Finding the right price is essential to the success of your e-book. If you charge too little, people will think it’s of little value, and they won’t purchase it. Even if they do buy your e-book, you will have to sell thousands of copies to get to the point where you can begin to see a profit. If you price it too high when compared with your competition, you will find yourself steadily lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of new problems in the future. Choosing the right price for your e-book is one of the most critical parts of the marketing process.

The first rule of pricing e-books is to never under-price. Determine the highest price your audience can afford, and then if you find your book isn’t selling, you can always reduce the price. If your goal is to get wide distribution and maximum exposure in order to draw customers to your business or service, or to establish the credibility of your reputation, you should aim to keep your price on the low side. Some authors have even priced their e-books at a profit loss to draw a high number of new customers. This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term customers are likely to buy from you again if the first e-book they buy is of exceptional quality.

However, if your book contains valuable or breakthrough information, references, or techniques, then you should aim to price it on the high end. If your book solves a problem or answers questions in a new and unique way, you should price your book as high as you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way, but bring in fewer customers. If your ideas are not common knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new technique, you will be able to sell books at a high price. This pricing strategy will only work while the information is fresh. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at this high price. You should decide in advance how long you plan to offer your e-book at this high price, and when that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw, aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions to their problems at a low price. If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the highest price the market will bear to bring in the largest profits, and plan to discount the book a number of times throughout the year.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there are several other strategies that can help you sell more books.One is to give something away for free with your book, such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several e-books under one price, which lowers the price for each e-book if they were sold separately. An effective technique for figuring out a price is to send out a survey to your current customers. If these customers have already bought an e-book from you, ask for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by creating a sales page for the new book, but don’t include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of links to survey questions that ask pointed questions to aid you in assigning a price to your e-book.

Ultimately, if you’ve written a book that solves a problem or presents a new technique, your book will bring in both traffic and profits.