3 Mistakes People Make When Pricing Their Poetry Book

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You’ve got a finished poetry collection ready to go. You’ve worked hard to create a book you’re proud of & you’re nearing the end of the road. But now you have to get down to business and decide what price you are going to sell your book at.

A lot of indie poetry authors make this decision without giving it much thought. But you want to make sure you cover all your bases before settling on a price.

Let’s look at the three most common mistakes people make when setting a price & how you can avoid them.

They don’t consider the international market.

Before you set the price of your book, you need to think about where the majority of your readers are based. I’m based in Australia and often find that when I’m ordering independent books on Amazon, the price is exponentially higher on Amazon AU than the US site.

Think about where you expect most of your sales to come from. (If you’re unsure, check the analytics for your social media or email subscriber list.) Then make sure your book is available at a reasonable price in each of these markets.

You can ensure this by:

Manually adjusting the price for each market (e.g. Canada, Japan, etc), or
Setting your wholesale discount at a reasonable percentage so that bookstores/online retailers will be more likely to stock your book.

Larger retailers like Amazon, Book Depository, and Barnes & Noble will accept a lower discount. But smaller online retailers may not. And libraries or brick-and-mortar bookstores almost never will.

There is nothing wrong with setting your discount lower, or your prices higher to maximise profit, but you need to consider how it affects access in other countries.

2. They don’t calculate their compensation.

If your book is priced at $20, you will not earn $20 per sale. Your compensation (or royalties) take into consideration your wholesale discount and the cost of printing your book.

The good news is that the compensation you will receive from each sale is easy to calculate. Most self-publishing websites have a calculator where you can plug in your book’s details and retail price to see what your earnings will be.

Here are the links to the compensation calculators for the two most popular self-publishing platforms.

Play around with different cover types, book dimensions, and retail prices until you find a royalty rate you are comfortable with.

To give you an idea – I earn approximately $10 AUD or $7 USD per sale for my paperback poetry collection. But it is common for publisher compensation to be less than this for a hardcover book, or one with a higher page count.

3. They don’t know their marketing strategy.

Marketing is the key to selling your books.

Even if your book is incredible, you need to give your readers a reason to buy it. This all comes down to how you present the value in your book. Is it a bargain find or a hidden treasure?

Some authors choose to sell their book for a low price and pitch it to potential customers as a “great deal”. This can be an incredible strategy to increase the number of buyers, especially if it’s presented as a limited time offer.

In stark contrast to this, some authors choose to price their book higher than the average price for their genre in the hopes that customers perceive the high price as equalling high value.

This can be extremely effective when it’s backed up by images and language in your marketing that further communicate the value in your book.

You may also choose to sell your book alongside merchandise, which can be a great way to upsell your offer, and get readers excited for your launch.

Just make sure your marketing strategy aligns with your target audience. For example, students are less likely to fork out what little disposable income they have on your book if it’s too expensive.

Keep these three factors in mind and you’ll be able to find the perfect “sweet spot” in your pricing.

Self publishing a poetry collection? Download my free timeline templates for poets. This download includes a blank timeline for you to fill in and a sample timeline to guide you.