Bob writes:

Hi,

In Dan Poynter's book The Self-Publishing Manual he writes that you should mark your book up by 8 times the price it costs you to have the book printed. My book costs over $6. Under Poynter's formula, my book should cost $48! That will never fly. 

My friend publishes a business book that sells for $70 but even that costs him $15 to produce, so he's not getting nearly eight times the cost.

How does any one make this work?

………………………………….

Hi Bob,

Poynter's 8x formula assumes that you're doing a large-run, and that your per-book cost is around $2-3, and that you're selling your book out of your home, to consumers and the trade. The formula doesn't work for low-quantity/high-price print runs (whether print on-demand, short-run or photocopied).

His argument is that you have to factor in the costs to you for your time, for shipping, for fulfillment, for marketing, and deduct them from your profit, as well as leaving room for bookstore discounts. 

If your book is printed on-demand, your POD provider should handle most of the order processing and fulfillment (from readers and the trade), so that's a cost you don't have to bear. 

For your friend's $70 business book that costs $15, well, he never has to factor in a 40-65% discount to booksellers and wholesalers, so again, Poynter's formula doesn't apply.

The formula doesn't work for everyone, but the basic advice (to factor in all extraneous costs when thinking about price/profit) DOES apply to everyone.

Good luck!

Julie

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