E-book Pricing Info
Who sets the price of my e-book?
YOU DO
While the default price for all Booktango e-books is $4.99, you have the ability to change that price at your discretion. There is a minimum pricing option of $0.99, and a maximum of $9.99. Set your price in the online publisher before you submit your book for publication.
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How do I know the best price for my e-book?
DO YOUR RESEARCH
There are a few rules and things to consider before you decide to set the price for your e-book.
- It cannot be priced at $0.00. This is because each retail website charges a small service fee for the download of the e-book file. An e-book must be at least $0.99 in order to be sold on any retail website.
- Anywhere between $0.99 and $9.99 is considered an "acceptable" price. Research has shown that customers are more willing to purchase an e-book if it's priced significantly lower than a paperback or hardcover book.
- Take your audience into consideration. Will they be more willing to read your e-book if it's sold at a low price? Probably!
- Do some research. Look at other e-books that are in the same genre as yours. What price are they being sold for? Also, readers are often willing to pay more for a well-known author's book than an unknown author. Do some research, ask around, and be competitive!
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What's the minimum and maximum I can charge for my e-book?
$0.99 MIN AND $9.99 MAX
Each retailer has a different policy. Our retailing policy is that e-books will be set at a default price of $4.99. You then have the option to a different price between $0.99 and $9.99.
The minimum and maximum prices for Booktango are based on what retailers require, as well as industry standards. Here are our retail partner's policies are as follows as of November 2011 (all prices in USD):
| RETAILER |
MINIMUM |
MAXIMUM |
| Kobo |
$0.99 |
$12.99 |
| Barnes & Noble |
$0.99 |
$199.00 |
| Amazon |
$0.99 |
none |
| Sony |
$0.99 |
none |
| Apple |
$0.99 |
$39.99 |
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But there are e-books available for free, so why can't I offer mine for less than $0.99?
EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE
You may notice there are some e-books that are "sold" for free. Amazon for Kindle has a Top 100 Free E-books list, for example. But, how can they do that if retailers forbid a book to be priced at $0.00? These authors must exclusively publish through Kindle Direct Publishing to be able to offer their book for free. They are only allowed to sell for free for a limited amount of days.
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Why is a retailer selling my book at a lower price?
IT'S THEIR RIGHT
The list price for your book on certain websites is up to the retailers’ discretion. Retailers can list the selling price of your book at whatever price they wish, although most follow the suggested retail price. However, some retailers may choose to list the book higher or lower than the suggested retail price, which is completely within their rights. We have no control of this as it is solely up to the book retailers.
You may contact the retailers individually to determine if they’ll change the price of your book to your suggested price. Regardless of what a retailer sells your book for, you will always receive the retail royalty percentage agreed to during the production of your e-book.
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Can I change the price of my book later?
YES
Once your e-book is published, you can change the price. Simply click the button to unlock your book in the Dashboard, make the change, and resubmit your e-book. The price change will show up in online bookstores in one day to four weeks, depending on the retailer.
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