Hi all,
There have been nearly 100 downloads in just a few days, most people paying nothing. One person paid $0.05. That is unfortunate. Also there has only been one rating, and that was 3 out of 5. My products usually get a 4.5-5, so this is disappointing. I don't think we will be doing 'pay what you want' again as there are so many moochers. I imagine that if we will do similar adventures/mini sources of similar size again, we will be asking $2-$3. :-(
PWYW has a purpose and its place. Mostly it works best for independent creators who have a strong personal following. People are more likely to 'give' or 'donate' if they know exactly who the money is going to and they want to support that writers work.
For a business free works better than PWYW if you just want to use the product as a try before you buy for a more expensive investment.
If you want or need to make money or make back your investment then you should put a price on the product.
Many free or PWYW products get low or poor ratings. Stars but no textual review. There are simply plenty of review trolls that will mark down every product just so that their own will rank higher. The 3 star review was probably not a reflection of the product at all, they probably didn't even download the book. As soon as they have 'purchased' the book for nothing they are able to rate it.
You could withdraw the product from sale, by making it private.
Recreate the product as a $2 download with the same name. Put a note at the top of the description that is is the same adventure as was previously sold PWYW. That would scrub away the 3* review and give you a clean slate.
Personally, I would just treat it as a loss leader but ask people on the forums to download it and leave 5* reviews to counter balance the trolls.