getting publisher to change the price of my book?

[pedanticromantic]

I have a new book coming out in a few months. It is now on Amazon for pre-sale, but the price seems really high--much higher than my previous books with the same (academic) publisher.  Has anyone had any experience negotiating the sale price of their book with a publisher? How did you go about? What strategies might I use to convince them that the price is too high? I assume they know the market better than I do, however, at the same time, it was clear they farmed out the copyedits to someone brand new and probably in a certain very cheap place, and the layout was also sloppy this time and I had to correct quite a few things, so the bulk of time/expense has been mine, not theirs. I object to an e-book selling for the price it is listed for, given those circumstances especially.

[downer]

I think the price is often a reflection of the judgment whether the book will be purchased mainly by university libraries or whether it can have a more popular appeal. So to convince the publisher to reduce the price, you have to convince them that the book has a good chance of selling widely.

Publishers also sometimes publish the hardcover first at a high price and then wait to look at sales to see if it is worth publishing a paperback at a lower price. Other publishers do simultaneous publication of hardcover and paperback.

There's also the issue of the ebook price. Is that the same?

[pedanticromantic]

I think the price is often a reflection of the judgment whether the book will be purchased mainly by university libraries or whether it can have a more popular appeal. So to convince the publisher to reduce the price, you have to convince them that the book has a good chance of selling widely.

Publishers also sometimes publish the hardcover first at a high price and then wait to look at sales to see if it is worth publishing a paperback at a lower price. Other publishers do simultaneous publication of hardcover and paperback.

There's also the issue of the ebook price. Is that the same?

Yes, I understand this. My previous books with same publisher were much cheaper. E-book is ridiculous price, only slightly cheaper than hardcover.

[downer]

This could be part of a more general trend -- university presses may be expecting that most people will not be buying academic books during the coming recession, so they increase the prices that university libraries pay (though they get a discount I expect).

[traductio]

Could it be that Amazon's pricing algorithm is messing with the price? A while ago one of my books on Amazon was something like $900, but on the publisher's website, it was still $29.95 (or whatever the price had always been).

[pedanticromantic]

This could be part of a more general trend -- university presses may be expecting that most people will not be buying academic books during the coming recession, so they increase the prices that university libraries pay (though they get a discount I expect).

This may be the case, although that's disappointing considering my previous books sold reasonably well (and continue to, after a decade now, sell about 1000 copies a year).

[pedanticromantic]

Could it be that Amazon's pricing algorithm is messing with the price? A while ago one of my books on Amazon was something like $900, but on the publisher's website, it was still $29.95 (or whatever the price had always been).

A good guess but no, this is pre-order and the price is the same as on the publisher's website. :(

[pedanticromantic]

I'm really looking for stories/strategies from anyone who has done this successfully, or at least tried.  If anyone has experience, please do chime in.

[Ruralguy]

Library acquisition budgets have been hammered.
Demand goes down, price goes up. You can try to negotiate this,
and you might have some marginal success.

[pedanticromantic]

Library acquisition budgets have been hammered.
Demand goes down, price goes up. You can try to negotiate this,
and you might have some marginal success.

Yeah. Maybe it's me though, but when I see books that sound interesting and sell for $20-$30 I'll take a chance, but when they hit $50 I hit my library instead, and they lose a sale. I guess I'll leave it up to them and hope they know what they're doing. They're the marketers, I guess.

[Hegemony]

The fact is that almost every publisher is operating on a knife-edge of viability. They know how many copies they will sell at each price point. A higher price means they expect to sell only to libraries. Unless a book is assigned to classes, how many academic books sell to individuals in any numbers at all? Vanishingly few. I suspect your publisher knows what they're doing when they set this price, and knows that lowering the price would result in less income, not more. Your hunch that it really should sell for less — well, it's up against their numbers and years of experience. Which is all to say that: you will not be able to persuade them otherwise.

If you have a close friend who works for an academic press, get them to show you some sets of numbers for academic books, even the ones that are priced fairly low and sell moderately well. That should help explain why they've made the decision they have.

[jerseyjay]

This could be part of a more general trend -- university presses may be expecting that most people will not be buying academic books during the coming recession, so they increase the prices that university libraries pay (though they get a discount I expect).

For what it is worth, I think that many publishers also will be giving discounts to readers as well. I just got an email from an academic press (which happens to be the one that will be publishing my own book soon) that their entire list is 50 per cent off, with free shipping.

[apl68]

Library acquisition budgets have been hammered.
Demand goes down, price goes up. You can try to negotiate this,
and you might have some marginal success.

Yeah. Maybe it's me though, but when I see books that sound interesting and sell for $20-$30 I'll take a chance, but when they hit $50 I hit my library instead, and they lose a sale. I guess I'll leave it up to them and hope they know what they're doing. They're the marketers, I guess.

Those of us who buy for libraries have to make similar calculations, though.  The higher price points lose library sales as well.

[mleok]

Well, ask them how they determine the price, for my publisher, it was based on the length of the book and whether it was a monograph or textbook. On my book, I reached out and was able to get them to lower the price, as I argued that the inclusion of exercises made the book suitable for use as a textbook, which was priced lower than a monograph of a comparable length.