Welcome Back to this series. Today we talk about formating and pricing.
Formatting Your E-book
Formatting your e-book can be a nightmare. There is so much to consider. Are your images going to show up right on a mobile device? Is your text size too big or too little, and have you chosen a font that is easy to read? How about your page breaks and chapter breaks? Do they provide an easy reading experience?
In almost every case, you are going to be publishing your e-book on Amazon. It is free to do so, and the world’s largest online retailer does such a good job at promoting your e-book, it just doesn’t make sense to skip this step. Check out the Amazon guide to formatting for Kindle at https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6.
That is a one-stop resource which spells out every step of the process.
Fiverr and other top outsourcing and freelancing websites mentioned in the section on writing your e-book are lifesavers for this step. Seriously, formatting can drive you batty, especially if you are not the most technically inclined individual. For a surprisingly small amount of money you can hire someone whose specialty is formatting e-books, and you would be surprised how little you have to spend for that expertise.
There are freelancers on Fiverr that do nothing but format e-books! The same is true with the other freelancing sites we mentioned earlier. Just to keep you from having to find out where they were mentioned, here they are again. (It is highly recommended you have someone else handle this detailed, in-depth and lengthy process.)
- Fiverr
- UpWork
- Freelancer.com
- People Per Hour
- Hire The World
In the very last section of this e-book, you will choose where you are going to publish the culmination of all your hard work. In most cases, the EPUB format is the system you will be using to qualify for publishing on those sites. If you decide to go it alone for this daunting task, stock up on your favorite headache pain reliever and check out the “Smashwords Style Guide” offered for free at Amazon.
This is a must-have resource for formatting an e-book. At 130 pages it is an exhaustive how-to lifesaver that covers anything and everything you need to know about formatting your e-book properly so that it gets accepted for publishing on Amazon and the other top e-book selling sites.
Pricig your Book
Pricing depends on a lot of factors. At Amazon, your commission structure depends on how much you are selling your e-book for. If you price your e-book between $2.99 and $9.99, you can qualify for the 70% commission rate. However, charge between $0.99 and $2.98, or $10.00 and $199.99, and you only qualify for a 35% commission on Amazon.
Amazon, and 65% where Amazon pays 70%. The Apple iBookstore doles out 70% regardless of your price point. (The last section of this e-book covers the top publishing websites where you need to be selling your product, as well as the commissions they pay.)
Understand Your Market and Competitors
Look at the competition. Find e-books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble that are similar to yours. What do the price points look like? You should understand your market as well. E-book buyers on Amazon flock to the lower price points ($2.99 and lower). With Barnes and Noble and Kobo, price doesn’t seem to matter as much.
Length Really Does Matter
If your finished product is under 50,000 words, you will have a hard time getting more than $2.99. Your price point should be dictated by what you are writing about, as well as the people that are going to be buying it, but the length of your book is extremely important too. If your book is decidedly shorter than 50,000 words, aim for the $0.99 price point at Amazon, and the $2.99 slot elsewhere.
The Type of Information You Are Selling Matters
Information products in e-book form sold on websites like JV Zoo and ClickBank routinely go for $27, some more and some less. Alternately, you will probably never find an e-book with that type of price tag on Amazon, unless it comes with hundreds of dollars of free bonus material. Also, how-to books that solve important problems or deliver incredible results will attract more money than fictional romance novels and mysteries.
Remember You Can Always Change the Price
Don’t let this be a big stumbling block for you. Slap on a price tag after doing some competitor/market research, and move on. It is very simple to change the price in the future. This is the easy part. You have done all of the hard work. You are extremely close to actually having your product online and available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection! Do a little research, use the advice above, and choose a price. You can always change it later.
