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A fair price to set.

S

Starchaser3000

New Member
Just recently self published a 6 X 9 287 page manuscript. Now in THEORY if you were interested in a certain type of book at that size and page content, what is the normal going price that may compel a potential reader to buy it? $5, $8, $12, $15 dollars?
 
Starchaser3000 said:
Just recently self published a 6 X 9 287 page manuscript. Now in THEORY if you were interested in a certain type of book at that size and page content, what is the normal going price that may compel a potential reader to buy it? $5, $8, $12, $15 dollars?
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Hardback or Trade paperback? Are you selling strictly through Amazon.com or are you trying to get into bookstores also and need to offer a trade discount? What's your cost per book and what's the minimum royalty (profit per book) that you're willing to accept? All of these questions and more will influence what your retail price should be.

Buyers are always looking for a bargain -- especially with an unknown author -- so if you can set it below $10 (say $9.95) that would be an enticement. Bookstores expect a 40% to 55% trade discount off the retail price just to have the book in their stores. That can jack up the retail price significantly.
 
beer good said:
Does anyone actually pay for novels based on page size?!?
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On the royalty calculator, I'm required to input the book size and page content. I think it has more to do with the cost of making the book and nothing to do on why someone buys a book. At least I hope so.

BoyBleu said:
Hardback or Trade paperback? Are you selling strictly through Amazon.com or are you trying to get into bookstores also and need to offer a trade discount? What's your cost per book and what's the minimum royalty (profit per book) that you're willing to accept? All of these questions and more will influence what your retail price should be.

Buyers are always looking for a bargain -- especially with an unknown author -- so if you can set it below $10 (say $9.95) that would be an enticement. Bookstores expect a 40% to 55% trade discount off the retail price just to have the book in their stores. That can jack up the retail price significantly.
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Its a paper back. And at the current $10.50 price tag, I only profit $2.19 on amazon for every sale. And I can't set the price any lower than $10.28. I would like to set my price cheaper if that would get me more potential buyers. I just can't.
 
You haven't mentioned kindle edition entering your consideration. I'm attracted by their lower prices when both editions are available.
 
Starchaser3000 said:
Its a paper back. And at the current $10.50 price tag, I only profit $2.19 on amazon for every sale. And I can't set the price any lower than $10.28. I would like to set my price cheaper if that would get me more potential buyers. I just can't.
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As you can't set the price lower than $10.28, I would actually raise it to $10.95. Book buyers are used to retail prices ending in either ".95" or ".99" and I don't think 45 or 50 cents would make that much difference to potential buyers.

And Peder has a good point about a Kindle edition. If you have one, I'd price it in the $2.99 - $3.99 range to take advantage of Amazon's 70% author royalty split. You could go lower if you don't mind settling for a 35% royalty.
 
I have no expectations of being a major commercial success anyway, so I would love to make my book as economically affordable as possible to anyone that would give my book a fair chance with the hopes that they will be entertained or amused in some way shape or form.
 
You're right, the calculations are for the cost of producing the book and the pubishing company's profits. But that's true for all novels, so it puts us on a level playing field. So you have to be conscious of cost-cutting measures.

Have you considered changing your font? Times New Roman will give you less pages than Courier New. Your font size? Can you drop from 12 to 11 without adversely affecting readability?

Also check your formatting to make sure there are no extra points between paragraphs, etc.

And if, as I suspect, you're using CS, their proplan will allow you to drop your pricing drastically.

Take care,

JohnB
 
Starchaser3000 said:
Just recently self published a 6 X 9 287 page manuscript. Now in THEORY if you were interested in a certain type of book at that size and page content, what is the normal going price that may compel a potential reader to buy it? $5, $8, $12, $15 dollars?
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287 pages?

I will read it for $25.
 
I think I'm with the below $10 people. Even $9.99 would be attractive price for a decent size book. I'm also for very cheap kindle version. I think you'd get more readers with a low kindle price.
 
Sell? I was talking about how much a self-published author would have to pay me to read their work. My normal rate is 10 cents a page but I was cutting you a break.
 
Oh OK. I'm not sure I want to wire or mail money to a total stranger over the internet who may or may not take the time to read my book. So no thank you. Would rather try to convince people to read my book if they WANT to. Besides, the concept of paying someone to read your book is kind of odd to me. I mean what if you like mainly crime/thrillers or vampire/romance stuff? You probably couldn't even stomach reading my entire manuscript and would just glaze over it quickly just to tell me that you think it sucked. I would rather have someone INTERESTED in what I got first so that they might be compelled to buy it. Makes sense right?
 
Sure. Whats your price? And would you be actually "interested" in reading my manuscript so that I can at least get a FAIR review? Can I just e-mail you my manuscript or would you prefer that I mail you a printed copy? I'm just thinking it must be a chore to read an entire manuscript over the internet right?
 
On second thought, having read through the excerpts you posted, I don't think I could give that a fair review. Or rather, it wouldn't feel fair to charge you to give you what I would consider a fair review of your writing. But the best of luck to you.
 
Pricing was a huge dilemma for myself as well. I ended up doing a lot of research on the book size to author experience and target audience. As a first time author I also don't want folks to feel 'ripped' if they do not enjoy it. But at the same time this was an eighteen month venture, which as you folks know is a lot of effort. I ended up finding that the $2.99 - $3.99 range is most popular for first time sci-fi writers. Having a professional website with its associated costs and editor costs pushed me to the high side. I look forward to seeing other people's views on pricing, it's a contentious area.
 
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