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How do you determine the book price on Bookapy?

Keet 🚫

Every month I try to buy a few books on Bookapy. It's mostly to support the authors because most of the books I already have downloaded from SOL before I bought them.
Today I browsed through what's new on Bookapy and couldn't keep from wondering how you authors decide to price your books. The differences are huge if you compare for example #words/price between the different books.
I did a few calculations and books that I thought were reasonably priced come down to around 0.04 to 0.045 cents per word. That made me throw those numbers on books that I thought were either cheap or expensive too get an unbiased mathematical comparison. I got some surprising results.
Compared to my 0.04-0.045 numbers some authors seem to set all or most of their prices on the high end or way above; others do the opposite and set their prices to the lower end or way below. Some authors seem to set the price of their books at the same amount regardless of the number of words. Some authors have one or two books totally out of the (calculated) price range of their other books, mostly up.
I do understand setting a price at x.99 or x.95, it's a well known psychologically determined boundary that seems a lot lower than the next full number although the difference is neglectable. It doesn't justify setting the same price for a 50,000 and a 100,000 word book.

So my first question is: How do you determine what price to set for your books? Do you use something like x cents per word, graduated scales, or just a wet finger in the air to see how the wind blows?
The second "hot" question is: Do you compare your writing value to other books/authors and take that into account when setting prices?

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

I do understand setting a price at x.99 or x.95, it's a well known psychologically

Pricing is part of marketing. As to the $.99, that's used at gas stations for the price of a gallon and I believe Apple even requires it, so you're right. However, I once read that a book priced at $5 seems (psychologically) of higher quality than one priced at $4.99. I'm not sure I buy that.

A lot goes into pricing a book. The word count is a major factor. From the author's perspective, it takes longer to write a 100,000 word book than a 50,000 one. From the reader's, it's about value. That is, why should they pay the same for the two?

But there's so many more factors. Should a debut author be able to charge as much as a well established author? After all, it's an unknown commodity. Also, sometimes an author prices the first novel in a series at a discounted price with the hopes the reader will like it and buy the others in the series.

And then you have to consider your competition. What are they pricing their comparable novels at?

There's probably so much more. And there are other issues that don't apply to Bookapy, like currency conversions and VAT, and royalty percentages tied to prices, so I won't discuss those.

Replies:   Keet  Dominions Son
Keet 🚫

@Switch Blayde

However, I once read that a book priced at $5 seems (psychologically) of higher quality than one priced at $4.99. I'm not sure I buy that.

I don't but that either. I determine the 'quality' of a book using how well I know the author and his/her other works, the description and of course the price against the word count. The 'total' makes me buy or not. For me another point is "spreading the wealth". For $15 I can support 3 authors with $5 or just one with $15.

I understand there are a lot of other factors, like a debut author you mentioned or the first book in a series. That doesn't explain why the same author has the same price for different sized books or different prices for what seem like the same type/size of book.

Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

As to the $.99, that's used at gas stations for the price of a gallon

Nope. US gas stations use prices that end in 9/10ths of a cent($0.009), everything else floats. Of course that started back in the 1930s when gas prices were in the cents per gallon and the government added a $0.003/gallon tax to gas.

Do note that at the pump, all fractions of a cent are rounded up on the final price at the pump. That means that at today's prices ($2.50 national average), for every 10 gallons you save 1 cent on $25. At 9 gallons you save nothing. At 11 to 19 gallons you still only save 1 cent. You'd have to buy 100 gallons all at once to save $1 and that would be on a $250 purchase.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

($2.50 national average)

I just paid $3.45 (premium). But the point was that the price ends in a "9" to make it appear less. And that applies to book prices.

Replies:   StarFleet Carl
StarFleet Carl 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I just paid $3.45 (premium).

$1.90 for 87 octane E10, $2.20 for 87 octane 100% gas, $2.60 for premium just down the street.

As for pricing things - I don't feel that for my two long stories, that I could charge for them, because in my personal opinion, that would violate the terms that Bethesda put out when they allowed free mods for their games.

Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

So my first question is: How do you determine what price to set for your books? Do you use something like x cents per word, graduated scales, or just a wet finger in the air to see how the wind blows?

I set a minimum price, and then figured out the most I'd want to charge for a book. I then took that 'most' number, divided it by the words in the longest book and set a per word cost, which I then use to calculate the cost of the books. The basic formula is:

{Min Price} + ([{Word Count} - {Minimum Word Count}]*{Per Word Price})

Then adjust to the nearest 0/5 cent boundary.

The second "hot" question is: Do you compare your writing value to other books/authors and take that into account when setting prices?

No. I don't compare. How others set their prices are up to them.

Replies:   Keet
Keet 🚫

@Michael Loucks

I set a minimum price, and then figured out the most I'd want to charge for a book. I then took that 'most' number, divided it by the words in the longest book and set a per word cost, which I then use to calculate the cost of the books. The basic formula is:

{Min Price} + ([{Word Count} - {Minimum Word Count}]*{Per Word Price})

Then adjust to the nearest 0/5 cent boundary.

Wow, that's a real mathematical approach. That explains why your books are priced so differently but considering the different lengths mathematically close to the same. I hadn't noticed before but you offer a lot of words/dollar compared to other authors so buyers who look at that should be pleased.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫

@Keet

a lot of words/dollar … so buyers who look at that should be pleased.

DISCLAIMER: This has nothing to do with Michael L.

I'm reading a novel by David Baldacci called "Total Control." It's 640 pages in paperback.

I would be enjoying it more if it had less words. He goes into painful detail about everything — the Fed, different types of planes, the workings of the FBI and other organizations, how people look, what they're wearing, etc., etc. More words doesn't mean better.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

I would be enjoying it more if it had less words. He goes into painful detail about everything

Painful to you. Some people like that kind of detail.

Fewer words doesn't mean better either.

On the other hand, there are a lot of self published authors out there who put mass market paperback novel prices or even hard cover novel prices on short stories.

I don't care how good the author is or how good the story is, in my opinion, no story under 20K words is worth more than $4.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

Fewer words doesn't mean better either.

Agree 100%

no story under 20K words is worth more than $4.

Wow, you're a big spender. $2.99–$4.99 is the typical price for an ebook. And I'd say those novels are typically 65K–100k words.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

$2.99–$4.99 is the typical price for an ebook.

And yet I've seen stories under 20K words listed on both Smashwords and Amazon for more than $15.

For the genres I read, for commercially published works, the ebook price tends to be the same as the mass market paperback version, in the range of $8.99 to $15.99

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

For the genres I read, for commercially published works, the ebook price tends to be the same as the mass market paperback version, in the range of $8.99 to $15.99

I believe that's the case for traditionally published ebooks. The big publishers refuse to accept the ebook world. They want everything to be print and begrudgingly offer ebooks but price them like paperbacks.

And yet I've seen stories under 20K words listed on both Smashwords and Amazon for more than $15.

And they probably don't sell any copies. Anyone can self-publish a book. Not everyone does it properly, from editing to pricing.

A lot of traditionally publishable authors have elected to venture into the self-pub arena. The trick is to discover those from the mass of crap out there.

Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

And they probably don't sell any copies.

They probably sell a few. I bought a couple of short story ebooks published on Amazon at mass market paperback novel prices, before a learned to check the file size in the details.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I believe that's the case for traditionally published ebooks. The big publishers refuse to accept the ebook world. They want everything to be print and begrudgingly offer ebooks but price them like paperbacks.

This may be true of some, but for Baen books at www.baen.com it isn't true. They sell paperbacks and hardcovers by well known authors at the traditional prices while their ebooks of the same titles are usually $6.99 each.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

This may be true of some, but for Baen books at www.baen.com it isn't true. They sell paperbacks and hardcovers by well known authors at the traditional prices while their ebooks of the same titles are usually $6.99 each.

Baen has always been a publishing outlier, as they focused on cranking out cheap 3" x 5" paperbacks, rather than starting with hardbound volumes and only releasing the 3x5 versions after they're already established. Even though they published a LOT of significant authors, they've aways been a 'discount' publishing house.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

And yet I've seen stories under 20K words listed on both Smashwords and Amazon for more than $15.

The Kindle edition of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Complete Edition) is currently reduced from $11 to $10.99 on Amazon!

AJ

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

For the genres I read, for commercially published works, the ebook price tends to be the same as the mass market paperback version, in the range of $8.99 to $15.99

Actually, for most mainstream publishers, the eBooks are kept artificially higher than the price of print (paperback) prices. So something you can purchase at an established bookstore for $24 will run you $26 to $28 for the eBook, despite there being NO production or distribution costs. That's he main reason why publishers keep claiming that 'eBooks don't sell as well'. It has nothing to do with ebooks in general, it's just that the major top-tier bestsellers are locked in at a certain base price.

Audio books are another weird creation. Despite requiring a recording studio, an exceptional speaker and thousands of dollars to produce (assuming you don't record it yourself), audio books generally sell for a fraction of the price of print books, generally $14 vs. $24, which is why so many books are never offered as audio books. You've got to have guaranteed sales in the tens of thousands to justify those production values.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son 🚫

@Vincent Berg

it's just that the major top-tier bestsellers are locked in at a certain base price.

Most of what I read these days in terms of commercial fiction falls under the paranormal romance genre. These tend to be fairly erotic with several graphic sex scenes. Not the sort of thing that tends to may the best seller lists.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

Most of what I read these days in terms of commercial fiction falls under the paranormal romance genre. These tend to be fairly erotic with several graphic sex scenes. Not the sort of thing that tends to may the best seller lists.

Actually, Romance is an interesting genre, as they've reversed the trend over the last 50 years of always being quick, largely superficial reads, with many of the newer Romance books being closer to Sci-Fi lengths (i.e. 100,000 to 150,000 vs. the older Romance lengths of only 30,000 to 50,000).

Mysteries are also facing the same trend, though they're not doing it as aggressively, making making limited advances, rather than reinventing the entire genre.

Basically, once a reader falls in love with the character, they're reluctant to say goodbye, so they're willing to pay more for the story to continue, diving into deeper revelations than the typical 'beach read' romances of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

PotomacBob 🚫

@Keet

How do you determine what price to set for your books?

Thanks for asking the question - I've been wondering the same thing.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Keet

So my first question is: How do you determine what price to set for your books? Do you use something like x cents per word, graduated scales, or just a wet finger in the air to see how the wind blows?
The second "hot" question is: Do you compare your writing value to other books/authors and take that into account when setting prices?

When I first started selling ebooks I went with the price the publishing house I was using put on the books. When I started to sell through Lulu I looked at the prices other authors and other sites were setting, then I looked at what was the average price for a non-famous author's paperback novel sold by bookstores. Working from the print book price with the print cost of a 45,000 word novel at Lulu being deducted from the retail paperback price I reached what I saw was a fair markup and applied that to both the print books and ebooks I already had for sale and used those as the standardized prices for most of my works - I've stayed with those prices for several years now. Mind you I realize the print houses are probably using a higher markup that I was because their print costs are lower, but I ignored that. I try to make each book 45,000 words or more to be worth what I'm selling them for, if they aren't the prices go down accordingly.

Some of my anthologies started life as multiple books so they are priced more, for example the Clan Amir series started life as 7 books but the anthology isn't priced as seven books so people do get more for their money.

Replies:   Keet  Vincent Berg
Keet 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

When I started to sell through Lulu I looked at the prices other authors and other sites were setting, then I looked at what was the average price for a non-famous author's paperback novel sold by bookstores. Working from the print book price with the print cost of a 45,000 word novel at Lulu being deducted from the retail paperback price I reached what I saw was a fair markup and applied that to both the print books and ebooks I already had for sale and used those as the standardized prices for most of my works - I've stayed with those prices for several years now.

That's a whole different approach. Your way and what Michael described both seem logical and yet totally different ways to set a price.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

I try to make each book 45,000 words or more to be worth what I'm selling them for, if they aren't the prices go down accordingly.

While I don't believe that 'shorter is better', I still prefer a shorter, action-packed book than one that takes days to get to the point.

When I first started, my PRINT books ranged from 200 to 400 pages. Now I try to keep my sizes in the general genre specific ranges: 30,000 to 70,000 for mysteries, 60,000 to 120,000 for most novels, and 120,000 to 150,000 for most 'epic' science fiction and historical novels (since it takes so long to build a believable universe).

However, I've long stuck to the general 20-something chapter range, as that seems (for me at least) to be the optional size to tell a decent story. A book's size will vary greatly if those 20 chapters are 10,000/5,000 or only 3,000 each, but the same build up and pacing go into each, and that's generally chapter based, rather than word based.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Keet

I'm hardly typical of other writers, but long ago, after fairly extensive experimentation with prices, I determined that my books are—using economic terms—price inelastic.

That means, while most authors price their books incredibly cheap (ex: $.99) to get the widest possible distribution, the demand for my books doesn't vary much according to price. My readers love my stories, whatever they cost. Knowing that, I gradually eased the prices up until the sales started slacking up.

So a LOT of it is determined by what kind of readers you're aiming for. If you books are popular, but don't vary much from everything else on the market, then sales volume is your bottom line. 1,000 books at .99 is much better than 30 at $10 or 7 for $24.

For me, these are my general pricing guidelines.
o New book: $6.99
o Established book (been out for a few months): $5.99
o 1st book in a series: $4.99
o Final book in a series: $7.99
o Shorter book: generally a dollar less than those listed prices

By the way, research conducted by Smashwords, based on their online sales, suggest the following:
Best quantity/sales: $4.99
Best quantity: $0.99 or free
Highest sales: $4.99 (as the prices fall off considerably above that)
Average: $2.99

Replies:   Keet  Switch Blayde
Keet 🚫

@Vincent Berg

I'm hardly typical of other writers, but long ago, after fairly extensive experimentation with prices, I determined that my books are—using economic terms—price inelastic.

Thank you, yet another way of pricing. This way probably works for you because you have an established audience in the same genre and you work a lot in series. Is it common to price the last book in a series at a higher price?

Vincent Berg 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

On the other hand, I've also joined in with a recent publishing trend of selling box sets (multiple books in a single volume at a discounted price). There started as publishing the first book in several series, or a collection of an author's single works, as a way of promoting their longer, more involved series (which I've yet to try, simply because organizing them is still fairly difficult, as the books vary so much from one another).

But for any given series, it's a very nice return on investment, giving you more cash upfront, giving you a feel for how popular the series is, while also giving your readers a substantial price break. (I typically release the Box Set early in the series, so that once they've paid the total for all the books, they can upload the recent additions once they're published. That can sometimes take a while, but it's a way of 'locking' your interested readers in for the duration of the story.

But, since I keep unpublishing my earlier books, and have changed my writing style so much over the years, it's difficult putting together the first book of various series without them coming off as inconsistently written. :(

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Keet

Sorry. I hit the wrong key on the last replay, overwriting the previous message rather than merely replying to it. Here's what I'd said, more or less, before it got erased.

Yes, that sort of pricing for series is an established publishing trend, and is why, for many publishers, they prefer to publish series by new authors rather than single books.

The first book in a series is often priced as a 'giveaway', as they assume they'll make the lost revenue when the readers purchase the other books in the series. The final book, though, often wraps up the various unresolved issues, as is seen as more emotionally satisfying, since the others often leave the readers hanging, thus readers are generally willing to pay a little more for the satisfaction of finally finishing a series.

Although, the first book in any given series generally tend to be faster paced, not delving as deeply into the character's lives, simply setting up the universe and establishing the underlying conflicts. As a result, they're often much shorter, while the final books, as they're delving deeper into the underlying issues, tend to pack in more details, so they also tend to be longer then the other books in the series.

Again, the first books tend to be teasers, giving readers a fast read, while the second and subsequent books add in more detail, until the final book finishing off all the unaddressed questions left dangling over the readers. So the difference in the length of the books also partially accounts for their price discrepancy.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Vincent Berg

I gradually eased the prices up until the sales started slacking up.

Then it is elastic.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Then it is elastic.

Nothing is absolute, especially in economics. Whereas markets might be inelastic, as there's really no choice in whether you want heat in winter or not, and there are few alternatives, for an individual seller, there are limits.

I should have stated largely inelastic (i.e. my books don't seem to operate like those selling for 99 cents a pop do), but I assumed most would assume the obvious.

For me, selling at $0.99 does not generate additional sales, and FREE books only seem to generate sales for other books easily accessed for free. Thus I'm comparing selling a book for $7.99, or even $14.99 for a print book, to those going for pennies on the dollar or for $24.99 a pop.

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