How to Price Your eBook
BY KAREN MARTIN
You've written and compiled an eBook.
Now you have to decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If you charge too
little, people will think it's of little value, and they won't purchase
it, or even it they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands of
copies to get to the point where you can begin to see a profit. If you
price it too high when compared with your competition, you will find
yourself steadily lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell your eBook at first
for $39.99, and later reduce it to $24.95, don't
you think the people who bought it for $39.99 are going to be
PISSED?
Choosing the right price for
your eBook is one of the most critical parts of the marketing
process. The first rule of pricing eBooks is to never
underprice. Determine the highest price your audience can
afford, and then if you find your book isn't selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step, make sure
you are promoting your book like crazy on the Internet and on
websites. The price should be aimed at bringing in profits,
but you should never forget that price is one of the factors
that people use in judging the value of your eBook before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and then
launch a mega-marketing campaign.
Pricing an eBook is
particularly difficult because eBooks are a fairly new
commodity. Since they are digital, the value of an eBook is as
confusing as the understanding of what digital actually is to
the average layperson. This means that we must look at eBooks
in a different light in order to determine their actual worth
in this brave, new cyber world.
Let's look at the difference
between a book in print and an eBook. A printed book is an
object you can hold in your hand, store on your bookshelf,
even hand down to the next generation. It is priced on factors
such as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.
But the fact that unites
eBooks and print books is that they are composed of ideas. It
is the ideas in these books that have the ability to change,
or possibly transform, people's lives.
What do you think an idea is
worth when evaluated against the cost of paper and ink?
It is the IDEAS that are
valuable! That is how you determine the cost of your eBook.
What should I charge for my ideas?
There are all different
formulas and methods for determining the correct price for
your eBook. Let's begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.
Decide if your goal is to get
wide distribution and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at
drawing customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If this is
your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on the low
side. Some authors have even priced their eBooks at a profit
loss to draw a high number of new customers. The key is to
find a price that maximizes your profits and the number of
books you sell.
This is an excellent pricing
strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers.
Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again as long as the first eBook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.
However, if your book contains
valuable — and more importantly NEW — information, references,
or techniques, then you should aim to price it on the high
end.
After you figure out your
goal, you must figure out what your audience's need is for
your eBook. For example, does your book solve a particular
problem? If it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been
written about in one hundred other eBooks, you will be able to
achieve high sales at a high price. If your book solves a
problem or answers questions in a new and unique way, you
should price your book as high as you can go. You will achieve
larger profits this way, but bring in fewer customers. Just
make sure the question or problem that your book solves is one
that is important and relevant to the majority of your market
audience. If your ideas are not common knowledge, or you are
presenting a brand new technique, you will be able to sell
books at a high price. Just be prepared for your competition
to undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your book.
Keep in mind that the above
pricing strategy is temporary. Eventually, you will cease to
sell books at this high price. So figure out in advance how
long you plan to offer your eBook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.
If you want to see large
profits over customer draw, aim for an audience that is
looking for easy solutions to their problems at a low price.
If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather
than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the largest
profits, and plan to discount the book a number of times
throughout the year.
Marketing Strategies
The key that unlocks the sales
potential of your eBook is to find a single sentence that
becomes your selling handle. This sentence states what
question or problem your book answers and the benefits your
eBook can provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every time anyone
asks you about your eBook.
Besides promoting your books
assiduously online, there are several other strategies that
can help you sell more books.
One is to give something away
for free with your book, such as a valuable bonus item. Or
bundle several eBooks under one price, which lowers the price
for each eBook if they were sold separately.
An effective technique for
figuring out a price is to send out a survey to your current
customers. If these customers have already bought an eBook
from you, ask for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don't include a
price on that page. Instead, add a number of links to survey
questions that ask pointed questions to aid you in assigning a
price to your eBook.
Another strategy is to test
out prices by creating a number of duplicate sales pages with
different prices on each page. Make sure your sales copy is
exactly the same on every page, and includes your
selling-handle sentence. Then figure out for each page the
conversion ratio between visitors to your site and sales of
your book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.
Ultimately, if you've written
a book that solves a problem or presents a new technique, your
book will bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to
write that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book will be to
the customers who purchase it. And then watch your market come
to you!
Karen Martin is the Sub-Editor
of 'The Internet Affiliates Resources Directory' where
subscribers have the opportunity to have their Affiliate
programs promoted absolutely free and on a permanent basis.
Email to get the details & free sample subscription.
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