How to Price an E-Book
Writing an e-book can provide your business with multiple benefits. For example, you can charge consumers to download your publication, providing your company with a new stream of revenue. In order to successfully utilise this strategy, ensure you do not overcharge consumers. Your e-book needs to provide value for money.
Who is your target reader?
The first thing you need to consider is your target reader. Who do you want to buy your e-book? Look at what these consumers are reading and the price of similar publications. Here you might also want to think about learning to write an email marketing campaign, so you can conduct the market research necessary to determine the reading and spending patterns of your target consumer base.
What are your production costs?
In order to ensure that writing an e-book serves as a valuable promotional tool for your business, you must ensure you secure return on investment. Therefore, when pricing your publication you must ensure that you charge enough to cover its production costs, such as the time and money spent creating and formatting the document, to ensure your firm does not incur losses on investment.
What are your competitors charging?
In the increasingly crowded global e-book market, you need to stand out from your competitors to be successful. Look at what competitors in your field are charging for their e-books and then decide whether to go higher or lower. Do you want to beat out the competition by assigning a low price to your e-book? Or does your e-book provide value that consumers cannot receive from your competitors, justifying a higher price? Strike a good balance to hit the right price.
How long is your e-book?
Readers tend to associate value for money with length. Marc Coker, the CEO of e-book publishing and distribution platform Smash Words notes to Blue Ink Review that “there’s strong evidence that as word count drops, average sales drop.” In other words, the longer your e-book, the more you will be able to charge consumers. If your e-book is short, charge less to ensure it gets picked up and allows you to use the publication as an opportunity to widen your firm’s consumer base.
What is the quality of your e-book?
As the Huffington Post notes, quality matters when it comes to pricing. The outlet writes that “in tests people tend to equate poor quality with cheap prices.” Ask yourself whether your book is of high quality? Does it read well? Does it have a reader-friendly format? Does it provide readers with valuable insights on relevant topics? The higher the quality of your e-book, the more people will be willing to pay for it, so quality should serve as a key part of your e-book writing and pricing strategy.
Think like your readers
When pricing your e-book, it is important to think like your target reader. If you were them, what would you be willing to pay for this publication? Answer this question and you will come up with an appropriate price for your e-book, ensuring you can use it as both a valuable promotional tool and a great way to drum up new revenue for your company.
About Higher Ways Publishing
Established in 2003 by Hayim Oshky and Mike Walden, Higher Ways Publishing helps authors and publishers transform brilliant ideas into commercial success. Headquartered in Tel Aviv Israel and California, they are a market leader in digital and hard-cover publishing for the health, fitness and relationship industries. Higher Ways Publishing have assisted many authors in expanding their online presence in the growing digital marketing world.
