I am in the process of writing another non-fiction book on animal training. My first book, How 2 Train a _____, has sold well since its publication (about $15k) but I can see a niche for another book. The new book will be specifically about training wild mustangs and burros. No general interest, it’s very specific.
If I can publish a book on such an obscure topic profitably, well, you have no excuse to not do much better. So… I am hereby inviting you to go with me on this book marketing adventure. Over the course of the next few months, we will be on the quest for elusive book sales.
Today let’s start with a little market analysis.
Orient yourself on the Amazon Product Details of the book I consider my most successful.
It is in the genre of Animal & Pet Care and ranks #7524 competing with books on the care of parakeets and goldfish. If you don’t fit into a genre, there is a problem with your book. Librarians and bookstores don’t know where to shelve it. There are shelves for dog training books, but not for general animal training books. Sigh…
Okay, the new book might fit into horse training. Let’s look at the competition. Amazon has a category called “horse showing and training”. The number one book in the category is a coloring book of unicorns. The number two book is a book on training foals, called Your Foal: Essential Training. It sells for $15 and is 93 unillustrated pages long. At 5.8 ounces, we can calculate it sells at $2.58/ounce. Price per ounce is a non-standard market analysis, but since I have a Ph.D., they let me do things like that. My book will end up weighing at least 32 ounces (including illustrations), so a comparative price would be $82.56. Worth every penny, rest assured.
Wait, that seems a little high! Let’s compare with dog training. A complete guide to dog training is the number two dog training book. Price: $12.40, weight: 9 ounces, resulting in $1.37 per ounce. My comparative 32-ounce price is $44.08. That sounds more palatable.
What will it cost me to get this 32-ounce book printed? It’s 400 pages and has to be black and white, so KDN (Amazon) would charge $9.42 to print and handle it. That would leave $21 for me if I sold it for $45.
If I can sell 500 copies, that’s $10,500. Are there 500 people that will buy such an obscure book? I am going to set my starting goal to sell 200 copies. I might have to compromise on price and give some discounts, but let’s shoot for $4000.
Are you with me on this? Wanna make any wagers? Tomorrow we are going to set goals for expanding social networks. One step at a time!