Pricing your book is a critical part of your marketing plan. Pricing too high or too low can send the wrong message to consumers. You need to know all the publishing fees and printing costs before you can create a reasonable sell price.

Too high of a price can position your book out of the market, alienating your customers. You need to look at other books of similar sizes, page count, binding, cover and quality as well as where they are being sold in order to determine the most appropriate sell price for your book. At least if your price is too high, you can easily remedy it by discounting it. A higher price can potentially result in greater returns from sales but chose this option with caution.

Too low a price could mean you are selling with little or no margin thus losing money on each book. Often books are discounted by the seller up to 60%. Discounting will happen at the bookstore, online bookstore or distributor/wholesaler level so be prepared for that. As well, too low a price may be telling your customers that the book is not worth much, writing is poor, graphics and images elementary and even discrediting you the author. This could even severely damage your reputation as well as future sales. The perception of value might appeal to some consumers but you could be missing out on market share. Don't limit yourself right off the bat.

Your price per unit must include all hidden costs associated with publishing such as editing, proofreading, interior artwork/illustrations, designer time for having artwork prepared for printing, cover design and shipping. Don't for get to factor in costs of marketing materials and promotion to launch your book. As a guideline you might want keep your retail price at least 2.5 times the price per unit to allow for standard discounts to book stores and distributors and libraries, and leave enough "gross margin" remaining so you can get a resonable return on your book.

Your Retail Price should be based on your appraisal of the target audience including the value your book provides to the reader, as well as what price point competing books are selling.
Here's an example:

1. Your book costs $4.86 per unit to print
2. You want to get full representation in the chains and distributors, so you offer a 55% discount from RETAIL
3. You divide $4.86 by .45 (100 - 55% = 45%) and get $10.80 as your break-even point
4. To make a nice amount per sale, but to stay competitive, you price your book at $16.50.

Here are some things to consider when setting your price point.

Various discounts are allowed to libraries and college bookstores (15%-20%), independent bookstores (40%) and large chains and distributors (50%-55%). You may also want to offer volume discounts for individuals who buy more than 5 or more than 10 copies of your book at one time.

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