Creative Pricing of Kindle eBook

[Calamaroo]

Since the pricing of a book is usually part of copywriting, I've decided to post this here.

I will have an eBook on amazon about Las Vegas gambling coming out in August. It's a short 21 page ebook that teach people how to win at a certain kind of game.

I've chosen to price it somewhere between 4.99 and 7.99.

What's a good "psychological price" within this range that would maximize impulse purchase?

Btw, is 7.77 a good price?

[Stephen Dean]

7.77 could be a good gimmick price. It might increase attention and help rationalize a purchase.

But other than that, it's hard to say without testing. Can you test prices when you list with Amazon?

And my hunch: 5 is a good digit, you might try $5 even.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

[Calamaroo]

Originally Posted by Stephen Dean

And my hunch: 5 is a good digit, you might try $5 even.

Impulse price?

[Stephen Dean]

The copywriting software Glyphius ranked the number "5" really well. You can take that for what it's worth - some people would say it means a lot, some would not. I like the methodology behind the software, so I like the result.

Plus nice small round numbers can do well. Think Red Box, it's $1, not $0.99. I think adding decimals can sometimes make the number seem bigger than it really is.

For example, "$5" is two characters. "$4.99" is five characters. So it may not be the best place to break down the price a penny.

Contrast that with $99 (three characters) vs $100 (four characters) and maybe $99 would seem smaller than it really is.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

[Moccinter]

You should have some type of "slot machine" function on the site that determines a random price for each customer! Put in your credit card number and pull the lever! Should work great for customers interested in gambling!

[max5ty]

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

Since the pricing of a book is usually part of copywriting, I've decided to post this here.

I will have an eBook on amazon about Las Vegas gambling coming out in August. It's a short 21 page ebook that teach people how to win at a certain kind of game.

I've chosen to price it somewhere between 4.99 and 7.99.

What's a good "psychological price" within this range that would maximize impulse purchase?

Btw, is 7.77 a good price?

About 27 years ago, Life Magazine had one of the best ever subscription drives by offering subscriptions for $7.77. The power of using "7" has been talked about a lot since then.

The Wall Street Journal spent hundreds of thousands of dollars studying numbers in prices, and found that prices ending in 7 always prompted more buys than any other number.

Ted Nicholas also talked about it in one of his interviews in 02', saying that after a lot of testing, he also found "7" to be the winning number to use.

As far as the price for your ebook, you say it tells the reader how to win at a certain game-

- that info would be exciting to any gambler. I think if you pitched it right you should be able to charge a lot more, I'd say at LEAST $17.77, and possibly $27.77.

A buyer that would spend $7.77 to learn the powerful secrets you're going to share with them, would not hesitate to spend another 10 or 20 dollars if they thought they were going to learn something really worthwhile - especially since your pitch has them already planning on ways to spend their new winnings.

I just visited amazon and went to the books - the first kindle book there was called "Go The F##k To Sleep", a childrens book. I'm not making that up.

It seems as though you really need to focus on the title, and make the title a real attention getter.

Now all you have to do is believe in yourself and your product, give it a stop them in their tracks sales pitch, and you're on your way to a good payday.

I think you've got a good idea there.

Best wishes.

[Stephen Dean]

Originally Posted by max5ty

About 27 years ago, Life Magazine had one of the best ever subscription drives by offering subscriptions for $7.77. The power of using "7" has been talked about a lot since then.

The Wall Street Journal spent hundreds of thousands of dollars studying numbers in prices, and found that prices ending in 7 always prompted more buys than any other number.

Ted Nicholas also talked about it in one of his interviews in 02', saying that after a lot of testing, he also found "7" to be the winning number to use.

The thing is, and as Ken Caudill likes to point out, past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

If a market is saturated with one technique, it may become less effective. And that certainly could have happened to the number 7 in prices, as it's very popular to use them now.

Glyphius hated 7's, and it's data came from 2006-2008, so I tend to work with 5's. That trend could have reversed or maybe it wasn't an accurate reading of the results to begin with. So again, take that for what it's worth.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

[Cam Connor]

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

Since the pricing of a book is usually part of copywriting, I've decided to post this here.

I will have an eBook on amazon about Las Vegas gambling coming out in August. It's a short 21 page ebook that teach people how to win at a certain kind of game.

I've chosen to price it somewhere between 4.99 and 7.99.

What's a good "psychological price" within this range that would maximize impulse purchase?

Btw, is 7.77 a good price?

I don't know exactly what the "rules" are for pricing an eBook on amazon, but I would suggest, if you feel your book is truly of value and keep help people to win a ton of money, to price it higher and take advantage of the "perceived value" aspect of pricing psychology.

Hope that helps.

[Calamaroo]

Originally Posted by Cam Connor

I don't know exactly what the "rules" are for pricing an eBook on amazon, but I would suggest, if you feel your book is truly of value and keep help people to win a ton of money, to price it higher and take advantage of the "perceived value" aspect of pricing psychology.

Hope that helps.

Amazon Kindle has very funny pricing rules.

If you price your ebook between 2.99 and 9.99, they pay you 70% royalty. Anything below or above this range, you get 30% or 35%.

In other words, you make more selling something for 9.99 than you would selling it for 19.50.

It's almost like they're motivating you to price within that price range.

[Calamaroo]

Originally Posted by Moccinter

You should have some type of "slot machine" function on the site that determines a random price for each customer! Put in your credit card number and pull the lever! Should work great for customers interested in gambling!

I wonder if there are Filipino and Indian programmers that can create this function.

[max5ty]

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

Amazon Kindle has very funny pricing rules.

If you price your ebook between 2.99 and 9.99, they pay you 70% royalty. Anything below or above this range, you get 30% or 35%.

In other words, you make more selling something for 9.99 than you would selling it for 19.50.

It's almost like they're motivating you to price within that price range.

That's some crazy stuff there - did not know that, thanks for the info.

Guess in order to make any money, a whole lot of people would have to see your offer.

[Cam Connor]

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

Amazon Kindle has very funny pricing rules.

If you price your ebook between 2.99 and 9.99, they pay you 70% royalty. Anything below or above this range, you get 30% or 35%.

In other words, you make more selling something for 9.99 than you would selling it for 19.50.

It's almost like they're motivating you to price within that price range.

Then I would charge $9.00 even, giving it an even price point sends off the vibe that it's a "luxury" item, rather than just "a good deal"

[amo992]

I suggest you do some testing. I'd approach it simply economically.

Make a demand curve and try to find a spot where you get the most money, but be sure to take into account the psychological principles that were covered quite well by the above posters.

[Len Bailey]

Here's a trick you may want to try: Pick a price that ends in "7." I've seen it pull better results on many occasions.

As Makepeace once said...

"Seven also has amazing power even if it’s not the first number in a string of numbers – mostly because it feels random.

If I told you my price was $29.99, you’d automatically assume I’m using the old retailer’s dodge on you – setting my price at just under $30 to make it seem low but still wringing every last penny I can out of you.

But if my price is $27.77 … or $27.97 … or even $29.77 – you might think, “Wow. This guy really sharpened his pencil to give me the best deal he could!”

Hope this helps!

Len

[gfMedia]

Originally Posted by Calamaroo

Amazon Kindle has very funny pricing rules.

If you price your ebook between 2.99 and 9.99, they pay you 70% royalty. Anything below or above this range, you get 30% or 35%.

In other words, you make more selling something for 9.99 than you would selling it for 19.50.

It's almost like they're motivating you to price within that price range.

Yes, this is so true.

That's why you'll see lot's of books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 then $20 and over. There will be a gap in pricing between $10.00 and $19.99 because of this royalty "disadvantage".

If anyone is interested, here is the Excel formula to use to see this at work:

=LOOKUP(B1,{0,0.99,2.99,10,200},{0,0.35,0.7,0.35,0.35})

Make sure to enter the price in cell B1 and paste this formula in C1.

And then paste

=B1*C1

into D1 That will give you a good way to determine the royalty for your Kindle book.

Hope that helps.

[txconx]

I agree with tying the price to something that has meaning in the game you've chosen.

Blackjack is my game and I'd definitely perk up if the book was priced at $7.77 or $6.78. $7.77 would work for slots, as well. Don't ask me about poker - it confuses me.