Brian Jud is the Executive Director of the Association of Publishers for Special Sales. In this post, he reveals some best practices around book pricing.
When sales decline, many publishers immediately lower their prices to seek new sales. This tactic can hurt short- and long-term profitability. A better tactic is to maintain a higher price and re-positioning your products. Perhaps the best source of ideas for doing that is your target buyers.
A good example is hard to find in the publishing industry, so let’s look at Hyundai. As the economy faltered in the recent recession (2008 – 2009) consumers delayed major purchases, especially cars. Most car companies slashed prices and offered cash-back offers.
Hyundai took a different approach. It asked target people why they were not buying cars. The resounding answer was, “I could lose my job at any time, so the risk of buying is too high.” Instead of lowering its price, Hyundai devised a risk-reduction guarantee to address that concern. It said, “If you lose your job or income within a year of buying the car, you can return it with no penalty to your credit rating.” Hyundai sales doubled while the industry declined 37%. Hyundai didn’t innovate to sell better cars, it innovated by selling cars better. The next time you consider a price reduction, think about how you might sell books better instead.
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Brian Jud is the Executive Director of the Association of Publishers for Special Sales (APSS – www.bookapss.org – formerly SPAN). He is also the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books. Brian offers commission-based sales of books to buyers in non-bookstore markets. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001-0715; (860) 675-1344; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or www.premiumbookcompany.com
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