PLEASE READ - What We're Up Against
Hey all, I think we have a critical mass of authors in here now, more will definitely be joining, but I wanted to kick off this strategy brainstorming by describing some trends I've noticed, since self-publishing and from owning this website.
Here's the bottom line - most readers don't value ebooks. They will get an ebook for free, but even books at 99 cents are not bought at an appreciable rate. In fact, I've seen no difference in the rate of purchasing ebooks priced at $4.99 vs $0.99, the exception being during Stuff Your Ereader Events (more on that in a moment).
What does this mean? To me, it indicates that readers are happy to pick up a free ebook and put it on their reader for a rainy day or when they are looking for a quick read or a mood read. But that isn't enough motivation for them to actually spend any money on a book, because they can get so many free ones, why should they pay?
So when people buy an ebook, it is more likely because they have made a connection with that author already - they've read previous books and enjoyed them, but more often, because they have had direct communication with that author.
What has given rise to this behavior?
Kindle Unlimited - readers can pay a monthly fee and read as many books as they want, or parts of books, or a page, without having to pay any more. When you consider that the bill for KU can be bundled with the cost of Prime, it feels like all the books are just free
Stuff Your Ereader Events - why would a reader pay for an ebook when a SYE event is right around the corner and tons of books are going to be free? This is a place where some authors will see a bump in sales of books that are priced low for the event, because there's a bunch of readers condensing onto one site for all the books, and they are less discriminate, so they'll pick up a 99 cent book along with 5 free books, etc.
Supply and demand issues - there's a lot of books, and only so many readers. They can get free books, and there's so many, so why choose one that's not free?
A specific example from our site:
I recently promoted two new releases from two authors who priced their books at 99 cents. I sent out an email announcement to our 1200 people on our contact list. There have been a total of 7 purchases between those two books and they've been on sale for 3 days. I posted a free book today, sent out to the same group, and had 7 downloads in <10 min, and we're currently sitting at 20 downloads in under an hour.
A couple thoughts from my own experience:
People are really interested in physical media right now, especially if it’s special or collectible in some way—special editions, sprayed edges, annotated copies. I think that’s one reason kickstarter campaigns do so well. People are willing to pay a lot for special editions of a book they’ve never read, but won’t pay $3 to “take a chance” on an ebook.
I did a giveaway recently and literally could not give away my ebook. One person entered. People were really excited about my giveaway of an annotated paperback though. I got the most entries for that. I had hoped the giveaway would entice new readers, but everyone who entered were already my followers.
I have made almost no organic sales since like April. All my sales have come from promotional events. I made my book free during the Indie reads event and then $0.99 during an event for the Indie Author Collective. I also made some paperback sales during that event. I think the visibility really helped, but once the event was over, I went right back to having zero reach and zero sales.
I have 5 reviews and not a single one is from a random person who read my book. They are all from people I’ve had direct interactions with.
I do really well selling at in-person events, and I want to put more focus into that. Again, people seem to value the physical media, and the direct interaction. I don’t know if those sales are turning into people actually reading my book, but at least they are profitable.
I don’t really have any recommendations, these are mostly just observations for brainstorming purposes.