Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: Charge More for Non-Fiction
Back when ebooks became a thing, there was a big, and often very tiresome, debate about what books should be worth.
One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen self-published authors make over the years is setting the price for their books to be too low.
Authors set their book prices too low for a number of reasons:
- They don’t think people will pay more for it
- They don’t want to look like they’re trying to rip people off
- They undervalue their own work
- They think ebooks should be cheaper than print books
The “What is a Book Worth” Debate is Up to You and Your Readers to Decide
Back when ebooks became a thing, there was a big, and often very tiresome, debate about what books should be worth.
Believe it not, companies that made money selling paper books simultaneously took the position that ebooks are inherently worth less than paper books and charged more for the ebook versions of their books!!!
They did that because they make their money off the externalities of trading in paper products, so they wanted to put their finger on the scale to depress ebook sales, and then go “Look, no one wants ebooks!”
That was always a pretty dumb debate. Books, including ebooks, have no objectively correct price. They’re worth what people are willing to charge, and what people are willing to pay.
For example, at Leanpub, we’ve proved that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a single ebook.
So, our advice is: charge more than you think you should, offer people occasional discount coupon campaigns, and experiment with your pricing as you go.
