“Price Pulsing”: the Benefits of Dynamic Pricing on Amazon
By Carolyn McCray, Author | @craftycmc
Before reading this article I strongly suggest you read both my recent article Gaining Traction in the Amazon Ebook Marketplace and Amazon Best Practices. You will need the knowledge described in both of them to really take advantage of the information given here to enhance your royalties.
As noted in my latest article, Gaining Traction in the Amazon Ebook Marketplace, regarding Amazon’s internal recommendation system, the more books (units) you sell, the more you are recommended out into the queue and the more books you tend to sell. The contrary is also true. The fewer books (units) you sell, the less you will be put into the recommendation queue and the less you will sell, until you settle somewhere in the deep 100,000s or lower.
The other important fact regarding Amazon’s internal queue is that it appears to be “price blind.” It rewards you for total units sold, not for the royalties generated by those sales. Therefore you could sell 1,000 copies at 99¢, or 1,000 copies at $9.99, and your book would go into the internal recommendation queue at the same rate. It is also pretty obvious, with the bargain-shopping mentality of Amazon customers, that you tend to sell far more copies at 99¢ than $9.99. It so much easier to sell 1,000 units at 99¢.
This is the “inverse” effect between rankings and royalties. The cheaper your book, the more you will tend to sell, and the higher your rankings. Higher rankings may qualify your book for bestseller lists, which then help you gain more sales because of increased discoverability.
The only problem with this 99¢ bonanza is that it brings in dismal royalties (even when you rank in the low hundreds). Set your price higher, and you will garner more royalties per book. However, you will sell fewer and fewer books until you slide off the bestselling lists and back down into the 10,000′s–200,000′s range.
But there is a way to have the best of both worlds: “Price Pulsing.”
Price Pulsing is when you take a book down to 99¢ temporarily to gain more unit sales, get into the recommendation queues, rise into the bestseller lists, and then, as you “peak” (rather than gaining rankings, you begin to slip back down), switch back to your higher retail price. In general it will take you seven to ten days to reach your “peak” or “crest.” Changing prices at the height of your pulse puts your book into the recommendation queue/bestselling lists when it is the most discoverable, thereby reaping royalties you could not have seen any other way.
And don’t forget that all of those 99¢ sales are going to give you “traction” over the next week and even month, because of how Amazon rewards unit sales (see my last article here if you need to brush up on how Amazon’s internal recommendation queue works). Your book will go into the recommendation queues more frequently, selling more units at the higher rate for weeks to come.
However, as noted in my last article, this effect is finite.
As your sales decline, Amazon will reward you less and less until it “unlatches” completely and you are back down to the sales ranking you had before the pulse.
This is how you Price Pulse:
- Reduce price (most of the time to 99¢; however, for books in the upper price range of $7.99–9.99 a drop to $2.99 will have the same effect, although not as powerful)
- Ride out this wave of sales.
- At the “peak” or “crest,” switch back to the regular retail price.
- Fall in ranking, but gain additional royalties, thanks to greatly increased discoverability.
- Enjoy this benefit of increased internal recommendations for up to a month.
- Prepare to do it again.
Other key aspects of a successful “Price Pulse,” are:
- Announce that this 99¢ price is a promotional price, as we never want to undermine the value of our books. Make it clear in the product description that 99¢ price tag is a special, limited time offer, and take advantage of the “get ‘em while they’re hot” mentality. In this way customers appreciate the sale but do not think your book is only “worth” 99¢.
- Do NOT put a specific time frame in the product description. Use terms like “limited time,” “special promotion,” or “for this week” (which can run for as many weeks as you need it to run). We do not want to say “until September 24th,” because we do not know when our sales will peak and we do not want to be locked to any specific dates.
- Once you have optimized your product description (see my article here on the subject) and our back matter (if you are unclear on how to accomplish this, I will publish a set of articles in November to help), so that any sale we get from this price pulse will travel downstream to our backlist.
You can also add social media promotions to the mix (because the one time people on social media are very likely to make a purchase is because of a low sale price) and paid advertising to drive your book up the bestseller lists as high as you can, to really enhance your discoverability.
Can we do a “price pulse” to the same book every month, month after month? Yes, but the effect tends to fade, especially if you are using any form of social media to help propel the pulse. Do not despair, though! This is where “sales nodes” (grouping like books together to into a discrete sales unit where they resonate, creating a lift for the entire node), come to the rescue. Those nodes will be the topic for my last article in this series.
As always I will be monitoring comments on this article (along with all of my others) and will try to respond to your questions within 24 hours!
Carolyn McCray is a social media and sales consultant to writers and publishing houses alike. And using the principle laid out in this article, her recent non-fiction book, “Dollars & Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-publishing Success” debuted at #1 on the Amazon Bestselling list for Study & Teaching and reached #2 on the Authorship Bestselling list beating out such rock stars as JA Konrath and Zoe Winters. Carolyn is also the founder of the Indie Book Collective, an organization dedicated to helping writers utilize social media to sell their books.
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Carolyn,
Thank you so much for your article! I am an author and in the process of bringing the culmination of 10 years of experience both online and in book form. My agent is shopping around my book proposal to publishers, but so much of an author’s success depends on Amazon theses days. I had no idea about “Price Pulsing.” Your plan is so clear and comprehensive. I look forward to reading the rest of your articles.
Gratefully,
Lisa Marie
I am so glad it was helpful. I think you will find the sales node article coming up equally important to helping your bottom line
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Thanks for this article. I was wondering how long a price pulse should last and whether it would be effective at 2.99. I’ve been thinking about dropping my self-published book to .99 for the holiday season and my commercially published book to 2.99. Do you have any thoughts on whether I should do that right before Christmas, after Christmas, or in some other date range in order to take advantage of all the new e-readers folks will be receiving?
With the exception of the Holiday season, a price pulse tells YOU when it is over. Once you peak in sales and start to slip back down, is when you convert back to your higher price.
During the Holiday season the concept is to lower your price BEFORE Christmas to drive sales especially now that gifting should be super easy. Then convert your price higher after Christmas since people are more likely to spend higher amounts per unit off of a gift card.
That is the theory anyway. We will see how it holds up over Christmas.
You might also want to check out http://www.IndieBookBlowout.com
It is where hundreds of titles are dropping to 99 cents during the 12 days of Christmas. It should be a hoot. The one over Labor Day sold thousands upon thousands of copies.
Wow! This article was awesome. Thank you very much for posting this amazing lesson.
Rishi
You are very welcome! Thanks for tracking back to it!
Hi Carolyn – I just discovered DigitalBookWorld and have been mining the mother-lode of your Amazon articles. A year ago, after working 20 years in the publishing industry and committing my 12 children’s books to the not-so-tender care of a traditional publisher, I ventured from that “safe” place into the rarified air of indie-publishing and eBooks. I love my freedom to choose an excellent artist for my book and work with him to integrate the illustrations with the story. (Unfortunately, I also have to pay him. LOL )
My first two self-pubbed titles are now in print and digital format: PIBBIN THE SMALL and THE STORY SHELL – and I’m beginning to realize the value of your advice.
Apart from family and friends, my sales for these two are almost zero.
I’ve reworked my PD page(s), as you suggested. Here’s a link in case you have time to look: http://www.amazon.com/Pibbin-Small-Tale-Friendship-Bog/dp/1466313781/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319886253&sr=1-1 …. But WHY did they run it all together?
I have read and will implement your tips for getting reviews; I have a few and will work hard to find more. I’ll be adding review snippets and a Twitter button to my website ( http://gloriarepp.com/). I’m also considering the art of price-pulsing.
I realize that the concept of eBooks for children may be in its infancy, but still, I wonder what I am missing and how I could improve. Thank you for your feedback and for a wealth of useful and actionable information. You’re a purveyor of hope.
Gloria Repp
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Carolyn,
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and I’m sure hard earned wisdom. I love that you
make it so easy to print and/or share your articles.
Looking forward to learning more from you.
Be well.
You are very welcome but we must thank Digital Book World for creating such a reader-centric sight and articles
#MattRocks
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I’m planning to inadvertently price pulse. It finally raised the price to $2.99 of my book (I’m not sure why Amazon kept it at 99 cents weeks after I raised it) but once the holidays kick in I’ll cut the price back to 99 cents for at least the season. Then bring it back up to $2.99.
And you can really see the effect the raise in price has. I was selling 30-40 a month at 99 cents. Since it’s gone up, I’ve sold maybe 10.
Yes, for the most part you need product, product, product so that you can rotate your promotions and give lift to your entire backlist
Also check into promotions such as http://www.indiebookblowout.com to co-op your advertising dollars along with the http://www.99-cent-network.com
Hope that helps!
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Very intriguing article, Carolyn. I’m brand new at this but have had considerable success using gorilla tactics. I’m in the middle of a significant upswing on my book, BRAINRUSH, since I dropped my price to $0.99 in anticipation of the mid-December release of the sequel. I’d be interested in speaking with you offline about my success and plans in order to put together a solid strategy. Is that possible?
Here’s my goal: My book was released 2 1/2 months ago and it’s now #70 on the thriller list. I’d like to discuss how to keep it in the top 100 through mid-Dec.
Thanks!
Richard, first off, congrats on your ranking, that is not easy to do even at 99 cents
And yes, you can contact me at craftycmc at a o l
Sorry for the delay in response I was traveling and then came home to a house without electricity!
Thank you so much for this post. I am just starting to look at pricing strategies and I really appreciate the info you present here. I’ll definitely be back to learn more from you!
I am so glad! Thanks for the props!
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Hi Carolyn,
Thanks so much for this article. It’s funny my novel \The Nimrod\ has done really well over the last year and one of the consistent \people also bought\ players from very early on is \30 Pieces of Silver\ which I’m guessing is you??? Very cool! We have a connection. Now when I see your ranking and pricing I realize I want to fine tune this machine to emulate your success.
So here’s my problem. I worked in advertising so I’ve done a version of this \price pulsing\ without even realizing it. In fact when I priced the book at .99 a few weeks back it sold nothing – I mean literally. This is a book that has done many hundreds a month consistently and then it slowly petered out. I raised the price to $9.99 and it began to move again and make real royalties. This is fairly recently. I suspect that while a .99 book could sell faster you make .35 a book, you have to sell way more than I do to make the same money and in my experience the lousy one star \I read three pages and quit but I’m taking the time to diss you\ readers paid less than a dollar and value it the same way. Just my experience. The more people paid, the more they invested in it emotionally as well and the more likely they were to \get\ the satire in it. ALL my lousy reviews came from readers who either didn’t finish it/ read it at all/ and definitely paid a buck.
Anyway I released a book recently called \The Unsleepers\ and while I probably would have done myself a huge favor to stick with the genre I had gained so many readers in (comedy/satire) I figured what difference does it make? I should write what I want. So I did – this dark,paranormal adventure thing. But somehow this has badly backfired on me. \The Unsleepers\ simply doesn’t sell and I have never had that experience before in my entire career (I’ve been a writer for 20 years) Those who read it spoke very highly of it, but then it just quickly stopped. So I did the .99 promo to move it and even THEN it sold nothing. Naturally this somehow started bleeding over into \The Nimrod\ cause a disaster was afoot and suddenly even that book which had rarely gone over 15k in the sales rankings for an entire year stalled and went where it never, ever had been – well into the 100,000′s!!! Yikes! Even at .99 now \The Nimrod\ wouldn’t sell. I’m not sure what’s going on but I feel like I really need to do something. Based on the success and financial boost of the first book, I really believed adding more product to the market would make this a bona fide job – we’ve all read of the successes of writers who do this right! And if most ebooks only sell less than 100 books in a lifetime and we shatter that in the first month then we have a good reason for hope, right???
What would you recommend I do? Feel free to mention marketing/ promotional strategy books even if you wrote it! I’m grateful for your insights and time!
Rock on,
Mark
Thanks for commenting. Your questions though are a little broader in scope than I can answer here. If you would like, feel free to email me at craftycmc at a o l and we can discuss it further
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Very interesting post. Thank you.
I have a couple of questions:
1. So, I drop my $2.99 ebook to .99 in order to increase sales. But how does the book get discovered at the new price point? That is, is it entirely up to the author to tweet, facebook, and otherwise try to tell the world? How does the book get listed on the .99-sites?
2. I am about to publish the second book in a series, at $2.99. I was thinking of dropping the first book to .99 in hopes of helping sales of both books. If I do this, should I leave the first book at .99 for X amount of time, according to the price pulsing approach?
Thank you.
1. Yes, once you drop your price, you go sing about it everywhere you can. Even better if you are within an event so you can talk about the event and other people’s book, all the while driving traffic to your own.
Just being 99 cents does not automatically sell books, it is just a great entry portal price to entice the undecided browsing reader.
2. Yes, unless you are pushing paid advertising to your first book, it is normally the 99 cent title and your new book 2.99. Then, of course, get your third, fourth and fifth book out
You really can’t rotate price pulsing until you have an entire node 
Hope this helps
Thanks for the reply, Carolyn. Very helpful.
One further question: I recall seeing a comment somewhere that dropping your price to .99 will automatically trigger a listing on certain .99-price sites. Is this correct?
Even if true, I agree that the author must also get the word out.
Some 99 cent bloggers/listmania people will be scanning for 99 Cents, but there is no official way to get listed that way.
You can easily join such sites as the 99 Cent Network.com etc, to gain additional exposure
Ah, thanks Carolyn.
If I can test your patience, one more question:
Book two of my series won’t be out until December, or possibly January. Does it make sense to price-pulse book one now? Or should I wait until the launch and then drop the price of book one?
Thanks again.
That depends on your sales history. If you are selling better than 50,000 ranking then keep your price where it is. If you are selling worse than a 50,000 ranking (50,000-300,000) then I would just keep my title at 99 cents.
And there is no December or Jan. If you want to catch the holiday buying orgy, December it is!
Thanks once again, Carolyn.
Well, my ranking jumps around like a crazed kangaroo. Has been as low as in the 19Ks and as high as the 100Ks.
Regarding December: I was thinking people would get their shiny new ereaders for holiday gifts and only then start buying ebooks. Hence, my idea of waiting until January. But you are the expert. I will now target December!
Carolyn, do you still do the snapshot reviews?
You betcha!
Just leave the URL that you want me to look at 
Hey, many thanks Carolyn!
Here’s the url:
http://www.amazon.com/BADWATER-Oldfield-Forensic-Geology-ebook/dp/B005466WQ6
Hi Carolyn,
Do you need more info for the snapshot review?
Thanks.
Sorry, didn’t get informed of your last posting
So here is the snapshot review:
Cover Art:
Love the desert and the radioactive symbol however your Badlands font looks comedic and is hard to read as is your author’s name. Except for the symbol I did not get tension or threat.
Reviews/Likes
Get your reviews over 10 ASAP, huge difference in meta-message
Reviews:
I don’t like to have my reviews separate, I put everything in the PD so that I have absolute control over the order.
PD:
I would put the first and third quote (I would pick another, short, punchy quote to put here as well) above your overview (which is a bit long, but I was interested enough to be carried through.
Then I would put your 2nd quote down under the overview along with a few more, punchy quotes.
Then you need a call to action. If you liked…. you will love Badlands!
Not sure if the 2.99 price tag is helping. You might want to pulse down to 99 cents (of course putting in your PD that it is a limited time promotional price) and get some sales.
If this is your only book you might want to consider creating a “virtual” backlist with other authors to give the entire group a sales “lift.”
Hope this helped
Thanks Carolyn. Your advice is wonderfully specific, and hence very helpful.
I’m in the process at doing a price-pulse experiment. I put the book on sale yesterday at barnesandnoble for .99, and am waiting for Amazon to price match. When it does, I’ll spread the word.
I have the second book in the series nearly ready to go. Should have it up by the end of the month. Depending on how the price pulse goes, I might leave that sale price in place for the launch of the new one.
I’ll redo the PD as you suggest.
One question on that: you say to end with a call to action; if you like…. then you’ll like BADWATER. Since two of my reviewers compared the book to Nevada Barr’s books (I agree with that comparison), would it make sense to excerpt those reviewers’ words as my call to action? So, it’s the reviewers saying it instead of me?
Again, I appreciate the snapshot review!
This is in reply to the next comment, but it won’t let me reply!
#sillycommentbox
I can’t wait to hear how the price pulsing turns out.
As to your call to action. Remember that people assume that it is your publishing house promoting you, so don’t feel shy about doing a strong call to action.
It takes a LOT to transform a browser into a buyer and you need all the excitement and direction you can get
Hope that helps
I can’t reply to your last comment, either. Hope this makes sense:
Being a shy person, I’ve had quite the experience jumping into promoting and social media. Actually, I’ve kind of enjoyed it. Mostly. Made some friends, learned a lot. I’m certainly glad I spoke up here because you’ve been a great help.
Next level of coming out for me: adding a call to action
I will check back later and let you know how the price pulsing is going.
Thanks,
Toni
PS: I submitted the book to the 99 cent Network yesterday. Hope to see featured there–thanks for the tip about that site.
Great article, Carolyn. Thanks for the great info!
Donna
You are very welcome, Donna
This is in response to Gloria Repp’s posting, which I can’t seem to find on here. Thank goodness for email alerts!
Anyway, Gloria, your best bet for your PD is to go through Author’s Central and format your PD there
Also you might want to punch your PD up with more quotes and a call to action. See my previous article on Amazon optimization 
Yes, children’s eBooks really are in their infancy, however that means you get to be in on the ground floor. Especially with the Kindle Fire coming out, I think they will be picking up steam soon.
I know this is going to hurt, but I strongly suggest you lower your price to 99 cents. You are in the name building phase and need units sold. You want to be ranked well when Amazon is out trolling for children’s books to put into a promotion.
You might also want to look into the fact that the Fire is rumored to allow animation. Meaning that you could have your illustrations animated. Again, more cost to you to have that done, but being a stand out title on Amazon, usually has its rewards
But first and foremost punch that PD up! Mine your reviews for great snippets and do all your changes in Author Central
Thanks MUCH, Carolyn. I’ll implement the price drop to 99cents right away, but if you don’t mind, could I make sure . . . .
To clarify:
My [print] children’s books from a traditional publisher sell on Amazon for $8.99.
My Indie [print] children’s books, the first two in a series, sell for $5.99; digital $2.99. You’re suggesting I lower both print and digital prices to 99cents, right? Should I do this for only the first in the series, or for the second also?
And I appreciate the tip of working through Amazon Central for PD changes. Will do more. And better!
Gloria Repp
Sorry, my pricing recommendations are always for eBooks versions. Print is a whole other story, plus your POD company sets how low you can go and usually I set my price to make about $2-3 over the base price set by the printer.
But for your eBooks, I would recommend 99 cents for both until you get some sales traction (which means at least one of them in the teens – 10,000-19,000 range).
Hope that clarified
Will do . . . and I’m grateful for your advice.
GR
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What an interetsing concept. You’ve obviously worked this to a fine art. The only problem I have, is getting the momentum going in the first place.
Thanks for the help
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Hi Carolyn,
Just wanted to let you know how my price-pulsing experiment is going. BADWATER’s normal price is $2.99. I put it on sale at 99 cents on November 7. Since then, my sales have increased fivefold.
I got a real boost from being listed on the 99 Cent Network.
One thing I’ve noticed: the also-boughts on my Kindle page are shifting. I’m getting more books listed at .99 than I had before.
I’ll continue the pulse until sales drop off.
Thanks again,
Toni
Fantastic. I love it when a plan comes together
Keep me updated. I am also assuming that you are hard at work on your next book? You need another title to push all those readers buying your 99 cent book.
Also glad that the 99 cent network is doing what it is supposed to be doing, getting authors the exposure that they deserve
We are having a major Indie Book Blowout for the holidays. Check http://www.indiebookblowout.com for more info if you are interested.
Thanks Carolyn.
I’m still getting higher-than-normal sales, although the pace has slacked off somewhat. And yes, the 99 Cent Network rocks!
I have a new title nearly ready to go. Just waiting on a final beta reader. I plan to launch it in December; however, there is a slight problem. I know that a new launch gets a coveted spot on Amazon’s new releases list, for a thirty-day period. I’ll be away from my computer for ten days in December, meaning I can’t do any promo during that period to help the book rise on the list. Would it make sense to wait until January to launch?
Meanwhile, I’ll definitely check out the holiday blowout for Badwater. Great suggestion!
Previous years have shown 4-10 greater sales during December than any other month. I would say that is FAR greater an incentive than even the new release slot
But of course it is your call 
If there is any chance you can get it out before Black Friday, even better 
You make a good point.
So, you think Black Friday will be a boon for ebooks? Won’t everybody be entangled at Wal-Mart?
Previous years have shown 4-10 greater sales during December than any other month. I would say that is FAR greater an incentive than even the new release slot
But of course it is your call 
If there is any chance you can get it out before Black Friday, even better 
Read more at DigitalBookWorld.com: “Price Pulsing”: the Benefits of Dynamic Pricing on Amazon | Digital Book World http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/price-pulsing-the-benefits-of-dynamic-pricing-on-amazon/#ixzz1e0ndDVx0
Price-pulsing update:
Sales at 99 cents were soaring and then Amazon took the book off sale, putting it back up to $2.99. Sold several at that price but not nearly at the sale rate.
Four days later (today), Amazon again dropped the price to 99 cents.
Who knows what tomorrow may bring. As long as they don’t raise the price to $299.00!
Carolyn, thanks again for great advice on my PD page and encouragement re: eBooks for children. Yes, it IS coming! I’ve dropped my two (Kindle) books to 99 cents, but hesitate to put them on the 99 Cent Network or the Indie book blowout ($!) because there’s no category for them. Should I bide my time till the next big sale season and just keep writing?
No worries. But this is the problem with being on the cutting edge
You are out there alone.
For something like the blow out, putting you in YA might work. Yes, I know totally different category, but I know the demographic is largely SAHM so there would be overlap.
If you want apply for it and let them know on the form that I said it was okay to do you at no charge as an experiment
HUGE thanks. Will do.
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G’day, have been reading through your excellent articles and they have provided much inspiration and a lot of food for thought. I am thinking of price pulsing my new epic fantasy trilogy in February. Currently all three books are selling quite well at $3.99 on Kindle (they’ve been up almost a month and have had close to 300 sales), however was thinking that for a week in February I might reduce prices across the trilogy to $0.99 for the first book, and then a subsequent $2.99 for books two and three in order to get a bounce in the rankings and thus more visibility. Also was wondering if it was ok for me to create a link to your articles from my website?
Of course you can link any of my articles to your website. The more the merrier!
As to your books, you are correct I would recommend not just a temporary price pulse but a permanent staggering of prices. Usually you need at least one “dime” bag (99 cent) title for those browsers who are on the fence about whether or not to try a new indie author.
If you are pushing paid ads or social media pressure to your first title, usually that is the most expensive of the bunch. However if you are not supporting your first title with significant outside pressure, than your first title is usually your 99 cent title.
It is a cheap way for them to get into your series and then the other books go up in price. The second book is typically $2.99 while the third is $3.99.
Of course you will need to experiment and see what works best for you. Also there is the new KDP Select option and the new controlled “free” ability that will need to be factored into all marketing strategies moving forward
I’ll certainly trial your suggestions over February and then see how it goes from there. Want to keep January as a ‘base-line’ month to see how other promotions and price trials work against it. Also am plotting the sales in Excel as line graphs. There hasn’t been sufficient time to notice a trend yet – only that slowly sales are increasing, from 7 per day to now 9. Small bikkies to what the big Indies are reaping, however its an encouraging start for a brand new trilogy from a brand new author. I’m in KDP Select and have so far used one free day. My other published work (a book of poetry) has yet to record a sale so have arranged a 3-day free download time for late January. Anyway, thanks for your tips – I’m just now going to link your articles to my website.