I have decided to increase the kindle price for all my novelettes this weekend from £0.99/$0.99 to £1.99/£$1.99
If you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy and haven’t done so yet then you have the chance to do so before the increase.
The reason I have decided to do this is two-fold.
One is financial, I get very few sales on these and when I do I net a whopping £0.29 per sale and at this rate what I’ve paid for covers and editing has not been recouped, a situation that I know is shared by many fellow authors.
My first novelette As Dreams are Made on has sold 112 kindle copies and 28 print copies in the two years and four months since its release and I still have £29.86 to go to break even. At the rate of £0.29 per sale it will take at least another 100 sales for this to happen. By increasing the price to £1.99/$1.99 I get £0.58 per sale.
The other books:
A Lifetime or a Season, with 36 kindle and 15 print sales in 2 years and 2 months is in the red to the tune of £57.25
The Storm Creature, with 75 kindle and 24 print sales in just over a year needs £26.09 to break even.
The other reason is that while I thought £0.99/$0.99 was a figure that people would be happy to pay for an hour of entertainment/pleasure it would seem that I was wrong. So now I am going to experiment with the idea that people are happier to pay a higher price as they believe that cheap price equals low quality.
I will do a follow up on this in a few months to see whether I was able to attract more readers with the increased price point.
UK Amazon account: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maria-Gibbs/e/B00SDDJV1U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
US Amazon account: https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Gibbs/e/B00SDDJV1U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
My new novel will stay the same price which is £2.99 so far since its release a month ago I have sold 47 kindle and 16 print copies. The edit costs for this were significantly higher due to it being a much bigger book but I have approximately £120.00 to go before I break even on this one.
I am bursting at the seams with ideas for books to write and the only thing that stops me is sufficient time and money to pay the initial outlay. This has been my lifelong dream to become an author and I am determined to try anything that I can in order to achieve this at a level where I can support myself from my writing.
Will update anyone who is interested in my progress in a few months.
Maria Gibbs 