Determining a Book Price Before Publishing

Deciding on a book price is dependent on researching other books in your genre

It can feel overwhelming before publishing a book to decide what to charge for your hard work.

Just skimming through pages of books can show you variations in book prices from free to $14.99. So it’s only natural to feel hesitant to land on a price and hope that people will be willing to spend it on your book. If you price your book too high or too low, it can make readers wonder if it’s worth their money.

This is where conducting market research comes in handy.

How can we conduct market research to help us figure out what our book’s price will be?

Step 1

Search other books in your genre and begin making a list of books comparable to yours.

I suggest creating a list of 50 to 60 books. Doing so will provide you with a wide range of prices, page counts, and reviews later.

Here is an example.

This is only a small example of my list.

In the beginning, you see a trend of how close books are in price. Books with a higher page count will have a slightly higher price for the paperback copy. Something to keep in mind.

Step 2

After this list is made, it’s time to compare your books to others on the list by your page count.

I would suggest eliminating books on your list that don’t match your page count, which will then narrow down your list to provide you with more direct comparisons.

Step 3

Now that you have done the research, and narrowed down your list to books within the same page count, you can truly look at the price range your book falls into.

Looking at the pricing, try to decide a medium price for your book among the competition’s prices and go from there.

Step 4

One last detail to consider is the covers of your book comparisons.

Take into account how they compare to yours when selecting your competitors to price check against. Mainly because this will clue you into what your readers will be considering when they are looking at purchasing a book. Because a great cover can sell a book and a bad cover deter customers.

Landing on a price for your book can be tricky, but if you look at the market, you have a better chance of landing at the right price.

Just remember to:

• Make a list of 50–60 books comparable to yours

• Record these book’s page counts and prices for both eBooks and Paperbacks

• Narrow down your list by eliminating books that don’t match your page count

• Keep in mind the book covers of your competitors

For more book information on pricing see Determining a price for your book.