
Many try…many fail. Many others give up before they do either. On this site I’ve done both repeatedly.
And it’s for that reason that I’m wondering what I’m doing, wondering why I’m hurting myself, wondering…why I’m costing myself money.
So that’s why I’m raising the price of all of my eBooks.
Now, I don’t expect you to be too alarmed about this, mainly because you don’t buy my eBooks anyways. No, you just come here for free advice, interesting anecdotes, and the occasional meltdown.
That’s fine. But for those that do buy my books, well, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more for quality.
Prices of eBooks

Yep, ever since Christmas they’ve been falling, and I’m not sure why. One book that was selling really well each month – about 20 copies – was English Rocks. This book was and is still priced at $9.99, but this past month it’s gotten 3 sales, and the month before that about the same.
Perhaps it’s the fact that summer is coming up, perhaps it’s that I’ve got a lot of other, cheaper ESL books on the market.
But it’s not just that book I’m concerned about. Other books continue to not sell, and so there’s a couple things I can do about that:
- Lower Prices: Most people will automatically do this when their eBook sales fall in the tank. It’s a sensible idea, but one I think is wrong. Hey, I got a ‘C’ in Microeconomics and a ‘D’ in Macro. But I ask you, if no one is buying my books now, how is this going to hurt me further?
- Do Nothing: Probably the most common thing for authors to do when eBook sales get into a slump is to do nothing. It’s the easiest and requires the least amount of effort, and if you’re an American, this is what you look for everyday. Well, you could argue I’ve been doing nothing since the last time I raised prices. That’ll change pretty soon.
- Raise Prices: The third and final thing you can do when your eBook sales slow or stop is to raise prices. And like I said earlier, what have you got to lose? If there are no sales already, how is that downward slide in the rankings going to slow or stop? It’s not, so raising your price is not going to hurt you in the least.
But you could scare off other, potential customers. Pal, please take your head out of your ass.
Why weren’t they buying the book before, when it was $0.99? How about when it was free? So if they weren’t buying it at rock bottom prices, why are they going to buy it when it’s higher?
Because now they think it’s worth something. Before they thought it was shit.
If they even saw it at all. That’s right, a price change will do little for your visibility. But it could make you feel better when you do finally get that sale.
So if you like my writing, please support my efforts and buy a book. I’ve already raised all the prices at Smashwords, and now I’m just waiting another week for the Apple and Barnes & Noble distribution channels to pick up the change.
Actually, I’m not waiting. I emailed Smashwords after changing the prices and asked them to nudge the process along. They did so, and prices on the other retailers changed quickly. Amazon picked up all the changes yesterday so now everything’s more expensive.
Will that hurt me? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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