Distribution package and price-per-book changes

[ClayGrouse]

I'm confused with the price-per-book calculation for books with a distribution package.

Let's say I'm publishing a 6x9" B&W paperback with 200 pages. According to "How much will my printed book cost?", using "Manufacturing Cost for Distribution Books", this should be $5.50: $1.50 + .02*200.

The "Book Cost Calculator" tells me $5.50 only for Publisher Grade 5.5 x 8.5 which isn't available for Distribution, and choosing 6x9 Standard brings the price to $8.50- which is the cost for "Cost for Lulu Marketplace Books" not "Distribution books".

When I go to start a new project, selecting a 6x9 paperback, choosing "Make it public and assign an ISBN" makes the book $11.00 a copy!

What's going on? How can I get the "Distribution Book" prices? Does the price-per-book change after I pay the $75 Global Reach fee and the title is approved?

[Ken Anderson]

You should use the Retail Price Calculator

 This takes into account 
The Manufacturing Cost
Lulu's fee
Your revenue
& the Retail Markup (Amazons bit)

It's the last that bumps the price up.

The price doesn't change if you choose globalReach rather than extendedReach.

[ClayGrouse]

Can the author/publisher buy books from lulu directly and not pay the Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc markup?

[Ken Anderson]

Yes.

[JNHamiltonii]

This is an issue that I find confusing as well.  The "binding fee" is $1.50 for retail markup books, but $4.50 for Lulu Marketplace books.   The cost of production is lower for retail markup books.  If an author buys a distribution plan, can he/she then by books at a lower cost due to the lower binding fee?

[Ken Anderson]

I saw your other post and don't really understand what you mean by binding fee.

I suggest that you just ignore it and start from a much simpler stance.
Consider thsi example of a book that is available thro' distribution form Amazon or from Lulu both as a hard copy and a download.

The published retail price everywhere is 15.75. If I or anyone else buys it from Amazon then they pay 15.75 and I receive 2.65. Amazon may choose to discount it and sell at say 12.50 but I still get my 2.65.

Anyone buying the book from Lulu will pay 14.96 as I have allowed a discount of of 5% and I get 8.28 on every Lulu sale.
Now if i buy copies for myself I pay only 4.61 not 14.96 and of course I don't receive anything back from Lulu.

Now to make my downlaod attractive I still mark it as having a retail price of 15.75 but offer a 50% discount to sell it at 7.88 and I still make 5.78 on each download.

The download My Price is actually a bit daft as I already have the print ready PDF and don't need to download it.

Does that help?

.

[JNHamiltonii]

Thanks Ken, your response does help.

I understand everything in your table, except the 4.61 pounds.  This issue is directly related to GrayGrouse's original question about the cost of books for authors.

I am surprised that you aren't familiar with the term "binding fee."  I learned about this from this pricing example provided by David Woodward. 

http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Publishing-Process/Retail-pricing-example-Distribution/ta-p/32976

As I understand it, the cost of a book on Lulu is always a function of some fixed fee (the "binding fee") and a variable fee based on the number of pages.  Apparently, the fixed fee part varies based on whether you have a distribution package, but this is what I am trying to confirm.

In my particular case I currently have a 6 x 9 perfect bound bw book of 300 pages selling in the Lulu marketplace.  The production cost of the book is $10.50.  This is based on a $4.50 binding fee plus 2 cents per page for 300 pages ($6.00).  I pay $10.50 for my book.

The $4.50 binding fee included in my price is a lot higher than the $1.50 binding fee given in Dave Woodward's retail price example.  It looks like your price of 4.61 pounds is based on the lower retail price binding fee.   How many pages does the book in your example have?

I appears that if I bought a distribution package, the cost and my price for my book would drop to $7.50 because the binding fee would drop to $1.50.  If I paid $75 for a distribution package, I would recoup my investment if I bought 25 copies of my book and saved $3.00 per copy (ignoring costs for an ISBN and Barcode).  Is this true? 

The ultimate answer to my question has to do with how the 4.61 in your example is determined.  It is a combination of some fixed fee and a variable fee.

Thanks for your contributions to this site.

[astm]

Forgive me if I am beating a dead horse with a stick, but I still do not completely understand the retail markup.

The original base price / manufacturing cost for my hardcover 6x9 BW book = $ 21.73

The minmum listing price for retail is =  $33.72

I understand how this is calculated, but what I do not understand is:

1. Does this mean that the book will be listed on Amazon and other sellers at the full retail price of $33.72?

2.  I will not be adding a royalty on top of this ridiculous price. Does that mean Lulu will not be making any profit either?

3. If neither the author or Lulu is getting a cut from the retail markup, is the additional $ 11.99 ($33.72 minus $ 21.73) going to Amazon? All of it?

With such a high retail price I will have no choice but to NOT direct clients to Amazon for the hardcover, I will have to sell directly via my website linking to Lulu. My softcover is selling for $17.99 on Amazon (via Createspace). Nobody in their right mind will buy a hardcover copy for a book they can get at half the price in paperback.

As this point I view the harcover as a marketing exercise as far as retail distribution is concerned.