avatarHarvey Hare

Summarize

Book Prices Are Imbalanced

Book prices are imbalanced – but how exactly?

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Why are book prices so imbalanced?

Well, look at self-help books, for example. What are they usually priced at? An average of between $5 – $15. But what are fictional books priced at? The very same. And the number of pages? Usually the same.

The writer doesn’t get all of that money – they only get royalties. So a 100 page book on becoming successful in business would only grant the writer, say, $7 at the most.

Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

On average, novellas (books between 15,000 – 40,000 words) are priced between $2.99 and $5.99. So by the average royalties, the maximum earnings would be no more than $4.20. And 15,000 words is a pretty big target when you’re just starting out, especially when it’s only going to give you about four dollars. It would also take you about 10–50 hours AT LEAST to finish, meaning that the amount of profit isn’t exactly balanced. Plus, that’s not even including how you’re going to promote your book or how to write a convincing description.

Some short 1000-word articles or essays could potentially blow up with massive earnings, which could still sadly amount to higher returns than a published book.

Non-fiction novels should be at the highest of prices (which they are nowhere near in the modern day), and autobiographical articles should be at the very bottom. With fiction somewhere in the middle, depending on how helpful the advice told throughout the story is.

A book could change a person’s life. But the price is simply imbalanced.

harveyhareauthor.medium.com

Books
Business
Fiction
Money
Writing
Recommended from ReadMedium