If you are a new writer or author who has just finished completing a book, the question “how much to charge for an ebook” will consume most of your brain these days. But don’t worry we have covered you with this article.
There are no such rules and norms to be followed to keep the pricing such that more of your audience buy it. All these are the matter of valuable content, audience engagement, your authority, and their combination. So what you should do is use the “try and decide” method and decide what works best for you.
Instead of puzzling over how much to charge for your ebook, just set a price and keep playing with it. Sometimes raise the price or sometimes just set it to half and check what worked better for you. But always keep in mind the “demand and supply” formula.
If you are an absolute beginner in your niche, then you can consider giving your ebook for free which can reap you the benefits of personal branding and lead magnet in a later journey.
So instead of searching for the answers outside, ask these questions to yourself and come up with the price that suits you and your audience the best. Let’s start!
On which platform are you launching your eBook?
Is it Amazon or another eCommerce site or is it your own website? Your share depends on it. If it is your website you will get 100% of the price on every purchase. But launching it on amazon will differ your share. To get your work to reach a higher number of readers while making a considerable amount of money, the best price is $0.99.
But at this price, the author gets the royalty of only 35%. As you increase the price and reach $2.99, you can start getting the royalty of 70%. You may be wondering that it may affect the number of readers which may decline but not considerably.
Thus, you can believe that the best price you can charge is somewhere between $2.99 and $9.99 which gets you the highest royalty percentage of 70%.
Suggested:
Ask these 7 questions to decide the charge of your ebook
If how much to charge for an ebook is striking repeatedly to your mind then replace it with the questions below to come up with an answer.
1. What goals do you wish to accomplish through this ebook?
Do you wanna dedicate this to your readers as a free gift to use as a lead magnet for your business later or to just win your reader’s heart? Be it your social media followers, or blog subscribers if they like your content they become your permanent audience.
Maybe you have gained a considerable amount of your audience’s attention and you now wish to see their purchase capacity. In such cases, you may decide to set a certain price say $0.99(best entry price varying on the basis of content), to check if readers are ready to buy something from you.
If you know that your readers are ready to buy something expensive from you, the charges can be varied depending on your plan of marketing it. Have a clear goal in your mind and then move forward.
2. Where will you sell your ebook?
You can sell it on your own website which will give you 100% ebook charges. Or you prefer to choose any other platform like amazon. Charging for an ebook depends on the platform as well.
Selling it on amazon might give you higher royalties according to their KDP program(you can check it on Amazon).
At a time you can focus on one platform or you can choose to sell on all platforms like overdrive, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and a plethora of other book sites.
If you are trading it on mass platforms, here comes another question.
3. Are you keeping an eye on your competitors’ price
What are other authors who are writing in a similar niche be it your friends or competitors charging? It is not necessary to charge the same as those authors, but being aware of it will let you know a lot about market trends and demands.
Keeping the price competitive will also help your readers when your book will appear in the search results on a book site with various other similar books. Although if you are selling it on a website, you don’t need to worry about market competition. Competition depends on the value of the content which further helps in deciding the charges for your ebook.
If you are selling an ebook of 50 pages at a cost of $20 and others are selling it in the range of $3 – $5 for the same length, then you might not get high sales. Thus, you need to choose the right platform as per your requirements, market competition, and mainly where your readers are spending more time.
Catch these amazing Amazon pricing tips to set charges for your ebook
If you are planning to sell on Amazon, you get more audience reach, and as we know more volume results in more sales if the price is low. According to the data, the best-selling ebooks were in the price range of $3 to $7.
According to the data of amazon, if an ebook worth $15 gives you a profit of $100000 then the same ebook at the price of $10 will boost your profit to $17900.
The lower the price the better, and the more will be the audience of potential buyers. Keeping your price low will result in more sales and more profit.
But REMEMBER to not keep it too low. If you keep it as low as $0.99 then people will doubt its worth. To get this price to work, you need to have potential reviewers and get the sales done. Capture the email of your potential buyers to sell your next ebook.
Just a difference of a few bugs does not make a big difference. What matters most is your recognition. For your first ebook set an entry-level price so that more people purchase and get to know about you. This will develop your personal brand and will help in selling higher-priced ebooks in the future.
4. How large is your audience?
The audience is the critical factor in determining the price range. If your ebook is based on a niche that interests a small audience but is highly influenced by it then you can go for a higher price and earn more profits.
Obviously, there is no use to set a low price to attract more readers in the niche where the audience is already small. Ebook charges highly depend on the volume of your audience.
Similarly, if your niche interests a mass audience then you can keep a comparatively lower price to attract a volume of readers. And if you writing ebooks for making your living, then you should choose wisely.
5. Are you focusing on growing your email list?
If you have an audience who loves to know about you and your products then you have more chances of selling as the idea of emailing seems more professional.
People might be interested in buying a high-priced product from you as they will consider you as an authority. If you are targeting the mass bookselling sites to sell to total strangers, then there is less hope of people buying your ebook worth $27.
This is due to trust issues they might be having with a stranger. These issues result in fewer sales when people look at amazon results and find similar books at a lower price.
But the next question will make you ask for more.
6. Are you providing highly valuable content worth your ebook charges?
What matters the most for your customers is the content of your ebook and the real answer to “how to charge for an ebook” lies here. If you are helping them positively change their lives or in earning cash or building their careers, you can charge high.
Always offer more than you charge for it and this is the key point to attracting your customers. If your ebook can help them in earning 100 times more than your ebook price, they will definitely pay for it. Teach them a whole system to achieve something like building, launching, and marketing their product. You can even charge $96 for such an ebook.
It will never be the case that what you are providing and teaching nobody else is providing. But what matters is your way of delivering content and coming up with unique creative ideas, and data.
The information which is hard to find attracts the readers so you can always price such content higher. Uniqueness also means that your ebook can’t be easily price-compared so you can expect better sales.
7. Are you offering lucrative offers?
If your pricing is too low you will not have the option to offer deals. Using the limited-time sale option will generate sales more than ever. So set your price accordingly. Here are some examples of deals that result in high sales:
- Buy one get one free – where you get 2 books at the rate of 1.
- Half-price while launching the ebook.
- “Pay as you want” over $XYZ price
So set a price which is not too low that you can offer discounts and deals on occasions. This will hook your readers.
Now decide how much to charge for your ebook
Remember how much to charge for an ebook is all about experimentation and deciding what works best for you. Do not compare yourself with others or price like everyone else. Everyone has a unique identification for its content so find out your own path without following others.
Keep an eye on the ebook world and notice the changes in its trends. Keep revising your price according to that. Till then keep experimenting and paving your own path in the ebook world.
Do not forget to mention in the comments what strategies will you use to price your ebook.
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