One of the most frequent questions new writers and authors ask is, “How much should I charge for my ebook?”
With many factors that go into this decision, there aren’t many easy answers or hard and fast rules.
I’ve learned how much to charge for my ebooks through trial and error and came away with a few ideas about how to price your own.
There’s no harm in treating your ebook pricing like an experiment. When you land on a price, always keep in mind that you could revisit that price, halve that price, or maybe double that price, depending on the reception it gets.
Or you might decide to make your ebook free-there’s a number of compelling reasons to do that in the right situation.
That said, how to price an ebook can be fairly straightforward if you go through the following questions.
To sell the most books, the best price point is $0.99. You’re making some money while also getting your work out there to the highest number of readers. But at $0.99, Amazon only allows you as the author to make a 35% royalty. Once the price goes above $2.99, you can set the royalty to 70%. You might get fewer readers, but not as many less as you might think. Therefore, the best price for an ebook is between $2.99 and $9.99-in that range, you’re eligible for the highest royalty percentage of 70%.
When selling your book on your own website, the “rules” are a bit different, as you’re making 100% no matter the price point.
The first thing to contemplate is what you’re trying to accomplish with this ebook. Maybe it’s something you’re creating as a free gift to your blog subscribers.
Or perhaps you want to use this ebook to lure readers to buy something more expensive from you later – in which case, $0.99 might be a good entry price.
If this is your magnum opus, you might choose a more substantial price, depending on how you plan to market it. Which brings us to this question:
There are many different approaches to selling your ebook. You might decide to only sell it on your own website.
Or you might only sell on Amazon, so you can get the higher royalties offered in their KDP Select program.
Or you might decide to post it everywhere possible, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Overdrive, and dozens of other book sites.
If you’re selling on mass platforms, you’ll particularly want to ask yourself:
You don’t have to charge the same sorts of prices as others in your genre or topic, but it pays to be aware of what’s out there, especially if your ebook will be featured in search results on a book site right alongside those competitors’ offerings.
If you’re thinking a 50-page ebook about gardening is worth $20, but everyone else sells their similar-length ebooks for $2.99, you’re probably not going to see many sales. If you’re only selling off your own website, you might have more leeway to price without regard to market competition.
If you’re selling on Amazon, keep in mind that recent data shows most bestselling e-books there are priced in the $3-$7 range. The lower the price, the more you sell.
Amazon says its data shows if you priced an ebook at $14.99 and would have made $100,000 at that price, you’d make $179,000 from that same ebook if you cut the price to $9.99.
Lower prices greatly expand the audience of potential buyers. More people buy, getting your ideas into more hands – and, often, making you more money.
At $0.99, many shoppers will consider your ebook a “no-brainer” purchase. It’s less than a buck! At that price, it’s an easy impulse buy. If you want to get buzz going, get your words into many hands, have many potential reviewers, make a lot of sales, and capture emails for selling the next ebook, this can be the price that makes it happen.
My advice: If you don’t have a $0.99-cent ebook yet, set a goal of creating one first. You want an entry-level price where readers will jump in and start getting to know you, to lay the groundwork for successfully selling a higher-priced ebook.
I’ve seen these pricing approaches work in my own ebook selling . . . so think hard about whether you want to go high or low. One critical factor there:
If your ebook is on a topic with a fairly small but rabidly interested audience – say, Civil War re-enactments or underwater basketweaving – you might want to go with a higher price.
You’ll be less likely to be able to use a lower price to end up earning more, because there isn’t a mass audience for your topic. Another aspect of this:
If you have built an audience that you can email about your e-book, you are in a better position to charge more than if you have no list.
People who like you enough to opt into an email list probably think you’re pretty awesome. So they’ll be more likely to entertain the idea of buying a higher-priced tome from you.
If all your marketing will be through mass bookselling sites to total strangers, there’s less chance that they’ll think your ebook is worth $27 — when they’re looking at a page of Amazon results with other, similar books at $3.99.
But you might be able to charge more, depending on your answer to this:
Does your nonfiction ebook teach readers how to do something that could change their lives or earn them boatloads of cash? If so, it might command a high price.
There’s high perceived value if what I read in your ebook can be used to make me hundreds of times the price of your ebook. For instance, I’ve seen ebooks that teach you a concrete system for how to launch and market a product do very well at $97 and more.
It’s rare that your nonfiction ebook will be the only place a reader could get the information you’re offering. But maybe you’ve got a unique spin, fresh data, or a new method to offer. If so, take advantage of it.
Rare information is more valuable to readers, so you could price higher if you have something exclusive. Unique info also means your offer can’t be as easily price-compared, which helps you charge more.
One cautionary note about pricing your ebook super-low: It makes it hard for you to offer special deals. And you want to offer those. Putting your ebook on a limited-time sale is a proven way to generate a flurry of sales.
Among the deals I’ve offered that have sold well, for instance, are:
So consider having a “list” price but discounting that price down, at least on occasion. You’ll drive a lot more interest in your ebook.
Once you select a price, remember my short answer: how to price an ebook is all an experiment.
Don’t ever think your price is set in stone or that you have to price like everybody else. Every author’s situation is unique, so feel free to carve your own path with how you price.
The ebook world is changing fast, so remember to revisit your price from time to time and consider whether it’s still the best one. Pricing correctly is one of the keys to creating an ebook that earns well, so keep tinkering.
What strategy have you used in pricing your ebook? Let us know in the comments!
7 Reasons Every Freelancer Should Write A Book
Free Guide – From Increasing Your Creativity – To Increasing Your Revenue – You should write a book!
That’s the question that is confounding a great many authors who are self-publishing via the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program.
I’m one of those authors. I have several books on Amazon already, priced between $2.99 and $9.99. But what is the right price? Where’s the sweet spot? What price works the best?
I will share with you which price I have had the most success with, and I am going to ask for your help in pricing my new Book “Happy Every Day”.
Since I have been offering free review copies via Story Cartel in exchange for honest reviews I have set the price of “Happy Every Day” at $3.99.
There’s nothing scientific about the price I chose. I simply considered it a reasonable price, and I didn’t need to give it too much thought because I realized most people would download the review copy and not buy it during the Story Cartel offer.
Since today is the last day for reviewers to download the book from Story Cartel, it’s time for me to start considering the price.
The first price that comes to mind, and the price I have had the most success with on Amazon, is $2.99.
According to Joe Konrath, on his blog, he states quite convincingly that $2.99 is the new eBook standard. If you don’t know who Joe is, just know this: He’s sold over one million eBooks.
$2.99 is an impulse buy. It’s no-guilt. It’s a bargain. It encourages people to buy, rather than discourages.
–Joe Konrath (If you agree, then tweet.)
But I know there are authors who disagree, and understandably so, because they’ve put so much time and effort into their work. Many of them feel as though $2.99 is short changing their work. Is it?
On Amazon there are many books rated far lower than similar books which are much cheaper. So in the case of eBooks the price does not equate worth.
It became the most popular book on Story Cartel.
The majority of reviewers of “Happy Every Day” loved it! As I write this there are 40 – 5 Star Reviews and 32 – 4 Star Reviews.
That’s quite revealing considering the book went out via Story Cartel to readers who had no personal interest in the book.
Should I take it’s popularity on Story Cartel into consideration? Rising to #1 on Story Cartel is no easy accomplishment.
If I go by the reviews and success on Story Cartel, should I charge $9.99?
Or, do I consider that “Happy Every Day” is a non-fiction book that provides valuable strategies and can genuinely help readers?
How much is a book worth that provides simple, effective ways to happiness?
And maybe I really should consider how many nights I burned the midnight oil working on the book.
Writing a book about any subject and making it simple is hard work. (Tweet This)
Then I should charge, $22.99. Right? Well, no, probably not. I’m not crazy.
Let’s look at royalties:
KDP offers 70% royalties for $2.99 to $9.99, and 35% if the price is below $2.99 or above $9.99.
When comparing to traditional book publishing royalties 70% is a darn good percentage, more than you would earn selling a mass market paperback at about 8% royalties.
However, just because the royalties for KDP are higher, it won’t help if you price your book at $9.99 and no one buys it.
For a $2.99 Kindle eBook you earn $2.09 per sale. To get an idea how much that really is, consider that a traditionally published mass market paperback selling for $10.00 at 8% royalties gets you only $0.80.
When I look at it like that $2.99 seems like a pretty good price point.
It looks like we are back to square one and I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the factors, possibilities and arguments for one price or another, because frankly it’s overwhelming.
And that’s why I want your help.
I think the best price is the price in which the majority of readers feel the most comfortable purchasing at.
But what is that price?
I’d really like to know what you think:
What do you think is the best price for “Happy Every Day”?
Let’s say you’re the author and it’s your book, what would you price it at and why?
Have you published a book via KDP? What price point has worked best for you?
Share with us in the comments.