Pricing Assistance Needed

[Jason Varrone]

I will soon publish a 6,000-word (or thereabouts) non-fiction e-book. On the one hand I can see charging in the $0.99 range due to its size, but I have also read that non-fiction e-books fetch a higher price in general. The book is about time and our struggles with it, and I hope readers will take something away after reading it to help them use their own time more wisely. Do you think I should stick with $0.99, or should I try $1.49 or something else? I know I can change this over time, and I don't expect to set the world afire with this humble e-book, but I just wanted to pick your brains for a starting point. The $0.99 price point seems to be a bugaboo for many of us here, but due to the length, thought it appropriate. I have also considered giving it away for free via my website/blog, but it is my first book and I'd rather not do that, at least until I publish more material. Thanks!

[Krista D. Ball]

What kind of non-fiction? In general, non-fiction supports a higher price because it's often a specialized or knowledge-based book.

I charge $3.99 for my non-fiction blogging guide. I sell 5-40 a month (it varies) with 15 being the average I think. I made back my initial $175 investment in just under 3 months.

I've tried doing sales and putting the price at 99 cents and 1.99. I sell a lot less when I do that AND make less money. So I stopped.  

[EthanRussellErway]

Jason, I'm very new at this too, so I'm by no means an expert, but I would think that what you need now more than anything is publicity and getting you name/work out there.

You might enroll it in kdp select and set the price at 99c or $1.99, that way prime members could borrow it for free and you could still see if anyone is buying it at that price.

I set the price of my novel at 4.99, but got Amazon to match it for free to try and get my work out there, in hopes that people will like my work and return to buy the sequels.

I recently listened to an episode of Adam Corolla's podcast, and he was talking to another comedian (I can't remember who) about how long they both had to work hard for pretty much nothing in order to gain experience and break into the business of comedy.  I'm okay with doing the same, although I'd rather have everything right now.

Hopefully someone will give you some really good advice, but you will probably just have to play around and see what works for you the best.  Good luck.

[EthanRussellErway]

Krista, have you done anything to specifically market your blogging book, or have people just been finding it?  How does it sell compared to the rest of your work?

[Jason Varrone]

Wow, Krista, you price your 9k-word e-book for $3.99? That's awesome! As I mentioned in the OP, it is a book about time and I offer a suggestion based on an experience I went through about taking control over your time instead of the other way around. I'd love to price it at $2.99 to get the 65% royalty, but though I would be pushing the envelope too much at that point, especially being a noob.

I agree, Ethan, I do need to market it aggressively. I'm just entering the fray here and learning everything as I go. The nice thing is that if you make a mistake, you back up and change course quickly!

[Krista D. Ball]

Krista, have you done anything to specifically market your blogging book, or have people just been finding it?  How does it sell compared to the rest of your work?

I have done absolutely nothing 

That's a lie. I asked a friend if I could do a blog post on her blog with an excerpt from it. Oh, and I asked a couple people on KB would they review it (they did).

It's a very niche topic (help for writers who blog). It's something people go looking for, as opposed to impulse by.

I can only compare it to my DIY stuff, since I have confidentiality contracts for my trad stuff. I can say that it sells better than my short stories and so far is selling about the same as my novella series (book 1), but it's hard to compare since Blank Screen's been out since June and the novella came out less than a month ago.

[Krista D. Ball]

Wow, Krista, you price your 9k-word e-book for $3.99? That's awesome!

Ah, but it's a rather specific topic. If you are really struggling at blogging, it gives a person over 200 ideas. Some are designed to help with blog tours, or to arrange to have people come on your blog and do themed visits. If you know how to blog or have lots of blogging ideas, you don't need the guide. But if you are struggling blogging (or, worse, you don't blog and instead only do guest blogs elsewhere), it's a decent tool for that.

As I mentioned in the OP, it is a book about time and I offer a suggestion based on an experience I went through about taking control over your time instead of the other way around. I'd love to price it at $2.99 to get the 65% royalty, but though I would be pushing the envelope too much at that point, especially being a noob.

Since it's an essay-type, it might end up falling into the fiction pricing (i.e. under 10K = 99-$1.29 cent rule I use), but I'm not sure. It's a subjective thing.

[ShayneHellerman]

There's nothing that says you have to either go $0.99 or $2.99. Why not try something like $1.29 or $1.49 to start, and see how you go from there? That way you avoid the stigma of $0.99, but your price won't be prohibitively high.

One thing to think about when you're publishing something so short - the 'see inside' feature shows a percentage of the book, and so with such a short book, the prospective customer might not get to see enough to decide if they like what you're selling or not. For me, any book so short that I couldn't sample a few pages first means that the price can't be too high, or I won't take a chance on an author I don't know.

[Krista D. Ball]

That's why I sell a lot on Smashwords. People can see 25% of the guide.

[ShayneHellerman]

That's why I sell a lot on Smashwords. People can see 25% of the guide.

Ooh, that's a nice feature - good to know that for in the future.

Krista, I just bought a copy of No More Blank Screen. You had me at '200 blogging ideas'...

[Krista D. Ball]

I just bought a copy of No More Blank Screen. You had me at '200 blogging ideas'...

 

That's how I sell the guide. It's really for a very specific group of people. I used to have people email me questions a lot about blogging, and I was often asked about it while on panels and such. That's why I did it; I knew there was a (very small) market for it and it would help a lot of people. I didn't realize that it would have as big of a market as I've found. When I wrote it, I honestly expected to only sell a couple copies a month and make my investment back in a year or two. It's helped a lot of people, so I'm really glad I did it.