When you embark on the journey of getting a book published there’s a lot to consider and one of the things that should be on your priority list is the price at which you’d like to sell your book. The editors of traditional publishing houses must fill out a profit and loss spreadsheet (P&L) before they can even acquire a book, let alone publish it. The P&L determines what decisions they need to make in order to turn a profit on the book they hope to add to their list. One of the best places to start when determining the profit goals of your book publishing endeavors is to seriously consider how you'll be pricing your book.
You’ll need to think strategically about setting your price, because it plays a big role in determining the selections of many book buyers. But pricing is less overwhelming when you consider applying these basics tips.
Regardless of whether it’s a print book or an ebook, traditional publishers are already aware of what a book in a specific genre or of a particular trim size and page count sells for, because it’s their business to know, but that doesn’t mean self-publishers can’t too. You can learn a lot by observing the books your book will be rubbing shoulders with, including the average price readers expect to pay for the type of book you’ve written.
For print books, visit your local bookstore and see what similar books are selling for. What kind of book have you written? Is it a biography, history, or memoir? Perhaps you are publishing a quick beach read. Take your genre into consideration and do some research. Find the section in which your book would be shelved, pull the ones similar to yours, and look at the book price listed near the barcode. Only look at books you’d consider printing though. If you don’t intend to print a book that’s a hardcover, make sure you only compare prices with paperbacks. Be sure you also only look at examples that are roughly the same trim size, number of pages, and genre as the book you plan to publish.
Ask a bookseller at what price point they typically sell a book like yours. You can also search online for books similar to yours to get a good idea where to start when pricing your book. Look for both traditionally published and independently published titles, but it’s probably best not to compare yourself to the newest Stephen King novel since you probably don’t have the same name recognition or reader anticipation as he does. Remember that librarians buy and stock books too, so you might also talk to your local librarian for his or her perspective.
For ebooks, look at Amazon and search by genre that way. The same basic rules apply as to what kinds of things to look for as with print books, you’re just changing where you look for them.
One key to book publishing is making sure your title is priced similarly to titles like yours in order to be competitive. If you can price your book for slightly less than other books in its genre, yours may have a competitive edge when potential buyers try to decide between your book and another. Don’t cut the price too drastically. You still want to make sure you’re compensated at the rate that traditional publishers have valued books like yours, but if you can decrease the price by a small margin, it may help influence the consumer’s purchase.
For ebooks, there’s an interesting trend where the desire to create buzz for a book, series, or author platform tends to migrate toward free or close to free since the price to produce the actual book doesn’t rely on printing and shipping costs and, therefore, doesn’t require the list price of the book to be as high. In this way, once a publisher convinces a consumer (through utilizing strong metadata, book descriptions, and persuasive marketing campaigns) that its book is a must-have, an ebook at a $1.99 price point could increase by several dollars. Again, the consumer must be convinced of the purchase before you could make such a jump, but it definitely happens: using a low price point to create future demand at higher prices. Because there’s no physical book in the world with the price printed on the cover, exercising creativity and experimenting with pricing is perfectly within your realm of possibility with an ebook. You can increase in smaller dollar amounts, but by large percentages ($1.99 versus $2.99).
While you’re at the bookstore, looking at print books, make sure to compare other trim sizes and formats to see if there’s something better suited for the book you’ve written, as discussed in Chapter 8 of this online course. Maybe you thought you’d print a book in the 6x9 trim size, but discover that’s not a popular size in your genre. Maybe you thought you’d print a book that was spiral bound but find that the books it’d be shelved with are all perfect bound. Make note of these things to apply them to your own book.
IngramSpark provides a handy publisher compensation calculator which easily allows you to figure out how much you can hope to receive from the sale of your print book per copy, depending on a few key factors. Simply enter your book's specifications, including the trim size, interior color and paper types, whether the binding will be paperback or hardcover, laminate style, the number of pages, list price, and wholesale discount. Then select "calculate" and see how much money you will make from the sale of one copy of your print book at the price you've determined and the specifications you've chosen.
You may find that the per book compensation you'll receive for a print book with your specifications isn't quite what you thought it would be. Don't automatically assume you need to change your list price in order to receive a higher per book compensation. There is generally a little wiggle room in price between books that are similar in genre and format, but not much, so you don't want to make your book too expensive or too cheap in comparison to the books it will be shelved next to. Instead, don't be afraid to play with different aspects of your book to help you reach a better per book compensation. Perhaps you want to change the trim size or go with a paperback book versus a hardcover. Maybe you want to change the cover finish. Work with the many available options and see how they affect your level of compensation.
With that said, don’t do anything so extreme as to make your book an anomaly in its category. One of the most helpful tips for publishing a book is to make sure it fits in your genre. You want your book to stand out, but not in a way that makes it peculiar or unfamiliar to the readers who typically buy that type of book or in a way that makes it difficult to stock in its appropriate bookstore section. There are other ways to make your book stand out in its category; format shouldn’t be one of them. Stick with industry standards for your particular genre so as not to make your book too different from its immediate competition, putting you at a possible disadvantage when it comes to book sales.
Keep in mind that the average compensation per book matters less the more books you sell, which depends on your business model. Some publishers selling 30,000 copies per year are comfortable receiving less than $1.00 per book in compensation. You may decide that compensation isn't your end goal and your publication is more about creating a beautiful keepsake or spreading the word on something about which you're passionate, at which point your price and formatting are less about industry standards and more about personal preference, which is why setting goals for your book before you begin the publishing process is always wise.
Think beyond your home audience when it comes to pricing. If you could set pricing for multiple markets and achieve more book sales, why wouldn't you? IngramSpark grants you the ability to provide global pricing for your book, and that means availability to more potential readers, which could ultimately result in more book sales. Other markets open up a world of different readers and require different pricing to fit into their marketplace. Check the pricing of books in your genre across the globe, and use that as a guide for pricing your book in those markets. If you don't set prices for your book in additional markets, you are limiting the sale of your book. You may be surprised where your potential readers may be, but you'll never know if you don't first make it available to them.
This chapter was compiled from the following posts on the IngramSpark blog:
“Build the Right Ebook Pricing Strategy” by Phil Ollila, Chief Content Officer of Ingram Content Group
“Tips for Pricing Your Book” by IngramSpark Staff
“How Much Should My Book Cost: Pricing Your Book” by IngramSpark Staff
