Author Talk: Pricing Peculiarities

Recently, I ran into an interesting publishing problem.

I found that if I put my Jegra book 2, Imperatrix of the Galaxy, into expanded distribution (ExD), I am forced to raise the price of the paperback to meet the minimum royalty requirement for ExD return.

But if I raise the price, it takes it up $3 from the $15.99 price I have it at in order to match the pricing of the first book. Now, it's 100 pages more than the first book, so I could totally justify the price hike.

The problem is that the Amazon recommended price for a book of my page count shouldn't exceed $17 on the standard paperback pricing chart which Amazon calculates for me automatically. It's a pickle for sure.

My solution: Just don't put book 2 into expanded distribution. Yeah, libraries won't be able to order it and certain B&M bookstores, but until I'm selling the same amount of paperbacks as ebooks, the loss is likely minimal.

In my estimation, it's better to have an affordable book more people will be willing to buy at a reasonable price (more bang for the buck so to speak), than a book that's priced slightly too high and risk scaring off potential new buyers (cost vs. value).

Still, I really have no comparison to draw on, because until I sell a ton more paperbacks I won't know exactly how this affects me.

Right now, not very much. Still, I found it interesting enough to share.
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