In a recent Publishers Weekly Email Newsletter I saw an ad for a poetry chapbook. It was a ‘boom box’ ad — a big square ad right in the middle of the text — which lists for $1,000. When I clicked on the ad, I was taken to a subsidy publisher’s bookstore… and my heart fell. The list price of this 48 page chapbook of poetry was… $15.99! Why such a high price? $15.99 is the retail price this subsidy publisher assigns to all books under 107 pages, regardless of what the market would charge. You see, this pricing scheme is all about protecting their profit margin on sales (and since they pay per page for POD printing, they set retail price based on page count). The author makes about $2.50 per sale at this price, but the high price is definitely hurting sales. Much longer poetry books from major publishers sell for $10.99-$13.99. I found one similar poetry book for $16.95, but it was a hardcover! If you’re self-publishing, you should set the retail price! The author of this book could have set their own price for the book, for $250 more. Had they reduced the retail price to $12.99 (the lowest option) the royalty would have dropped to $1.00 per book. The author would have to sell 166 books just to pay for the privilege of changing the retail price to something better, but still above the market price for such a short book. One of the major issues with using a subsidy publisher is the amount of control they exert over your book (even when you’re picking up the tab) — and that they charge you to set the price of your own book! Traditional publishers set the retail price of their books because they are taking all the risk. They decide if a lower price is worth the extra sales it may generate, or if the book warrants a higher price due to the value it brings. Page count is certianly part of that calculation, but definitely not the only one. At BelieversPress, you always set the retail price of your book. But wait, what about distribution? Now, since this ad appeared in PW, I’m assuming the author was hoping bookstores would order this book (what author doesn’t?). In order to have this book distributed, the cost is $500 (a massive markup on their cost). But that’s just distribution — the book would be listed as non-returnable, meaning no bookstore is going to order it unless they have a confirmed order. So you have to add their bookstore returnability program at $700/year (or $1,300 for 3 years). Assuming they went for a year to test the waters, the distribution tab is now at $1,200 on top of what they paid to have their book “published” by this company. At $2.50 per book, the author has to sell 480 books before they even start paying for the publishing costs (and 280 books per year just to pay for returnability). At $1 per book, it’s 1,200 and 700 respectively. At BelieversPress, we’ll distribute your Christian book for a one time fee of $150 and that includes returnability! The high price of subsidy publishing Before you consider using a subsidy publisher to get your book published, do the math. The package prices may look great, but it’s the hidden dangers that can turn your elation at being “published” to frustration that you have a book that won’t sell. We’re here to help Our free Guide to Christian Publishing covers the pros and cons of the various paths to publication. Have you requested your copy yet? If you’re considering using a subsidy publisher to publish your Christian book, please contact us first — we’d love to help you “do the math” and understand how BelieversPress really stacks up.