eBook Pricing and Self-Publishing of Non-Fiction and Fiction

Trying to determine the optimal price for a book in order to generate maximum net revenue is not an exact science as far as I can tell. Perhaps for authors who have a well established following and consistent sales history can predict with accuracy the optimal price for their self-published books.

For me it has been a lot of trial and error and detailed record keeping. The prices of my paperback books have remained unchanged for the past year. Since my sales are tipping towards ebooks in both volume of sales and total net revenue, I have focused on trying to sort out the optimal pricing for my ebooks, particularly Kindle books.

What is involved in developing a pricing strategy for a Kindle book? I consider the following factors:

• Amazon's guidelines to receive a 70% royalty (2.99-9.99 earns 70% - above or below that range = 35% royalty)
• Pricing promotions to build sales rank/search results rank
• Balance between maximum profit per sale and maximum number of sales
• What the customer is willing to pay

The first consideration is easy to adhere to. Simply set the price of your Kindle book somewhere in the price range Amazon is willing to pay a 70% royalty for.

When I introduce a new Kindle book I often use KDP Select to provide several days of free purchase to generate some interest combined with a set period of time the book is priced for .99 cents. This might not be the best strategy to launch a book, but I want to build rankings for my new books before the time of the year where my books sell the most (my non-fiction books have a 3-4 month peek selling period that is seasonal and I want the new books to be positioned to take advantage of the peek sales period).

Balancing between maximum profit and maximum number of sales requires time, detailed record keeping and experimentation. I would love to sell every Kindle book I have for $9.99. But how many sales would I generate at that price? Maximum potential net profit is nice, but if you never sell any books you have no profit at all.

If I price the book for $2.99 I may have lots of total sales but I am earning the least amount of net profit per sale. The goal is to fine the highest possible price that generates the highest number of sales. It takes some time to determine the price point that will produce the desired result.

Which leaves me with the last consideration and the one I have no control over, what the customer is willing to pay.  I have two books that are loaded with valuable information, are well illustrated with both diagrams and photographs, have professional covers that look great and the books have generated numerous 5-star reviews. Yet these two books just won't sell in large numbers.

I dropped the price to $1.99 and both books sales picked up. I even received a couple of e-mails from readers who purchased these cheap editions mentioning among other things they would have paid much more for the book they found the information so valuable.

The problem is, how do I get potential customers to realize the value of the information contained in these two books to pay a higher price for the content?

I revisited the book descriptions. Detailed and contained benefits, not features, for the potential reader who is considering buying the book.

In talking to some other authors via e-mail it seems that while the advent of ebooks has created huge opportunities for authors who self-publish, there has also been some market pressure to lower prices for ebooks.

I know I won't pay more than $4.99 for a work of fiction and I won't pay that much unless it is an author I like. My wife won't pay more than $2.99 for a work of fiction.

Are these buying habits impacting the sale of non-fiction as well?

It pains me, as a matter of professional pride, to not list these two books for $9.99! They are worth the purchase price! The paperback versions are 174 pages and 204 pages long in 8.5 x 11 trim size. These books are loaded with information that took me over 20 years to learn, master and organize for maximum use.

Yet, the best price point for maximum sales is a miserable $2.99. I net slightly less than $2 per book due to the delivery fee charged by Amazon (the files for these two books are huge due to the large amount of graphics - I don't begrudge Amazon the delivery fee at all).

Is the Kindle ebook market causing a race to the bottom of pricing for all authors, regardless of whether the book is one of fiction or non-fiction? Will it impact the price of paperback editions of the same book?

I don't know. I hope as time passes people realize they have to pay for information. The more valuable the information, the more it will, and should, cost.

In the meantime, I am going bit the bullet, raise the price to where I think it should be and determine a way to market and sell these two books more effectively.

I would appreciate, as I am sure other readers of this blog would, if you would share you experiences with pricing your Kindle books and share what has worked and what hasn't by commenting.

Pricing eBooks for Maximum Profitability

Do you price your ebook to make the most per unit sale by setting a high price (and have fewer sales) or do you set a low price and make more total profit by increasing your volume of sales? Is there a happy medium in pricing allowing for both maximum profit per unit sale and driving an increase in the volume sales at the same time?

Experimenting with pricing is a bit scary, time consuming and requires the collection of data to determine what works best.

Smashwords has done a lot of the data collection and has released a study filled with information that self-publishing authors should find helpful in their decision making process concerning the pricing of their ebooks.

The link below will take you to the study. It is worth the time and effort to read the article.

http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/05/new-smashwords-survey-helps-authors.html

How to Price eBooks for the Kindle by Stephen Windwalker - a Review

My professional education was geared to prepare me for a career other than entering the business world. My venture into self-publishing has been an eye-opening experience in so many ways due to the never ending need to learn new ideas and skills. The entire concept and "science" for lack of a better word concerning appropriate pricing and the many roles pricing plays has been an eye opener for me as well.

Even though one of my motivations for publishing my books is to be able to share information, it is a business and not only do I want to, I need to, make my enterprise as profitable as possible over the long run. Like many self-publishing authors, the business end of my enterprise is often not my strong suit. And so it was I invested the $2.99 in a Kindle copy of How to Price eBooks for the Kindle by Stephen Windwalker.

After reading the book twice, I still don't have a complete grasp on pricing strategies, but I do have a much better idea of the entire concept and what kind of considerations must be evaluated in the pricing process. My lack of understanding is NOT the fault of the author but rather a result of my lack of education in the realm of business.

The author not only covers the basics of pricing in the publishing world, but provides data from actual sales to illustrate the pricing concepts presented. Mr. Windwalker provides a good overview of the entire pricing process, the impact of pricing on sales from a long term perspective and offers a variety of strategies based on the author's past record of sales. In addition to the short book, included is a good number of blog posts the author wrote concerning a variety of topics related to the Kindle and the world of publishing eBooks.

The author writes with authority and clarity about the subject. A strong advocate of the Kindle and Kindle books, with a total of 32 books published for the Kindle, Mr. Windwalker is able to base his content on the experience and data gained through his own Kindle sales. The writing style is easy to understand allowing the reader to focus on the information presented and not deciphering the prose prior to attempting to understand the concepts in the book.

Is this book the sum total of knowledge an author must possess in order to effectively price Kindle books? Probably not, but it is an excellent starting point and reference for self-publishing authors who are entering the brave new world of eBook publishing. For the price of $2.99 the book is a virtual steal for the reader who purchases it.