Put Your Pride to the Side & Make Money

Source: Pixgood.com

Upon introducing some book promotion websites, I ran across some people who completely disagree with taking your book down to .99 cents.

They said they worked too hard to accept .99 cents for their hard work.
I understand how they feel because I worked 3 long and hard years on 1 book that is now currently on sale for .99 cents. When I first wrote my book, I thought the value people would get from it was worth well over $50. After spending time and research on all available options prior to publishing, I said, well, I guess I will settle for $9. As time went on and I didn't sell a whole lot of books for $9, I decided to drop the price to $4.99, and so on until I began running sales at the .99 cent mark. Wow, I thought my book was worth way more than that. And you know what? It is! But what’s going to make it sell more? What is going to make my book go up in ranks? What is going to make me more money?

I think all authors feel that their work is worth way more than that; we have to look at a few things here:

The digital world has changed how people consume things. When you are an independent, unknown author with no platform, sometimes it's important to discount your book, run a promotion, or even give your work away if you want to become more known and sought after. I’ve even seen well known authors give away some of their work for free or sell it at 99 cents.
With the world we live in today and the advancement of technology, people find deals like this all the time. Music, movies and books are all being pirated and there is virtually little that can be done about it. Most music artists give their music away for free, because that’s how the game is working now— The game has changed…



With all that being said, we have a few of choices:

1. We can stamp our feet and throw a tantrum that other authors are underselling us and demand that they take a stand and not take less for their work.

2. We can sit around and wait for a publisher to magically pick up our work.

3. We can keep our book at the higher price and never run promotions on them and never reach the mass market.

4. We can roll with the tides and ride the wave before the boat sails off without us.

 Those people who bought my book for .99 cents, do you think they would have paid $9.99 for it? People who buy .99 cent books are looking for bargains. If your book wasn’t a bargain, they would have never bought it.

When someone reads your book, even if they buy it for 99 cents or get it for free, you are planting a seed. If someone likes your book, they will tell other people, as other people hear about it, they will seek it out, if it’s that good.

If you think your book is worth more than 99 cents, dare to run a promotion and price it at 99 cents and see how fast the seeds grow. If your work is that good, your sales will continue to grow, and eventually, you can afford to raise the price.

The bottom line is that being unique and different is all great, fine and dandy, but.... if we go too much against the grain, we will be the only one standing- without and alone. If you want to win, you've got to play the game. If you want to stay in the game, you have to play by the ("unwritten") rules. If you don't want to play by the rules, well, that's probably going to be a good way to lose.
 Unfortunately, that's life. Society has undergone changes like this since the beginning of time, just in different forms.

It's ok to feel how you feel, but there ultimately comes a time when you have to get over your feelings, suck it up, and play the game all the way to the end. Otherwise- Game Over.

Put Your Pride to the Side, Play The Game, and Make Money.