One of the challenges of publishing books is keeping them fresh in the eyes of the audience. With indie-published ebooks, there are a few things you can do: run ads, run Bookbub deals, wish upon a star… If you don’t do something, sales eventually sag and fade and obscurity closes in. Every writer I know faces this. Some accept it; some take to the social media airwaves to keep things going; some publish newsletters or run giveaway campaigns. Another method I’d read about but never really set my mind to trying is price pulsing: dropping the price on one book at a time, just for a little while, and then raising it back up and doing the same with another book. Some people swear by it. But does it work?
I decided to try. Without saying a word on social media, I dropped the price on one title—and was astonished to see sales perk up. And not just on the title I discounted. It was as if the Amazon algorithms took notice and started nudging people to notice my other books. Or maybe people noticed on their own; I really don’t know. (This only worked in the Kindle store, not in any others.) But I did find previously sleepy sales figures yawning and stirring and elbowing each other. We’re not talking big numbers, but some activity where previously there had been none. I tried it a couple more times, and it kept working. I think I’m going to keep doing it until it doesn’t work anymore. Then I’ll have to try something else. If you want to know what book’s on sale, you’ll just have to poke around in the Kindle store and see for yourself!
The image here is a snapshot of a Georgia O’Keefe painting at a special exhibit we saw recently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was quite wonderful, even if it has nothing whatever to do with the rest of this post.
