How to Set a Price for Your Indie Book

A book is a wonderful, creative piece that actually took a lot longer than just the time to type it all up. Ideas may be conceived in a moment, but developing plots and characters can take a lot of time. When an author finishes a book, it is a culmination of their imagination, life experience, and their expertise all coming together as one. Pricing a book is part art, part science. Self published authors perhaps struggle with setting a book price more than just about any part of the publishing process. But there are some ways to help making setting a price for a book a reasonable feat.

Too High or Too Low?

There is a bit of psychology that goes into pricing books. Having a price that is too low can work against you and have a negative impact on its quality. Pricing a book too high can deter readers from purchasing it as well. People tend to feel that they will “get what they pay for” so you want to choose a good in between price that lets potential buyers feel like the book is worth the investment. Smashwords did a survey and found that on average books that were priced at $3.99 sold better on average than those priced at $2.99.

What Are Your Goals?

After you have worked to get your book ready for publishing and you need to set a price, you should already be relatively sure of what you want the book to do. Usually, an author has one of two goals: more sales or more readers. In most instances, authors are likely to say that these two goals carry equal weight and they are not mutually exclusive. You may take either approach successfully and the other is likely to follow. For authors who are not yet well established, a lower price might be what is needed to draw in a readership. Authors who already have a solid fan base often can charge a higher price for their work.

Making Comparisons

One place to start comparing prices is in your own genre. Romance novels tend to do well in the range between 99 cents and $2.99. But nonfiction or literary fiction usually tends to run a little higher in price. In most cases, authors may choose to start pricing at $10 or below. From there, test out a few different prices and maybe run your own promotions to find out what sells best. Take some time to research your specific genre to see what is selling at what price. This can give you an idea for a price range for your latest book.

The Babelcube team wishes you pricing success!