Writing the book is art and craft. Selling the book is pure business. The goal is to make money and pay your bills. Every book must make money in every format, no matter how many backers each format has. This is how I calculate reward prices for crowdfunding campaigns. My private book sponsorships use similar calculations.
Never argue with Kickstarter's (or any platform's) web interface while simultaneously deciding on reward prices. That way lies despair and failure. Collect all your costs and set your prices before touching any crowdfunding site.
Round all prices up to the nearest dollar. (Okay, if it's ten cents over you might decide to drop it, but be real sure you want to eat many dimes. The goal is to pay your rent. Backers want to help you pay the rent. When someone puts a dollar in your hand, take it.)
The words “cost” and “price” are terms of art. “Cost” is how much I pay. “Price” is how much supporters pay. A book that costs $10 might have a price of $30.
I'm shipping from the US, using US postal infrastructure. Folks in other countries must investigate their options.
Do a single book campaign before offering multiple print books as a reward. Do a US-only campaign before you go global.
For signed print bundles of multiple books
International campaigns need all of the above plus:
Each reward needs two (or more) costs.
This information allows setting tier prices so everything makes money.
I offer seven main rewards when crowdfunding a book, some available in limited regions.
Not all campaigns offer all rewards, but I update my spreadsheets for all rewards whenever I price out a campaign.
These calculations are built on two spreadsheets. The samples provided only represent structure and use bogus costs. Look up your own costs or go broke. You have been warned.
You don't have to look up every price for every campaign. If you run campaigns frequently enough, shipping prices won't change. My main suppliers are IngramSpark and USPS. Both announce rate changes in advance.
Go to IngramSpark. Get the printing cost for paperback and hardcover of your new book. Round up to the nearest dollar. Record those prices in the spreadsheet.
At this time printing price is pretty consistent across regions. Verify your printing cost at each printing location.
The bundle spreadsheet lists every title I sell independently and the printing cost for each, generating a total printing cost for each bundle. Make sure the most recent books are on the list and have a current printing cost. Spot-check printing costs to be sure you didn't miss a price increase.
Get the sample USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes and the reference paperbacks of all the books. Double-check that you have ALL the books. See what combination of boxes you need to ship each bundle. At this time, all small TWP bundles fit in a Large Flat Rate box. The “Full Michael” needs two Large Flat Rate boxes.
Note the packaging needed on the campaign fulfillment spreadsheet.
Crowdfunding backers want to make the book happen, and they want you to eat while you make it happen. Charge retail price for dropshipped print books and ebooks. What's retail price? Depends on the cut you give bookstores. If nothing else, use the IngramSpark calculator to decide on a reasonably profitable price.
Add a small fee for signed paperbacks and hardcovers. I charge $5. That'll cover shipping to your home, sitting in front of the TV signing books one after the other, and pizza bribes for the envelope-stuffing party.
For the bundles? Add up the retail price of the books. Knock off ten percent or so. Round it off so it looks like a real retail price.
Enter the prices in the spreadsheet.
As of now, IngramSpark can mail a single book from the US to anywhere in the world for $12. Check the cost to ship to test addresses in Japan, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa, and Uruguay. The cheapest shipping might not be from the obvious printer–for example, IngramSpark shipping to New Zealand from the US is less expensive than IS shipping from Australia. Weird but true.
Once someone orders books, you must deliver them. Period. Your career requires a reputation for reliability.
USPS offers two shipping methods suitable for book rewards: Media Mail and Priority Mail. Yes, options like First Class and USPS Ground Advantage are available, but they don't offer much difference. Media Mail is cheap, uninsured, and slow. Priority Mail costs a couple bucks more, is insured, and is faster. You could choose to use Media Mail and cover any losses out of your own pocket. Adding insurance to Media Mail raises the price near to that of Priority Mail.
Cost-conscious backers will choose dropshipped books. I recommend Priority Mail.
For backers in the US, ship new books with Priority Mail Flat Rate cardboard envelopes. They are free from the Post Office. Look up the cost to ship a Flat Rate envelope to Honolulu. Charge that for shipping and handling. Not all packages will be that expensive, but as you're having to touch the books, adding a couple bucks for handling is sensible.
Put that in the spreadsheet for shipping cost of signed paperbacks and hardcovers.
For backers outside the US, ship signed books in 6×9 bubble mailers. Get the weight and dimensions of each, plus the bubble mailer. A few ounces might make a big difference, so use actual weights!
Log in to your shipping retailer. Save your test addresses. Save your hardcover as a package. Save your paperback as a package. (You might not need both, but a moment of preparation will save you annoyance.)
See how much it costs to ship each book to each country for both First Class and Priority Mail.
Right about now is when I realize that USPS also provides identically-sized flat rate boxes for overseas shipments and check the prices. Now that I'm reminded that shipping “The Full Michael” to Australia would exceed $300, I once again decide to not offer that as a reward.
Setting fine-grained shipping prices is a pain. Instead, look at the prices. Figure out a decent high average for a region. Here's some sample prices for my book Apocalypse Moi to Europe at this moment.
You can break this up country-by-country, or you can say “European shipping and handling is $42.” I'd lose a couple bucks on shipments to Norway, but make them up shipping to Germany. How much time do you want to spend in the crowdfunding interface?
Using averages I break shipping into regions: US, Canada, UK, Europe, Rest of World.
Enter your chosen shipping prices in the spreadsheet.
The margin is retail price of the book, minus the cost to print the book, divided by the book's retail price. The sample spreadsheet calculates this for you. Set your price for each reward so that you get at least 70% margin on individual books. Why so high? You're getting the cut that normally goes to bookstores and distributors! That's the point of crowdfunding, letting people directly support your work and meet your bills.
For large bundles, try for a margin about 60%. If someone buys thirty books, you really do make it up on volume!
Armed with the spreadsheet prices, you can now populate your crowdfunding rewards.