When a book is free, it’s worth every penny you spent. But if it costs $9.99 (the maximum price of a Scribl novel), you want assurance that you’re getting good value. That’s the reason we invented Price-Based Ratings, where you find an average rating for each price tier. It doesn’t just tell you whether the book is good. It measures whether it’s a good buy at that price. (Still don’t see the point? Click here for more.)

Here’s the cool part: If you see 5 stars in a free or inexpensive book, that means it’s probably going to move up a tier. More people will download it, and the price will go up. So when you see a high rating at a low price, you’ll want to buy it now and save. On the other hand, a higher-priced book with low ratings may be overpriced. Wait for the price to go down or look for another book. (Or take a chance that you’ll like the book anyway.)

How to Use It

You will see a row of stars for each $CP (Scribl CrowdPriced) tier that the title has ever reached. The $CP tier equals the price of the book. The bottom row is the free tier, and the top row the most expensive tier for that genre; the rest of the rows represent the in-between prices. The stars in any particular row show the ratings at that price. The bright orange row shows the current price. Got it?

And what if a row is empty? That means the title has not yet received any ratings at that price—either because no one has rated it yet, or the book hasn’t ever been available at that price. By looking at all the ratings, you can see whether readers think the book’s value is worth the price.

Take a look:

Probably priced about right, maybe a little low. Title has reached the top tier but has fallen back down. At the fairly high rating in its current tier, it's likely to move back up by a tier. Buy it now, before it jumps!
Title on the rise, a bargain. Title is currently in the highest tier it has ever reached (no stars on rows above current tier) and continues to get perfect ratings. This title is clearly on the rise.
Priced about right. Title has reached one tier higher than its current tier, but fell back down. Given the mediocre ratings at the highest tier, this title is probably now in the right tier.
Probably overpriced. Title is currently in the highest tier it has ever reached and given the low ratings, it will probably fall back down by a tier. The crowd thinks it is overpriced.