This technique also contends that traditional pricing – that is, by multiplying the unit printing costs by eight, or simply matching competitors’ prices – may not optimize your operating income. For example, suppose your unit printing cost is $1.87. Eight times this amount would yield a list price of $14.95. This covers your distributor’s percentage (70%), and even with a promotional budget of $1 per book could yield $1.62 per sale. At that rate you would need to sell 619 books to generate $1000 of operating income.

However, what if your competition is selling a similar book for only $11.95? If you matched that price and maintained the same cost structure you would only net $ .72 operating income per sale. Consequently, you will have to sell almost 1400 books (a 126% increase in sales) to reach $1000 of operating income. A simple chart illustrates these circumstances.

What should you do? There are at least three alternatives from which you may choose.

Option 1: Price at $11.95 without changing the cost structure. This alternative could be appropriate for those who intend to use the title as a break-even venture to establish a foothold in a new market. This could also be the path for an author who chooses to publish for altruistic reasons.

Option 2: Price at $11.95 and reduce costs. Here, your objective is to lower your expenses to increase operating income. For example, you might print a larger quantity, reduce the page count, eliminate expensive graphics or find a lower-cost printer. If none of these is acceptable, try another approach. A four-color cover represents a considerable portion of the total printing charge. What if you print only the covers in a larger quantity – say 10,000 – and produce 2000 books at a time? In addition to lowering your unit cost you will minimize the turnaround time for future production runs.

You may decide to sell only through a wholesaler with a 55% discount. However, you might not be better off financially because you will need to perform some of the functions of distribution (selling, warehousing, shipping, accounting, handling returns). Similarly, you might decide to sell directly to special-sales niches. As with other changes in distribution, all of the increased revenue does not necessarily drop to the bottom line since your marketing costs will escalate as will the time necessary to perform the sales function.

If you set your price at $11.95 and reduce some of your costs, you could make more operating income by selling fewer books:

List Price $11.95

Distribution @ 55% $6.57
Production $1.25
Promotion cost $ 1.50
Total costs $9.32

Operating Income $2.63

Books per $1000 of Operating Income 381

Option 3: Price at 14.95. You might decide to go with the higher price and implement all the cost-saving actions stated above. At first glance this appears to be the strategy that would pour the most money into your coffers. But if you provide a premium-priced book that is outwardly identical to that offered by competition, most people would opt for the lower-priced one.

All is not lost because you can still apply creative marketing strategy. Eliminate side-by-side price comparisons by selling directly to special-sales and niche markets. Here the buyers do not have ready access to substitute titles and will view yours only in relation to how well it helps them solve their problems.

Create promotional devices that demonstrate your title’s superiority over competition. Tell prospective readers how much money your ideas will save them, or how they will benefit more by reading your book than a competitor’s.

You can maintain a higher price while reducing the cost to the buyer by offering discounts or implementing a promotional or discriminatory pricing strategy.

Discounts. Consider cash discounts to reward buyers who pay their bills promptly (2/10, net 30) or quantity discounts to those who purchase in large volumes (such as in special-sales markets).

Promotional pricing. Offering a money-back guarantee is one example of promotional pricing, as is seasonal pricing when you provide a discount for purchases made during periods of slow sales. Bundling is another example. And a reduced price “for this booksigning only” illustrates special-event pricing.

Discriminatory pricing is exemplified by customer-segment pricing, i.e., selling a library edition at a different price. Product-form pricing offers a different price for hard vs. softcover. You might also consider geographical pricing where identical books are priced differently at various locations. Discriminatory pricing is legal when certain conditions are met.

These alternatives demonstrate that pricing is more intricate then simply multiplying your printing costs or mimicking your competition. Different printing quantities yield varying costs for the identical book and different distribution strategies result in dissimilar operating income. The answer to your pricing dilemma lies in your ability and willingness to apply strategic thinking to your marketing efforts. Choose the option that best suits your particular skills, objectives and the time you have available to implement your plans.

Brian Jud is an author and creator of the Book Marketing Battle Plansä directories for special sales. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketingworks.com or visit http://www.bookmarketingworks.com

There are problems with both of these strategies. In the first case, your list price varies according to the quantity produced. The unit printing cost for 1000 copies of a 6″ x 9″ 192-page softcover book could be $2.60. Eight times that is $20.60. However, if you print 3000 copies of that identical book the unit cost could be $1.45 and eight times that is $11.60. Given this dilemma you may simply choose option two and match your competitors’ prices. However, if their prices were based on larger print runs it could be financially dangerous to match them.

So what is a publisher to do? Your immediate response might be to set an arbitrarily high price to maximize your revenue even if you sell fewer books in the process. Unfortunately, this typically results in only a short-term gain. On the other hand you might decide on a low price to sell more books. But given the book industry’s traditional distribution structure this strategy may be untenable. The most favorable pricing strategy for your circumstances may not be maximum profits or sales growth — but for optimum profitability and growth.

In most cases the best way to optimize your financial performance is to forecast sales at different price levels and then choose that which contributes the most money to you over the long term. In this scenario your final price may or may not have any bearing on your costs or competitor’s prices. The table below (which can be easily set up as an Excel file) demonstrates one way to calculate your optimum price.

Step one. Subjectively decide upon a list price and create a sales forecast that you feel is reasonably attainable, i.e., one that you have at least a 50-50 chance of reaching. Exhibit 1 begins with the premise that you are reasonably satisfied that you can sell 2500 books at a list price of $12.95 yielding gross revenue of $32,375 (Columns A x B).

Step two. Calculate your net revenue after deducting your distributor’s 70% discount. In this case your gross income is $9713 (30% of Column C).

Step three. Once your cost of goods sold (editing, design, printing) for producing the 2500 copies are deducted, you are left with $1963 for your efforts.

Step four. Select alternative prices at $1.00 increments above and below your initial price. Then assign a sales forecast to each. In Exhibit 1 the sales decrease 2.5% for each incremental price increase and increase 2.5% for each price decrease. Unfortunately, many publishers stop at this point and price their books at $16.95, thinking that it will maximize their gross profit.

Step five. You can find your point of optimum profitability if you go one more step and calculate the likelihood of reaching that sales volume. If there is only a 10% probability of selling 2250 books at $16.95 then your take-home pay is only $534. Exhibit 2 demonstrates that you will most likely optimize the money you ultimately receive by pricing your title at $13.95.

Of course, the validity of this method depends upon your ability to forecast sales volume at different price levels and the probability of that occurring. This intuitive skill comes from experience and testing, but it can be done.

This technique shows that pricing your books is more intricate then simply multiplying your costs or mimicking your competition. Analyze your sales forecasts by considering the likelihood of achieving them, and then implement your pricing strategy as part of a strategic marketing mix.

Brian Jud is an author and creator of the Book Marketing Battle Plansä directories for special sales. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketingworks.com or visit http://www.bookmarketingworks.com

Bottom up: The Traditional Method (8x)

Bottom up: You must price your book at least eight times (8x) the printing and trucking-in costs. This is your delivered production cost. Do not include the prepress (design, typesetting and layout) costs in your calculation. These are one-time charges that should be written off. In days past, we used to mark-up both prepress and production costs 8x, but those costs have been considerably reduced because of the computer—publishers can set their own type now, cutting down on some of the prepress expenses. Besides, your book will be around a long time; you will be able to spread those costs over many printings.

Neither the customer nor the retailer knows or cares what it costs to print the book. They only know what it is worth to them.
—Roger Pond

Why eight times? Because of distribution and promotion costs. If you charge less than the 8x mark-up, you won’t have enough money to promote the book.

Distributors (66%), wholesalers (50-55%) and stores (40%) have to be paid for delivering your book to the reader-buyer. Each takes a hefty cut of the list price.

Promotion is also expensive, and it is normal to invest 20 to 30% of the gross back into the process of selling your book. Depending upon the subject matter and the size of the potential audience, we often send out more than 500 review copies to appropriate magazines, newsletters, newspaper columns and opinion molders. Reviews are the most effective and least expensive promotion you can do for your book. Review copies are inexpensive promotion but they are books not sold.

Top Down: The Additional Method

Top down: The price you put on your back cover, embed in your bar code, put on the order blank on the last page of your book and list in all your promotion should be as much as the market will bear. Visit a bookstore and check out the prices of other books like yours.

Retail price is established by the marketplace not by the cost of production.
—Jerrold Jenkins, The Jenkins Group.

Yes I know?your book has “no competition”; all authors think their book is unique. Buyers do have a choice. And don’t fall into the trap of thinking your book is for everyone. For instance, I publish books on
skydiving. I would like everyone to jump out of a plane—to have fun, to skydive safely and to come back, make more jumps, join the club, buy equipment and (hopefully) buy more books. But, I am realistic. I know skydiving is not for everyone. (I am not sure why because gravity makes falling easy). Just because you spent the last year pouring your heart, soul and credit limit into your tome, that does not mean everyone is interested enough to buy it and read it. Now, that said, realistically determine the profile of the potential purchaser for your book.

Visit a bookstore and look for other books on your subject that would be purchased by the same type of person. Also look at the formats of those books: shape, color of paper, and types of binding.

You want to find what your potential buyer is willing to spend. If you are selling to teenagers, your price will have to be low and softcover. If yours is a business book, $34.95 and hardcover with a dust jacket may be right. If this is a professional book aimed at doctors, lawyers or accountants, a hardcover book without a jacket at $90 would not be out of line.

Please do not call and ask me how much you can charge for your book. For books on book promotion (such as The Self-Publishing Manual) and for books on parachutes (such as The Parachute Manual), I can make an educated guess. I do not know your field or your customers. I would have to visit a bookstore and check the shelves. You must do the same.

Prices should be based upon market factors first. What is the customer willing to pay for this product?
—Roger Pond

If you poll bookstore managers on pricing, remember that lower prices will sell more books, so they will often advise a lower price.

You do not have any control over the top-down price. Your cover price must be right in the middle of those sitting nearby on the shelf.

Customers will compare. If the cover price is too high, you will price your book out of the market and it won’t sell. If it is too low, the book will not be credible and potential buyers will think there is something wrong with it. You also won’t make enough to invest in further promotion.

Often, you will be surprised what people will pay for your book. There are many examples of people who raised the prices of their books and actually ended up selling more. But, in these cases the buyer was
somehow convinced of the value and benefit of the book.

Compare. Hopefully, your bottom-up price (8X) positions lower than your top-down price. If there is an overlap, you will have to reformulate the design of your book. In other words, cut back the size, leave out color photographs or use less-expensive materials.

Pricing your book is not hard. Calculate your costs and visit a bookstore. Do your homework.

Dan Poynter, the Voice of Self-Publishing, has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. Dan is a past vice-president of the Publishers Marketing Association. For more help on book publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPub.com.

The other day I was talking to an author who had written a short historical book of about 100 pages. The book was priced at $29.99. I suggested to the author that her book was overpriced. She responded by saying, “What price should I charge for my three years of research and writing?”

This author’s response made it clear that she was looking to get a return for the work she put into writing the book, and that is understandable, but she failed to consider what her readers are willing to pay. If authors want a return on their work, they need to get it through the quantity of books sold, and less so on individual copies. When a potential customer looks at a 100 page book, he is not going to see that it took three hours to research. He’s going to see 100 pages, which will take him about two hours to read. $29.99 is a lot of money for two hours of entertainment when you can go to a movie for about $8. How much is two hours of entertainment or information worth? I would have priced the book maybe at $14.99 myself, but the author clearly thought her information was worth more. I will give her that her book is the only one I know of on the topic so some people might be willing to pay more for the information in it, but I don’t think too many will want to pay $29.99.

I once attended a conference where several bookstore owners discussed how authors could work with bookstores to sell their books. Two of the owners disagreed about whether the price of a book mattered. One owner said that if people wanted what you had to sell, they would pay what you asked. (In the case of this history author, because her information was new, that might be the case. I doubt it would be, however, in the case of a fantasy author when there are thousands of fantasy titles to choose from.) The other bookstore owner pointed out that people will tend to buy the less expensive book if there are two on the same subject, unless the more expensive book appears to be of higher quality to make it worthwhile.

Higher quality might mean a hardback book, or it might mean something beyond text such as pictures, graphics, or colored photographs. A 100 page coffee table book or a graphic novel can be sold for a higher price because they are perceived as having higher quality because of their attractive look and that they have more than just straight text.

So just how do you determine an appropriate price? The best thing authors can do is to visit a bookstore to compare books similar to their own. It is better to go to a physical bookstore, not an online one, because then you can see and touch the books and compare them side-by-side. For example, if you’ve written a fantasy novel, look at the other fantasy novels in terms of content, size, and price and try to price yours somewhere in the middle. Granted, if you’re self-publishing, you may not be able to compete with the $6.99 mass market paperbacks put out by big fantasy publishers like TOR, but perhaps you can sell your book for $12.99 to out-price the hardback fantasy novels and the larger sized novels.

In general, it is best to price your book in the middle price range. You don’t want to overprice your book so people won’t buy it, but neither do you want to price it lower than most of the other books in your genre, especially if it’s self-published, because readers might dismiss your book as not being of value.

Some cases do exist for pricing your book on the higher end. If you are an established author in your subject matter and have already had some success with previous books so that customers will be loyal to you despite the price (within reason of course: you might get away with $29.95 when your past books were $25.95 but charging $39.95 may turn customers away). In the case of the history author above, she might be able to sell her book for $19.99 because its subject matter is unique, but I still think $29.99 is too high.

When setting price, you also need to take into account your cost, your profit, and what profit you will end up giving to bookstores or book distributors. For example, if you pay $5 a copy to print your books, is $19.99 a good price for selling them? A bookstore will want 40%, leaving you with $11.99 for the sale, a profit of $6.99—still more than double your investment. A book distributor will want 55%, leaving you with $9.00 for the sale, a $4.00 profit and still an 80% return on your investment. Just make sure you take those numbers into consideration before you price so you don’t end up losing money when you sell your book through distributors and bookstores. If you price your book in this case at only $9.99, you’ll only get $0.99 profit from bookstores and the distributors will take $5.50 leaving you with $4.49, a loss of $0.51 per book.

Remember, you can always drop the price. If your book is $19.99 and the bookstores are getting 40%, while you want customers in the bookstores to buy your books, you can also sell your books independently on your website or at various book festivals or art shows you attend for $15.99 and advertise that it’s a special 20% off just for this book signing or art show. Customers will then think they are getting a deal, and you can still make a profit. Remember, once you set the price on your book, you cannot raise it beyond the price printed on the cover (at least not until you do a second printing), but you can always sell for less.

Another option is to offer special or limited editions or hardcover copies of the book. An author might print 1,000 paperback books to sell at $19.95 each, and then print an extra 50 to sell at $29.95 each. The hardcover copies might cost $3 more to print, but you make an additional $7.00 in profit. People are more likely to buy hardcover copies over the paperback version for gifts, and they will also feel they are getting something special and more likely to last. You can do a small hardcover print run to see if the hard covers sell and then that may help you determine whether you can raise the paperback price if you reprint.

With a little research into book prices you can settle on a price that will benefit you and your readers. Don’t be afraid to ask for the advice of other authors and bookstore managers. The research and time spent determining your book price will be well worth the reward in books sold and profit gained.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

While some authors choose to self-promote, and a lucky few have full support from their publishers, most authors reach out to professionals for help with at least some aspects of their promotion. For both novice authors and veteran authors alike, the pitfalls of book publicity are many. In my experience handling over 250 campaigns, I know what can sabotage success, the errors of both omission and commission that can derail a campaign, and how human tendencies can adversely affect promotion and yes, ultimately book sales.

What follows are the Seven Deadly Sins of Book Promotion; the mistakes and actions that can destroy an author’s chances to get substantial media coverage, and how to avoid these common pitfalls.

1. Sloth
If you think sitting back and watching royalty checks roll in is your destiny, think again. Virtually all authors must “get out there” and be seen and heard. Book signings and tours are not passive events; they require a hunger for success and kinetic energy level. Interviews can be a gold mine or a disaster for one who puts forth a half-hearted effort. Publicity doesn’t happen, you have to make it happen.

When an author is not only aggressive, but willing to put his or her time in a campaign—we, as publicists, are better able to build their exposure, and gain consistent local, regional and nationwide coverage.

One example is a financial client who has been with us two years. His platform only touches on the topic of hedge funds. However, when hedge fund controversy hit the news, we suggested and he quickly responded with information for us to write a current and biting feature release. The result: national coverage, including reporters calling from the Wall Street Journal and other top financial publications. Because of his willingness to keep current, he is regularly called top financial media for expert commentary. His name and his projects benefit from this consistent, credible exposure.

Lazy authors languish in the million rankings on bookselling sites.

2. Pride

If you are promoting a book, prepare for your pride to be pierced a few times. One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen authors make is letting a negative review or a bad interview derail their determination.

The author believes his book is a bestseller; it is his baby, his labor of love. He has great pride in what he has written, so much so that it has created an excessive belief in his abilities and his book; after all — his relatives and friends love it. When the tough times come, pride begets anger, which begets frustration which leads to disillusionment.

Authors must go into promotion knowing not everyone will fall in love with the book. I often ask my clients, “Do you like every book you’ve ever read?”

Roll with the punches, and stay the course. Put your ego on bed rest.

3. Envy
Eight out of ten authors who call me inquiring about publicity tell me they want to be on Oprah. I tell them, invariably, that it’s probably not going to happen for them, that we can and should try, but the odds are akin to the lottery. But authors see others on the show and are envious. They ask “If that author is on, why can’t I?” or “My book is better than hers!”

Envy serves no purpose in book promotion. The only way other authors get great publicity gigs is because they try. If anything, you should learn from them. Watch successful authors carefully, examine their topic, and then examine your own project. We all can learn something from others; I still do every day.

We helped a self-published, first time novelist promote her work on vampires. A difficult project? Yes. Impossible? No. Were we able to get her on Oprah? No. Have we been able to tap into the significant sub world of vampire buffs? Absolutely. For eight months, we were able to generate consistent and targeted media coverage. Oprah, while a goldmine for any author, is unfortunately not a realistic goal for most.

4. Lust
How does lust come into play with book promotion? I have both an extreme example and more common ones from my firm’s own ‘case files.’

Good publicity can be intoxicating. Appearing on talk shows, reading articles written about you … it all makes you feel good, and it should. I always tell authors to enjoy the ride, because it won’t last forever. However, letting your good time change you, (or bring about actions which have nothing to do with the hard work of promoting your book) can be disastrous. Losing focus–taking your eye off the ball–is a surefire way to run into trouble.

Example #1: During the first conversations with a prospective client–a middle age author with multiple books–he asked me (and I must paraphrase here) if the publicity generated would “attract” women. He was serious. Needless to say, his campaign lasted only one month; we tried to keep him focused on the steps needed to get exposure for his books, but we couldn’t, and we parted company.

Example #2: The more benign type of book promotion “lust” comes in the form of letting success change who you are, and make you long for things which you never envisioned before. In our firm we call these clients “addicts”–they become so enthralled with success that the book becomes secondary. They seek more and more exposure, but not so much to sell books, but to feed their own newly found lust for fame, popularity and the overwhelming desire to have others simply notice them.

In the end, lust almost always makes for an unhappy ending to what can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

5. Gluttony
Gluttony in book promotion touches upon several of the other sins. In its purest form, it is the insatiable desire to “consume” as much publicity as possible, and not being satisfied with each opportunity. Local radio interviews, for example, become unsatisfying, and an author starts to shun them because she wants more and bigger opportunities. A book review in a small newspaper is dismissed as insignificant, because she wants bigger newspapers. A local TV opportunity is declined because there aren’t enough viewers to fulfill the need for exposure.

When I run into these scenarios, the campaign starts to slowly dissolve because the author is literally never satisfied, and will not appreciate “smaller bites” of publicity while the bigger opportunities are pursued.

Book promotion is like a seven course meal. You start slowly, testing the waters, then move onto the next course. You proceed in a steady, measured manner, enjoying every course while building confidence, momentum, and sales.

Don’t demand all seven courses be delivered to your publicity table at once. Enjoy the entire experience of the meal and be patient.

6. Greed
Like gluttony, greed is the offspring of several other sins, and perhaps the most common sin of book promotion. Here is a classic example:

• An unknown, first-time author comes to my firm. He is nervous, unsure and wary of what will happen in his campaign–all perfectly understandable and expected concerns. The campaign begins slowly; and a few radio interviews are secured. All is well.
• The campaign starts to achieve momentum. The radio interviews start streaming in. Instead of one a week, we are booking four and five a week.
• Our client has confidence now, and is thoroughly enjoying the process, as he should.
• Things start to change. The level of radio interviews takes a dip, and we encounter “the lull,” which happens in most campaigns. Instead of four or five interviews a week, it drops to one or two.
• The author, having become accustomed to many interviews each week, demands more. He is not satisfied with the interviews we secure, and will not be satisfied until we reach and exceed the number of interviews we had achieved.
• He becomes disillusioned and decides another firm can fulfill his hunger for more and more interviews.

When clients truly understand the nature of publicity, they are able to roll with the busy times and slow times, knowing it is the cumulative efforts of the entire campaign that count. As a publicists, we gauge when the “party is over” for a particular angle, then work with the author to develop new and topical press materials with the goal of maintaining and improving media opportunities.

Greed is what I call a “coffin nail” in a campaign. Once it starts, it is very difficult to control and typically ends in a campaign which veers off track wildly. Greed may be good on Wall Street, but it will bankrupt a book promotion campaign.

7. Anger
Anger comes in many forms in book publicity. I once worked with an author who received a brutal review of his book, and was so angry he proceeded to drive over 200 miles to the reviewer’s location, storm into the office, and scream at the reviewer. This was, putting it mildly, a bad move.

The reviewer reacted by contacting reviewers at other newspapers in his company’s chain, and urged his colleagues to review the book. Five additional negative reviews appeared in the ensuing weeks.

It is important to keep in mind when promoting your book, you are opening yourself up for scrutiny. In fact, you are inviting it. You want the scrutiny and attention. Assuming everyone will react positively to you or your book is foolish and naive.

The same scenario happens in radio interviews. Many authors don’t realize that “hostile” interviews can make for great talk radio, and actually get more listeners curious and interested in your book. If a host starts throwing punches at you on the air, throw yourself into the fight. Trust me, you will have a good time. When your juices get flowing, you will be more animated and colorful, listeners will love it and books will sell.

We are all Sinners
Book promotion is a distinctly human process. It is an emotional, scary, exciting and stimulating experience. Authors promoting a book will, at various times, experience both disappointment and excitement. All authors will also be tempted to “sin” at various times in a campaign. As a publicist, I expect this and understand it. I am usually successful at coaxing our authors away from the “dark side.”

As in life, recognizing the sins of publicity, and stopping them before they cause problems is key. Book promotion is more a marathon than a sprint, and because of this, the opportunities to veer into negative promotional behaviors are many.

You can always atone for your sins by getting back on track, enjoying the ride, and realizing you are involved in a wonderful experience.

Dan Smith is the founder and president of TCI-Smith publicity, a full service book promotion and public relations agency with offices in New Jersey, New York, and London. He has personally conducted more than 250 promotional campaigns. Clients of TCI-Smith Publicity have appeared on virtually every major radio and television show, and been featured in top publications across the country. www.smithpublicity.com.

One element of your price is the cost of production. But remember that you are not selling paper, you are selling the information or experience readers receive when they read your book.

Consider how you will sell the book, and what your marketing expenses will be. What discounts will you have to offer? Or choose to offer? How much do other books in your genre sell for? What is the perceived value of the information and the package it is in?

Pricing products and services involves much more art than science. There are so many variables to pricing that there can’t be a magic formula telling you exactly how much to charge in every given situation. However, you can rely on some guidelines to help you set your prices.

One rule of thumb to keep in mind when pricing books is that you should charge at least 8 to 10 times your cost of production. If a book costs you $1.50 to produce, can you price it at least $11.95? Better yet, can you charge $14.95 or more? This assumes that you are producing your books in quantity, and that you are offering discounts to resellers, wholesalers, etc. Your cost per copy may not allow you to charge 8 to 10 times cost if, for example, you are producing perfect bound books in small quantities.

Rather than basing your prices on the cost of producing your materials, price according to the value. It is important to remember that you are not selling paper, tape or other materials–you are selling the information contained in your book, report, audio tape, etc. What is the information worth to your customers, and how much will they be willing to pay for it? An item may cost you $15 to produce, yet be worth every penny of $495.

What are your competitors charging for similar products? You can charge more if your product has a higher perceived value, but not if your products are seen as the same as something available at a lower price.

Consider your marketing costs. Will you have to give discounts of 25%, 40%, 55% or more to retailers or distributors? Make sure you can do so and still be profitable. If you plan to sell through direct mail or two-step classified ads, your marketing cost may be $10 – $20 for each book you sell. Obviously, you won’t be profitable selling a book for $11.95 this way.

You also have to consider the value of your time in creating and marketing the book, so make sure your pricing leaves room to recover payment for your time.

Copyright Cathy Stucker.