{"id":828,"date":"2019-01-07T14:44:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T06:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.haguepublishing.com\/?p=828"},"modified":"2019-01-08T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T03:01:35","slug":"the-what-and-why-of-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haguepublishing.com\/blog\/the-what-and-why-of-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"The What and Why of Pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the process of releasing Barry Dean’s latest book In L.I.E.U.<\/em> (due out 2 April 2019), Barry asked the excellent question as to how we set the price of the ebook against its paperback companion. While a simple question the answer is more than a little complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebook pricing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hague Publishing initially started as an exclusively ebook publisher and set the price of its books on what I believed an ebook should sell for, which was $5.00 Australian. This was at a time (way back in in 2011) when the Australian dollar enjoyed relative price parity with the US dollar. Basically I set a price which I believed set sufficient value on the author’s time and effort in writing the book. This was also in the early days of ebook publishing when those releasing the ebook (e.g. publishers and self-published authors) were still experimenting in price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When the Australian dollar fell we were able to drop the price to $3.99 US without affecting our author’s earnings (as $3.99 US equated to $5 AU and most of our ebook sales come from the US). More recently we have continued the trend and dropped the price to $3.50US. This is slightly higher than the $3-a-book price point independent publishers appear to have settled on (Forbes<\/a>), but in my view is within shooting distance. The $3 price point is actually a result of Amazon, and Barnes and Noble adopting $2.99 as the point where the royalties paid increase from 35% to 70% for Amazon, and 40% to 65% for B&N. Adopting a general rule of $3.99 also allows us to lower the price we sell the first book in series at while retaining access to the higher royalty rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others have pointed out to me that many ebooks are selling for $8 US or more. However, Adam Rowe (writing for Forbes<\/a>) pointed out in December 2018 that this pricing was the result of the Big Five publishing houses raising their prices and as a result suffering a 10% drop in epub sale in 2017 (i.e. pricing themselves out of the market). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paperback pricing (print on demand)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Paperback pricing is a little more difficult as instead of just the ‘fair’ value to recompense an author you need to consider :<\/p>\n\n\n\n