The Snowball Effect - How Low Ebook Prices Help Build My Audience

Back in January - mid-January to be exact - I posted about the changes to the pricing structure of my novels. I figured I'd update everyone and give all of you indie authors out there an idea if the pricing structure is working or not. The final analysis? Yes, it's working. Working well, I might add.

The original price of the books in my Black Earth series in digital format were $2.99 for End of the Innocence (book1) and $4.99 for The Broken Daisy (book2). I dropped these prices in mid-January to 99 cents for End of the Innocence and $2.99 for The Broken Daisy.

Before my January price changes, here were my sales figures (these figures are sales through the Kindle, seeing how I'm making most of my sales on the Kindle at the moment) -

December 2010 - US Kindle Sales = 7
November 2010 - US Kindle Sales = 3
October 2010 - US Kindle Sales = 1   UK Kindle Sales = 1

After my price changes, here are my numbers for 2011 so far -

January 2011 - US Kindle Sales = 30    UK Kindle Sales = 8
February 2011 - US Kindle Sales = 55  UK Kindle Sales = 2
March 2011 (so far) - US Kindle Sales = 41    UK Kindle Sales = 1

When looking at these numbers, please take into consideration that I've also upped my marketing efforts a bit. I spend a decent amount of time in the Kindle Boards, both promoting my books and helping other authors promote theirs. I've become a bit more accustomed to Twitter, thanks to a huge Twitter series that Kristen Lamb has been blogging about. I've also been emailing and opening conversations with blog reviewers, especially ones who are kind enough to take the time to review indie authors. Check out Scott's reviews at Indie Book Blog, and the mammoth list of reviewers at Step-by-Step Self-Publishing for examples of who I've been reaching out to for reviews.

In the last few months, I've seen some statements made about how some think an author pricing their book at 99 cents is foolish because of all the blood and toil put into writing/editing/publishing a book. While I agree it is hard work getting a decent book off the ground, I don't have an issue pricing the first book in my sci-fi/fantasy series at such a low price if it means I am building a fan base for the series as a whole and gaining new fans of my work.

In other words, it can't always be about the money.

I know, I know. Many of you would argue that if it's not putting food on the table, what's the point, right? I understand your point of view, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Gaining exposure is like rolling a snowball down a hill. It has to gain momentum, has to gain followers, has to gain some spotlight before it will get bigger. As much as I need the money right now - and God knows I need the money - my focus needs to be on growing my audience. The more readers that have my book in their hands, the greater my chances of reviews, of blog/Twitter/Facebook mentions, of more sales.

Even though I lowered the prices of my paperback novels, I haven't noticed much of a change with their sales. And that's okay, because I'm focusing more of my marketing strategy toward ebooks at the moment. Digital ereaders aren't just the 'new craze'. They are portable, convenient, and somewhat affordable. Meaning they are going to continue to be bought up. And with them, readers will want to be packing their digital data banks with countless books. Affordable books.

See, if a reader hasn't heard of me before, 99 cents is an easy risk to take on a new author. And if they like the first book in my series, it's an easy decision for them to spend only $2.99 on the next book. And if I can keep the books in the series rolling out in a decent time frame, my readers will continue to buy into the series, gaining me both a lifelong fan and someone who will hopefully spread the word about my novels.

I'll be continuing my pricing structure when my young adult novel series debuts this summer with Endangered Memories. It will be made available in ebook format for 99 cents, to get everyone into the series. From there, subsequent books in the series will be priced at $2.99. (Of course, all the novels will also be available in paperback for a nominal price.)

(Photo credit - kamshots)

My Experience With Smashwords...So Far

For over a year now, I've been publishing my ebooks through Smashwords, an online company that specializes in allowing indie authors to format and upload their digital books to be sold on different platforms, including the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader. Although I've experience a few drawbacks during my time working with them, I would say my experience has been somewhat satisfactory.

The first thing I'd like to direct attention to is the wonderful resource Smashwords makes available to anyone who goes to their site - Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords. This free guide walks you through step-by-step on how to format your manuscript in Microsoft Word to get it ready for Smashwords Meatgrinder technology that will spit out your manuscript in all of the formats available to Smashwords. This guide is valuable even if you don't decide to publish your ebooks through Smashwords because it gets your book ready to look decent on almost any ebook platform.

Publishing through Smashwords will give you 85% or more net sales proceeds from each book sale from their site. The numbers are lower if you go through the distribution channels because retail starts to take bigger pieces of the pie. Each book published through Smashwords gets its own page. Smashwords even lets you place links on your book's page of where readers can find the paperback versions.Readers can leave reviews - however a reader has to have purchased you book directly from Smashwords in order to leave a review on it, which is somewhat of a drawback. Although, authors can also create coupon codes to help promote their books. Some authors have used coupon codes that give 100% off a book. This allows Smashwords to track the download as a purchase, meaning the person who downloaded it can review the book without having to pay for it.

As convenient as Smashwords is, I have run into a few issues, such as my book taking forever to be approved for Smashword's distribution channels, and my book being denied distribution for reasons that were already resolved. I've written the support department on a number of these issues in the past without receiving a reply, although I've had Mark Coker email me himself and take care of the issues. As helpful as Mark's assistance was, I would hope to see the support team reply in a more prompt manner in the future. I know once or twice I was told that they never received my email, but in order to send them a message, you have to fill out a form on their own website, making that a technical issue on their side.

Another big issue I've seen more than once - and am currently dealing with again - is the pricing issue between Smashwords and the Sony Reader Store. I changed the price of my books on Smashwords at one point in the past and it took months for the price to change on the Sony site. When I wrote Smashwords support on this issue, I received an email back from Mark Coker explaining to me that he was working to resolve the issue.

Lo and behold, I changed the price of two of my books a couple months ago and I have yet to see the price change on the Sony site. Deja vu. However, it's changed on all the other sites I have open to distribution. This makes it difficult to tell people I have my book available for their Sony Reader because the prices are higher there than if they were to purchase my books at almost any other site. The only other option is for them to purchase the actual Sony Reader file from Smashwords and manually put it on their ebook reader.

One strange thing I've heard from other authors using Smashwords is that their sales went up when they pulled out of distribution through Barnes and Noble Nook and simply made their book available directly through the Nook platform, PubIt!. I thought this might be wishful thinking, but since I pulled out of the Nook distribution through Smashwords, I've sold two copies of my books through the Nook platform. I know that's not a lot, but my sales on that platform were zero before.

Overall, I recommend Smashwords to any indie author looking for a solid website to make their stories available in digital format on multiple ebook readers. Smashwords is still growing, especially with the big self-publishing buzz going around lately, and growing pains are inevitable. But the company looks to have a lot of potential and a very bright future.