The challenge of setting your book price.

[Linda L Wagner]

I just signed a contract with a self-publishing company formy first book, a children's picture story book - 48 pages. The PH said it was going to cost them 10.83 just to print the 8.5X11 lamenated bound book. Their suggested price is 23.95. I feel that is high compared to what is in book stores. Any suggestions on pricing? What is the average percentage that bookstores require on a book? I did buy a returnable policy and did a POD on the book. I do have the option to print the book at other places included.

[June Austin]

Here in the UK, most book stores obtain their stock from wholesalers, who if the book is stocked by them (and therefore returnable) will demand 55 percent discount. 15 percent of this goes to them, with the remaining 40 percent going to the book store. If the wholesaler does not stock your book it will be available as a special order, firm sale to book stores instead. The wholesaler then takes 40 percent (15 percent for them, 25 for the store).

Last time I checked the exchange rate was around $2 to the £1 - $23.95 would then be around £12 - more than twice what most people would expect to pay for a book like this - most would pay no more than £5.

Personally I would look for a cheaper printer !

[Dennis AuBuchon]

I believe the price is too high as well. I look at another publisher and for the same size or more pages they suggested a retail price of $10. I personally do not believe it will cost them $10.83 to print your book for the size you note. With print on demand technology it is much cheaper to print books than in the past. One thing that may affect the price is the number of pages in the book but I believe the price is way too much. From what I understand bookstores usually want a 40-50% reduced price. Even then unless you have agreements with your publisher for distribution to bookstores it is difficult but not impossible to get POD books into bookstores.

I have no experience in children's books but they may be an exception to this issue. It is good that you have the option to print the book at other places. I would check out other resources and get a price and compare it to your publisher. I would make sure you have no penalties if you use other resources to print your book. Publishing contracts can be difficult to understand at times, if you have questions about what you can do and what you cannot I would get something in writing with regard to your option to print books elsewhere. Do you have a finished file copy of the layout of the book? This would make it easier to print from other resources.

[Linda L Wagner]

I chose this PH (subsidy) because it rated so high on POD. I had all the illustrations and layout done because I had a previous PH that had not been honest with me so I pulled out.

I wouldn't have gone this far with the layout if it would have caused all this problem. I tried and called B&N to ask what their trade dicsount was and the manager didn't know. I asked for the corporote office and they didn't have the number. It is litterally taking an act of God to get answers.

This dream of mine is turning into a nightmare and if I don't get answers from this company, I am pulling out with them. I have 30 days to make a decision. The book is in process of a review. They have to send me a cover template yet. I went to other PH to see what it would cost for the same book and their suggested retail price was 31.00. Now I am not stupid.

So I lowered the trade discount down to 40% and lowered the price down to 19,95. Royalties are way down. Anotherwords, if I set it at 16.95, there are no royalties at all. What the suggested price and the retail price are different. What I thought was going to be fun, has only been a hardship and is setting my mind of not going to print with the other books I have written

[Dennis AuBuchon]

Linda

I would not be discouraged. I have had publishing difficulties in the past but I have learned from them. Bookstores are not the main source of selling books according the the statistics. While bookstores would be great if they stocked your book it is not the only only choices. I recently read a book by Brian Jud called Beyond the Bookstore. It is great and gives many ideas and information about how to market to other avenues.
I bought my book directly from Brian through his web site www.bookcentralstation.com. The site also has free information which may help you in your quest to make a success of your current book and the others you have.

My current book is titled Integrity: Do You Have It? 2nd edition and I am working on three others and writing articles every week. This gains me exposure for my expertise. One way to bring interest in your book is to market it by identifying how it is different from others on the market.

Hope this information helps. Don't get discouraged.

[Linda L Wagner]

Thanks for your kind response Dennis I just received an email from the PH I am working with now that asked me "When was this book published?" Now that really scares me especially when I had broken the contract with the other PH and I have the payment and letters to prove that. This is a continuing saga. I have not published the book.

As far as the bookstores, I will have to pray that God will help me to use other methods to sell this book, if I can even get it off the ground. It's like who can you trust? But, I am trying to keep a positive attitude in this all. It could be just a simple misunderstanding about the publishing. I will keep you all updated. Even nothing else to help for you all not to make the same mistakes I have made. I will get that book

I did take a lower royalty and put the book at 19.95. Anything less then that, I don't even get a royalty.

[Linda Mayfield-Hayes]

I just self-published my first children's book as well, and I have a similar problem, only with my publisher they don't suggest a price. You have to determine the price based on how much revenue you want to earn on book sales. My book has 34 pages and I decided to sell it for $17.95. I would rather sell it at a much lower price, but at this price I get $5.32 for each book sold through my publisher and $1.50 for each book sold through places like Amazon.com. Also what you have to consider is the $5 - $6 shipping and handling fee that will be added to the sales price.

[Linda L Wagner]

My base price to print my book is 10.24 and with the 50-55 % trade discount, it made my book really go up in price. I am only getting 1.24 if the PH sells the book. If I sell from my own web site, I have lowered the price because basically I have cut out the trade discount, so I have lowered my price, but I will get between $5-$6 on each book to keep. The thing is to try and divert the traffic to your site. I wish there was a way where I could say to people other then getting on these networking sites to buy from my web site for they will save on the cost of the book. Many say that it is good to sell from Amazon.com, but they take such a big chunck for themselves. I get the feeling that the author doesn't count really in this publishing business at all. Kind of gutzy to say that, but that's how I feel.

I was allowed to choose my price of the book, but I went to the lowest I could go without making any royalty. That's sad.

[Linda L Wagner]

If anyone is reading this posting, please tell me your experience and if you are selling from your own web site. If you are, how are you diverting traffic to your site. For the interest of readers, my sits is www.lindawagnerbooks.com

[Linda L Wagner]

Obviously you have had more experience at this then I have. I became a member of the Book Marketing Network before I had the book done. I wish my husband were alive to tell me how to do this becuase he was a computer whiz. Do I have to build a completely new page to get my book up there first like you have yours? I don't know what kind of experience you have had, but with what I have dealt with from PH and printing errors, I am surprised I even got this far.

Linda

[Linda L Wagner]

Thanks, that was kind of you to share this info with me. I will see what I can do. When visting your web site, it appears you have been very successful. My hat is off to you.

[MAXINE]

Hi Linda,

Congratulation, In my opinion $23.95 is entirely too high for a children's picture story book. I can't be sure but, I have never seen that sort of book priced that high, I could be wrong. I think you should start by comparing prices of other children's books with the same specifications as yours and take it from there to determine what would be reasonable. You should start on the internet searching various children's picture book titles then, hit a few stores.
I hope this info will be helpful.

[Linda L Wagner]

Maxine, I agree that the book is priced too high. It is at $22.95. I wasn't given much choice in the matter when they set the price so high for just even the author to purchase the book, then you talk about the trade discount mark up etc, What I have done is try to divert people to my web stie to buy the book because I am seeling it for less. I am basically cutting out the middle man.

I have learned so much with this being my first book and the cost have been unbelievable, but the lessons I have learned have been invaluable. All the things that possibly could go wrong with the publishing company, printing company etc have gone wrong and it is very frustrating to me. I have not had a good experience with this book, but at least I did complete the project.

Thank you for your imput.

Linda