016 | Pricing Your Book: A Writer is Worthy of Their Wage!

In the latest episode of the Christian Author 2.0 Insights podcast we take an honest look at the real (and sometimes uncomfortable!) topic of compensation for Christian authors. If you’ve ever struggled with pricing your books or wondered if it’s okay to get paid for your gospel-centered words, you won’t want to miss this one!

🗝️ 5 Keys You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. Permission to Get Paid:
2. Understand why it’s not only okay, but biblical, to be financially compensated for your creative work.
3. Pricing Isn’t Prideful:
4. Learn why announcing your new book and asking readers to pay for it isn’t selfish—it’s smart stewardship (06:51).
5. The Caretaker Mindset:
6. See your author journey as a vocation—serving both God and your readers by valuing your calling (04:14).
7. Smart Pricing in the Indie Age:
8. Get up-to-date strategies for pricing both fiction and nonfiction ebooks, including why “cheap” isn’t always the best move anymore (14:41, 16:07).
9. Sending the Right Signal:
10. Discover how your book’s price sets expectations about its quality—cheap books often send the wrong message in today’s market (16:14).

😄 Fun Fact from the Episode

Did you know that I've been part of the indie author revolution since 2008? That’s more than 15 years of publishing wisdom, market changes, and—as you’ll hear—a few pricing “facepalms” along the way!

🙌 Outro

I hope you find this episode encouraging and freeing—sometimes, we all need that permission slip to value our own work! After all, a worker is worthy of their wage (08:30).

Hey there, Creative Christian! Jeremy here with another episode of Christian Author 2.0 Insights, giving you insights into the modern publishing world for you, a gospel-wise author, to steward your books, your craft, your responsibility and calling, your vocation in Christ as a creative Christian well. This episode is meant to offer you both some encouragement and permission. And it's dealing with a subject that I think is often overlooked and often uncomfortable for Christian authors in particular to discuss and to be honest about and also to be permissive with. This is the part of our author calling in the persona of the caretaker that relates to Our compensation for our creative work, our books, and the way that we price them accordingly for the sake of the reader, but also for our own sake as an author. Somebody who has been called as a Christian servant for the church, for the world, to offer insights, inspiration, Blessing, entertainment, delight through these passion projects that Christ has laid on our heart. There is this sense that I have seen and that I have gathered over the last 20 years or so, both from my own sense of things in my own creative, uh, authorly self But also, and especially in conversation with creative Christians, probably like you yourself, wrestling with whether or not we should be paid for our books and how we should be paid and how much we should be paid for those books. And in response to that big question, I did something this week that you're not supposed to do. But I did anyway because, well, for a variety of reasons, and I'll get to those in just a minute here.

But I wanted to address that question in this episode for us caretakers adopting the role and responsibility, the persona of the GospelWise author as a caretaker, someone who has been called to caretake and steward that passion project, the book or the series of books. For the glory of God and the gospel good of our neighbor, as well as for our own family, our own vocation, our own calling. This episode came about for 2 reasons, one of which is connected directly to my work here at Cross and Pen, coaching, guiding, offering advice and assistance to creative Christians like you. And this topic came up in the middle of a coaching session with one of my students. Related to their work and their— what it felt like and what I sensed was this blockage around pricing, but also receiving compensation for their books, especially, which was interesting, their printed books. This person explained how they had the opportunity to get their books through missionaries out into various parts of the world. But the responsibility for doing so, connecting that book to another reader in another country, in another language, felt as though it was on them to print, to ship, to connect. Which was interesting for a number of reasons, but especially Because there is a large upfront cost for printing books and especially shipping books internationally.

But this person, because of the connection that they had with some missionaries overseas, felt compelled to print them and to ship them for the benefit of the Kingdom of Christ. Now, on the one hand, that is super admirable, and there are very good gospel-centered reasons missional reasons for why we as Christian authors might want to undertake that responsibility, feeling called to serve the world in this way by bearing that responsibility to print and ship our book to readers in other countries, other languages. But the thing that I thought was interesting and that struck me was in the midst of the conversation, it arose that this person actually Felt like they wanted to be paid for their work and wondered about ways to make that happen and sort of laughed off the fact that they had paid for the printing and the shipping. While being blessed with that opportunity to serve in this way, there was also this underlying sense that they wanted to be paid for the actual printing and shipping, but perhaps even for the creative output that went into the book in the first place. I think that this is emblematic of what often happens with creative Christians generally. Whatever creative ambition that we have, that is usually a sort of a side hobby or a side hustle Adjacent to or alongside our normal professional work, because this isn't our full-time gig, we feel as though it feels funny or feels overly prideful maybe, or out of bounds, unspiritual, to ask people to pay us for our work. It's even more uncomfortable and even out of the realm of possibility to even think about asking people to pay us for our work. Like, literally sending an email inviting them to buy our next book, to pay us for that next book.

On the one hand, trumpeting that work, broadcasting that work feels prideful, but then asking people to pay us for it seems just even more prideful and even a bit selfish. But as caretakers of this responsibility, this stewardship of the book, the vessel through which Christ is seeking to delight and entertain and inspire and incite people to faith in himself and draw people into the heart of God, we have a right to be paid for and compensated for our work. Certainly at the base level, for printing and shipping our work to readers, that's like basic. If somebody is asking us to put our own money up to produce a work, even outside of the actual production going into the creative output into the work itself, at minimum we have the right and responsibility to steward our own treasures by asking people to pay us To produce the work in that printed sense. But even in relationship to stewarding that vocation, caretaking our author business as well as our author work, we have a right, a biblical right, to be paid for, to be provided for the work that we have been entrusted with by Christ himself. The work of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ. I was reminded of this in my devotions a few weeks ago, traveling through the New Testament, and came about that exhortation from Paul himself in 1 Timothy 5, this recognition that a worker is worthy of their wage. In this context, he was talking directly To the important gospel-centered work of elders, the servants of Christ's church who are overseeing the direction of the church doctrinally, practically, in gospel-centered ways.

While we may not hold the office of elder within a local body of Christ, we are certainly servants of Christ's kingdom as creative Christians. And Paul here in 1 Timothy Timothy 5, as well as in 1 Corinthians 9, makes a strong, passionate case for the proper financial support of the church's servants who are called as servants of Christ himself. That's you, that's me. And so, on the one hand, in directing this advice and guidance to that student who felt sort of funny, or maybe was bemoaning the fact that they were not being paid and compensated for their work. I want to offer a very strong similar defense for our own compensation and our own financial support from readers for our work, our vocation as Christian creatives, as GospelWise authors. So that is where the podcast episode came from, that conversation with this student, and wanting to offer a very biblically rooted permission and encouragement to get properly paid and financially supported for our work through our books, whatever that looks like according to the kinds of books that you write. Alongside that exhortation and that encouragement to be provided for, to actually be paid for our work, came a very personal discussion with myself about how I price my books, which is another part of this episode. Not only the permission structure and the biblically rooted exhortation and encouragement to be provided for and to be financially compensated for your work.

But then on the other side of it, what are the practical implications, and what is the advice and guidance for you as a creative Christian for properly pricing those books so that you are properly financially compensated? Well, the beauty within this modern publishing world is that particularly as a independent creator, you have the power to price your books however you want. If you are signing with a publisher, that is going to be largely out of your control, and prices are going to be set according to market conditions within the more traditional publishing space. But there's a whole lot of other factors that will come into play, primarily their own overhead for their staff, for their buildings, for the marketing budget and the editorial budget and the public relations budget that went into your book, its production. So the price for that book, if you are a traditionally published author, is going to be pretty high, and rightly so, which does set those market conditions and also the market expectations for your readers. That is something to keep in mind, because when your reader is coming to Amazon or Barnes Noble They know what a book generally costs. Particularly within the traditional publishing space, ebooks are $14.99 or higher for fiction, nonfiction books. Now they're even reaching $15.99 or $16.99, particularly for new authors and well-established popular authors. That gives you a very unique opportunity as a creative Christian who is an independent author to fill a very crucial gap in the marketplace for offering books that are as compelling, as entertaining, as helpful at a price point that is lower, but that also keeps that expectation in mind for quality And for pricing.

That is something that I have been taking to heart in recent weeks, as I have been returning back to and sort of doubling down on my fiction business that I have sort of been neglecting for a good year or so. I have been writing, and I have been marketing to some extent, but not doing the kind of work that I should be doing as a caretaker as a steward, as a publisher, to ensure that my work is connected to readers but also stewarded well. And one of the areas that I've fallen down on is the pricing side of that stewardship. Not merely for the proper financial compensation of me and my work, but also signaling to the reader and really connecting more intentionally to and dialing into those expectations that readers have in the marketplace for what prices should be for books in general. For the longest time, there was the sort of rule of thumb for independent writers— and I speak from experience here because I really came up through the indie revolution from the very beginning— 2008, over the last decade, 12, 14, 15 years or so, I've been part of the independent author community. And I have been pretty conversant with all of the tactics and the quote-unquote rules for how independent creators should enter into the marketplace. But with this compensation and pricing question, how authors should price their book. And for the longest time, the conventional wisdom was: cheap.

Inexpensive. Because we had an opportunity here to grab market share, to grab the attention of readers by enticing them with inexpensive books. And because our royalties are way higher than traditionally published authors— for instance, with a $4.99 priced ebook, we get $3.44 on Amazon, and generally across the other platforms. That's pretty decent. And so you can sell 100 books and make $344, whereas the traditionally published author has to sell thousands of books to make that same royalty compensation. And that was the general rule, is pricing at $4.99, Or lower, sometimes $0.99. And if you were tied to the Kindle Unlimited exclusivity program, you really didn't have control over your pricing or compensation because it was basically bottom of the barrel, $0, at least what it felt like to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, And it felt like zero pricing pressure on those books that were in the Kindle Unlimited program.

Well, times have changed for a number of reasons. One, readers are waking up to the quality that comes with the price point. When you price your book at $2.99, $3.99, even $4.99, you're sending a signal to the reader that this is— Quality. Not a traditionally published book, for one. And 2, it's an independent book, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But a reputation has sort of coalesced around that price point to signal lower quality and lesser value. Think about the way you think about pricing in the rest of your life. If you're paying $8 for a Big Mac, Which is about the price point now for that kind of hamburger.

But then you pay $18 or $24 for a similar kind of burger at a high-end restaurant. What's the signal there? Quality. Absolutely. That is the same signal that our price point is sending to readers, especially now that artificial intelligence is flooding the market with ebooks and even paperback books that are cheaply produced and also cheaply priced. Readers are waking up to that fact. And so I have begun to price my books higher than I have traditionally priced my books in the past. My nonfiction books I am for sure pricing at around $9.99 now. That's a good price point for a nonfiction book, mostly because readers are willing to pay more for helpful information, for guidance to help solve their problem, to overcome some sort of thing that is standing in their way.

So for nonfiction books, that $9.99 price point is a good one. Even $12.99 now that Amazon allows independent authors to price higher than $9.99 for their ebooks. For fiction, I am looking to price my ebooks, raising them from that $4.99 price point to at least $5.99, maybe $6.99. If I'm ambitious, depending on the series and the book, maybe $7.99. I have known some independent creators who for a while have been pricing their books at that price point. They have found success. They have not noticed a drop in sales And they are serving their reader with a book that is still at least half the price point for traditionally published books, but also signaling to them that there is quality here, that it is worth buying, and that they will receive an entertaining, delightful read, a helpful, insightful resource to help them overcome a problem, to guide them through something that they are wrestling with through life. That's what pricing your book properly does for your book: raising the level of quality signal to your reader, letting them know that this is different than all of those other sort of cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel books that are now flooding the market, while still serving them with a price point that is loving and also financially helpful.

And then on the other side of it, you are being properly paid, properly compensated and supported for your work, for your ministry, for your calling and vocation as a GospelWise author. So I wanted to come in here with this podcast episode targeting that persona role as caretakers, stewards of our vocation, of our sacred creative calling, as GospelWise authors to not only receive proper financial compensation for that calling and vocation, but to serve the reader and to serve our book and that calling by pricing our book in a way that is signaling to the reader quality, signaling to the reader value, and also serving them with value at a price point that is half of what the traditional market is charging them. So for fiction books, that $5.99 for sure to $7.99 is really a good price point for those single-volume books. If you have a trilogy or a box set, combine them, charge $9.99, $12.99. And if you are in the nonfiction space, definitely consider the $8 $9.99 to even $12.99 price point for that book to, again, signal value, signal quality, and compensate your work, your vocation, properly. I hope this episode has been encouraging to you, and also has given you a degree of permission to price your books properly, and also to receive proper financial support and compensation.