David Hancock is the founder and CEO of Morgan James Publishing. He has written or co-written 12 books, including Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, The Entrepreneurial Author, and Performance Driven Thinking. NASDAQ recognizes David as one of the premier business leaders in the publishing industry.
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Pricing in Book Publishing
- What is the most important thing you can share about pricing?
- As entrepreneurs, we sometimes try to overprice things.
- Charge as much as you can without running them off.
- Your customers want to pay as little as possible without running you off.
- Tap into your guerrilla resources by doing some investigating into similar companies with similar resources providing similar products.
- Remember that you are starting a relationship and the life-long contact with that buyer is where the real value comes.
- An individual with authority, credibility and a book can charge more for speaking engagements than someone without one.
- Ignore royalties and focus on the power of the book and your royalties will grow.
- You will get:
- 20-30% more if you are an author.
- 30-50% more as a best-selling author.
- 75%+ more as a New York Times‘ Best Selling author.
- What is the state of pricing in book publishing?
- Bookstore buyers are begging for cheaper, smaller, more affordable and easier to ship books.
- The trend is 200-page paperbacks at $17 range from a non-fiction perspective.
- Readers are overwhelmed with information and need to be able to skim a book to make a buying decision.
- If you buy a book on Amazon, you can download the e-book for free immediately.
- 15-25 reviews can increase conversion rate by over 30%.
Publishing Strategies
- What are some current trends in self-publishing?
- Self-publishing is much better than not publishing.
- Superior content is required since you will be judged more harshly.
- Make sure to do your research on self-publishing companies.
- If you have design flair, IngramSpark, Amazon's CreateSpace or FastPencil all give you an opportunity to do more of it yourself.
- Media will be the ones most affected by who publishes, not the readers as much.
- What is entrepreneurial publishing?
- With self-publishing, you make all the decisions whether you are qualified to do it or not.
- Traditional publishing companies make all the decisions, often without any input from the author.
- Entrepreneurial publishing is a mix of the two, working with the author to make decisions.
- They understand that the entrepreneur has other things in his business with the book.
- The author gets to make decisions and have input, but they still get the backing of a well-known publisher.
- Traditional publishers might look at a self-published author and pass on your book if the previous sales were not high enough.
- David's company, though, finds it a plus that they were published.
- Is giving away your book a good promotional strategy?
- Guerillas love to give value.
- Promotion of a free book is a good thing to get your name out there.
- If you are trying to reach a best-seller status, the free books may not count.
- Giving away your book needs to be tied to sales of your other products.
- Whatever goals you are trying to hit, work it backward with your publisher to make the decision on how to proceed.
- What is the biggest pricing mistake an author can make?
- Pricing the book too high.
- People try to sell the book by selling portions of it.
- What should an author do to increase his or her prices?
- Continue to master your space.
- The more you prove your value through success, the more you can charge.
- Have humility in being able to recognize where you are on the spectrum.
- Mastermind groups can help you by providing a lot of honest feedback.
- Some authors still need encouragement to raise their prices.
Learning from Authors
- What did you learn from Jay Levinson about value and pricing?
- Spy on your competition, but know they are not your enemy.
- Know the competition better than they do – be able to educate your customers about your competitors.
- David has received tremendous referrals from people he turned down because he helped them find the right people.
- What do you learn from working with Jeff Walker, author of Launch?
- He cares that those who discover him get value.
- No matter what you're selling, there is a process to get a customer from not knowing who you are to getting a sale from someone who loves you and needs it right now.
- You master your space intentionally.
- Take notes and know the limits of your products and services.
- What is the difference between an online expert and an author?
- You can be successful as an online marketer and producer of content.
- The AdSense Code by Joel Comm was making a lot of money on a $100 e-book.
- Once the book was carved down to a $24 book and printed, he made even more money because he became an offline expert.
- As long as you have fleshed out your content, you can reach out to a publishing expert.
- What is one of your best stories about creating value for a customer?
- Humans can make simple mistakes, but they can be corrected to change your life.
- One book was marketed with a “little work, big money” message.
- They were trying to sell the book and were overselling the promise.
- Once they adjusted the message to be less (little work gets you a little extra money), they were able to sell more books.
- Be careful how you are marketing and selling the big picture.
About David Hancock
- Founder and CEO of Morgan James Publishing
- Author/co-author of a dozen books
- Leading expert on publishing industry
- Website: Morgan James Publishing
- Twitter: @DavidHancock
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