Setting the price for your book
The pricing of your book is calculated thus:
Note that these costs only pertain to the printing of the book and do not include those of any other services such as editing, illustration, etc. that you may choose to avail of.
Price of book =
Production Costs + Author's Earnings
Production Costs: These are the costs of producing each book and represent the fixed costs associated with each book. They depend on the number of pages in each book, the size of each book, the type of cover chosen and the binding of the book.
For example, for a 200-page paperback of size 8"x5", having black and white pages and a coloured cover and which is perfect bound, the production costs would be calculated as:
Production Costs =
Cost of printing (Rs. 0.60 per page) + Cost of cover (Rs. 60.00)
For example, for a 200-page book, the printing costs would be
Rs. 120.00 (200 x 0.60)
+Rs. 60.00
------
Rs. 180.00
The above rates are for a book size of 5" x 8", for other rates click here.You may estimate the approximate cost of the book using our price estimator.
Author's Earnings: This component is decided by you, the author. You decide how much you wish to earn off the sale of each book.
As an example, consider a book whose production cost is Rs. 180/-. The author may choose to earn Rs. 40/- of each book.
The price of the book is then computed as:
Rs. 180.00 (Printing Costs)
+Rs. 40.00 (Author's Earnings)
------
Rs. 220.00
Rs. 220.00, however, cannot be the marked selling price of the book. This is because retailers who may choose to buy your book for display in their stores make money by buying books at a discount off the retail price that has been marked on your book. Typically these discounts run upto 45%, freight paid. The cost arrived above, therefore, has to be 55% of the marked price of the book.
i.e. computed price = 55% of marked price
i.e marked price = 220/0.55 = Rs. 400/-
On the sale of each such book, having a marked price of Rs. 400/-, the retailer will give you Rs. 220/-. Of this, you keep Rs. 40/- while Rs. 180/- go towards the production costs of the book.
Note: Due to the illegality of dual pricing, books not sold through retailers(i.e. books sold online) will also be priced at Rs. 400.00. After deducting the costs of printing, the author is reimbursed the remaining amount.
Note that the higher the Author's Earnings, the higher the cost of the book. Authors must therefore decide if they wish to demand a high revenue (and gamble on the number of copies of the book sold) or demand a lower revenue (and make money by selling volumes).