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HOW TO PRICE A
BOOK by Dan Poynter
Book pricing depends more upon genre or
category than on production costs. Here is a formula for determining how to
price your book: You must look at price from the bottom up and from the top
down.
Bottom up The Traditional Method (8x)
Bottom
up: You must price your book at least eight times (8x) the printing and
trucking-in costs. This is your delivered production cost. Do not include the
prepress (design, typesetting and layout) costs in your calculation. These are
one-time charges that should be written off. In days past, we used to mark-up
both prepress and production costs 8x, but those costs have been considerably
reduced because of the computer—publishers can set their own type now,
cutting down on some of the prepress expenses. Besides, your book will be
around a long time; you will be able to spread those costs over many printings.
Neither the customer nor the retailer knows or cares what it costs to
print the book. They only know what it is worth to them. —Roger Pond
Why eight times? Because of distribution and promotion costs. If you charge
less than the 8x mark-up, you won’t have enough money to promote the book.
Distributors (66%), wholesalers (50-55%) and stores (40%) have to be
paid for delivering your book to the reader-buyer. Each takes a hefty cut of
the list price.
Promotion is also expensive, and it is normal to
invest 20 to 30% of the gross back into the process of selling your book.
Depending upon the subject matter and the size of the potential audience, we
often send out more than 500 review copies to appropriate magazines,
newsletters, newspaper columns and opinion molders. Reviews are the most
effective and least expensive promotion you can do for your book. Review
copiess are inexpensive promotion but they are books not sold.
Top
Down The Additional Method
Top down: The price you put on
your back cover, imbed in your bar code, put on the order blank on the last
page of your book and list in all your promotion should be as much as the
market will bear. Visit a bookstore and check out the prices of other books
like yours.
Retail price is established by the marketplace not by
the cost of production. —Jerrold Jenkins, The Jenkins Group.
Yes I know your book has "no competition"; all authors think their book is
unique. Buyers do have a choice. And don’t fall into the trap of thinking
your book is for everyone. For instance, I publish books on skydiving. I would
like everyone to jump out of a plane—to have fun, to skydive safely and to
come back, make more jumps, join the club, buy equipment and (hopefully) buy
more books. But, I am realistic. I know skydiving is not for everyone. (I am
not sure why because gravity makes falling easy). Just because you spent the
last year pouring your heart, soul and credit limit into your tome, that does
not mean everyone is interested enough to buy it and read it. Now, that said,
realistically determine the profile of the potential purchaser for your book.
Visit a bookstore and look for other books on your subject that would
be purchased by the same type of person. Also look at the formats of those
books: shape, color of paper, and types of binding.
You want to find
what your potential buyer is willing to spend. If you are selling to teenagers,
your price will have to be low and softcover. If yours is a business book,
$34.95 and hardcover with a dust jacket may be right. If this is a professional
book aimed at doctors, lawyers or accountants, a hardcover book without a
jacket at $90 would not be out of line.
Please do not call and ask me
how much you can charge for your book. For books on book promotion (such as The
Self-Publishing Manual) and for books on parachutes (such as The Parachute
Manual), I can make an educated guess. I do not know your field or your
customers. I would have to visit a bookstore and check the shelves. You must do
the same.
Prices should be based upon market factors first. What is
the customer willing to pay for this product? —Roger Pond
If you
poll bookstore managers on pricing, remember that lower prices will sell more
books, so they will often advise a lower price.
You do not have any
control over the top-down price. Your cover price must be right in the middle
of those sitting nearby on the shelf.
Customers will compare. If the
cover price is too high, you will price your book out of the market and it
won’t sell. If it is too low, the book will not be credible and potential
buyers will think there is something wrong with it. You also won’t make
enough to invest in further promotion.
Often, you will be surprised
what people will pay for your book. There are many examples of people who
raised the prices of their books and actually ended up selling more. But, in
these cases the buyer was somehow convinced of the value and benefit of the
book.
Compare. Hopefully, your bottom-up price (8X) positions
lower than your top-down price. If there is an overlap, you will have to
reformulate the design of your book. In other words, cut back the size, leave
out color photographs or use less-expensive materials.
Pricing your
book is not hard. Calculate your costs and visit a bookstore. Do your homework.
Dan Poynter does not want you to die with a book still inside
you. You have the ingredients and he has your recipe. Dan has written more than
100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self- Publishing
Manual. For more help on book writing, see
http://ParaPub.com. ©
2003
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