In this episode, we are going to talk about how to price your eBook. 
Show Notes
Introduction:
One of those episodes we can’t believe we’ve never done, because it’s a question everyone seems to always be asking.
What should you price your ebook? We have a short answer and a long answer.
The Short Answer: All eBook pricing is an ongoing/never ending experiment
The Long Answer:
We’ll give you broad strokes, and then specific brush strokes that will help you make an informed decision.
How pricing works in economics. 

* In general, prices are driven by supply and demand.
* Elastic Prices (Genre Fiction)
* Non-Elastic Prices (Textbooks)
* How do you become less elastic? Build a strong brand!

* Example: Brandon Sanderson-Thomas will pay the going price!

 
The Pricing Graph

* Higher Prices > Lower Unit Sales
* Lower Prices < Higher Unit Sales
* Sweet spot, where you have maximum profit. Also known as the point of equilibrium.

 
What is Your Objective? The goal for all authors is not necessarily to maximize profits. Sell Lots of Books? Or … Make Lots of Money?
 
Sell Lots of Books
 

* When you’re in the start to middle of your career- books in as many hands as possible. (Pirating again.)
* More sales makes Amazon smarter- they know who will buy your book
* You’ll rise higher on the charts. More reviews. More email subscribers.
* Price? $0.99 On average, authors sell at least twice as many copies at $0.99 as they do at any other price point.

* The downside of $0.99 is that Amazon penalizes you by reducing your profits.

* Impulse buy.
* Success drives success.

 
Make Lots of Money

* The sweet spot has been $3.99

* This is a fluid number …

* The royalty structure on most major retailers is dependent on price.
* Amazon: 70% of every sale they make when their book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and 35% of the sale when their book is priced below $2.99.
*      However, this only works IF:

* Great cover
* Great (and lots of) reviews

 

* What if you don’t have those two things?

* Run a $.99 promo and garner reviews, then come back.

 
Apparel Pricing as an Example
$20 for a t-shirt … sits on the rack, now on sale for $5! Wow, great savings! Wrong. You have $5 less, but that anchoring works!
 
Establish a Brand

* High prices can establish a luxury brand.  
* The problem with a race to the bottom is that you just might win.
* You never want to be the second cheapest option.

 
What if You Want High Sales and High Profit?

* Consider KDP Select- exclusive to Amazon

* Kindle Countdown Deals and …
* KENP Payouts. Authors running a promotion at $0.99 earn a 70% royalty effectively doubling the royalty on each of their sales.
* Pages read: authors enrolled in KDP Select see an increase in the number of pages read when they run a promotion.

* On average, authors see a 1300 bump in KENP reads the day of the promotion, with reads increasing into the weeks after the promotion. With the current payout per page amount averaging $0.0045, that’s an additional $5.85 in earnings per day that an author earns off the promotion.

 
What Price Should You Choose? 
 

* You can price a book based on a combination of any of these factors:

* Length
* Genre
* Marketing reasons
* What other similar authors charge