Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

How do you price a book yourself? Considerations -paperback/hardback/pages/kindle/genre/potential/costs etc Is there an accepted formula?

I am not an expert by any measurement; however, the following information was obtained from books and periodicals I have personally researched regarding your inquiry. I hope it helps.

The more established, popular, and talented the author, the more readers will be willing to pay for a book. Naturally, the price varies with paperback priced higher than e-book, and hard cover priced higher than paperback.

For an unknown author who has yet to achieve notoriety within the literary field, 10% above production and publishing related costs is probably a reasonable starting point. Once a consistent following and sales volume is established, the profit margin may be increased exponentially.

The literary field is extremely competitive. There are literally millions of published authors. Most will never achieve significant notoriety or commercial success. That said, some have. There is no reason why you might not eventually become one of them. I wish you success.

A good place to start is by looking up books similar to yours in genre, print size, and page count. That will give you a ballpark range. Then consider your production costs and how much you will make back at various price points. You don't want to sell for so little that you make no money (or lose money!) on a sale, but you don't want to be too much above the price range for similar books or people will think you're overpriced.

For ebooks, I've generally sold novels of about 80,000 words for $4.99 but have dropped prices to $2.99 for sales and during the COVID period. I've gone to $0.99 a couple of times, and while that does tend to increase my sales, the income is so low as to make it not worth it from the financial point of view. (Other people may have had more success with that price point though.)

Written Word Media (owner of BargainBooksy and FreeBooksy) publishes occasional articles on pricing strategies, such as this one from 2018. I expect they would be pretty reliable.

I would tend to price it near the average for similar books considering size, genre, construction eg hard/soft cover, and other similar factors. Also author following and name recognition would influence that choice.

The question is whether you can afford to sell the book at a price that would be competitive or would the profit be too small or even a loss.

I would tend to price it near the average for similar books considering size, genre, construction eg hard/soft cover, and other similar factors. Also author following and name recognition would influence that choice.

The question is whether you can afford to sell the book at a price that would be competitive or would the profit be too small or even a loss.

Thanks, Dale. Your comments make a lot of common sense. Will look at Written Word Media. George

Thank you Jim for your informative and polite reply. I will take all your wise words on board. George.

Thank you Wimba. Not so bothered about profit at moment; as you so wisely put it author following is a big influence. George

Not an expert, but my sense is your average book buyer doesn't do much analysis but goes by emotion. I suspect, for instance that a book priced at $9.99 is viewed quite a bit more favorably than one priced at $10.00. My strategy was to pick a price near the median for the genre and length, that allowed me to come down a little to pitch a "discount" while still making a profit (however small). When you're not Stephen King or James Patterson, you have to accept small margins. That's just the way it is.