How to choose the right price for your book is an important question for a self publisher.  Too expensive and you’ll sell fewer, too cheap and you’ll sell fewer.

Can that be right?  Too cheap results in less sales?  Yep.  The marketers of the world know that they can often increase sales by increasing the asking price.

I read in a writers forum some ignorant person stating that any ebook that’s sold for more than $3.00 is just ripping off the customer.  I didn’t bother responding because I have no interest in starting a flame war but this individual is probably correct, for his work, but completely wrong for anybody else.

He based his ‘logic’ on subtracting the cost of production of a hardbacked book into the retail outlets from the retail cost of the book.  That, he says, is the true value of the content.  Absolute poppycock.  That price has nothing to do with the content, it is really the average price that the publisher believes they can sell the book for.

Remember that your publisher is more interested in finding that bestseller and then pushing it than maximising the dollars for your book.

Have a good look around on the Internet and you will find ebooks for sale for prices up to and more than $100.  And they do sell because the buyers believe that they will get far better value from the information in the book that the cost.  They also believe that the price is a barrier, quite deliberate, to too many people using the information and massively degrading the value.

How do you determine the right price for your books content?  Did you know that you can test the price to find out what is right for your book?  Another thing from the marketers, split testing.  The concept is simple, show exactly the same content/sales page to every visitor with just one change, the price.  You send half the visitors to one page and half to the other page.  Track the sales/visitor ratio and it will show you very fast which price the customers prefer.

When you first publish your book here at Bearly Books you can set a low initial price or even free to encourage people to read it and provide feedback.  As you develop the book through reader feedback you can gradually increase the price while tracking the visitor/sales ratios.  The optimal price point is where you maximise your return.  You need to take into account any costs, any charge backs etc. It may well be a price point where you sell fewer but make more money per visitor than a different price point.

So what is the rght price for your work?  Whatever price your customers are prepared to pay.  I have used that rule for many years in the businesses I have owned and run.  If I can’t make a profit on the price the customer is prepared to pay I don’t offer it for sale.

Keep in mind that the price also establishes the value in the mind of the potential customer.  That’s why free is often treated with suspicion.  People often don’t value a free product as much as they should.  I have downloaded free products that were better than content I have paid for so free isn’t a statement of the value of the product.  It might just be a loss leader into a much more highly priced product, and often is.

Self publishers need to develop more of a marketing mind set to sell their work or they will fail.  It is the same on-line or off-line.  Good marketing sells even poor products, no marketing will not sell even the best product.  Good marketing can make a good product sell like hot cakes.  Combined with the right price point and you’ll make good profits as well.