Help Center
This was taken from a Tip of the Week Post from the Facebook group. It was posted on June 19, 2023. Some edit's have been made from the original post.
Pricing of Books
These are my views and thoughts below, not Book Bolt or Neil's.
So Neil and I were talking about the prices of low-content books briefly and felt the same about this topic, the large amount of people who make notebooks, journals, log books, etc. and price them at, 7.29, 7.49 or 7.99 (6 x 9, 100 pages) is I don't know the right word, but most probably are not getting a lot of sales, well research shows they don't. We are referring to people who publish through KDP, not "real" publishers. They are trying to make $2.00, $2.50 or $3.00 (New pricing, would have been over $3 a book with old prices) or more on one sale. Heck, I have seen many done through KDP over $9.00 and I am like what???
To share my own pricing and profit story, it was and again is now around 5.29 to 5.49 mostly and I make 65 to 85 cents a book. I did try for 6.99, I think even 7.49 and sales took a nosedive, mainly because the niche's I am in, says I can not charge that much based on my competition (these were prices before the price increase in summer of 2023, those same books are at 5.99 and make 75 cents). Books with sales in the niche's I am in, 50k of them, 80k etc. are at 4.49 to 5.99, but most at the lower amount. So, it clearly showed when I raised the price as soon as I had some sales for one month, the sales nosedived because of the price. They were willing to pay less for an inferior book really. I set the prices back to where they were and almost immediately, 4, 5, 10 or more times the sales, depending on the book and way more profit overall than when I had it priced higher.
In these high competition niches’, you probably always need a great cover, or unique. How many times have you bought a notebook, journal, logbook, etc. with a not so good-looking cover? As important as the cover in these high competition niches’ is price. If people are deciding between a notebook, journal, logbook, etc. type of book and one is 5.49 and yours is 7.49, be honest, which book do you think they will pick?
I worry to when people price, they listen to many YouTubers, who say how easy this is and how many thousands you can make and a lot show falsified numbers on their channels and many don't ever have any books that sell. They are there for the views on YouTube, the clicks on affiliate links and courses for stuff that is freely available online and even their own channel. Nothing is easy and not many things you can do in life and make something and walk away and never touch again and make thousands a month. Everything takes work. Trust me, these people made me delusional too lol, I did the whole make a bunch of notebooks, throw online, price them at 6.99 or higher and wait for the Amazon Gravy Train to dump my money at the door. Nothing happened. I got real then and 95% of the books I made in the first month are gone now. Most were terrible covers, I wasn't honest with myself, yes some I did similar to some YouTubers, actually a bit better, and nothing. But later due to price and being honest with myself about my crappy covers, there was 50,000 covers better than mine.
Remember, when doing books in high competition field, notebooks, journals, logbooks, etc. there are like 100k +, 250k+, 500k + of these. This is crazy hard to get traction in them. I am not saying don’t do it, or you can't do it, just be reasonable when doing a cover and your prices, because it can be done. I’ve seen many succeed in these niche’s, they did great unique covers and were okay pricing them at 4.49, 4.79, 4.99 and making 30, 40 or 50 cents a book, and ended up with 200 sales a month, 300 or 400 sales a month. If they priced their book at 6.99 or higher, they would be lucky to get 10 sales a month, if that, I feel. Also, on a few, I noticed in their history, people tested going from 4.99 to 6.99 and sales almost to zero. Back to original price and sales back to what they were.
Same can be said for "Medium Content" books. You may have spent money on having images made for you and want to get your money back and you price your 50 page coloring book at $8.99 or $9.99, or activity book, puzzle book the same. But you are competing with established books, and most are less money than that, that have good sales. If the going price is 6.99 for established books, even ones doing 30 or 40 sales a month, think about starting at 5.99. I know you won't make as much, but it helps to get the BSR better and more sales. Slowly, raise the price after some time. Maybe to $6.19, then month later to 6.39, then 6.49. In time with sales you will get to a good number. Remember, 100 sales with $1.00 profit per book is better than 5 sales and making $2.50.
September 28, 2023 Edit: When doing research especially if you are thinking about doing hardcover and or color books. Check the cost first, so you know what the minimum price will have to be. I feel many create these books, spend a lot of time on them, and they are shocked the cost is $20 and they need to sell for $22 to make a buck.
Things to think about:
From KDP see their Royalty Calculator.
What do you price your low-content book at?
If profit is around or over $2 a book, do you get sales?
How did you determine the price?
Have you played with the pricing and lowered quite a bit if your book has little to no sales?
Did you message friends and ask them to look at your book (and perhaps not tell them it is yours) and ask what they think of the book, so you can get an honest opinion about it?
What are your own experiences on pricing?
Did you add A+ to your book?