What should I price my first book at?
Everyone guesses at this, and most first-time authors guess too low because they're nervous about charging for something they made.
1 answer
Zeal Publishing Team
For a first ebook, $2.99–$4.99 is the working range. Below $2.99 on KDP you drop from 70% royalty to 35% — so a $0.99 book earns you about 35 cents while a $2.99 book earns about $2.09. You need six times the sales to break even on that choice.
Paperback is different: you're pricing off print cost, not perception. A 250-page paperback costs roughly $4.50 to print, so $12.99–$16.99 is normal.
The real answer: go look at the top 20 books in your exact subcategory and price at the median. Not the cheapest — the median. Being the cheapest book in a category signals what you think it's worth.
2026-07-31
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