Pricing #2

It’s time for the early report on the price increase I made last week for Next Time. If you’ll recall, I upped the price from $1.99 USD to $2.99, a move that I explained in that post a week or so ago. It’s been interesting to watch. As I’ve described before, you don’t get to see how many books you’re selling on Amazon. Instead, you get a ranking that compares to all the other books they’re selling. I changed the price last Monday, which looked to take effect on Tuesday, and the general trendline was down until it bottomed out Thursday to about the lowest level it’s been at in the last several months. However, on Friday the ranking spiked to its highest level in that same time period and has stayed at that general ranking, give or take a few thousand. Which is good, right? Yes, it is. What lesson am I supposed to take from this? First, that it’s too early to draw a conclusion. One week is a small sample size, so let’s give it some time and see how the sales pan out over a longer time period. Second, we’re still in the summer months here in the US. I don’t know if the “summer slump” is still a thing, but eBook versions of my books have remained consistent and actually gone up during the hot part of the year. Will that change when cooler weather rolls in? We’ll see. And finally, does price matter that much? Again, it’s too early to draw a conclusion and initial feedback is mixed. I’ll post again on the topic after more time and the accumulation of a bigger sample size.