Indie Author Series: Pricing
Where to price your book is one of the most difficult things
a new author struggles with. You want to make sure you price it high enough to
make a little money on it, but you also want to make sure it’s priced low
enough that readers will buy it.
I’ve heard a lot of authors talk about writing for the love
of the craft, not to make money. Well, if you can afford to do that, more power
to you. For me, writing is my career, so I’d like to make enough that I can
keep writing without having to get a “day job”. In order for me to be able to
keep writing, I need to make sure I’m making at least a little money on my
work.
So where do you price your book for maximum effect? That
depends on a few factors. Is it fiction or non-fiction? What is the page count?
What percentage or royalty amount will you ultimately make?
Paperback
Depending on where you have your paperback printed will
depend on what you need to price it at. CreateSpace has a great little
calculator where you punch in your trim size, page count, color or b&w, and
then the price you’d like to set it at. It will tell you how much you’ll make
per book at that price level. You can play with it and see what the ultimate
price is, i.e., as low as possible while still making somewhere between $1.50 -
$3 per book.
eBook
eBooks are a little different than paperback. There is no
cost inherent in an eBook after you’ve completed the work required to have it
eBook ready. By that I mean that with paperback, there is still printing and
shipping costs. With eBook, you upload it once and then let it go. The great
thing about eBooks is that you can price them very affordably to attract new
readers. They’re getting a deal and you’re still making a decent royalty. Keep
in mind that most vendors require you to have a minimum price of 99¢. Anything
between there and $2.98 will generally make you 30-35% of your list price, and
$2.99 and above earn you 60-70% of your list price.
Do the Math
If you think to price a book at 99¢ to sell a bunch, realize
that you’re only making about 30¢ per book, and only 15¢ if it sells through a
3rd party vendor. Say you sale 100 books, 80% of which are direct
sales and 20% are 3rd party sales. You just made a cool $27. Sell half
of that (50 books) at $2.99 where you’re getting 70% and you’ll make $94. Big
difference. To make that same $94 you’d have to sell 350 copies at 99¢. So make
sure you’ve done all the math before you determine a price.
Non-Fiction
Non-fiction generally tends to sale at a higher price than
fiction. There’s a lot of technical knowledge and research that goes into a
non-fiction. So if you’re writing non-fiction, I think you can stand to price
it a little higher. Of course, the best rule of thumb is to see what other
books in your genre are selling for, and price it around or, if you can, a
little lower than other books. For example, a fiction paperback might be priced
between $12-17, while a non-fiction might run up to around $20. eBooks will
probably be between $7-12 for non-fiction vs. $3-6 for fiction.
Fiction
Why is fiction priced lower than non-fiction? I don’t know
for certain, but my theory is that fiction is read for entertainment. Most
people are going to only read a fictional book once. With non-fiction it’s a
book you’re probably going to refer to multiple times and use to expand your
knowledge about something. So for fiction, you want to price your paperback as
low as possible. However, keep in mind that with fiction you’re going to sell
far more eBooks than paperbacks (whereas with non-fiction it might be just the
opposite in many cases). Anything above $16.95 might be a little much to expect
someone to pay for a paperback, and at that it better be a full-length book
(around 300 pages). With an eBook, many studies suggest that the books that will
sell the most are those priced between $3-5. Anything over $5 and the sales
numbers drop rather sharply. If your book is a short story or novelette, you need
to drop the price even lower, somewhere between 99¢ and $1.99 for a short, and
between $1.99-2.99 for a novelette. You can read about book lengths here.
Odd Numbers
This is just my personal theory, but I think if you price
your book something unusual, say $3.96 rather than $3.95, it’s not going to
make a different in your royalty for that book, but it is going to catch
someone’s attention. For some reason, the $3.96 looks like less money than
$3.95. Try it, see how it works for you.
Bottom Line
Pretty simple, really. Price your book where you’re going to
make enough to keep you writing, but where your readers feel they are getting a
good deal. You’re not likely to get rich off your writing, but if you have a
good, well edited book that’s priced fairly, you should be able to make enough
to make your hobby a career.
Want
more opinions on book pricing? Hop on over to the other members of the Indie
Author Series to see what others have to say.
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