Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hello All

I'd like to hear folks' experiences on setting wholesale prices for your inde published trade paperbacks for interested non-bookstore brick-n-mortar retailers. Thank you.

If you use Create Space, they set a minimum proce you can offer it through them, though Amazon sells it a little lower, but orders through Create Space. The best way with Create Space to get the cost down, is go for the 6X9 in page size. Regardless of the word count, Create Space charges by the page. My book was 132,000 words, and if I would have made a smaller page size, the price to the consumer would have been awful.

Create Space is the only publisher I have dealt with. It is a POD, Print On Demand publisher that lets you retain ownership rights and is popular among indi authors.

Thanks Morris. As an additional sales venue, I'm referring to taking POD produced books bought at "author price" and selling through brick-n-mortar places (that aren't bookstores)--not through internet-based retailers. I'm wondering how authors who have done this have set their per-book price.

That is a good method, though the main chains like Barnes and Noble probably won't let you just walk up and ask them to sell your books. Try independently owned stores, and start off by giving them a signed copy. (Hopefully who you give it to likes your genre.) Then come back and ask them if they liked it and if they want more copies. Last effort, leave some on consignment, so they can earn a profit without investment.

I think a lot of retailers expect to get %50 of the list price but as an Indie publisher I can't afford that. What I am planning on doing is determining my per book cost and then splitting the net earnings 50-50 with any retailers that carry my book. Remember to figure in ALL your costs, i.e. shipping and duty (if you are ordering from outside the US, depending on the country) to get your actual per book cost. For example, I'm from Canada so my per book cost is $3.80 (book) + $2.60 (shipping if I order only 25 books) + $0.99 duty (to Canada Customs, based on the cost of 25 books) making my book cost me $7.39. I'm planning on selling it in Canada for $15 so that leaves me with %7.61 to split with the retailer. I haven't actually done this yet so I can't tell you if retailers are on board though.

Thanks Lisa. I've already had one potential venue ask me my "wholesale" price so I'm trying to get a feel for what's reasonable after subtracting my actual cost per book. 50% percent of net earnings is an interesting option.

Createspace is usually very good when it comes to stuff like this. You can set your book at a reasonable price and Amazon has their methods as well. I usually set my kindle at 50% less then wholesale paperback prices as I think kindle should be less although in some cases I've seen very high Kindle prices.

Sally, what are you willing to accept to get your book into those venues? A KDP sale on a $$2.99 book nets ~$2.00 (allowing for download costs). Are you willing to accept $1.00? A $1.50? If so, add that to the Createspace cost, see how many they want to order, work out a deal on the shipping cost, and drop-ship the books to them.

Thanks for everyone's responses. I'm specifically looking for folks who have set wholesale prices for CreateSpace paperbacks to sell in nonbookstore venues. In other words, once you have your per unit price, what strategy do you use for setting a wholesale price for venues that want to buy upfront and not splitting net earnings (the way Lisa's looking to go)? I have a venue that is interested. I'm thinking about going for a 40% discount off retail based on my per unit cost. We are talking a small number of copies--so will probably deliver myself.

Hi Sally,
A lot of that depends, as others have pointed out, on how you are planning on delivering the book to the retail outlet. If you are hand delivering, you'll want to take your cost (price per book plus shipping) and subtract that from the face value. This would technically be your profit if you sold the book, so you'll want to decide how much of that you feel you can let go. Example:
If my book costs $5 to print and ship and I charge $10 retail, that gives me a profit of $5. I would feel comfortable setting my wholesale price at $7.50, which gives an equal profit to myself and the outlet. However, let's say the retail outlet wants a discount. Their line of thinking is that people will be less inclined to check fot a discount online if they see the book discounted in the store. Say they want to sell the book for $9. I would happily sell them the book for $7 now, so that they can keep 50%, but if they demand I sell it for $6.50 so that they can discount yet keep the original profit, I would likely say no.

But this is just an example. You would need to decide what you are comfortable with profit-wise. If you want to, you can also point them to Createspace's wholesale distribution site, which I belive, will still net you a better profit than expanded distribution, but dont quote me on that. This way, you are paid directly from CS and they are responsible for shipping, etc, and setting their sale price.

I have 2 copies of my first book at a local paperback (indie!) store. They take $2 off the top and the rest for me is profit -- theoretically. The copies from CS cost me $6 and I'm selling them for $11.99 at the store which I *know* is too much for a paperback. When we were setting the price, they suggested going with Amazon's price. :( I *know* this is why none have sold so I want to readjust that. So my advice is to price it realistically. (In my case? I wouldn't even care about profit -- I just want them in someone's hands).

I haven't even bothered to set up book 2 over there yet. It's in the same series, and chances are, most readers would want to buy book 1 first.

Sally, I'm thinking about doing the same thing. CreateSpace would charge me $5.35 to print a 6x9 trade paperback book of my novel. That's the "author's price." I thought I would buy some and try to sell them to local bookstores, as part of a "local author" book signing event.

Paperbacks generally go for $7.99 & $9.99 (for the smaller sizes), and $14.95 for the 6x9 trade paperback size. So, I would give the store half of the sale price for each book sold (which would be $7.50). I wouldn't really make anything on the books (after I calculate the shipping cost to get the books to me), but I'm not looking for a profit on the book signing... I'd just be doing it for the exposure and experience.

Has anyone done this? Any advice, recommendations, etc...?

April

Interesting to hear your thoughts all. It seems like price setting really varies depending on the venue and how much an author wants to make for profit on a sale (or whether they are looking to this type of venue primarily for exposure to readers). Folks are approaching this very individualistically.

Sally, you're right. It is very individualistic. I think that's what makes indie publishing so exciting. We get to decide for ourselves what our goals are and how we want to approach the business.

April

Of the four or five booksellers I talked to, 2 wanted 40% of the book price and 2 wanted 30% (and if I talked to the fifth about price, I can't remember which they wanted). I currently have my book for sale in 3 local stores and am ready to put it on consignment at a fourth.
Suppose you have a book on sale for $16.99. Suppose you pay createspace ~$7 for each book with shipping. You would then give it to the bookstore and receive either $11.89 or $10.19.

Hey everyone. Thanks for your experiences. Keep 'em coming!

I've been inquiring at other independent bookstores. A fair rate I've seen is 30% to the bookstore/70% to the author based on retail price (ordered through CreateSpace and pay for shipping yourself).

Another bookstore, offers only 50%/50% but also charges a consignment fee of $50. It would take many copies sold to break even there! Expanded distribution (i.e., the bookstore orders through Ingram) only nets a tiny $0.13 per copy for the author (on a $13.95 trade paperback).