Evaluating Pricing Strategies

A pricing strategy
that has be touted
by writers as working well
is the first book free
in a series
strategy.

Simply change the price
of that first book
to zero
and watch the sales
of the following books
skyrocket.

Sounds great, right?

Except when I investigate,
these writers tell me
that
either
they promoted this free book
intensely
or
they dropped the price
to zero
when they had a new release
in the series,
promoting that new release
intensely.

You can’t go
from no promotion
to intense promotion
and then claim the increase
was due to the first book
being free.

To evaluate the impact
of a pricing strategy,
all other inputs should remain
as constant as possible.

(I say as possible
because there will always be
outside factors
you can’t control
like competitor actions
or market movements.)

When you test something,
change only one factor
at a time.