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How Indie Authors Should Price a Book for Optimal Success
Sometimes the simplest thing you can do to give your book a boost is play around with the pricing.
It’s one thing to have a book, but it’s quite another to have one that actually sells. You have probably heard this from other indie authors, or even experienced it yourself. Your book gets added to Amazon, full of pomp and circumstance, and then, nothing.
It’s disheartening to see your hard work just sit there. But here’s the good news: this might be an easy fix.
How you price your book is something we don’t often think of as a trigger for book promotion or how to sell more books, but it is. First, let’s look at two important factors. Your book’s perceived value vs. the going market rate.
Look at other books. First and foremost, see what others are charging in your market. You may be surprised by what you find. It’s never a good idea to price your book outside of what the market can bear, even if you toiled over the book, worked endlessly, lost sleep, etc.
My book is worth more! Yes, I know. Your book is worth a heck of a lot more. In fact, if you add up all the hours you spent working on it, you probably couldn’t charge enough for it. Here’s the thing, though: you can’t focus on your worth or your book’s worth—you have to focus on what the market will bear.
Consider the ebook. In general, I find that most traditional publishers don’t know how to price an ebook. I’ll see ebooks priced at $9.99 and up, which is a deterrent for most readers. As you build your marketing plan, keep in mind that ebooks should not be priced equal to their print counterparts. Even pricing them within a dollar or two of a $14.95 book is too high.