What? A 108-page book listed at $19.99? What’s up with that?

Pricing is an ongoing challenge in the publishing industry when a book is printed using digital printing (print-on-demand technology, POD). Publishers may price soft-cover books a lot higher than normal for two reasons:

• They want to make a huge profit from the author buying copies of his or her own books, so they offer a sliding-scale discount that is ridiculously low.
• They want to make a profit on the author, post publication. As copies sell through the distribution channels, many publishers deduct the inflated author price before they calculate the royalty amount paid to the author.

Here’s a Couple of Examples:

Xlibris, a secular POD publisher, sets the retail price at $19.99 for a book ranging from 108 pages to 299 pages. Authors are given a thirty percent discount for starters.

Christian POD publisher, Xulon Press, only offers a thirty percent discount on your book, unless you buy over twenty-five copies at one time. Their retail rates run $15.99 for a 200 page soft-cover 6” x 9” book, much lower than Xlibris. This means if you, as a Xulon author, want to buy copies to sell at a speaking engagement, and you only buy 25 copies, you will pay $11.19 each, plus shipping and handling. If you buy between twenty-six and fifty copies you pay $10.39 plus shipping and handling. The author price on fifty-one to 150 copies is $9.59 plus shipping and handling.

The Xlibris prices are even worse!

I’m sorry, we think those prices are highway robbery! So we’re doing something about it.

At Redemption Press, we have negotiated a broker’s fee from the printer (because we are bringing them so much business). So we are able to give you the print-on-demand printer’s “publisher rate” of .015 per page, plus .90 per copy, and still retain some profit for the company. Our profit comes out of the printer’s profits, not the author’s.

Whether you order five copies or 150 copies, you buy them for $3.90 each, plus shipping and handling.

Yep, you’ve figured it out! This is a fraction of what Xulon and Xlibris charge!

How to Set Your Book’s Retail Price

Because we give you the published printer rates, we also let you set your own retail price. Here’s where it can get a little tricky. You don’t want to set the price so high that people are discouraged from buying. You also don’t want to set it so low there’s no profit left for you when distributors and online stores order their copies at a 55% discount.

Let’s walk through pricing a 200-page soft-cover book.

If you set the SRP (suggested retail price) at $15.99 here are the royalties you will make:

Sell at an event at no discount:

$15.99 – $3.90 – .75* s/h = $11.34

Sell through our RP bookstore at no discount:

$15.99 – $3.90 – $2.50 handling = $9.59

Sell through Amazon or a bookstore/distributor at a 55% discount:

$15.99 – 55% discount of $8.79 – $3.90 printing price = $3.30

*Assumes you are ordering 20+ books at a time at standard ground rates (not rush).

If you set the SRP at $14.99 here are the royalties you will make:

Sell at an event at no discount:

$14.99 – $3.90 – .75* s/h = $10.34

Sell through our RP bookstore at no discount:

$14.99 – $3.90 – $2.50 handling = $8.59

Sell through Amazon or a bookstore/distributor at a 55% discount:

$14.99 – 55% discount of $8.24 – $3.90 printing price = $2.85

*Assumes you are ordering 20+ books at a time at standard ground rates (not rush).

If you set the SRP (suggested retail price) at $13.99 here are the royalties you will make:

Sell at an event at no discount:

$13.99 – $3.90 – .75* s/h = $9.34

Sell through our RP bookstore at no discount:

$13.99 – $3.90 – $2.50 handling = $7.59

Sell through Amazon or a bookstore/distributor at a 55% discount:

$13.99 – 55% discount of $7.69 – $3.90 printing price = $2.40

*Assumes you are ordering 20+ books at a time at standard ground rates (not rush).

In The Driver’s Seat—You, Yes, You!

I hope this helps guide you as you consider the best retail price for your book. With Redemption Press, you’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to retail pricing and author printing pricing, and that’s the way we like it! We’re hoping that you’ll like it too.