# Anyone tried STAGGERED PRICING for a Book Launch?



## Mikeyboy_esq (Feb 18, 2017)

I've recently read about a book launch strategy where you start out selling your new eBook for either free or 99 cents, then go up a dollar per week until you reach your intended retail price.  *Has anyone ever tried this strategy? If so, what were your results?* 

Supposedly, if you start out with a FREE eBook download, then you are more likely to get lots of activity and then Amazon rewards that activity with "Amazon juice" (meaning your book will get more exposure on Amazon based on Amazon's secret algorithm).  Of course, you use this special promotion pricing as part of your advertising campaign to spread the word about your new book on your social media platform.

I'm about to launch my 2nd book this coming week (its a self-publishing guide based on the steps I used to self-publish my debut book), and I'm interested in trying this strategy.  However, I discovered that to start out with a FREE eBook on Amazon, I have to join KDP Select (which also requires participating in KU) and I'm not interested in doing that b/c I don't want my eBook to be exclusively on Amazon.  So instead, I plan to start out pricing my eBook at 99 cents for the first week (or perhaps another interval that I choose), then go up a dollar the next week and do it again the 3rd week.  And I'll mention this promo pricing as part of my book launch advertising.  If you have done this before, please chime in below and let me know how it worked for you.  Thanks!


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## KellInkston (Feb 25, 2017)

Hiya, hope I'm not too late.

I've done staggered pricing for my novel _Kingdom through the Swamp_ and got good results. While this was years ago and long before I had any significant readership, I'd tick on roughly 500% more sales than against the full price which was $3.99. This is fiction, however, so I imagine your results would be greater. The most important thing when using staggered pricing I've found is that you absolutely must make the price gap clear to the customers so they understand the quality of the deal.

Hope that helps!


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## who me? (May 14, 2017)

Mikeyboy_esq said:


> I've recently read about a book launch strategy where you start out selling your new eBook for either free or 99 cents, then go up a dollar per week until you reach your intended retail price.  *Has anyone ever tried this strategy? If so, what were your results?*
> 
> Supposedly, if you start out with a FREE eBook download, then you are more likely to get lots of activity and then Amazon rewards that activity with "Amazon juice" (meaning your book will get more exposure on Amazon based on Amazon's secret algorithm).  Of course, you use this special promotion pricing as part of your advertising campaign to spread the word about your new book on your social media platform.
> 
> I'm about to launch my 2nd book this coming week (its a self-publishing guide based on the steps I used to self-publish my debut book), and I'm interested in trying this strategy.  However, I discovered that to start out with a FREE eBook on Amazon, I have to join KDP Select (which also requires participating in KU) and I'm not interested in doing that b/c I don't want my eBook to be exclusively on Amazon.  So instead, I plan to start out pricing my eBook at 99 cents for the first week (or perhaps another interval that I choose), then go up a dollar the next week and do it again the 3rd week.  And I'll mention this promo pricing as part of my book launch advertising.  If you have done this before, please chime in below and let me know how it worked for you.  Thanks!


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it is far easier to lower prices than raise them

start with a high list price
have coupons, special sales, package deals etc to effectively lower the cost and make it look like a bargain

raising the price will only upset people who will reject buying at a higher price


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