PublisherTalk

One question which commonly is asked of our customer service staff is "What should I set the price for my book?". There is obviously no right answer to that question because there are a multitude of factors which need to be considered when determining a realistic selling price. To help lead new self-publishers in the right direction, I will discuss the most important issue.

*Profit Motive Not every author intends to make a profit on the sale of their books. The end product and the journey to create a book is often the primary motivation for many of our customers. When factoring in all the time which is required to launch a book release (content, production, and marketing), very few publishers will ever see a penny of profit.

*Costs Before a self-publisher can even consider the selling price of a book, they must adequately account for all the costs of their endeavor. Aside from the actual printing expense, other significant costs include; editorial, cover design, copy editing, proof reading, marketing, and postage. As mentioned above, profit motive is also something which needs to be factored into cost. Publishers who intend to make any significant profit will need to make an investment in inventory to lower production costs.

*Distribution Method At Publisher Services, we heavily promote self distribution for new independent publishers because the traditional distribution model erodes too much profit. Publishers who sell through wholesalers, distributors, and book sellers (Barnes and Noble) typically give up 45-55% of the sales price for the volume exposure. In addition, returns need to also be factored as a cost when selling through these models. Our background stems from the printing industry, and it was very common for publishers to price their book 6-8 times printing costs when selling through the traditional channels. Selling direct enables self-publisher the benefit of actually realizing a profit. Many of our clients sell books through seminar or via their own website.

* Target Market & Size of Book Book publishers need to realistically access the market which plan to sell their books. Every market has value range which the book price needs to fall within. It is prudent to due some market analysis to determine this range and substance of competitive books. Factors such as page count and color pages should also be reviewed.

Every book project is different and requires an individual approach to determining a selling price. This decision should not be made quickly and all the above mentioned factors should be considered.

Posted in: how to, pricing, publishertalk, publishing, retail, selling on Friday, May 8, 2009 at at 8:01 AM