Authors: You Need To Think Clearly About Pricing
How Do You Pick Your Book Price on Amazon KDP
One of the biggest mistakes an author can make while self-publishing their book is choosing the wrong price.
Yes, I believe there is a wrong price for your book.
If you don't get it right, people won't buy your book. Even if you adjust, you might need to do a lot to get the ball rolling again.
Over the last four books, I have found a few crucial details that help with book pricing. I have also read a lot of resources on the topic and reviewed a lot of self-published books.
I will give you everything I have learned about pricing your book in today's post, especially for the early self-publisher or the first time.
So, let's dive right in.
How To Think About Pricing
Pricing your book isn't a one-time thing. This is the mistake most self-publishing authors make to start their failures with pricing.
I used to think that you just set your price and forget it. However, I have found that book pricing is fluid.
If you look at any self-published or traditionally published books, prices move. They go up and down. This tells me that book prices need to be fluid. At least for a time.
What I propose to you is that you learn how to move and adjust your price correctly. If you do this well, you have a chance to sell books and make money.
If you do it poorly, your book will die. Float into oblivion. And it will be hard to revive your book the longer you wait.
How to Price Your First Five Book
If you are publishing your first book and don't have 10,000 email subscribers, you should start your book out for free.
Yep, that's right, free. On Amazon KDP, I would set the Kindle price at $0.99 and then set up a five-day free book promotion. This way, you can get some easy downloads for bargain book hunters.
After your five days free, you leave it at $0.99 for a week or two. Then you can bump it up a dollar. After another week or two, bump it up to $2.99, and that will probably be your best stop.
Print Books
Regarding your print book, I suggest that you set your price so it will make a $2.00 profit. For my devotionals, that is $6.99. This is a reasonable price for my books. They are about 100 pages, too, which seems to fit with trends.
If you have a 200 to a 300-page book, you could probably do a higher price. My first book sits at $7.99 as it is longer and costs more to print.
The key is getting Kindle downloads that help push your book out to Amazon. So you want to price your Kindle book low.
Pricing Books Two to Five
Now, I have done free book launches with all three of my devotionals. However, I will start at $0.99 to launch my next one.
Why the change? Well, a few things. Because of my other books, I have ongoing sales and have grown an email list.
If you publish books two through five, you want to keep doing free book launches to drive orders. The only caveat is if you have grown a large audience of followers or email subscribers.
I would stick with the free book launch and slowly increase your price. This way, you can test where book sales top out. Though, I continually find that $2.99 is a cut-off point.
Print Books
What I shared about your print book holds with books two to five. I would keep the same tactic for these books as well.
If you are seeing regular sales with your print books, you could start testing the waters by increasing the price, but I wouldn't price your text for more than $9.99. This seems to be a cut-off price for self-publishing.
The other thing to remember is that your print prices will go up and down with returns or Amazon messing with it. You will get your expected $2.00 profit even if they discount it, but changes sometimes happen.
Don't Price Your Kindle Book High
You cannot price your Kindle book high if you want to grow a following and get people to buy your book. It won't work, especially if people don't know you.
One of the biggest mistakes I have seen reviewing people's self-published books is that they price their Kindle books at $5, $10, or even $25. These prices always fail with Kindle books.
You can price your print books higher, though. I have noticed that Amazon buyers will still purchase print books high, especially hardcover books.
This is primarily due to conventional thinking about traditional publishers and print books. However, you will always get more sales with lower prices.
Final Thoughts on Pricing
The most important thing you need to do early on is to get over yourself. Most self-publishing authors get in a tizzy when I suggest selling their books for cheap.
But the truth is, the Amazon market is a fickle place. Readers won't often read your book if they don't know you. However, they will take a chance if it is only a buck or two to purchase your book.
Over time, you can raise your prices, especially as you get more reviews and regular sales with multiple books. But your initial efforts must focus on moving books, not making money.
Your pricing is a tool, and when done right, you can find a lot of success.
J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Substack!
If you like this newsletter, check out my free and paid offerings on Gumroad!
Great info. Thanks for sharing.
Good stuff, Jack. I get the pricing question a lot.