When I was a wedding photographer, I started out posting ads on Craigslist. It took a while to realize that while I was getting gigs, I was attracting low ballers. In the industry, they’re called “budget brides.” These are the people who can’t afford to hire a professional photographer and are looking for students or newbies who want to pad their portfolio. I appreciate the struggle. Weddings are expensive and you want to cut corners anywhere you can. Some people can’t afford the whole Martha Stewart countryside fantasy. Some just want a nice party, food catered by McDonald’s (true story) and to have some decent photos. Without realizing it, these budget brides bring the market down. To further add to the descent, hungry photographers (who don’t know any better) snap at these gigs like piranha. I can say this, because I did it. I’d see a bride posting a gig for $50 and I’d jump at it.
Without going into too much detail (boring), shooting a wedding is at least a six to twelve hour day -not counting the hours of Photoshop editing, delivery, overhead, etc. Divide $50 by six hours and you’re making $8 an hour (under minimum wage) - and that’s just the wedding day. Forget about the post production, which often takes weeks.
This twisted supply and demand chain makes it difficult to earn a decent wage. In many ways, the internet is still the West West and people are still figuring it out. When I became more confident and started charging what real photographers charge, couples would say, “Another photographer we contacted only wanted $200. Can you match that?” There was this inherent haggling mentality that I grew weary of. Do you haggle over the price of a gallon of milk at the grocery store? You haggle for cars and second hand items. What else? A movie ticket? The price of a cool jacket online? You don’t haggle over most things in life. So why wedding photography, the most important day of your life? Needless to say, it was frustrating - constantly having to defend my pricing (which was in the middle of the road for professionals in my area). I lost lots of leads. The ones I did get were wonderful and fulfilling, but you deal with more hagglers and cheapskates than people who value what you do. I constantly had to remind myself that what I was doing was of value. And that’s the key word here: Value.
Value: The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
In those early days, I didn’t value my work. I said things like, “I’m just starting out, I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t charge people for me to learn.” I recently had a conversation with a friend who’s thinking about getting into wedding photography. He says the same things. We don’t feel we’re worth it for whatever reason: Whether we’re just starting out, we don’t know the rules, we’re desperate to validate our business by getting any business at all. We want to start making money right away. I feel you. I was that way too. Desperate is the word. I was down there in the dregs clawing for any job I could get. Problem is, this is called “undercutting” and it’s no different than what the 99 Cents Store does. You have options: You can buy a crappy pair of headphones at The Dollar Store (they work fine for a while) or you can go to the Apple Store and pay forty bucks; they’ll last longer and work better. You can buy a knock-off Prada bag on the side of the road or you can save up and buy an actual Prada bag. Hint: One is made better.
Quality and value. Think about these words for a moment. If you’re happy with your fake Prada bag, cool. It’s because you don’t see value in the real deal. All you want is the prestige that comes with the bag; which you’re getting on a superficial level. But when the handles start peeling, the game is over and everyone sees it. You’re poor and you bought a fake bag. The topic of “poverty mentality” is a much longer discussion. I grew up poor, but I learned that you have to put value on things. Higher quality items are worth the investment because they last longer and we place more importance on them.
So how does this apply to book sales? eBooks don’t have the same longevity that print books have. Also, it’s just a digital file: Little strings of invisible ones and zeros. If you walk into a Barnes and Noble and find a special edition Sorcerer’s Stone with a gold leaf hardcover, you better believe it’s going to cost more than ninety-nine cents. The publishing house understands this item has value and is worth more than the paperback. It’s special. Can you apply this mentality to your own book? Newbies lack the confidence to compete so they price low. They think in terms of quantity over quality. If I sell a thousand books at ninety-nine cents, I’ll make a thousand dollars. That’s alotta loot if you’re broke. Except, you’re undercutting yourself. Stop a moment and think about how YOU feel about ninety-nine cent books. You don’t value them as much as you do a five-dollar book. It’s not a major hit to the pocketbook and you don’t care if you read it or not. What about a free book? Is it special? Nope, it’s just another free book taking up space on your Kindle. I have dozens on my Paperwhite. I have no urgency, no connection, no emotional ties to these books. I don’t care.
Higher pricing doesn’t guarantee a customer will actually read your book, but it guarantees how they’ll feel about it - even on a subconscious level. In fact, I would argue that pricing low is a deterrent. A ninety-nine cent book is only worth ninety-nine pennies. Forget that it took you a year to write and six months to publish. There is the strange idea that writing isn’t about earning an hourly wage. It’s about volume. Let’s do the math, shall we?
If you sell a thousand books at ninety-cents, that’s obviously $990. Let’s imagine you wrote (or edited) for an hour every day for six months. That’s 180 hours you put into writing your book. Just for the writing part, you made $5.50 an hour - way below minimum wage. Again, we’re not counting the editing, marketing, web design, graphic design, social media. You could probably safely double the time to 360 hours which puts you at $2.75 an hour. This is just an example and I’m estimating the time. You’re probably putting way more than 180 hours into writing your book. Also, let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to sell a thousand copies out of the gate. You’re basically pricing yourself less than undocumented migrant workers make and it’s illegal to pay someone under minimum wage.
But you’re not a migrant worker, you’re a college graduate with a degree in cool. Society tells us that college grads should earn more. I know. We won’t talk about the current job market. It’s messed up. But this isn’t about the social issue of illegal labor in this country or how hard it is to get a job after you spend twenty-thousand dollars on university and are currently in debt up to your eyeballs. It’s about valuing your work. Illegal farm labor isn’t valued, which is why crooked businessmen can pay undocumented workers under the table and under minimum wage. In turn, the workers, desperate for money and scared of immigration, take what they can get. Taking what you can get is real. I’ve worked plenty of jobs I was overqualified for and got paid less than I was worth.
So how do you put a price on the invisible aspects of expertise and talent? It starts with putting a value on your work. You are worth more than ninety-nine cents per unit. Your writing, which you have cultivated and researched, learned about and paid for workshops and how-to books is worth more than ninety-nine cents. How much have you invested in your craft? Add time and money. Many years and thousands of dollars. This is worth more than ninety-nine cents. What about the years of reading fantasy novels? How much have you spent on reading your favorite author? Believe it or not, reading is part of your job. If you’re a writer, you can write-off books from your taxes. It’s research. So how much have you spent on books over the years? If you’re like me, it’s more than you can count.
But everyone else is pricing their books at ninety-nine cents! These are the budget brides of the business who don’t value the work. Value the work! You are a genius. You work hard. You put blood, sweat and tears into your novel. Value the work! This doesn’t mean price your book at a thousand dollars per unit, but it does mean you’re allowed to be competitive - even if it’s your first book. Did J.K. Rowling tell her publishing house to price The Sorcerer’s Stone for ninety-nine cents because she was an unknown? I don’t remember the exact cost in 1992, but it was more than ninety-nine cents. The publisher put value on the book and customers happily paid. But you’re not J.K. Rowling. Well, neither was J.K. in 1991.
When you peruse Amazon books in your genre, you’re likely to see thousands of competitors. It’s inundating and stressful because you feel like a small fish in a big pond. You think that a lower price is going to entice buyers. It might, but it also devalues your work. You’re telling the world that you’re only worth ninety-nine pennies per unit.
Valuing your work is an emotional and psychological hurdle. Because it isn’t just about wanting to entice budget readers. It’s about how you feel about yourself. Let’s face it, writers are solitary creatures who don’t do society very well. We’re usually awkward, weird, overweight, underweight, goobers. Yes, I’m a total goob. I gladly admit that I was not the popular girl in class. In high school, people called me “Beetlejuice” and I would correct them and say, “You mean Lydia.” What a dork. No one cared they got it wrong. A better comeback might have been, “Your mom is Beetlejuice.” I digress. The vast majority of authors are nerds and nerds inherently come with low self-esteem. Not all, but most. There’s always that one over-confident nerd like Kevin Smith, Bill Nye, or that curly headed kid from Stranger Things. We’re not talking about them. We’re talking about you and me.
When I updated the prices in my wedding photography brochure, I was terrified. I literally tripled my prices. I felt that people who saw those numbers would run for the hills. Some did. But I also started attracting a higher quality customer. People who valued my work. At the end of the wedding, instead of asking how long the photos would take, suddenly couples were thanking me profusely for my hard work. I shot fewer weddings and made more money.
Sadly, not everyone is going to get this. Fear is a major motivator and it tells you to compete. Worse, there are entrepreneur gurus out there telling you it’s smart to low ball your work. That’s because they’re the kind of people who value numbers over experience. And guess what? We are currently living in an experience culture. More and more people are wanting experience over quantity. Think about the recent onslaught of pop ups and escape rooms. People want entertainment. There will always be those (I know plenty) who clip coupons, horde all their 2-for-1 purchases in a stock room and clamor for the best bargain. Black Friday Madness is real. If this is your audience, cool. If not, price your books to attract a higher quality bride. You’re worth it. Trust me.
There is no magic price. There is what the market dictates and you must consider this. Look for books in your genre and price accordingly. If you’re only seeing low ballers in the ninety-nine cent range, stand out and price higher. They’re all going to look like the Dollar Store and you’re going to look like Bloomingdales.
Caveat: Pricing higher is not a guarantee for sales. You must have a good product, a solid marketing strategy and brand. You must also be patient. Nothing happens overnight. Now, I’m not making millions here. I’ve made a couple bucks so far on Lessons in Love, but I do know about valuing your work. At the end of the day, if you don’t value your work, no one else will.
If you still doubt what I say, watch this.
