Friday, April 01, 2016

New JA Konrath Preorder

In my last post, I told you I'm experimenting with ebook pricing.

My results have been surprising, to say the least.

If you've been a long time follower of this blog, you know that way back in 2009 I advocated for $0.99 ebooks.

Years passed, and I pushed prices up to $2.99, then $3.99, and my current Jack Daniels novel, RUM RUNNER, has been performing well at $4.99.

Just to see if it made any difference, I listed the tenth JD thriller, LAST CALL, at $5.99.

And people really love the higher prices. To the tune of 10x as many sales every time I go up a dollar.

Crazy, right? I know it sounds counter intuitive, but data doesn't lie. Who would have thought that fans actually want to pay more money?

Well, actually, the Big 5 have been saying that for years. And as much as I hate to admit it, I think they're right. I've been devaluing my titles. 

With this in mind, I quickly put my coming-soon eleventh Jack Daniels thriller up on Amazon for pre-order.

Keep in mind that this isn't the final cover. I just slapped this together to get some of that primo pre-order cha-ching. 


I'll probably change the colors a little before it goes live. And maybe use a font other than Comic Sans.

But, at this point, it isn't about professionalism. This is a money grab, pure and simple. Which is why the ebook version of SCREAMING ORGASM will be priced at $39.99.

Pre-order now! And be sure to follow my example. Every writer reading this needs to price their ebooks between thirty and fifty dollars each. You fans will thank you for it.

Trust me. I'm a trendsetting pioneer with this self-pub shit. 

27 comments:

R.E. McDermott said...

Good One! You had me right up to $39.95. ROFL!

Tracy Sharp - Author of the Leah Ryan Series said...

Can't stop laughing!

Anonymous said...

this is absolutely ridiculous...

you admit that the big 5 have had their pricing right all along and that the higher price is bringing in 10x sales

but a price rise to $39 is way too far...the big 5 never price that high....add to the fact that your cover looks rushed and unprofessional, this is not a great move

I am disappointed, but will be awaiting the results of your price challenge

Gretchen Rix said...

Happy April Fool's Day! Good one.

Ann Voss Peterson said...

I'm sure Carl feels threatened by your cover design prowess.

JA Konrath said...

but a price rise to $39 is way too far

$39.99. Remember the last 99 cents--that's another 68 cents in my pocket.

Also, in case I didn't mention this, SCREAMING ORGASM will be 3000 pages long, so I make that KENP cash. The majority of that word count will be passages from Harlan Ellison books. He seems like a good sport, and I doubt he'll mind.

Scott Gordon said...

Sounds like a winner to me!

Andrea said...

Ha ha ha! Loving this.

AC Cooper said...

LOL...good one!

Suzan Harden said...

Happy April Fool's Day to you as well, Joe. (Though I really think Melinda Duchamp should take a stab as the guest writer for Screaming Orgasm. :-) )

T. M. Bilderback said...

Great one, Joe! I'm still chuckling!

Gary Ponzo said...

I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who've spent much more that $39 bucks for a Screaming Orgasm.

Anonymous said...

a 3000 page book, using other peoples work!

you need to read up on copyright law, and also factor in the amazon will clamp down on producing long books just to raise their page count

Toby Neighbors said...

You had me going right up to the end. I discovered R. A. Salvadore's latest books are priced at $26.99 for Kindle recently, so I'd love to hear you're take on that. Great post!

Guy Anthony De Marco said...

It's so obvious, I don't know why you haven't tried this before. I'm going to make an ebook of all of the Jack Daniels novels combined into one, then sort all of the words alphabetically in 36-point Comic Sans font. I'll call it "Guzzling Moonshine: Jack Daniels and the Case of the Mixed-Up Novels".

Julie Kramer said...

I know that your pattern is to write an April Fool's blog every year...so I wasn't fooled.

Jacklyn Cornwell said...

And here I was about to tell you that people were buying the books because you were writing good books. Silly me.

Tee Lew said...

I don't know what's funnier...the price or the title. Classic! This is HILARIOUS!

Louis Shalako said...

I'm going to up the prices, selected titles on selected platforms and see what happens.

And no, I'm not joking.

Mackay Bell said...

Okay, that's my project for next year. I'm going to steal your cover, 3000 pages of Harlan Ellison and actually put it up for sale for $39.99. It will be interesting to see if anyone buys it.

Ray said...

Oh no, I only just saw this, I hope I'm not too late. Are the pre-orders sold out yet? Please don't let them be sold out. I really want to read this book. Oh God I'm so excited just thinking about it I'm gonna have a screaming orgasm of my own.
Please, take my money. Take it now! NOWWW!!

...

Ummm, maybe I'll order it later. I've just got to, ahh, go freshen up...

BRYAN HIGBY said...

You had me until you agreed with the big 5.

Unknown said...

Luv it. Another great Apr 1st blog. Thanks, Joe. The "Anonymous" commentator supplied typical "erudite" comments supporting Big 5 "brilliance" on ebook marketing and pricing and that you finally succumb to their "wisdom". ROFLMAO!

Konsgaard said...

Who really pays attention to the post dates??? I certainly don't! Well, I will from now... Anyway, I'm new here, absolutely great blog with a wealth of information! Well done!

Young-Libby said...

LMAO. Well played, sir. Extremely well played.

Kathryn Meyer Griffith said...

Joe,
yes, I sure hope that wasn't your final cover...you misspelled your name, ha, ha. Otherwise, a great first draft!

Fox Emerson said...

Brilliant advice. I've decided to see if I can $49.99 for my book Toby which is currently on preorder. I'll let you know how that goes :P

Also laughed when I clicked the link (because I was actually curious to see how much you did post it on for) and was confronted with Rick Astley. Thanks for the laugh!