This is one of the most common questions authors ask when sales are slow, and it is tempting to treat lowering price as a low-risk, easy first move. It is not entirely free, though: it reduces what is earned on the sales that would have happened anyway, and it does not fix problems that were never about price in the first place. This guide sets out how to decide honestly, using your own book’s evidence, rather than a general answer.
It builds on [is my book priced too high?](/resources/book-sales-growth/is-my-book-priced-too-high) and [what price should I charge for my self-published book?](/resources/book-sales-growth/what-price-should-i-charge-for-my-self-published-book); if you have not worked through those checks yet, they are a useful starting point before this decision.
The honest answer: it depends on the evidence
No guide, including this one, can tell you in advance whether lowering your specific book’s price will increase sales enough to be worthwhile. Sales depend on far more than price: genre, competition, timing, visibility, reviews, presentation and simple variation over time all play a part, and no one can isolate price’s exact effect on an individual book without actually observing what happens.
What this guide can do is set out the questions worth answering honestly before deciding, so the decision is based on evidence about your book, rather than general advice about books in general.
Questions to answer before deciding
Evidence to check first
- Is the price genuinely above the range charged by comparable books in the category?
- Is the book already appearing in relevant category and keyword searches, at least some of the time?
- Does the cover clearly signal genre and does the description read clearly?
- Are there at least a small number of honest reviews?
- Have you observed the sales pattern over a reasonable period, not a single quiet week?
- Has anything else changed recently — metadata, categories, promotion — that could explain a change in sales without touching price?
When lowering price may be worth trying
If the price sits noticeably above comparable books, visibility already looks reasonable, and presentation is not the obvious weak point, a deliberate, time-limited lower price is a reasonable variable to test. This is more likely to be informative if it is the only change made for a defined period, so any shift in sales can be reasonably, though never certainly, linked to the price change.
Example
Imagine a non-fiction guide priced noticeably above similar titles, with solid metadata, a clear description and a professional cover already in place, and steady but modest views with few purchases. Testing a lower price for a set period, without changing anything else at the same time, would be a reasonable way to see whether price was the specific barrier.
When lowering price is unlikely to help
If the book has very little visibility to begin with, if the description or cover are weak, or if there are few or no reviews, lowering price addresses none of those issues, and mainly reduces the earnings on whatever sales were already happening. In these cases, it is more useful to address the more likely cause first, and revisit price afterwards if the problem persists.
| Situation | Lowering price is more likely to help | Lowering price is less likely to help |
|---|---|---|
| Book is barely being seen (very low views) | No | Yes — fix visibility first |
| Book has good views but few clicks-to-purchase, price is above comparables | Yes, worth testing | No |
| Cover or description are the likely weak point | No | Yes — address presentation first |
| Price already matches comparable books | No | Yes — look elsewhere |
Weighing the trade-off honestly
Lowering price reduces earnings on every sale, including ones that would have happened at the old price anyway; any increase in sales volume needs to be weighed against that reduced per-sale return, not just judged on sales numbers alone. It is worth deciding, before making the change, roughly what result would make the trade-off feel worthwhile, so the outcome can be judged against something rather than reacted to after the fact.
Running a trial properly
- 1
Set a defined period
Choose a specific length of time in advance, long enough to see a pattern rather than daily noise.
- 2
Hold everything else steady
Avoid changing the cover, description, categories or running a promotion at the same time.
- 3
Record sales before and during
A simple log of price and sales makes the comparison meaningful afterwards.
- 4
Decide what you will do with the result
Know in advance whether you will keep the new price, revert, or investigate further, for each plausible outcome.
What not to assume
- That lowering price is a low-risk, no-cost first move; it reduces earnings on sales that were already happening.
- That a sales increase after a price cut proves the price was the cause, if other things changed at the same time.
- That this guide, or any general source, can predict the specific outcome for your book.
- That reverting a price change afterwards is a failure; it is a normal part of testing one variable.
Common mistakes
- Lowering price as a first reaction to slow sales. Price is one of several plausible explanations; checking visibility and presentation first avoids reducing earnings without cause.
- Changing price and something else at the same time. This makes it impossible to know afterwards which change, if either, affected sales.
- Not defining a trial period in advance. Reacting to a few days of data, rather than a defined period, tends to produce unreliable conclusions.
- Ignoring the earnings trade-off. A modest increase in sales at a much lower price can still leave total earnings lower than before.
- Expecting a guaranteed answer from general advice. No source, including this one, can tell you in advance what will happen to your specific book’s sales.
Frequently asked questions
Will lowering my book price definitely increase sales?
No one can say this for a specific book without observing the actual result; it depends on far more than price alone.
How long should a price trial run?
Long enough to see a pattern rather than daily variation — several weeks is more informative than a few days, though the right length depends on how often the book normally sells.
What if sales do not change after I lower the price?
That is useful information too — it suggests price is less likely to be the main constraint, and other factors are worth checking.
Should I lower price and run ads at the same time?
It is better to change one variable at a time; running both together makes it hard to know which, if either, made a difference.
Can I put the price back up if the trial doesn’t work?
Yes — price changes are reversible, and reverting after a trial is a normal, sensible part of the process.