Monday, February 19, 2024

Marketing Your Book Using Free Promotions and Pricing

 


Don't sell yourself short. No one will value you. Set a fair price for you, your book, your services, whatever it is that you have to offer. Most of us set way too low a price. Put it a little higher than you would normally be inclined to do. The worst that can happen is someone will come along and steal it.

John Kremer

When you self-publish your book you quickly learn that you have a number of free things at your fingertips you can use to market your book.  One of these is your book's price.  A traditionally published author would find this a lot more difficult because that decision has been taken out of their hands.

Traditional and Self-Publishing Pricing Difference

Traditionally published books pricing is based upon cost of production and print-on-demand company profit.  Profit is the only thing you have control over once your book is published traditionally.  

Self-publishing gives you more freedom and the ability to change and edit things if you're not happy with them, in your book.  Pricing is one of them.  You can put your paperback and ebook prices up and down whenever you want to.  

Some things to think about when you price your book:

Understanding Kindle's Pricing Structure

Ebook Pricing Structure

$0.99 – $2.99 35% – Example: A $1.99 ebook you would receive $0.69 royalty.

$2.99 – $9.99 70% – Example: A $2.99 ebook you would receive $2.09 royalty.

Paperback Pricing Structure

60% - Example: A $20.00 paperback you would receive $4.05 royalty.

Different Genres Mean Different Pricing

How-to books, self-help, or anything classed as nonfiction can expect a higher price tag than that of a fiction novel.  People love stories, making the demand higher and the pricing often a lot lower than that of a nonfiction biography, or book on history.

Make Your Ebook Cheaper Than Your Paperback or Hardback

It makes sense that a digital ebook should be sold at a lower price than a tangible paperback or hardback.  Amazon will point out the price of the digital copy on the product page, showing how much cheaper it is than the paperback or hardback version.

Using Free Promotions to Sell Your Books

The book market is full of thousands upon thousands of authors all vying for the top spot, which is why you should utilise KDP's free promotion feature.  Giving your books away for free is a great way of finding new readers and building your audience.  

If someone is looking around for a new title to read, are they going to download a book they have to pay for from a well-known author or go with the free option that has no risk involved? A large percentage of the time customers will opt for the free copy because it won't burn a hole in their pocket.

Using Price Pulsing to Sell Your Books

Price pulsing is reducing the price of your book for a limited time, then putting it back to its original selling price when the limited time offer ends.  

A lot of authors will use this in their paid advertising campaigns to bring in new readers.  It's a popular tactic for authors using BookBub to advertise their books.

Research the Price Point of Your Book

A great place to start is Amazon, you can see which books are selling well and for how much.

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