Setting the Retail Price of Your Book

One of the biggest mistakes self-published authors make is pricing their book too high. What the author paid for printing is not the only factor to consider when setting the retail price; in fact sometimes it shouldn´t come into play at all.

In traditional publishing, the publisher´s sales and marketing team, and quite often the publisher´s distributor, get involved in the pricing game. They know what the market can bear and what the customer is willing to tolerate. Sure, as a self-published author you´re concerned about your margin and you want to see a profit. But readers aren´t concerned with what you paid for the book, and nor are retailers. They want a competitive price that isn´t out of line. 


With over 175,000 books published each year in the U. S. alone, it´s dangerous to think that your book is good enough to stand alone in the marketplace and that price isn´t an issue. You need to price your book in the range of what is acceptable within your genre (non-fiction, fiction, how-to, etc.) and category (history, business, mystery, etc.).

How can you find out what this range is? Do your research. Go online and dig deep on Amazon, and visit your nearest well-stocked bookstore. (This not only is good for researching price points: while you´re at it you can review cover designs, titles, and marketing copy).


While there are no hard and fast rules, here are some general guidelines when setting the price for your self-published book:

Non-fiction
Price should be in line with similar books in the market. It´s reasonable to charge a slightly higher price for books that contain a fair amount of research, statistics,  endnotes, charts, graphs, color interior, and other details that make it a fairly extensive and unique book. You should also consider trim size (e.g., 6 x 9, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2) and page count.

Fiction
Here the page count comes into play. If your book is a 375 page novel, it´s reasonable to ask for $16.95 for it. Most average-sized trade paperback novels fall into the $13.95 to $17.95 price range.