The Art, Strategy, and Key Considerations of Pricing Your Children’s Book
When pricing your children’s book, there is an art to how you strategically price your book, with some careful key considerations. In this Blog, I will go over the steps you should take before you set your price for your book.
When I say there is an art to it when pricing a book, this means that an author has to take into account factors such as production costs, marketing plans, and your goals to have a children’s book that is not only competitive within the market, but selling it for a profitable price. An author’s goal should be to recover their costs while appealing to buyers, all without diminishing the book’s perceived value.
The first important step is to first go to your local bookstore, and check the prices that are on books similar to your book. For instance, if your book is going to be an 8 ½” X 11” hardcover children’s book, you first want to look at books of that size and type of cover to get an idea of what other books are selling for. Note that I did not say what the author is selling the book for. There is a difference. If a book is sold in a bookstore, such as Barnes and Noble, they will most likely put their own price over what the retail price was originally (from the author). They are known to be a big-chain store that can reduce the prices of books. So, this is another factor to keep in mind if you are having your book on a platform like Barnes and Noble. The next step, then, would be to look at books, somewhere else, that are again like your book, but have not been reduced. It’s also important to note that established, well-known picture book children’s book authors such as Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary, and Mo Willems, just to name a few, can charge more for their books, because they are well-known, unlike first-time authors. The second important thing to note is that hardcover books cost more to print than paperback books, so you can price your books with that consideration in mind, too. Look at things like the same number of pages, the same format, and genre. And, look at these types of books from both a traditional publisher and other self-published authors.
You can also look online at places like Amazon and other platforms to research prices, but again, keep in mind that these books are often discounted. You also want your book to be competitive, but you do not want to overprice your book as well.
Secondly, the next key consideration you need to take into account is calculating all of your production costs. In order to do this, you need to establish the minimum sales needed to cover costs. In other words, what is your break-even point? Your production costs include things like cover design (unless that figure was added into your illustrator’s salary), illustrations, editing, formatting, and printing costs. Study the current market. Paperbacks normally are priced within the range of $9.99 – $15.99. Hardcovers range from $16.99 – $22.99 and some of those can even be higher, if they are special editions. It’s also noteworthy to say that traditional publishers can price books at a lower price because they have larger print runs. This, in turn, can make it harder for a self-publishing author using a POD company or even a printing company.
So, the next factor to consider is what are your goals? Are your goals trying to make as much money as you can, or getting your work into as many readers as possible to inherently establish visibility for your books? For me, it was trying to find that happy medium. I want both. I want a good profit while getting as many readers as possible to build an audience. I like to aim high. But, with that, there are risks. For me, the goals outweigh the risks.
Keep in mind your target audience. For me, and I would say for most children’s book authors, you would want your target audience to be parents, educators, and librarians. Also, it is important to keep in mind what they are willing to pay. For example, if your children’s book is a picture book, the typical age range is from three to eight years old, although two years to ten years old seems to be more realistic these days. So, parents, if they are buying a children’s book for a two or three-year-old, may be willing to pay more for a hardcover due to its durability as opposed to a paperback.
The next factor to consider is distribution and royalties. I will talk more about this in another Blog however, it is a key factor when figuring out how to price your book. Because platforms such as IngramSpark, Amazon KDP, Barnes and Noble Press, or bookstores such as Barnes and Noble, or Borders take different percentages of the sale price, it is important to make sure that the final price of your book reflects a reasonable profit margin, after these deductions.
Once you have done your homework, the next key factor is that you will want to set a price that is not only competitive, but that it does not diminish the quality and value of your work! There is a little secret to pricing your book. Some people call it “psychological pricing.” When a book’s price ends in .99, shoppers tend to focus on the leftmost digit, which makes the price appear lower than a rounded figure like $20.00. Research indicates that retailers use .99 pricing to keep items within a more attractive perceived price range, helping them appeal to budget-conscious customers. With that being said, be willing to adjust the price of your book based on data and feedback.
To summarize, when it comes to pricing your children’s book, do the research and calculations necessary so that your book is not only profitable but also competitive with books like yours. You want your children’s books to sell, but you don’t want to cheapen the quality by pricing too low, and you do not want to price too high. Make sure you establish what your goals are, and then go from there.
