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How to publish a book that is affordable?

In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

I’d like to publish a book but not if it’s priced such that few will purchase it. Are there options that will ensure my book is priced at a more reasonable rate? Also: the book project I’m working on is on the short side (probably 50k words or less). I don’t think it will be a good fit for the Cambridge Elements or ‘Why it’s okay’ series… does this mean I’m SOL?

I don’t know much about this aside from having the general impression that publishers appear to make books pitched toward academics expensive and books pitched more toward a general audience less expensive. As some noted in the previous thread on the future of book publishing, this may be because publishers expect academic books to mainly sell to libraries.

Do any readers have helpful insights to share?

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One response to “How to publish a book that is affordable?”

  1. h

    I assumed that academic books are generally priced so high because of a low demand with a fairly low elasticity of demand–in other words, there’s only a few people (or libraries) that will buy it and they will buy it even if it’s at a high price. Lowering the price doesn’t lead to enough additional sales to justify that lower price. When a book is aimed at a general audience, you have higher demand with a higher elasticity, so you would charge lower prices to get the best return. So perhaps highly specialized, inexpensive books don’t often make economic sense.

    If you want to publish a lower-cost book, I think you have two options: First, don’t expect any money for all your work and do something like open access or self-publish as a labor of love. Second, reach outside the academic audience through a traditional book publisher or small press. This requires a whole separate skillset then what we learn in academics, including having a good handle on marketing.

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