You've written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to



decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right

price is essential to the success of your product. If

you charge too little, people will think it's of

little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it

they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands

of copies to get to the point where you can begin to

see a profit. If you price it too high when compared

with your competition, you will find yourself steadily

lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of

new problems in the future. For example, if you sell

your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to

$24.95, don't you think the people who bought it for

$39.99 are going to be PISSED?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the

most critical parts of the marketing process. The

first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.

Determine the highest price your audience can afford,

and then if you find your book isn't selling, you can

always reduce the price. Before you take that step,

make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on

the Internet and on websites. The price should be

aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never

forget that price is one of the factors that people

use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they

buy it. So always start with the highest price, and

then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because

ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are

digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the

understanding of what digital actually is to the

average layperson. This means that we must look at

ebooks in a different light in order to determine

their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let's look at the difference between a book in print

and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold

in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down

to the next generation. It is priced on factors such

as paper stock, design and production costs, and

marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is

that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in

these books that have the ability to change, or

possibly transform, people's lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated

against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you

determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for

determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's

begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and

maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing

customers to your business or service, or to

establishing the credibility of your reputation. If

this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your

price on the low side. Some authors have even priced

their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of

new customers. The key is to find a price that

maximizes your profits and the number of books you

sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are

looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term

customers are extremely likely to buy from you again

and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of

exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable ? and more

importantly NEW information, references, or techniques

? then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out

what your audience's need is for your ebook. For

example, does your book solve a particular problem? If

it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been

written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be

able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your

book solves a problem or answers questions in a new

and unique way, you should price your book as high as

you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,

but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the

question or problem that your book solves is one that

is important and relevant to the majority of your

market audience. If your ideas are not common

knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new

technique, you will be able to sell books at a high

price. Just be prepared for your competition to

undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your

book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is

temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at

this high price. So figure out in advance how long you

plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when

that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw,

aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions

to their problems at a low price. If your book is

aimed at solving one particular problem rather than

general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the

highest price the market will bear to bring in the

largest profits, and plan to discount the book a

number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook

is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling

handle. This sentence states what question or problem

your book answers and the benefits your ebook can

provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every

piece of sales and promotional material, and every

time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there

are several other strategies that can help you sell

more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book,

such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several

ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for

each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to

send out a survey to your current customers. If these

customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask

for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by

creating a sales page for the new book, but don't

include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of

links to survey questions that ask pointed questions

to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a

number of duplicate sales pages with different prices

on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the

same on every page, and includes your selling-handle

sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion

ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your

book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you've written a book that solves a

problem or presents a new technique, your book will

bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write

that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem

your book solves and what the benefits of your book

will be to the customers who purchase it. And then

watch your market come to you!