Is There a Psychology Behind Book Pricing?

I read something today that I've heard before, but paid little attention to ~ there is a psychology to how a book's price is perceived. In some ways its premise is counter-intuitive, but it certainly could be right. Here's how it goes: If a potential reader sees a book priced at ninety-nine cents, they will think that the book is bad and unworthy of a more a normal price point.

Originally, I priced my novellas at $1.99. Since my two novels sold at $2.99 and novellas are obviously shorter, that seemed fair. 

In a fit of discouragement, of which I have many, I ultimately lowered the price of every novella to ninety-nine cents. That made no difference in sales whatsoever. 

Do potential readers really think my cheap books are junk? Hard to say. I'm doubtful that anyone even comes across my books on Amazon, much less mulls over their price. 

But on the off-chance that my pricing had the opposite effect from what I was trying to achieve (sales) I'm thinking of raising the prices back to their original $1.99. Shoot, maybe I should bump up my novels' prices, too. 

I never considered that I was subconsciously denigrating my own writing. That really wasn't what I was going for. 🙄

Frankly, I'm rather tired of the whole scheme. Trying to push old books is like trying to push old music. Neither are outdated, but how many times do I feel like revisiting the well? I get so tired of both my music and my writing that I begin to hate them both. And do you know what a hassle it is to update eleven books' prices on KDP? You have to run through four separate screens for each, even though you're only making a change on one of them. Then you have to await the "review" before your book is again published. Granted, I have a lot of free time, but I don't enjoy using it for repetitive tasks. 

It is true, though, that I like to feel like I'm doing "something" ~ something to keep my career alive. And on that note, I'm not in love with my new book covers. I changed them to conform to my genre, but I derived no benefit from that, and I intensely dislike most of the new ones. 

Let's face it; I'm running out of steam. I'm no longer writing and little cosmetic changes won't cut it for me. 

I think it's time to blog about something new.