# Novelettes - Genre and Prices, opinions?



## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

I was reading MariaB's thread about following DWS's method of writing short stories for fun and profit, and I decided to run a creative experiment along similar lines this summer. Her version of the method really sparked me because novelettes are kind of my thing. (They spark the screenwriting part of my brain because they are about the length of a one-hour TV show.)

So I'm looking at writing a bunch of novelettes (8k-18k words, or 30-70 manuscript pages) under a pen name, and pricing them at $2.99. It's a higher price than I use with my regular work, but it's worked for others, and I thought it might be a fun "proof of concept" experiment to try.

My question is about genre:

It sounds like the people having the most success at this price are erotica writers. This makes some sense because, in most genres, a short story or novelette is a pretty straight forward one-idea story. In erotica, you basically have to have a mini-climax (no pun intended, well okay, take the pun) every few pages, and so the story has the multiple payoff of a longer story. (Also, people pay more for... well, you know.)

But I also hear people sometimes say "erotica and _romance_." I'd kinda like to write romantic suspense and romantic comedy. And frankly I'd probably enjoy writing some hard-boiled crime at this length too. (Possibly other genres, but those are the ones that my imagination runs to at that length.) Any of these, of course, could have enough sex in them to qualify as erotic versions of their genres, but I'd like to know how much leeway I have before I start running into resistance.

Has anybody here been selling $2.99 novelettes that aren't erotic? What genres have you had luck with?

Camille


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I've been having some luck with historical romance novelettes. Pirates and harem girls do best for me, a Napoleonic war tale not so well. 

I also have a series of pulp style thriller novelettes and another of 1960s set spy fiction novelettes, but neither does particularly well. I seem to be the only indie writer in existence who does better with standalones than with series.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Well, Pirates and Harem Girls, even when G-rated, do have that naughty subtext that might have the same appeal as erotica.  And for that matter, so do so many other historical contexts.  (Men can be beasts and women can be helpless without it being their own fault, after all -- it's their upbringing that's to blame....)

Camille


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

Adventure fantasy. All my GPC titles are 13-16k words and are at 2.99. They were selling better when I was releasing them regularly, but they still sell (especially in audio, weirdly) enough to make it worth doing more of them.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

daringnovelist said:


> Well, Pirates and Harem Girls, even when G-rated, do have that naughty subtext that might have the same appeal as erotica. And for that matter, so do so many other historical contexts. (Men can be beasts and women can be helpless without it being their own fault, after all -- it's their upbringing that's to blame....)
> 
> Camille


Well, my harem girls actually kick butt, but the novelette does seem to appeal to erotica readers, going by the also-boughts.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

CoraBuhlert said:


> Well, my harem girls actually kick butt, but the novelette does seem to appeal to erotica readers, going by the also-boughts.


Yeah, well, women who should be helpless who kick-putt are also have the "naughty" vibe. (Like women pirates.)


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## Scott Pixello (May 4, 2013)

My next release is going to be a novella/novelette (look up left for the draft cover). It's a stand-alone YA comedy, probably slightly more A than Y about a bunch of lunatics on a lighthouse in 1983. I'll probably price it around $2.99.
No series, no conventional genre, short = commercial suicide ? Maybe- we shall see.


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## Jason Eric Pryor (Jan 30, 2013)

This thread is very encouraging to me. I'm about a month away from releasing my first book. It's a novella (right around 20,000 words) and the first book in a 5-book series. The genre is sci-fi. I was planning on releasing it at $2.99, but I wasn't sure. I thought maybe it was a little high. But seeing that you guys (I mean 'ya'll. I'm a southern boy) have had some success with the $2.99 price has made me feel a little more confident.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

My Flirts! collections are technically novelettes (8k-12k each story) but I call them short stories.  I sell the individual stories for .99 and five in a collection for 2.99.  Mine are closed door romances.

However, I do have a novella, 24k that I sell for 2.99 and raising the price from .99 to 2.99 didn't hurt sales. (also closed door romance.)  I've tried raising the Flirts! collections to 3.99, but sales always drop.  Maybe if I called them novelettes I could raise the price!  I wasn't even familiar with the term novelette when I first started writing these.


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## L K Jay (May 8, 2013)

I write ghost story novellas - I think that that length of story is ideal for that genre.  I've had a lot of sales for my story The Listening Post, so planning on writing a few more!


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## Septemberlynngray (Dec 25, 2011)

I write novelettes. I only charge 99 cents for them. It's been my experience that most people want a full length novel, or at least a novella if they're going to pay more than that.


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## Jason Eric Pryor (Jan 30, 2013)

What word count do you guys consider to be a novelette? Like I said, my book is right around 20,000 words and I consider it a novella. I write science fiction. According to the Science Fiction Writers of America, a novella is 17,500 - 39,999 words. A novel is 40,000 words and up. I've seen so many different opinions on word counts. Since I write sci-fi, I have just been using the SFWA standards.


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

I actually don't use the term novelette since I polled all of my friends who read a lot and none of them had a clue what that meant (they all mostly read SF/F too, sigh). I use short story, novella, and novel. So for me, under 8k is a short story, between 8k and 30k is a novella and over 30k I just call a novel. (Might call it a short novel if I ever publish something actually in the 30-39k range, but I have one at 40k and no reader has quibbled about it being a novel yet).


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

Lisa Scott said:


> My Flirts! collections are technically novelettes (8k-12k each story) but I call them short stories. I sell the individual stories for .99 and five in a collection for 2.99. Mine are closed door romances.
> 
> However, I do have a novella, 24k that I sell for 2.99 and raising the price from .99 to 2.99 didn't hurt sales. (also closed door romance.) I've tried raising the Flirts! collections to 3.99, but sales always drop. Maybe if I called them novelettes I could raise the price! I wasn't even familiar with the term novelette when I first started writing these.


A little off-topic here, but what is 'closed door romance?'


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## resonnahr (May 7, 2013)

RM Prioleau said:


> A little off-topic here, but what is 'closed door romance?'


Implied sex scenes; that doesn't describe any....sex.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

resonnahr said:


> Implied sex scenes; that doesn't describe any....sex.


Ah so 'fade to black' scenes, then?


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

In my experience, genre has a lot more influence on sales than price. At the moment, my bestselling title is a 2.99 novelette, my second and third bestselling titles are 99 cent short stories, my next bestselling title is 2.99 again and so on. What they all have in common is the genre - historical romance and historical adventure fiction.

I do have a novella length short story collection available for 3.99 which doesn't sell very well. But then, it's a genre - crime fiction - that doesn't sell very well for me at lower prices either.


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

C.C. Kelly said:


> I think longer novellas can go for $3.99, novels at $4.99 up to $6.99.
> 
> Short shorts live in the 99 cent world and longer shorts and novelettes can do well at $2.99, say 6000 to 7000 words and up.
> 
> ...


I agree with everything here. If your cover looks professional and eye-catching and your blurb/description is strong, I don't think price makes a huge difference.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

I agree with C.C. for publishing in general.  I would open up the pricing idea further -- different audiences have different price points, and the difference in what they like can be subtle. 

But here, I'm doing an experiment.  This isn't about my "real" writing, or my career -- the stuff that I write because I have to.  This is a side thing: One of my big goals is to test prevailing wisdom on things like price and genre and marketing and being a complete cold-blooded hack.  So I don't really want to do it blind.  I want to start with what we know or think we know.

I have a couple of personal goals with this, too, and one of those is to find a "sweet spot."  I write different genres at different speeds. What length and price and audience and genre is the most efficient to put my effort into when I'm feeling mercenary?  For that I'll just have to test the waters.

It is gratifying to see so much going on with novellas and novelettes.  (I always enjoyed reading mystery novellas, such as were written by Rex Stout.)  I am thinking that we are now in a world where everyone has experienced more stories from television and movies than they have from reading, but with the web, people have been returning to reading in general, and that newer audiences in particular might be especially interested in the mid-lengths.

Camille


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I mostly write in the novelette range.  My stories are generally fantasy, with brief dips into things like steampunk.

I dont normally sell them alone, but in collections of 2-3, and price the collection at $2.99


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

A. S. Warwick said:


> I mostly write in the novelette range. My stories are generally fantasy, with brief dips into things like steampunk.
> 
> I dont normally sell them alone, but in collections of 2-3, and price the collection at $2.99


I agree with CC in that this price seems really low. I would offer all of your stories as standalones to provide a base for the collection. If people see that the individual stories are all 1.99-2.99, they see it as a savings to pay 3.99-5.99 for a collection.

Basic marketing is all in how something appears to a customer. Do you really want a large soda compared to a medium? Not really. But it's only 10 cents more so why not? Every time someone says "why not?" is an upsale.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

daringnovelist said:


> I was reading MariaB's thread about following DWS's method of writing short stories for fun and profit, and I decided to run a creative experiment along similar lines this summer. Her version of the method really sparked me because novelettes are kind of my thing. (They spark the screenwriting part of my brain because they are about the length of a one-hour TV show.)
> 
> So I'm looking at writing a bunch of novelettes (8k-18k words, or 30-70 manuscript pages) under a pen name, and pricing them at $2.99. It's a higher price than I use with my regular work, but it's worked for others, and I thought it might be a fun "proof of concept" experiment to try.
> 
> ...


My historical romances have been doing fairly well. I have about 1-2 sex scenes per story so it's pretty tame, by no means erotica. All my novelettes are priced at 2.99.

When I first started my romance pen name I wrote a whole bunch of 99 cent short stories (3-5k each) of different genres to help test the waters. I put out a handful of western romances, "English" romances and Highlander romances. The historicals are the biggest sellers. I just finished a series and I'll definitely be doing a Highlander series next.


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## Clare K. R. Miller (Apr 6, 2011)

My newest ebook, _Golden Hearts_, is a novelette. I've priced it at $2.99, which I was a little nervous about, but I figured I could always change the price later--and 70% of $2.99 just looks so much more appealing than 35% of $1.99! Well, it's been out for a week now, with minimal promotion, and I've already sold more copies of it than of my 99 cent short story that's been out since December. I'm not at all talking huge numbers here, but it's enough to buy a few soy lattes, so I'm very pleased with the sales.

All of my stories are fantasy; _Golden Hearts_ is secondary-world fantasy with a love story, but does not qualify as a romance and definitely isn't erotica.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

"The Nymph and the Goblin" - novelette of about 11k words, $2.99. Dark fantasy, specifically a fairy tale slaughtering.

It's my only title under than penname, and it sells perhaps a few copies a month. The sequel is one of the items on my to-write list.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

BTW - one thing I've learned about myself since I started this thread; There is another issue about genre I hadn't thought of.

I can write some kinds of stories MUCH faster than I can others.  I've been writing complex mystery for so long, I forgot how much faster it is to write an adventure or romance. 

I'm finding that with romantic suspense, I need to plot it out more carefully to make the foreshadowing and clues work out -- and I have less room for just letting things go off on tangents.  I decided to move over to an erotic romance, and that has been going a lot faster. I can concentrate on the front story, and don't have to worry about how it matches up with the back story.  I can be more spontaneous.

That's an important factor for this experiment -- not just price and popularity, but also what I can most efficiently put my energy into.

Ultimately, a romantic suspense story, for me, would have to sell better than an erotic romance, to make the same amount of money for the effort.

Camille


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## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

The problem with pricing shorts and novelettes outside of the erotica genre above $0.99 is that you tend to get 1 starred to death for it. At least, that's been my experience with publishing romance shorts. As for a difference in sales, I make more money with less sales at $2.99. 

I currently have an experiment going with a paranormal romance trilogy I wrote (am still writing). The first serialized book has 6 parts. The first part is free. Each part sells for $2.99. For this month, all parts combined have sold 176 copies, which comes out to $364.32 in royalties. The first part has 72 reviews. 15 of those are 1 star, mostly from people complaining about having to pay $2.99 for subsequent parts. 

The second part of the trilogy I published as a novel, which I honestly feel like I lost money on by not serializing.

The third book, I am currently serializing. It's also going to have 6 parts. 5 parts are already published. All parts are at $0.99, though I'm currently try to price match the first part to free. For this month, all parts combined have sold 302 copies, which comes out to $109.20 in royalties. Currently, the first part has 2 reviews, one 5 star and one 3 star. I'm not worried about people complaining about the price. 

Do with this information what you will. Now that I'm looking at it, I'm really considering upping the price of the serials for the third book to $2.99 a piece. People might complain, but this is what I do for a living.


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

I was planning on pricing my novelette at $2.99. It ended up going all the way into novella-land, but I left it at $2.99 because I'd already announced the price to my readers. So far, it's selling okay. It came out at the beginning of the month and has sold a handful of copies across the board. I think it's because the cover design is perfect for the genre and $2.99 is that fabled sweet-spot. My genre is urban fantasy (zombies in a post-apocalyptic sort of high fantasy world).

I know another indie author whose novellas are $2.99 and she does extremely well for herself. She writes teen romance.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

MarlaB said:


> The problem with pricing shorts and novelettes outside of the erotica genre above $0.99 is that you tend to get 1 starred to death for it. At least, that's been my experience with publishing romance shorts. As for a difference in sales, I make more money with less sales at $2.99.


I've found that it just deters the bargin hunters. What happens is people are shopping through the "99 cent bin" looking for cheap novels. They buy your story without even looking at it and then complain about how short it is. 2.99 doesn't totally prevent that. But I've found that it's enough to make _most_ people at least glance over the entire product.

I still get the 1 stars but it's not "starred to death." And I see a pretty consistent pattern of people buying the first book in a series and then buying the rest the next day. That, to me, is better than a 5 star rating.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

This raises a question I was going to start another thread on, but I think it fits here. I write fairy stories, and have a collection of 4 of them (about 9000 words total) coming out soon.  I was thinking of initially pricing it at $2.99 and going into the KOLL, and when coming out of KDP Select dropping the price to $0.99.  Does this sound like a good strategy? I wanted to have the higher price while in the lending library, because I am not sure how many people will "waste" their one book a month borrow on a 0.99 book. (I know when I borrow  books, I tend to look at the higher priced ones)


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

beccaprice said:


> This raises a question I was going to start another thread on, but I think it fits here. I write fairy stories, and have a collection of 4 of them (about 9000 words total) coming out soon. I was thinking of initially pricing it at $2.99 and going into the KOLL, and when coming out of KDP Select dropping the price to $0.99. Does this sound like a good strategy? I wanted to have the higher price while in the lending library, because I am not sure how many people will "waste" their one book a month borrow on a 0.99 book. (I know when I borrow books, I tend to look at the higher priced ones)


After spending years now messing around with prices, I've now filed it under the "waste of time" category of self-publishing. I used to adjust prices constantly. Like every few months. I would obsess over number of copies sold at each price, what would people think, etc...

Write your story, publish it and move on. Keep it the same price. Do trad publishers change book prices ever 3 months? No. Because they're already working on publishing the next book.

Having a consistent output will make you way more money than price fluctuations. Because if that one person that bought your book at any price wants to buy another, they're out of luck. They've moved on to another author. If you had two books out you've already potentially doubled your income.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

beccaprice said:


> This raises a question I was going to start another thread on, but I think it fits here. I write fairy stories, and have a collection of 4 of them (about 9000 words total) coming out soon. I was thinking of initially pricing it at $2.99 and going into the KOLL, and when coming out of KDP Select dropping the price to $0.99. Does this sound like a good strategy? I wanted to have the higher price while in the lending library, because I am not sure how many people will "waste" their one book a month borrow on a 0.99 book. (I know when I borrow books, I tend to look at the higher priced ones)


I'd either charge $2.99 each or bundle two together for that price. If going the $2.99 each, I might try making the first one $0.99 as a loss leader.

If you're set on ultimately charging $0.99, I'd definitely separate them and maybe make the first one permafree.

My $0.99 short stories range from 2.4k to 4.1k words, and nobody's complained that they're too short yet.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I think it depends on genre. I don't know what genre you write in. It has seemed to me that people are willing to pay more for short erotica fiction, for example, than they might be for fairy stories, which was why I was bundling the 4 stories together. I have a fifth story in the works (plotted out, but not finished writing) that I was going to publish as it's own book separately.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

beccaprice said:


> I think it depends on genre. I don't know what genre you write in. It has seemed to me that people are willing to pay more for short erotica fiction, for example, than they might be for fairy stories, which was why I was bundling the 4 stories together. I have a fifth story in the works (plotted out, but not finished writing) that I was going to publish as it's own book separately.


I don't write erotica. 

My fairy story novelette (11k words, dark fantasy) is $2.99 and sells a few copies a month, when I tally up all the vendors-on a penname without any other titles or promo or anything. That's what I was pulling from when I gave my 2¢.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

C.C. Kelly said:


> I think longer novellas can go for $3.99, novels at $4.99 up to $6.99.
> 
> Short shorts live in the 99 cent world and longer shorts and novelettes can do well at $2.99, say 6000 to 7000 words and up.
> 
> ...


Yes!

I started experimenting with higher prices on my fantasy novels, pricing them at $4.99, and I've been selling at a slow, steady clip ever since. I really think 99 cents and even $2.99 for novels turn off a lot of readers who now equate those price points with "self-published". While there are loads of indie authors raising the bar, there are also loads that are still bringing it down.

I'm also considering writing some novelettes to add to my titles. I was initially considering 99 cents for those, but now I'm beginning to think $2.99 might be more appropriate.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

MarlaB said:


> The problem with pricing shorts and novelettes outside of the erotica genre above $0.99 is that you tend to get 1 starred to death for it.


That's part of the reason I'm doing this under pen names.

However, (and this is just feedback, not criticsm): I am a fan of serials, and with your serial, I suspect your issue isn't really price. First, a lot of people object to serials period, and though they focus on price, it doesn't matter what the price is. Plus, I admit, I'm one who would object to your serial exercise. It's one thing to pay a premium price for a complete (though short) story. To pay a premium price and have to pay yet more to finish it feels coercive. To attract me as a reader, a serial would have to be cheaper in parts to get me to buy.

It's counter intuitive - and works the opposite as a series does (where you pay more for individual books, less for a collection) - but since the story is incomplete, I want to pay a discount price for serial episode. I had to put up with waiting, after all.

And maybe that's why I don't tend to buy serial ebooks at all. I love series. I read serials online and in other publications. But when it comes to buying a serial, I'll buy it whole.

Again, this is just fyi. The question is whether the audience who enjoys that kind of distribution is big enough and you can find them. (Imho, ignore the audience that doesn't like you - they're not your audience. Consider them only to warn them away.)

Camille


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## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

daringnovelist said:


> That's part of the reason I'm doing this under pen names.
> 
> However, (and this is just feedback, not criticsm): I am a fan of serials, and with your serial, I suspect your issue isn't really price. First, a lot of people object to serials period, and though they focus on price, it doesn't matter what the price is. Plus, I admit, I'm one who would object to your serial exercise. It's one thing to pay a premium price for a complete (though short) story. To pay a premium price and have to pay yet more to finish it feels coercive. To attract me as a reader, a serial would have to be cheaper in parts to get me to buy.
> 
> ...


I do get emails from readers asking that I write full novels. I honestly don't think my writing style suits it that much though. Besides, most of the people on my mailing list know that I serialize, and if they want, they can wait til I'm finished to buy the completed work. Every once in a while, I'll send out an email telling them what to expect from me next, whether it be serials, full novels, new upcoming ideas I'm playing with, or price changes I'm thinking of making. I typically release a serial once a week, so the interval is short enough to keep people interested, kind of like waiting for the next episode of your favorite tv show. Since I've managed to collect a large number of people on my mailing list who appreciate serials, I never have problems with sales of them.

I actually did an experiment with the full novel versus serializing approach. As I mentioned above, I lost money by not serializing. I realize that some people think that serializing is greedy. Some even mention that in the 1 stars. But this is how I make my living, and I make a very good one doing it. Though I do enjoy writing more than anything else--would never want to do anything different with my life, at the end of the day, it's a business, and I typically do what will make me the most money. I've only recently started bundling my serials to make them more affordable for people who would prefer a completed work. And every holiday, I give away free books. It works to keep readers happy. From time to time, I experiment with different things, prices and what not, but for the most part, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Obviously, my model doesn't work for everyone. I know people who put out a novel every few months and make more money than I do. I know people who put out a novel every few months and only make a few dollars. I also know others who serialize that aren't doing very well. Your mileage may vary depending on the method you choose and the books you write. To each his/her own.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

MarlaB said:


> I actually did an experiment with the full novel versus serializing approach. As I mentioned above, I lost money by not serializing.


And that's where the rubber meets the road. The people who want you to do something different aren't your audience.

I think that can be one of the hardest lessons for writers to learn: it can be very hard to resist chasing the vocal audience rather than sticking to your vision or way of doing things and finding your own audience.

Camille


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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

I'll just bump this with my experience because I've just started a new serial of short novelettes. I just posted this info in another thread as well, but I was searching for pricing so... I think it belongs here as well.



I published(Nov. 22nd) my clean, romance novelette (10,500k) at the promotional price of $0.99 for a week, and then raised the price to $2.99(Nov 30th). In December, I've netted 668 units at $2.99.

I think that $0.99 boost over the first weekend--without telling anyone except my mailing list until the "official" Nov. 25th release--catapulted me up the ranks on the 30 day new releases list and the multicultural/AA/MC&IR bestseller charts. By the time I started charging $2.99, I had great reviews and the price was justified, I suppose.

I'm a fan of the "limited time" promotional price when a title is first released. I haven't had many complaints about the length vs. price, except the happy few who wished it was longer; they gave great reviews and (most, I'm sure)will definitely buy the next title.

I say if you can set your prices now when you first start--while building a fan base--you can justify charging more later(factors dependent of course). I don't have a huge fan base by any stretch of the imagination(my mailing list was less than 20 with me and my mom,  Grin), so I'm banking on people really enjoying my work because they'll stay with me with these prices.

I'm going to try to recreate the success of that title with the next one tomorrow. My mailing list is now over 30 and I hope to see a few more sales, at the start, from that list. I will also cut the promotional price days down from 8 to 4.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

So you did about a week at the promotional price.  (And you did it with a CLEAN romance!)

I've been thinking of using about 2 weeks to a month. (It takes a while right now for news to trickle through my fanbase - but now that I have a mailing list I hope that will work faster.)

Keep us up to date with this.  

Camille


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## Geoff North (Apr 2, 2011)

Great thread and very encouraging. I've been stressing over my Jan.1 release. It's book one of a three part series, each around 25K. I wanted to price them at $2.99 each, then make Book one permafree when all three are out with a bundle priced at $5.99. It's post-apocalyptic horror.


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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

daringnovelist said:


> So you did about a week at the promotional price. (And you did it with a CLEAN romance!)
> 
> I've been thinking of using about 2 weeks to a month. (It takes a while right now for news to trickle through my fanbase - but now that I have a mailing list I hope that will work faster.)
> 
> ...


Will do! I also plan to release the two titles as a holiday box set on Monday for $3.98. We'll see how it goes.


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## Debra Purdy Kong (Apr 1, 2009)

CoraBuhlert said:


> In my experience, genre has a lot more influence on sales than price. At the moment, my bestselling title is a 2.99 novelette, my second and third bestselling titles are 99 cent short stories, my next bestselling title is 2.99 again and so on. What they all have in common is the genre - historical romance and historical adventure fiction.
> 
> I do have a novella length short story collection available for 3.99 which doesn't sell very well. But then, it's a genre - crime fiction - that doesn't sell very well for me at lower prices either.


Thanks for this and for all the information I've read on this thread so far. I've been working on a humorous mystery novella, but I'm not sure if it will have a market. I write and publish full-length mysteries of about 70,000 words, but the one I'm working on (different protagonist) will be about 23,000 to 25,000 words. Maybe that should be my goal for 2014. To polish this piece and put it out there.

Glad to hear see that writers are working with novellas. I think this length deserves more attention and markets than it's received in the past. It's always been tough to find a magazine interested in this length.

Debra


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## Jan Thompson (May 25, 2013)

Doomed Muse said:
 

> I actually don't use the term novelette since I polled all of my friends who read a lot and none of them had a clue what that meant (they all mostly read SF/F too, sigh). I use short story, novella, and novel. So for me, under 8k is a short story, *between 8k and 30k is a novella* and *over 30k I just call a novel.* (Might call it a short novel if I ever publish something actually in the 30-39k range, but I have one at 40k and no reader has quibbled about it being a novel yet).


Aren't novellas usually 18K and up?

Novels are 40K and up?



daringnovelist said:


> So I'm looking at writing a bunch of novelettes (8k-18k words, or 30-70 manuscript pages) under a pen name, and pricing them at $2.99. It's a higher price than I use with my regular work, but it's worked for others, and I thought it might be a fun "proof of concept" experiment to try.


My short story was 8,000 words so now I'm thinking per your post it's called a novelette. BUT as I'm self-editing and revising my first draft, I'm adding new chapters, and I'm not done yet. I think it wants to be a novella when it grows up, so I'm heading that direction.

If 8K novelettes are priced at $2.99 each, what of 18K novellas?

TQ.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

JanThompson said:


> If 8K novelettes are priced at $2.99 each, what of 18K novellas?


I have a really hard time pricing anything under 14k at 2.99. (Got some other plans for those now -- more in a later post). But at the moment, I haven't got those pen name books done, and I'm still going with lower prices. Right now I'm pricing in this range: (NOTE: I massaged my breakdowns, and I can't quite remember where the break points are now.)

14-29k is at 2.99
30-55k at 3.99
56k+ at 4.99

But what I'm aiming at for the future would be:

8-20k - 2.99
20-40 - 3.99
40-60 - 4.99
60-80k - 5.99
80k+ - 6.99

With cheaper prices for the first month of release.

Camille


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

This thread is very enlightening and encouraging. 

Over the weekend, I will be writing the first three episodes of my new serial. I believe that it will fall under contemporary or commercial fiction. The story will be broken down into 10 episodes, five weeks then two week break then another five weeks. Each episode will be between 10K to 15K.

I'm a bit worried, though. The story follows four veterans as they adjust to life after war. There might be a flashback to a gun battle or a brief sex scene, but most of the time, the story focuses on how they interact with their friends, family, and co-workers. I'm hoping there is an audience.


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## Jan Thompson (May 25, 2013)

Moist_Tissue said:


> I'm a bit worried, though. The story follows four veterans as they adjust to life after war. There might be a flashback to a gun battle or a brief sex scene, but most of the time, the story focuses on how they interact with their friends, family, and co-workers. I'm hoping there is an audience.


There is always an audience!

I've seen lots of novels like you described of various lengths -- but not serials -- under the inspirational fiction categories and they can fall in many genres from contemporaries to romance to suspense. Sometimes it's PTSD or a disabled veteran, and the full length novels deal with their adjustments back to society, family, friends, and usually in the process, they solve a crime, find a new purpose in life (e.g. open a PI agency or get a new career), fix a problem, save a town/world, fall in love, etc.


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## Jan Thompson (May 25, 2013)

daringnovelist said:


> But what I'm aiming at for the future would be:
> 
> 8-20k - 2.99
> 20-40 - 3.99
> ...


Thanks, Camille! That seems to be the trend I am seeing on Amazon. KB is the only place (IMHO) where authors are still being very generous about pricing, but on Amazon, I'm seeing rising prices as more tradpub get into the mix and indies become more competitive... Sort of echoing what Mark Coker of Smashwords said earlier this year that prices are rising.

I'm seeing that (these are my unscientific observations only):

99c is the new FREE
$2.99 is the new 99c
$4.99 is the new $3.99
$6.99 is the new $4.99

But I might be wrong. I don't have any statistics. I've just been watching the market and getting some feeling about it. My feelings could be wrong LOL...

BTW, IIRC according to the DWS article, he priced his short stories (2K-10K) at $2.99 per eBook.


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## SBJones (Jun 13, 2011)

Back in the spring, I released the first six episodes of my new series.  8k-15k words each in length.  At 99c they sold a handfull of each every month.  Recently I released the next five episodes.  I upped the price on all of them to $2.99.  I figured at 6x the earnings, even if I sold less, I would make more.  After four weeks I had sold zero so I moved them back to 99c and uploaded a couple of four episode bundles at $2.99.  Within two days, I was back to selling individual episodes again as well as the bundles.

My conclusion is $2.99 probably can work if the short stories are not related.  I think what killed mine at the higher price is people seeing that there were so many and I was asking them to part with $33 just to get half of the series.


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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

SBJones said:


> I think what killed mine at the higher price is people seeing that there were so many and I was asking them to part with $33 just to get half of the series.


Have you considered leaving the first one at 99c and the next at 2.99? But I think you're on track with the bundles since readers see that as a savings.

I don't want to get stuck at a 99c price point, which is why I've raised all my prices right around the time my Thanksgiving romance was selling really well(no sticker shock if the readers are new to me as an author...I'm hoping readers will see that 99c is just temporary). Then again, different genre...


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## VMJaskiernia (Jan 7, 2014)

Bumping this to say thanks, and to add my own two pennies (plus see if anyone has any updates).

I'm finishing up my first novella/novelette, it should be about 15K when it's all wrapped up. I've been debating $1.99 or $2.99, and part of me was worried about being 1 star'ed for the price. It's a dark fantasy romance, non-erotic, and it's nice to see that $2.99 is becoming a somewhat acceptable price for that wordcount/genre.


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## Jason Eric Pryor (Jan 30, 2013)

VMJaskiernia said:


> Bumping this to say thanks, and to add my own two pennies (plus see if anyone has any updates).
> 
> I'm finishing up my first novella/novelette, it should be about 15K when it's all wrapped up. I've been debating $1.99 or $2.99, and part of me was worried about being 1 star'ed for the price. It's a dark fantasy romance, non-erotic, and it's nice to see that $2.99 is becoming a somewhat acceptable price for that wordcount/genre.


Personally, I wouldn't price at $1.99. Go with $2.99 or, if you want to go low, 99 cents. I watched an interview with the head of marketing with Kobo. He and the interviewer (an experienced self-publisher himself) both said that the $1.99 price point is the death switch. Who knows why. Maybe it's psychological or something. They did some investigating and, for whatever reason, books priced at $1.99 sold far less copies than books priced at $2.99 or 99 cents.

I personally haven't experienced this. I've never priced anything at $1.99. It's just food for thought.


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## C.A. Bryers (Dec 10, 2013)

Pricing is something I'm trying to figure out as I wait for my three books to get back from the editor. I have a two novel set (about 105K each) followed by an 18K novella. My suggested reading order will be to read the two novels, and then the novella, but I wrote the novella with the intention of it being perma-free...not sure how well that would work as my "funnel". Otherwise, I could to put Book One as perma-free (or .99 cents), while Book Two would be full price, maybe $2.99 or $3.99, since I'm, you know, an unknown.   Then, then novella would be .99 cents. Argh! Decisions!


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

I would do a pretty exhaustive study of what things that short (best-selling things) are selling for in romance before I priced that high. That is very high for romance. I price 100k romance novels at $3.99--now, because I can get it now. Look at where Bella Andre prices, and her novel length. 

I'm doing a novella as part of a boxed set of 6 (6 authors). It will be a promo thing, and a present to my readers who want that story. It will be 99 cents--for all 6. Like I said, promotional. An 11k story took me a week to think up and a week to write and edit, and I think it's a great marketing tool, so I'm all good with that. But if it were just my story, published alone, it'd still be 99 cents. 

Just offering another point of view to the one most folks here are expressing, for consideration. If you think you can get $2.99 as not a big name for something that short, that's great. But I've seen shorts by Rachel Gibson for $1.99, for example, that I think were longer than that, so I think that price is very iffy for romance. 

I did go into this wanting to get exposure more quickly rather than going slowly and building (given the choice). That's been my #1 objective--visibility. I do think lower pricing has helped. But to each her own.


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

C.C. Kelly said:


> I think longer novellas can go for $3.99, novels at $4.99 up to $6.99.
> 
> Short shorts live in the 99 cent world and longer shorts and novelettes can do well at $2.99, say 6000 to 7000 words and up.
> 
> ...


I agree unreservedly with every word of this post.

Many self-published writers don't look beyond the short-term at all.

*All* these things need to be said more often, equally clearly and by as many of us as possible.

And on a separate note: all the self-published people I know, writing in a variety of genres, who had novelettes and/or novellas priced at $2.99 and increased their prices to $3.99, sold more copies at $3.99 than they had at $2.99. Without commenting specifically on the other price-comments above, I do believe that $3.99 is (finally!) "the new $2.99", anyway.

(In case anyone wonders why I'm commenting about "all the self-published writers I know", in this thread, rather than giving my own experience, it's because my own digital books are a little longer, and are priced at $6.99 and $7.99).


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

zoe tate said:


> I agree unreservedly with every word of this post.
> 
> Many self-published writers don't look beyond the short-term at all.
> 
> ...


Again, I'll just say, not me. I started with three 90k books at $3.99 to send a quality signal. I published the fourth and lowered the price of the first to 99 cents. Six weeks after I started selling big (20k books/month), but then dropped some, I lowered the price to $2.99 on all but the first and saw a significant increase, specifically in conversion from #1 to #2--from 40% to 60%. (As before, almost everyone who bought #2 went on to buy 3-4). 
This pleased me because what I wanted most was visibility. I wanted people to read the books, after which it would have to be on the books--whether people liked them enough to recommend them.

After 5 months at $2.99, selling in the 12k-15k books/month area, I raised prices on all but #1 to $3.99 a month before the publication of a much-anticipated #6. Sales did take a significant dip, but rallied strongly and steadied after #6 and a free promo on #2. I continue to sell very well, at the 15-22k book/month rate, at $3.99 now.

Offered as one person's "how I hit big" experience. YMMV, of course, and if you can do it with shorts at $2.99, that's great. It may depend on subgenre too. If you write NA or billionaires or erotic romance, those things may command a higher price. I mainly studied what indies who sold well with books like mine were doing.

As far as the short-term vs. long-term: I have different goals for each. Short-term (first couple years): it's all about visibility, exposure. Longer-term: it will be more about maintenance, about continuing to put books out and, hopefully, maintaining my existing readership as well as adding new readers. Once I have achieved visibility and real name recognition (if that happens, of course), I would hope that at some point, I'd be charging $4.99/book. Given current prices in my genre (and the fact that Montlake also prices its full-length novels there), that's as high as I'd go.


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## von19 (Feb 20, 2013)

Rosalind James said:


> Again, I'll just say, not me. I started with three 90k books at $3.99 to send a quality signal. I published the fourth and lowered the price of the first to 99 cents. Six weeks after I started selling big (20k books/month), but then dropped some, I lowered the price to $2.99 on all but the first and saw a significant increase, specifically in conversion from #1 to #2--from 40% to 60%. (As before, almost everyone who bought #2 went on to buy 3-4).
> This pleased me because what I wanted most was visibility. I wanted people to read the books, after which it would have to be on the books--whether people liked them enough to recommend them.


Whoa whoa whoa! You were selling 20k books a month?! Thats insane. Your my new hero Rosa. Please teach me how to do the same >_<

Sent from my SM-T210R using Tapatalk


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## LeeBee (Feb 19, 2014)

von19 said:


> Whoa whoa whoa! You were selling 20k books a month?! Thats insane. Your my new hero Rosa. Please teach me how to do the same >_<


I think she was indicating word counts of the books, not the sales figures.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

LeeBee said:


> I think she was indicating word counts of the books, not the sales figures.


No, those are the sales figures.
(See what I mean about name recognition? Believe me, nobody's heard of me. When they have, the $4.99 thing will start looking a lot more like an option.)

Wouldn't really have a clue how to teach anyone else to sell that many, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out why I am. But as I said, I do think one factor was my pricing and promotional strategy.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

Jason Eric Pryor said:


> They did some investigating and, for whatever reason, books priced at $1.99 sold far less copies than books priced at $2.99 or 99 cents.


And, as I've pointed out many times before, correlation is not causation.

My best-seller is a short story at $1.99. Most ebooks at $1.99 will be short stories, because there's really no reason to publish a novel at that price. Short stories generally sell less than novels. So, by simple logic, most ebooks at $1.99 will sell worse than the average ebook at $2.99 or $0.99... _but that doesn't mean the ebook at $1.99 would sell better at either of those price points_.

However, for a novelette, I'd go straight to $2.99 anyway. At least in SF.


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

Rosalind James said:


> Wouldn't really have a clue how to teach anyone else to sell that many, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out why I am. But as I said, I do think one factor was my pricing and promotional strategy.


I strongly suspect that it's because you were talented to start with and are now extremely good at what you do after a lot of practice, and I'm sure you work hard at it, too. And that's all quite apart from your professional marketing background predicating that your impressive output is of very high quality, very professionally published and successfully marketed (including your highly suitable and well coordinated book-covers), with many techniques that probably come comparatively easily and perhaps even almost automatically to someone with your experience, intelligence and professionalism, but would doubtless be a _real_ learning-curve to many others. Not that I've been trying to study and learn from your success at all, of course.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

zoe tate said:


> I strongly suspect that it's because you were talented to start with and are now extremely good at what you do after a lot of practice, and I'm sure you work hard at it, too. And that's all quite apart from your professional marketing background predicating that your impressive output is of very high quality, very professionally published and successfully marketed (including your highly suitable and well coordinated book-covers), with many techniques that probably come comparatively easily and perhaps even almost automatically to someone with your experience, intelligence and professionalism, but would doubtless be a _real_ learning-curve to many others. Not that I've been trying to study and learn from your success at all, of course.


Wow, and gosh, and thanks! I don't know about all that--it just worked, and then it worked better. Believe me, nobody was more surprised than I was. Luckily, I love doing it. It's a pretty sweet job.


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## Jason Eric Pryor (Jan 30, 2013)

Edward M. Grant said:


> And, as I've pointed out many times before, correlation is not causation.
> 
> My best-seller is a short story at $1.99. Most ebooks at $1.99 will be short stories, because there's really no reason to publish a novel at that price. Short stories generally sell less than novels. So, by simple logic, most ebooks at $1.99 will sell worse than the average ebook at $2.99 or $0.99... _but that doesn't mean the ebook at $1.99 would sell better at either of those price points_.
> 
> However, for a novelette, I'd go straight to $2.99 anyway. At least in SF.


That's cool. I'm sure it's not a rule or anything. Like I said, I don't know because I haven't priced anything at $1.99. I just mentioned it because I thought it was an interesting comment from someone that is the head of marketing for a major online book seller. He said he was at a writing conference and several other people from other book sellers made the same observation, that $1.99 was the worst price point according to the data they had available to them. He gave a case study where someone changed their price from $1.99 to $2.99 and sold far more books. He said the same thing happened when the price was changed from $1.99 to 99 cents. I'm sure it doesn't work the same for everyone. He just felt that there was something psychological about the $1.99 price point. He actually called it the "death price" or "death switch"...something. There was "death in it, LOL!


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## Chrisbwritin (Jan 28, 2014)

Great thread, all! 

Rosalind,
Congrats on all your success! 
If you don't mind my asking, do you think that 2.99 would be too much for a novella from an author with a reasonable following? I'm self-pubbing for the first time (a three part NA romance serial, at 30k words each) and am concerned about devaluing my brand if I do them all for .99 apiece. I have about 25 books under my belt (mostly category romance) with various publishers, and the last six or so have sold very well (with the last two squeaking onto the USA Today bestseller list). DEFINITELY not a household name by any stretch, lol, but I do have a solid core readership. I've put about $2000 into production and publicity for book one (and will do so for books 2 and 3 which release one month apart) and don't mind not making it back on book one if I can get the book to a mass amount of readers who will then buy books two and three (and hopefully the next series). I certainly don't want anyone to feel ripped off. That would devastate me. That said, a part of me feels that $8.97 for 90k worth of professionally edited and packaged material is a fair price. I'm so torn >.< And afraid that if I start at .99 I'll never get out of the pigeonhole. Another thing I had considered was offering the first for .99 for a short time, and then doing 2.99. Then, when all three are out, offering book #1 for free. Decisions, decisions! 

Any advice from the board-members appreciated for this indie-newbie  

-Christine Bell


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Chrisbwritin said:


> Great thread, all!
> 
> Rosalind,
> Congrats on all your success!
> ...


Serials seem to follow their own rules, and readers seem willing to pay for each chunk. (I wouldn't, and I know some readers say they're sick of this format, but hey, they're still selling, so it's obviously working.) I'd look and see what others are doing, and price accordingly. $2.99 may be just fine.

Since you already have a following, you can always do what I do, if you're concerned: price at 99 cents for the first couple days (announced ahead of time), to make sure your loyal readers have a chance to get the book at the very best price, even if you discount/bundle later. That can also give your book a nice shot out of the blocks into the lists in your subgenre.

Sounds like you don't need good luck, because you've already got it! But good luck anyway with your new venture.


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## Chrisbwritin (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks so much for the response. I think that's what I'll do. .99 for the first week, and announce it. Then just cross my fingers and hold my breath, lol.


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## VMJaskiernia (Jan 7, 2014)

I released my 14.5K / 58pg novelette for $2.99 - it sold 3 copies the first day. The next two days were/are (today's the second day) free promo days. I'll see what comes up over the week.


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