If you are considering delving into the world of self publishing, there are a few things you should look at before determining a price for your book and printing it on the cover. E-books garner different pricing than do printed books. The pricing structure is usually lower than a printed book, as costs to produce the e-book are minimal.
Before you determine your printed book price, you need to go to a bookstore and look at books in your genre, their sizes and length of pages. This is especially important for children’s picture books and hardcover versus soft cover. The end consumer won’t care that it cost you x numbers of dollars to produce, and because it is only a small run, you have to over price it just to make a wee profit. No, the consumer wants to pay a price comparable to what other books are going for, and they want perceived value for the item they are purchasing.
When you have a final price from at least three printers, then you can determine what to price your book at so that it can be comparable to what is already on the shelves. You need to find the price point at which you can incorporate the printing costs, book distribution costs, and marketing and promotions costs. And finally, the profit you would like to keep as a wage for being an author.
The following steps are a starting point in determining the price of your book.
1. Select three printers:
Note: these companies may either be strictly book printers with no other services (editing, graphics or marketing), or you may choose a book publisher who helps you with a complete package (editing, graphics, ISBN, printing, marketing and distribution).
If you go with a printer that is just printing the books, then you will also have to factor in the editing, layout and file preparation costs and add these onto the quote you got from the printer to determine a final production cost.
No matter which type of printer you choose select THREE different companies and request a quote.
You must also request a quote from three different editors and/or layout/graphics design companies if required.
2. Request a quote:
Request a quote for 100, 250, 500, from a small Print On Demand (POD) company. These companies usually do black and white printing with a color cover. Little to no illustrations (if so they are black and white).
OR
If you are going full colour process with illustrations throughout, you will have to select a larger printer who offers those services, so request a quote for 1000, 1500 and 2000.
If you have colour illustrations, you will have to also request a quote from a scanning company for the scanning of the illustrations (unless you do it yourself depending on the size of canvas).
ASK:
~ Where the price breaks occur at certain quantities.
~ If there are any additional charges such as special binding (smith-sewn versus perfect bound).
~ Where the price breaks occur for certain types/differences of paper.
~ For the pricing of a dust jacket versus no dust jacket.
~ What the shipping costs will be to your destination and figure out if there is a way to save on these (i.e., pick up at the warehouse).
~ For reprint pricing (printers will offer discounts if you use them again, as all the files are already prepared, so no need to start the process over again.
3. Where Are You Going To Selling Your Book?:
Once you have a quote in hand, then you have to look at where you will be selling the books, as you will have to factor in the commissions that the distributor will take, and what book stores will take.
Bookstores, will allow authors to do signings at their stores, even if the proprietor is not interested in shelving the book. However, once the daily sales are tallied, the bookstore will take their percentage just for allowing you to be there.
Bookstores can take anywhere from 30% (Independent bookstores) to 45% (National chains) to 55% (Amazon). If you find a distributor, they can take about 20%, so figuring out the math, that doesn’t leave much of a buffer between paying for the cost of the book and pocketing some change for profit. This doesn’t even include any marketing and promotions costs that could come out of the profits of the book.
4. Final Tally:
When pricing a printed book, be sure to look at all costs of getting the product to the printed stage. Keep a spreadsheet of all the productions step costs from editing to layout and design to scanning and printing (and if a package deal, the extra for marketing and distribution – and to even purchase your books from them so you can sell them yourself).
Tally the total cost, take the commissions off of the sales areas where you intend to sell the book, but don’t limit yourself – i.e., don’t say that you will never sell them in a bookstore and so it won’t matter, because some of your best promotion can be found at book store signings and readings.
Once the commissions are off this will give you a bottom line of the profits you can expect to make. Are you at a break even point? Can you make a little profit? You may decide that you won’t ever be distributing the book through a company, but doing all the work yourself. So you will be able to eliminate the 20% of the distribution cost, but it is a good idea to factor it in.
There is a lot to think about with pricing a book. Once you have the costs for production you can take a hard-line look at whether the project is even viable on a massive scale, or if all you want to do is share with a few family and friends, then you won’t be so concerned about the bottom line.
Tags: pricing books, self publishing
