Work Wednesday: Making the Price Right
Pricing is a tricky thing when it comes to books—whether print or digital. You have to price the book so that it is affordable to your audience. You have to price the book so it covers your expenses. You have to price the book competitively.
I have no secrets to share as to how All Hallow’s ABC is priced. At least I don’t think they’re secrets. The print book retails for $9.99. Here’s the thought process I used to come up with that number.
1) What is the market like? When I looked around at paperback children’s books, I saw that the prices ranged from $4.99 (Berenstain Bears with a stapled cover) to $6.99 (Elisa Kleven’s The Paper Princess with true saddle stiching) with a very few in the $7.99 and above range. This gave me a starting point as to pricing.
2) What will the printing cost? I do my printing with Lightning Source. They have two price structures for color—one for standard color and one for premium color. After much thought and comparison of the two options (LS was generous in giving me some samples), I went for premium color with perfect binding. This raises the cost per unit for my book to $4.06, but it looks beautiful. This is where independent publishing hurts a bit. Larger publishing companies do large print runs that lower the cost per unit quite a bit, allowing them to offer lower priced products.
3) What will my discount be set at? The discount you set when you print and sell your book determines whether or not you will find yourself in stores or only online. Stores (both book and boutique) insist on a 40% discount. Wholesalers want more—55%. That’s so they can pocket 15% while selling your book at 40% to other stores. Set a figure below 55% and your book will sell to Amazon and BN.com, but not to brick and mortars. Mine is set at 55%.
With those three factors in place, I calculated how much I needed the book to cost in order to cover printing and the discount. Then I thought about the psychology of price points.
You see, I’m a parent who buys books. I buy books for the Kid a lot. I love books. But there’s this psychological barrier I have to buying a book that costs more than $10 if it’s not hardcover. Under $10 and it feels like an affordable treat. Over $10 and I think twice. The words “we are not made of money” have, in fact. come out of my mouth more than once.
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So I priced the book at $9.99. It gives me a little profit—I wince to tell you how little—but it’s affordable. I’m in this for the long haul, not just for one book.
Ebook pricing is a different matter. For the months of September and October, I’m running a 99-cent sale on the ebook (Tomely, Kobo, Amazon, BN.com) with the hopes that it gets word of mouth out there. It’s an experiment. I’ll let you know how it does.
As for how the book is doing right now? Well, I am happy to report that Childish in Santa Cruz is now carrying it. It’s a super cute store meant to tempt, so drop by and get your kid something. I also have some reviews in the works. We’ll see how those go.
Until next time… May the magic of books make your day bright.
Jenni Kaye
