When is the price right?

I wrote about experimenting with book prices in April. I sold my books at a discount on $0.99/0.77. As a result, I moved some books, but not as much as I thought I would. My books have been $1.99 since. The sales were steady, but not exceptional. So for a week now, most of my books have been $2.99. It’s early days yet, but it seems that it’s too much for most readers. What’s more curious, people have begun to return them, which didn’t happen with lower prices.

I’ve come across with two blog post this couple of days about e-book prices. Kobo Writing Life blog had statistics about different price points and the earnings they yield to authors. It suggested that $1.99 is a dead price point to be avoided. Anything up from that seemed to do fairly well.

Author Molly Greene refers to Kobo’s post on her blog too, and in addition she has asked a couple of authors what they think. The conclusions are the same when it comes to $1.99 price spot. However, opinions regarding the best price vary. She finds that:

• $.99 remains popular, but shows a big drop compared to 2012 study.
• $.99 to $1.99 underperforms in terms of earnings.
• $2.99 is the most common price point with indies.
• $2.99 to $6.99 is the sweet spot for maximum earnings.
• Indies have virtually abandoned the $9.99 price point compared to 2012’s study.

However, the most important message of her post is this: 

“data-driven publishing decisions are irrelevant without a great book.”

So what I should take from all this. My books sold steadily at $1.99, but not at a higher price. However, they are not full-length books but about a half size so anything pricier might be pushing it. It might also be that my books aren’t so great, which is why the lower price might work better. They don’t have any damning reviews, but most of them don’t have glowing reviews either.

Nevertheless, I will keep the price at $2.99 for now. I’ll change it again if the books stop selling completely. I’ll keep you posted. If you have an insight on the best price, please share it in the comments.