I finally got the major edits done on Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse. Yay! Now I’m sending it off for more proofreading, and after that, I’ll give it another glance. Then I’m going to release it. I’m not going to worry and fret about it. One of the things I’m going to make sure of is that in the description it will be clear that it’s a novella. I’ve had complaints about some of my novellas being too short. I guess the reader thought they were buying a novel. I can’t believe people complain about something being short when it’s only 99 cents! Grrrr. This is going to be the first in a three part series, so it stands alone in that the major conflict is settled. But it does leave things hanging just a little at the end so that the two main characters can continue their relationship, which has it’s own conflicts.
Here’s a dilemma I have. I’ve toyed with releasing this novella at 1.99 instead of .99. All of my backlist is .99. I think all of those stories have hit their peak, so I think I’m going to leave the prices as they are. But I was thinking about releasing the first in this series at 1.99, then when I release the second one at 1.99, lowering this one to .99. Any thoughts?
lauralynnelliott.com 
Ok, I just realized I used the word “it’s” instead of “its”. LOL. I HATE when I don’t proofread properly.
1.99 is hardly expensive – your work is worth it I’d say go for 1.99 leave the back numbers at .99 – best of luck
Thanks for the advice, Alberta. I think I might just go for it.
Wow, I can’t believe anyone would complain about that, 99 cents is nothing.
The novella release sounds exciting, you must be excited getting this close. Why not give 1.99 a try, and if it doesn’t work you can always drop it to 99 cents at a later date!
I think I will give 1.99 a try. I’ve always kept my books at .99 just so people could afford to buy several books at once. But I don’t feel like 1.99 is too much, either. Lots of ebooks are much more. I don’t want to go above 1.99 since it’s a novella, but I might release my next novel at 2.99. Thanks for the input.
If you are getting complaints of a novella being too short at the .99 cent price, it seems a stretch to price another novella at $1.99. I think you will see sales go down, but the increased royalty might make up for that. I too have been getting reviews that say my novellas are too short. (I have to chuckle though, when someone also says that it had an ‘unrelenting pace’–apparently, that means that they liked it so much that they wished there was more.) My first novella in my series was a quick read around 20K. I nearly doubled the length for the next book, and got even more complaints about length. A paperback novel sittling beside me that’s probably around 75K at best has a list price of $7.99 . So, in reality, e-readers are getting a bargain when they think they’ve been ripped off. A couple days ago, I looked up the definition of “short story”, “novelette”, “novella”, and “novel” on Wikipedia. Apparently, opinions differ. But your works and mine definitely seem to fall in the novella category based on length. I think stating the word count up front and that it’s a “novella” might help.
Hi Michelle. I’m definitely going to state up front that it’s a novella. On the surface, it looks like I shouldn’t price at 1.99 if there were complaints at .99. On the other hand, Zoe Winters found that there is a different mentality among many (not all) people that troll for .99 books. She raised her prices by a lot (more than I’ll ever charge), and she’s making more money and getting less complaints from readers. She came to the conclusion that .99 readers and 3.99/4.99 readers are completely different types of people. I have to admit, I used to troll for .99 books a lot, and still do often. That’s because I want to find new authors and try them out. But I still buy books that cost more than that if I read the sample and really like it or if I know the author’s works. I never buy ebooks that are more than $5.00 though. When they start costing as much as a paperback, I have an issue with that. They are less costly to produce, so they shouldn’t cost as much. This is all my opinion, of course. I don’t think I’ll ever charge more than 2.99 for any ebook I publish (unless the market changes in some way). I want people to be able to afford my work. And I would rather have 2000 readers at .99 than 1000 readers at 1.99. But I would RATHER have 2000 readers at 1.99. LOL. You see what I’m trying to say?
Try the 1.99!! You can always lower it if you find that it’s not working out. I think because things are changing so rapidly, it’s almost as if we are responsible for educated the purchaser of what is an acceptable price. If everything is .99, then they will always expect that. I would pay 2 bucks for a novella any day!! The title already has me interested, so can’t wait to check it out 🙂
Thanks Lauren! I appreciate your comments. You’ve definitely helped me lean toward the 1.99.
Wow, what an intriguing dilemma…I’m not familiar with pricing my own work, since I used a publisher that did that for me. I know that everything is different with e-books, though, and there are sites to format and enter your own work. I have to find out more.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Hi Laurel. I already have six books (three novels and three novellas) on Amazon, B & N, Smashwords, Apple, and more. There was a learning curve, but I actually enjoy the publishing process, including the formatting. As I’ve said before…I’m kind of a geek. LOL. I’m working on a print version of a book for a friend of mine and will be doing print versions of some of my books. I like the business end of things almost as much as the creative part. :0)
Yes…I see what you mean. It does make sense that a reader that is really into the concept of your story after reading an excerpt and/or downloading a sample will pay a higher price and be less critical than a trolling .99 buyer that criticizes the story, because it just wasn’t their cup of tea or they expected War and Peace for their buck. I hope Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse does well 🙂
Thanks Michelle. I hope it does well, too. Guardian Vampire (and the other books to a lesser extent) has allowed me to buy some things and go on a vacation. But I need to make money off of new stuff so I can have a vacation next year, too. LOL
Good luck with the next Eaters. I can’t wait to read it when it’s done.
I haven’t made much money yet, but it sure was nice to have some extra spending money on my recent vacation. Even earning a few dollars makes me feel like Sally Fields accepting the Oscar.”You like me; you really like me!” It gives me motivation to keep writing, knowing that I’m entertaining myself as well as my readers. The money is almost a bonus!
I don’t know much about self-publishing, but I say give the $1.99 price a try! You can always lower it to $.99 if you need to, and, as others have said, perhaps raising the price will cull out some of the complainers you’ve encountered.
Also, congratulations on finishing those edits! 😀
Thanks Claire! I really think I’m going to go with 1.99 on this one.
Gosh, really? People complain at .99$?? Is there that much difference between 1.99 and .99? If I was all set to buy a book 1$ wouldn’t matter to me!
It’s really crazy, isn’t it Deniz? People complaining because a .99 novella is too short. And yet they don’t consider what a bargain they’re getting when my novels are .99, even though they are longer. That’s one of the reasons Zoe Winters priced her work higher. And she actually did get rid of most of the complainers. I wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t happened to her.