I mentioned in my last post that I have a local author event coming up. It’s my library’s second one, as we’re hoping to make this an annual thing. I am excited to participate again.
Last year, I bought things I would need for my table, just enough to get me started. A black tablecloth, some acrylic sign holders, and book stands.
This year, I have ordered a table runner with my name and genres on it, a collapsible wagon to haul my books in (because I have a lot of them and books are heavy!), and some heart-shaped candy dishes. Last year, I used an old heart-shaped tin container from Valentine’s day, but I didn’t like the look of it. So the ones I bought come in a pack, though I don’t think I’ll need that many. It’s four small pink ceramic dishes from Paris Hilton. (I didn’t know she had a kitchen collection!) I just thought it would be nice to have something pretty to hold my table chocolate. I’m thinking of Hershey’s Kisses since I’m a romance writer. <3
I’ll also have more books this year as I just published the 4th book in my series this summer, hence the reason why I really need that wagon!
The one thing I struggled with was my pricing strategy. I sold all my books for $10 last year, but with the cost of everything going up and with the money I spent for supplies, I feel like I need to charge a little more. At the same time, I know readers can only buy so many books at these events, and I don’t want my prices to be “too high” so that they walk away.
I considered raising the prices to $12. While that seems like a suitable strategy, a little more than what I charged last year but a little less than retail cost, there is a problem with this. Some advice I read is that it’s easier to set your price in multiples of 5. So 10, 15, or 20. I guess it makes it easier to make change if you have cash customers.
My paperbacks are already priced at around $15, so then I wondered if I should just charge full price. Of course, I wanted to offer some sort of bundle deal with my series too. But I also have a standalone YA novel. Could that be part of the bundle specials too?
I went back and forth on what I wanted to charge my books for. In the end, I think I came up with a pretty solid pricing strategy.
1 Book = $15
2 Books = $25
3 Books = $35
4 Books = $45
5 Books = $55
This is what I’m thinking. The majority of people at the book sale are probably going to buy only one book from me. Last year, out of the 11 books I sold, I only sold 2 books to one customer, and that was my sister. So why not charge around full price for one book?
But I DO want to give my customers an incentive to buy more. So if they want to purchase additional books, I will then give them a deal. For each additional book they buy, I will knock off another $5.00.
2 books at $25 - save $5
3 books at $35 - save $10
4 books at $45 - save $15
5 books at $55 - save $20
This way, I can still give myself a higher profit for a single book, but still offer savings to the customers if they want a deal.
I don’t really anticipate selling more than three books, unless I actually get someone who wants to read my whole series, so I’ve thrown in another incentive. If they purchase 3 or more books, I’ll throw in a free tote bag, while supplies last. It’s not much, but if they’re buying multiple books, maybe they’ll want a bag! I suppose I could offer them to customers regardless, but I only have a limited supply, and I assume people will bring their own bags. (Who doesn’t have like 100 of these already?)
In addition to all this, I’ve also printed some postcards I made from VistaPrint that have a QR code to my reader magnet. Hopefully someone will take me up on it. If nothing else, I’m offering something for free. They don’t even have to purchase anything.
My goal is to make more money this year than last. Also, the book sale will be at a different time of day, a Sunday afternoon. I might get a different crowd of people as I did when the sale was on Friday evening.
Well, off to tweak my price list again! I can’t seem to settle on a font, but at least I’ve got the prices figured out!
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