Hellooo, everybody!
So you've written a book, and now you wanna sell it for money. How exactly do you do that? What
price are you gonna give to that book? I mean, we all know your work is priceless. It's not. But at
some point you're gonna have to slap a barcode on that bitch and get some coin. That's what
we're talking about today. I am breaking down my ten best tips for pricing your book. Pricing
a book can be a lot harder than people assume. There are so many different factors to take into
consideration. Like the cost of production, the length of your novel, or the format of
your novel. Do you plan to go ebook exclusive? Or are you planning to create a paperback and
hardback? Do you plan to price competitively with comp titles? Or do you wanna lowball the
figure in order to increase your exposure? Have I confused you yet? Don't worry, I will explain
all of your options in as simple of terms as I can manage. We'll cover everything you should consider
before pricing your book, as well as different marketing strategies and sales goals. Take some
notes because by the end of this video, you will have an action plan for pricing your novel the
best way that will suit your book as well as your business expectations. Let's get to it.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays, and if you
wanna be alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell. Shut Up and Write the Book is releasing
tomorrow. That means today is the last day to preorder it. You can preorder it in ebook,
paperback, hardback and audiobook. The ebook is on sale right now for 50% off,
and no matter which format you preorder, everyone who preorders is eligible to receive
a free digital workbook as a thank you for your support. All you have to do is send your proof
of preorder to this email address, and you will get that workbook. Also don't forget
that The Savior's Champion is on sale right now for 99 cents across all ebook platforms.
And this sale is available internationally. So get on it. Pick up a copy today. Yeah!
Now I am breaking down my ten best tips for pricing
your novel. Please note these tips and tricks are pretty much only for
self published indie writers. If you're going the traditional publishing route,
you will not be able to choose the price of your novel, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Number One (1): Understand the format. You have ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, and audiobooks,
and they are all priced differently. Ebooks are almost always the cheapest and that's for
a very logical reason. They are the cheapest to distribute and produce. It's digital. There's no
physical production or paper involved, which is why we see ebooks usually priced anywhere
between $10 to 99 cents. Then there are paperbacks and hardbacks, which are usually more expensive
than ebooks because they are expensive to print. You have all that ink and paper,
you have the glue and the binding. Then of course, hardbacks are going to be even more
expensive because they are sturdier and they typically include a jacket. Then there's the
cost of preparing, boxing, and distributing these books. This is why physical books are
usually a lot more expensive than ebooks. There are a lot of costs involved that are
taken out of the profit of the book, leaving writers with usually a pretty small percentage
of royalties. Then there are audiobooks, which probably aren't worth discussing,
because usually you don't get to pick the price of your audiobook. Platforms like audible will
price your audio book based on its length. So that's one less thing you gotta think about.
Number Two (2): Royalty rate. A royalty rate is the percentage of payment you will receive
from each book sold. Basically your ebook may be priced at $5, but you're not going
to receive $5. Instead, you're going to receive a royalty rate which is that $5 selling price,
minus any costs associated with publication and distribution. Different formats and publishing
platforms have different costs. So the royalty rate is going to vary from platform to platform,
and from book to book. For example, if I sell a Kindle ebook through Amazon, they give me about
70% royalty rate. This means for a $5 book, I get to keep $3.50. For a physical book,
like a paperback or hardback, that royalty rate is going to be a lot lower because physical books
are a lot more expensive to print. That means I can't price my paperback at $5. If I did,
I probably wouldn't make a dime. Basically the royalty rate you incur is going to go a
long way in dictating how you price your book. The more expensive it is to print your book,
the higher you're going to have to price it in order to incur royalties.
Number Three (3): Industry averages. This is the most basic thing authors need to do before pricing
their book and yet it's something that so many skip over. Obviously you need to do a lot more
research than this, but at the very least research industry averages for book prices. For example,
The School Library Journal often posts average prices of young adult books, children’s books,
adult books and graphic novels in both paperback and hardback format. This will at the very least
give you a ballpark estimation for pricing. You can find industry averages through other
resources as well. Honestly, you could probably just Google ‘average book prices’
and get a ton of articles. This is literally the bare minimum amount of research that you
should do before pricing your book, so writers, stop skipping this step, you big bag of beans.
Number Four (4): Compare within your genre. You got the industry average price, which is great,
but prices vary based on a lot of factors, including the genre. That's why it's important
to hone in on your genre and explore the prices available. Genres can vary in price,
because genres often have different expectations. Certain genres are typically a lot lengthier than
other genres. So those books might be more expensive. Other genres may be less expensive,
because they're usually read by serial readers who go through multiple books a day. If you can,
zero in specifically on your niche genre. For example, you don't want to just research fantasy
books because that's too broad. Research your specific sub genre, or multi genre
category. For example, if I was looking to compare prices for The Savior's Champion,
I would be looking at dark fantasy romance novels. And if I was looking to compare
prices for Shut Up and Write the Book, I would be looking at writing craft books.
On a similar note, Number Five (5): Compare within your audience. After you've researched
within your genre, you might still notice a discrepancy with prices.
This is why it's best to narrow down on comp titles which are essentially books
that compare to yours. These are the books that make you say: if you like this book,
you'll probably like mine. An easy way to look for comp titles is to check out the ‘Also bought’
section on Amazon. Say your book is comparable to The Bridge kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen.
Pull up her book on Amazon and scroll down to the ‘Also bought’ section. There you will see books
that people bought alongside The Bridge Kingdom and those books might be comparable to yours as
well. Study the figures and at this point, you should start to see some similarity in prices.
Number Six (6): Publishing type and experience. Are you comparing your book to traditionally
published novels? If that's the case, it's important to note these two factors. First,
it's not uncommon for traditionally published ebooks to have a higher price. I'm honestly
not 100% sure why. My guess is that it's because more people need to receive a cut
of the royalties. You've got the publishing house, you've got the author, you've got their
agent. That's my educated guess, but I can't say for certain. The point is, it's not uncommon to
see a traditionally published ebook priced at $10. Whereas if you go the indie route,
that is virtually unheard of. On the flip side, traditionally published hardbacks and
paperbacks are often less expensive than indie, hardback and paperback. Based on my research,
publishing houses often have agreements or contracts with printing companies that allow them
to receive a bulk discount on printing books. This is a benefit indie writers do not have access to,
so typically our paperback and hardback novels are going to have a higher price than comparable
traditional paperback and hardback novels. Lastly, we have publishing experience which varies from
creator to creator, so take this with a grain of salt. If an indie writer is brand new to writing,
and this is their debut novel, they might price their ebook a little bit lower than
the norm. For example, if comparable eBooks are selling for $5 Maybe they will price theirs for
$4 or $3. This to potentially give them a leg up, because they're going into the industry
at somewhat of a disadvantage. No one's ever heard of them and no one knows if their work
is any good. You don't have to follow this approach, but it's certainly not unheard of.
Number Seven (7): Book length. This is specific to physical books. The longer your book is,
the more expensive it is to print. Period. If you can't do the math, the higher the page count,
the more pages you have, the more pages you have, the more paper and ink are required. Paper
is expensive. This is why you often see really long books, especially really long indie books
at a higher price. There are some formatting changes you can make to help reduce your page
count like shrinking the size of your margins, or utilizing less space between lines. But you don't
wanna go overboard with this because your book will start to look unprofessional really fast.
This is largely why writers are encouraged to trim their work count to the best they
can without ruining the story. It'll save your ass when it comes down to pricing your book.
Number Eight (8): Marketing tactics. This has less to do with the firm price of your novel and more
to do with how you can manipulate that price over time. A book's release is usually when it
gets most of its sales. After that your sales will likely drop and plateau. This means your
book will be exposed to fewer readers over time, and you may need to incentivize readers to give
your book a try. And you don't need to go to business school to know that the best way to
incentivize shoppers is to hold a sale. Putting your book on sale at strategic times and using
strategic methods is a great way to gain more interest in your novel and the easiest way to
do this is specifically with your ebook. As we already covered, physical books usually have
lower royalty rates, which means it's kinda tricky to put them on sale. But with eBooks,
it's really easy to put them on sale, and you have a wide range of sale options to choose
from. Typically authors go for a 99 cent sale, or they make their ebook free for a limited amount of
time. I've also found that the 50% off sale rate works great. This pricing strategy will help ramp
up interest in your book among readers who haven't yet heard of it. And this increase in interest
will also help your book gain better exposure through various retailer platform algorithms.
Number Nine (9): Is theories and sequels. For anyone who's in the middle of releasing a series
or plans to release a series in future, this point is for you and it's specific to ebooks.
It's very common to change an ebook's price, as you begin releasing sequels. Basically,
the more books you have in a series, the cheaper book one becomes. The first book
is usually referred to as The Lost Leader. Which basically means you're taking a loss at the start
of the series in order to encourage readers to pick up even more books, and thus make you more
money. You're offering that book at a lower price in order to incentivize more people to buy it.
If you read a book and fall in love with it, you shouldn't have too much of an issue paying a more
competitive price for its sequel. Sometimes you'll see this format on a tiered system.
Book one is $3.99. Book Two is $4.99 Book Three is $5.99. Other times the first book is 99 cents,
or even free, and the rest of the series is priced competitively.
And Number Ten (10): Sales goals. What is your goal with this novel? Is your goal to make money
if that's the case, you should probably price your novel competitively with its comp titles and
at a rate that gets you decent royalties. Is your goal to hit a bestseller list? If that's the case,
pricing strategies can vary, but you may want to price your book a little bit lower in order
to incentivize more people to buy it. Is your goal slowly to gain exposure, you have zero
consideration about money at all. If that's the case, a lot of people get their name out there
by listing their book for free. Ultimately your goal for the novel is going to dictate how you
price that book. Just make sure that you give that book a price readers are willing to pay.
So that’s all got for you today. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post
new videos on Wednesdays, and if you wanna be alerted as soon as I upload, ring that bell.
Shut Up and Write the Book is releasing tomorrow. Which means you've got one day
left to preorder. And everyone who preorders is eligible to receive a free digital workbook. all
you have to do is submit your proof of preorder to this email address, and you're good to go.
And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm on Instagram. TikTok,
Facebook and BookBub. And of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!
(Female Voice) Hey there! This is Lisa Cordileone, narrator for Shut Up and Write the Book by Jenna
Moreci. Be sure to subscribe to Jenna’s channel and ring the bell! That way you’re
alerted as soon as she posts a new video. Trust me, you don’t wanna miss this stuff.