In a break with my routine of publishing these blog posts on a Friday I focus this post on two dilemmas which are racing around my head, namely my upcoming release schedule and pricing for my IN THE END series.

Pricing & Promotions – IN THE END

When I flippantly spoke in my last post about Amazon being broken it turns out I was partially correct. Thanks to the help of Terry Tyler I found out the two books in my IN THE END series were not correctly linked on the various marketplaces. This is now with Amazon to resolve and is fixed for the paperbacks and should be fixed for the ebooks shortly.

Terry also gave me some great advice about pricing, i.e. giving away book one for free or 99p / 99c to lead into book 2 and beyond at full price, at least once the series linking is working. It is great advice and something I am considering, however in the lead up to publication of BEFORE THE END I had IN THE END at 99p / 99c for three months and it did sell well, but that was pitched as a ‘special’ offer so I don’t want to suddenly put it on permanently low so that the previous buyers don’t feel let down. Whether they would is another matter.

In addition Terry mentioned that series sell better once they are complete, which makes sense. So herein lies my dilemma, do I just leave both IN THE END books at their full price of £2.99 / $2.99 and wait a year for the series to be completed, then drop one low, if I sell any books in the meantime then great. Or do I push sales now with the low price on book one and hope people pick up the other two. Is it worth the effort or should I wait until I have a complete season of books?

I am inclined to wait, but when I see my sales figures I change my mind, telling myself I want the instant satisfaction the Amazon orders bar chart gives me with every order!

Release Schedule

My second dilemma is a little more positive. I’ve been working to release two interlinked books in February and March next year. FATE’S AMBITION, Book 1 of the James Fisher Series, and OPERATION DAWN WOLF, Book 1 of the Carrie Harris Series (A spin off of James Fisher). However both books are very nearly ready and if I really wanted to I could realistically release them at the end of December, or at worst early Jan.

OPERATION DAWN WOLF is going to be my mailing list magnet and I plan to run adverts on Facebook to pull in readers. This will hopefully lead readers to the five books (including FATE’S AMBITION) which are in the same world and feature some of the same characters.

There are lots of options by I think I have narrowed it down to two.

Option One – The Original Plan

FATE’S AMBITION – Feb 2020 and OPERATION DAWN WOLF – MARCH 2020

Pro’s – Feb is a good month to publish. Whereas Dec and Jan are reported to not be. However when we’re talking the volume of sales I get, does this really make a difference?

Con’s – I have to wait and I’m an impatient person. Plus it’s time I could be using to connect with new readers.

Option Two

OPERATION DAWN WOLF – ASAP and FATE’S AMBITION – Feb 2020

Pro’s – The release month won’t matter so much as most of the books will be given away for free. It may also help build hype for FA pre-orders and Feb is a good month to publish.

Con’s – Carrie Harris is meant to be introduced in FATE’S AMBITION, however does this really matter? OPW is after all a prequel, but written that you have to have no prior knowledge of the world the books are written.

That’s it for me. If nothing else this post has helped me properly consider my options, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on both of my dilemmas as always.