Since we first began assisting self-publishers, one question which is constantly asked is “how should I price my book?”   For printed books, this has always been a tricky question due to production and inventory costs. In many cases small independent self-publishers cannot afford to print large quantities of books which would lower their average production costs. Consequently, many are forced to price their books slightly higher than they imagined, just recouping their costs and yielding a meager profit.

E-book pricing strategy has nothing to do with production costs – and everything to do with marketing. Establishing an e-book’s price requires research and creativity on the part of the self-publisher. The author must ascertain a book’s realistic potential audience and gauge the realistic demand. In addition, the author needs to identify the purpose of their marketing efforts. Is the goal to increase REVENUE or EXPOSURE?

“Do I want more sales or more readers?”

When asked the question above, most authors would probably say they want both. It is better to identify one primary goal and let the secondary goal organically develop. Both approaches can be successful, so self-publishers need to do some soul searching and identify what is really important to them now.

Revenue – Show me the money!

Self-publishers who are focused on increasing sales should begin researching the pricing of other e-books in the same genre. For example, the price for romance e-books is between 99 cents and $3.99. Factors, such as size, e-book conversion formatting, illustrations, cover design, need to be evaluated to gauge how an e-book might compare against competing titles.

Authors should aim to start out at a price under $10 if possible, and experiment with different price points with short-term promotions. Amazon pays 70% of the retail download price for e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% for those below $2.99.

Once the price is set, self-publishers should make use of promotions to boost sales. For a Kindle e-book priced at $8.99, run a Kindle Countdown Deal for $4.99. If you are trying to sell it at $4.99, run a promotion at $2.99. Obviously, a coordinated advertising effort is necessary to yield positive results.

For new and less established authors, a lower price will help entice readers who might be willing to take a chance on 99 cent book. And, unlike a physical book with a price printed on the back cover, it is relatively easy to increase the price of an e-book once demand starts building.

Exposure – I want to be popular!

For publishers whose main goal is getting their e-book in front of as many readers as possible, the priority should be getting the price point as low as possible.

Due to their enormous market size, we often encourage clients to consider selling their e-books through Amazon’s KDP Select program. This simple to manage program allows authors to charge a low price for the book (99 cents being the most popular) and offer it for free for specific periods.

Authors can participate in a Kindle Free Book Promotion for a maximum of five days. There are a few online website which publicize book giveaways for free. These sites offer a wonderful way to get the word out to a large audience of readers and yield the greatest exposure from the giveaway.

• Pixel of Ink
• Free Book Dude
• Free Kindle Books and Tips
• Indie Book of The Day
• ManyBooks.Net

Whether your primary goal is to gain sales or popularity, the online e-book marketplaces, such as Amazon, provide rich sales data to enable you to analyze how your pricing strategies are performing. Successful e-book marketing requires constant review and revision.

We asked our clients to share their self-publishing journey and provide suggestions for new authors.

Author: Thomas Harry Pearce
Book: A Path for All Beings – A Joyful Homemade Path to Happy Living and World Peace

Website: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KB34IC2

Please tell us a little about yourself and what prompted you to write a book:

In 1974, I was a spiritual hippie living in Boston and I received a remarkable gift from India’s two greatest teachers: Krishna (ca. 3000 BCE) and the Buddha (ca. 563-483 BCE). I then spent the next 30 years learning through many humorous misadventures and misunderstandings about the gift  (which ancient legends revere as the “Golden Lotus of Love”) and how to use it to help the world!  Most importantly, I discerned from the logic of the gift that the six major crises facing the world and all social ills are human-made and preventable; and that they can be solved by a grassroots movement that inspires each of us to create our own life as a joyful expression of ever-widening circles of love and understanding in order to relieve the suffering of all beings – all humans, animals, plants and the Earth! I call this solution a “Path for All Beings’ because it can guide all of us – young or old, religious or non-religious – to the happy living and world peace we so urgently seek!

Please tell us a little about your book:

“A Path for All Beings” has been born from the intersection of the two contemporary currents of history – our worldwide integration and disintegration. It is an amazingly simple yet comprehensive path which can give each of us the dedication, motivation, framework and goal to step-by-step generate the love, wisdom and creativity that can ease the suffering in our own life and eventually that of our seven billion-plus neighbors! And all in all, the Path will most likely inspire what future historians will describe as the “Age of Awakening!”

How long did it take you to finish your book?

In 2002, I presented a lecture which I entitled “Life is a School” to a college classroom of empty seats. This then became the first prototype (1 of 3) of “A Path for All Beings.”  Several years later, I wrote the second prototype: “A True Gentleman” which explains the roles, relationships and responsibilities that we all must fulfill in order to secure a harmonious society; and the third prototype: “All Beings Buddhism” which describes a self-transformative householder Buddhism and the accomplishment of both material fulfillment and spiritual realization. However, because an explanation of a “Path for All Beings” (which is the “de-Buddhafied” version of “All Beings Buddhism”) would only take about thirty pages, I added another ninety pages of the compelling story of my discovery of the Path in order to finish the book in the autumn of 2013!

Do you offer your book as an ebook? Yes

What has been the most challenging aspect of self-publishing and what suggestions would you give to a new author?

Though people self-publish for a variety of reasons, I have observed one common thread and that is that we all hope to have a professional-looking book! However, regrettably, it appears that most self-publishing companies – even those with stellar reviews on the Internet – are interested in devoting the least time and effort into producing each book; and are hoping that their customers will be satisfied with the most amateurish of books! For instance, the editors of the company that I contracted made dozens of errors in creating the cover, formatting the book and converting it to an e-book. Their mistakes were irrational, unprofessional and due to sheer laziness! And most importantly, several times they returned the book to me for my final approval though they had ignored the fact that it still lacked many of the features that all book have! Therefore, I would advise a new author to study carefully the features of a library book similar to the book that he or she hopes to produce and be very strict with their self-publishing company to insure that they create a perfect book!

We asked our clients to share their self-publishing journey and provide suggestions for new authors.

Author: Robert W. Callahan
Book: Hopw to Shoot a Handgun – Correcting the Eight Most Common Shooting Errors

Please tell us a little about yourself and what prompted you to write a book:

I am a retired 31 year Federal Law Enforcement officer.  During my career, among many other things, I served for more than 20 years as a Firearms, Self Defense, Disturbance Control and Special Tactics instructor and specialist.  I learned early on in teaching firearms that there are really only eight basic errors that shooters make.  Whether they are experts or novices, they make the same eight errors.  I also noticed that every book or even booklet I found concerning how to shoot a handgun contained much information I considered superfluous to basic handgun shooting: such things as trajectories, muzzle velocities, etc.

Please tell us a little about your book:

My booklet, currently entitled “How to Shoot a Handgun”.  The booklet briefly discusses the basics of aiming at a target, pulling the trigger and hitting your intended target.  It then goes into the eight common errors that every shooter makes whether they are a Novice or an Expert.  Using graphic depictions of a target with bullet holes in it and using a basic clock face which shows how the shot pattern appears for each of the errors.  The booklet names each error, describes each based on the accompanying graphic  and instructs the shooter on what action to take to correct the error.  For example, one of the errors is called “Breaking the Wrist.”  This error causes the majority of the shots fired to strike the target in the 5:30 to 6:30 pm area on the clock face and correcting it is simple.

How long did it take you to finish your book?

Once I started actively writing the booklet, it only took about eight weeks to have a presentable finished copy..

Do you offer your book as an ebook? No

What has been the most challenging aspect of self-publishing and what suggestions would you give to a new author?

The greatest challenge I encountered in self-publishing finding locations and venues in which to place the booklet for potential customers to have access.  My most lucrative so far has been gun shows. I would suggest trying to do a little market research prior to actually trying to sell your book.  Look for places and or events in which you can place your booklet or present it yourself (gun shows for me).  Additionally, find someone else who may know something about the market, provide them with a complimentary copy and maybe even provide them with some kind of incentive to sell the book for you (something like an agent).

We asked our clients to share their self-publishing journey and provide suggestions for new authors.

Author: Mary B Sinclair
Book: Mining the Sounds of Silence:  Therapy in American Life

Please tell us a little about yourself and what prompted you to write a book:

I got tired of reading huge, long-winded, pompous academic books that all professed to be the last word in their field.  So I thought I’d interject a little humor and a lighter touch into the reading experience by making my books much shorter and more humorous, but nevertheless right to the point.  I have written about the field of mental health (Mining the Sounds of Silence:  Therapy in American Life), the Catholic Church (It’s So Easy to be Smart with Someone Else’s Heart: the Sound of Your Own Wheels), about problems associated with dating services (Twilight Side of the Hill), problems within America (Phantom and American Paranoia).  I also wrote about how hard it is to get your foot in the door in present day America (A Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Waste:  A Work in Progress).  My last book is about my sister’s death (Blood All Over the Labels).

Please tell us a little about your book:

I wanted to put my own slant on everything and not go by the book so to speak.  So I stuck my neck out and decided to self publish even though I have since learned (the hard way) that this is a monumental task.  It’s so hard to get reviews, you’re basically ignored to death, etc.

How long did it take you to finish your book?

About six months

Do you offer your book as an ebook? Yes

What has been the most challenging aspect of self-publishing and what suggestions would you give to a new author?

If you’re a self published author you have to make up your mind to endure a lot of procrastination and abuse on the part of the mainstream.

We asked our clients to share their self-publishing journey and provide suggestions for new authors.

Author: Ranny Grady
Book: Grandpa’s Magic Carpet & The Lost Treasure

Website: http://www.ogradypublishingcompany.com/Welcome.html

Please tell us a little about yourself and what prompted you to write a book:

I am an old retired preacher. I have a Master of Divinity from Cincinnati Christian University…1980 I have been married to my sweetheart for 51 years: Denise. I have two adult sons and five grandchildren. I am a Navy vet. I have been a certified public teacher and coach. I worked for Prentice Hall Publishing when it was its own entity. I have published three books to date: Lou’s Dirty Dozen, The Rookie; and Grandpa’s Magic Carpet and The Lost Treasure. I have three Manuscripts in the works and I’m seeking an agent/publisher at the same time. If I cant find a agent/publisher to publish my books, I plan to publish all three in 2015. The biblical America I grew up in is passing from history. All of my stories are designed to point the reader to the bible and to Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. If the Watchman doesn’t call out ‘dander’ who will?

Please tell us a little about your book:

My first book is a narrative from my mother’s family’s history. He mother, Lula Bell (Lou in the book) : Lou’s Dirty Dozen, was a Godly widow during the Depression with a dozen kids. I have tried to get media people interested in the book; but have failed. Its story came to me via my mother (the story-teller) when I was fifty years old. I promised Momma I’d write the story when I retired. After I published Lou, God came to me in a dream and gave me my other stories. The Rookie is a spiritual journey that explores the idea that failure in man’s eyes may not be what God sees. The two central characters are an old retired preacher: Elijah Satchel Johnson and a Theophany sent to rescue the preacher as he attempts suicide…in the physical presence of a Cinnamon colored CAT, name Scooter. The twist for the book is that it contains a Trivial Pursuit theme about the Negro League Baseball history…featuring its greatest star: Satchel Le Roy Paige. I published my first book in a three book series: Grandpa’s Magic Carpet and the Lost Treasure, two years ago. I will publish the second book in 2015: Grandpa’s Magic Carpet and the First Christmas. The Lost Treasure story took Grandpa and his grandchildren on a sea voyage to find Mr. Rainbow to find Lost Treasure. They find it: friendship with Jesus Christ. I have finished the first or second draft for four other fiction stories. If the Lord allows me to live long enough, I may publish them.

How long did it take you to finish your book?

I have been writing steadily since 2005. It took me a year to write my first book and prepare it for publication. I wrote the ‘first draft in four months…the first edition. It took me a year to write its second.

Do you offer your book as an ebook? Yes

What has been the most challenging aspect of self-publishing and what suggestions would you give to a new author?

Answer the question: Why do I write? If you write because you love to write…regardless if others read what you write, then the outcome the vast majority of Self-published authors realize: very little success; less monetary, you will enjoy life and find contentment in a world of words and ideas. If you write for success and to influence others, then you are probably going to be miserable. You can expect your costs will far exceed your profits as a Pond Scum writer and publishers. Pond Scum is an appropriate definition because this is how you will be treated by media…with a rare exception here and there. You will be scammed at every turn if you don’t provide and produce all info that is necessary to publish a book. I can tell horror stories I sure hundreds of thousands of others have experienced. I have been able to earn a profit from my books because I sell my books directly to Librarians in fifteen different states…making ‘cold turkey’ calls. The retail market seldom will embrace a ‘Self-published author. You can spend a lot of money promoting a book and not realize any profit!