This will definitely be the last post for a while on Kindle Store sales rankings and the rise of low-priced books – In case you’re getting tired.
Yesterday, we looked at how 48% of books in the Kindle Store Top 100 are at or below $5. Today we’re down to 45 books at or below $5 in the Top 100. This excludes the 4 singles and apps in the Top 100 (which are all below $5).
There are, however, a lot of low-priced books knocking on the door of the Top 100 -
- Follow the Stone by John Locke is rising up the charts. Price: $1. Genre: Westerns, Action & Adventure. It promises to join his 5 other Donovan Steele novels – which are all in the Top 100. It’s rated 5 stars on 5 reviews. You have to give him credit for pricing all his books at $1 and taking just 35 cents per sale rather than trying to price a few at $3 and getting $2 per sale. He clearly cares more about reaching a lot of people than about making lots of profits. Note: Nothing wrong with pricing later books at $3 or $5 or $10. Just that if you’re committed to increasing sales and reaching a lot of people $1 is the way to go.
- Out of Time by Monique Martin is at #185. Price: $1. Genre: Paranormal Romance, Time Travel, Romantic Suspense. This has a shot at hitting the Top 100.
- Hollowland by Amanda Hocking is at #193. Price: $1. Genre: Horror, Occult, Adventure & Thrillers. Rated 4.5 stars on 77 reviews. Amanda Hocking too has 5 books in the Top 100. This seems to be on its way to joining them. She’s actually doing a very good job of mixing up $1 and $3 books (her sequels are mostly $3).
- Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H. P. Mallory is at #125. Price: $1. Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy. This is $1 in honor of the release of the second novel. It has been in the Top 100 in the past (it was $1 then too) and might make its way there again. Not sure why the author would not keep this at $1 permanently – she does, after all, have a bunch of $2.99 sequels.
That’s just 4 books.
There are quite a few other low-priced books that are knocking on the door -
- Least Wanted by Debbie Mack is at #102. Her other book, Identity Crisis, is at #169. Both are rated highly and priced at $1.
- King James Version Holy Bible is at #106.
- Take the Monkeys and Run is at #108.
- Turned by Morgan Rice is at #112.
- The Unexpected by Rory Michaels is at #122.
- 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper and Cecil Murphy is $2.99 and at sales rank #130.
- The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner is at #195 and priced at $5. Another of her books, Hide, is at #160 and priced at $5.
- The Game and The Chosen Soul by Heather Killough-Walden are close to hitting the Top 200. These are at #257 and #205 and might make it to the Top 100. She already has two books in the Top 100. All 4 of these books are at $1. They are also all rated 4 stars or 4.5 stars.
It’s just a non-stop stream of low-priced books waiting to break into the Top 100. There’s no way to get an exact list of books from 101 through 200. However, my guess would be that between 40% and 55% of the books in that list are books priced at $5 or below.
Combine that with the current Top 100 and we arrive at a surprising conclusion - 40% to 50% of the Top 200 books in the Kindle Store are priced at $5 or less.
In 2008 we had just 4 or 5 books at or below $5 in the Top 100. Today, we not only have 45 books at or below $5 in the Top 100, we also have a stream of low-priced books threatening to make their way into the Top 100. We have two indie authors who each have 5 books in the Top 100 – all of them at $1 or $3. It’s a completely different world.
Filed under: books
