only on Kindle for 90 days.
I just finished reading Jeff Bennington’s THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE, which I highly recommend you read asap for his specific recommendations about running a free promotion on Kindle. He has very specific steps he recommends before the free day.
I plan to write a blog post about this book. In the meantime, I strongly urge you to get this book. It is well worth the $2.99 and the advice could be invaluable for you.
Ah, yes. When I decided to upload my ebook to Smashwords after having it on Amazon, my formatter told me I would have to price it the same, due to the terms and conditions with Amazon (which no one reads). So now I know the book must be priced the same everywhere or Amazon reduces it to the lowest price. At least I found this out in advance.
Judith —
Thanks for leaving this comment and you are lucky that you found this out in advance. I vaguely knew this but didn’t think about what would happen if one of the sites didn’t raise the price again when I raised the price on Smashwords.
I hope this post saves other authors from making the mistakes that I have made.
I want to put all 3 of my books on Kindle, but not sure what price I should use………..take a look and reaad the descriptions and please let me know your feelings. Thank you.
Don Ward
Pattaya, Thailand
hard bounds are printed in Minnesota and signed
Don — I have no idea what is the best price for ebooks on Kindle even though I have read much information on this subject.
Here is what my current thinking is for myself: Fiction should be less than nonfiction. For now I’m staying within Amazon’s $2.99-$9.99 range in order to qualify for 70% royalties instead of the lesser amount of royalties.
At the moment my three fiction novels are at $2.99 and my two completed nonfiction books in the teen series HOW TO SUCCEED are $9.99. But I may change these at any time.
I recommend you look for ebooks similar to yours on Kindle and then use these prices as a indicator of what you should try for your books. Then be willing to change the prices of your books if those prices do not seem to work for you.
P.S. I wish I had the perfect answer for everyone including myself, but there’s no way to do that.