Book Pricing
One of the most difficult things about non-traditional publishing is finding a way to price your books competitively. Large traditional publishers sell a 32-page paperback color children's book for prices ranging from $1.29 up to $4.00. They can do this because they print 50,000, 100,000 or more copies at a time keeping the cost per book extremely low. As an individual author, you won't want to finance printing in those numbers so it's unrealistic to think you can price your book similarly.
We recommend setting your price at least three times higher than the printing costs in order to allow for bookstore discounts and shipping the book. For example, if your printing price is $3.50, then your retail price should be $10.50. If you subtract the Amazon.com discount of 60% ($6.30), you will be left with a profit of $4.20. Remember, you will also have to pay for shipping the book from the profit.
Since you want to price your book so you make a profit while keeping the retail price low, you may want to consider paying to print more books than just the 200 included in your package. Our printer has price breaks at 250, 500, 1000 and 5,000 quantities. The more books you have printed at one time, the lower the per-book cost will become.
Fideli Publishing includes printing 200 books in each of its author packages. If an author would like to purchase additional copies, the author will be responsible for paying for the additional books in the print run before the books are printed. The original 200 copies will be added to the quote to help lower the print cost, but will not be included in the author's additional cost.
If you would like to print more than the 200 book minimum, please ask your representative to obtain printing quotes for you. This way you can decide how many copies to print and how to price your book. Remember, if you use the printing price for 1,000 books to set your retail price, you will need to print at least 1,000 books each time you reprint so that your profits will remain consistent.
Hardcover
If you decide nothing but hardcover will do for your book, be prepared for sticker shock. Hardcover books are extremely expensive when printed in small quantities.
We recommend a minimum print run of 1,000 books for hardcover. Your price per book will be even better if you print 5,000 or more copies.
Hardcover printing is not included in any Fideli package. If you choose to print hardcover books, we will still print the 200 paperback copies included in your package, or we can subtract the cost of printing 200 paperback copies of your book from the amount you pay to print hardcover books. Please tell your representative if you want to subtract the package book cost from your hardcover print cost.
If you choose to print hardcover books, you, the author, will be responsible for paying for the entire hardcover print run in advance of printing.
Author Tip
When buying large quantities of books, you should arrange for storage or distribution prior to printing the books. Quantities of 5,000 or more books are usually shipped freight to reduce shipping costs, which means the books are delivered on a semi truck and are shrink-wrapped on a pallet. If you intend to buy additional quantities of books requiring this type of shipment, you might also consider hiring a distributor who offers warehousing. Ask your representative about distribution sources.