Su Shiping's publishing is a cultural undertaking. The publishing significance and reading value of books are abstract. General publishers don't pay much attention to pricing, and most of them rely on intuition. So there are several misunderstandings about book prices: First, the higher the price, the better. Second, small profits but quick turnover? Reduce costs and make profits? Third, pricing according to the market? Fourth, the price should reflect the value? In view of these myths, the author will try to explain the six relative laws of book pricing with six relative laws as the footnote of publishing basic cognition. The first law of relativity: whether technology and strategy are priced according to market supply and demand, income, cost, value or degree of change, there are always formulas or indicators for reference. Specialization is enough for you to establish an effective optimal pricing model. The second law of relativity: value and price The value of books is basically created subjectively by authors and editors, but the generation of reading value and reading demand is only through the individual cognition of readers. Readers' value perception and price perception change and diverge at any time under the influence of many factors, such as decreased curiosity, obsolescence, availability of substitutes, liking the new and hating the old, increasing disposable income, urgency of use and so on. In addition to the above factors, publishers can also use and apply two pricing techniques or strategies. One is to operate the reader's psychological cognition and experience of the book's thickness, binding, habitual quotation or special digital suggestion; Second, use the quality, brand, image and meaning of books to identify and change cognition, so as to obtain higher pricing space. The third law of relativity: sensitivity and insensitivity In pricing technology, the most important thing is to understand the concept of so-called price elasticity in economics. If the price goes up, how much will the sales of books decrease? How much more will readers buy if the price is reduced? Who is the reader and under what circumstances is the price elasticity small? Which prices are more flexible? Is the price elasticity a straight line or a curve? Do readers with different price bands have different price elasticity? When pricing, if the reader is sensitive or the curve is in a sensitive area, you can make a special offer and play games to reduce the price, so that readers feel that it is worth the money; On the other hand, we should always look for areas where readers are insensitive and unconscious, set the price at the highest place, and let readers become the recipients of the price, with the smallest sales loss and the largest sales amount. Fourth Law of Relativity: Will the book to be published wear out with time in the short and long term for publishers? Will it expire? Is there a low season? Is there a difference between good timing and bad timing? Of course, these characteristics are also factors to be considered when pricing. Also, in terms of attitude and thinking, do you have any further plans for each stage after the new book is listed? How to price? How to make a strategy? For books with strong timeliness, many substitutions and great price elasticity, relatively low prices should be adopted; For books with long sales time, high uniqueness and low price elasticity, it is not necessary to easily reduce prices and discounts. So, how to balance supply and demand in the off-season? In fact, for books that are not in a hurry, readers are usually willing to exchange time for money (discount). For example, if students are willing to wait until the discount period to buy dictionaries or reference books, the publishing house can sell them at a discount in the off-season before the start of school to avoid backlog. With more and more levels of the book market and more diversified publishing channels, publishers increasingly need to divide different markets or different value cycles, change prices in stages, give priority to readers with higher sense of value, and delay discount customers who trade at low prices. The fifth law of relativity: publishers of a program and many books may adopt different strategies when facing the pricing of one book and considering the pricing of many books. If we focus on the first listing of a book, we can adopt the focusing principle, echo the content or create a topic in a novel pricing way, convey a strong message, and make the media pay attention to it or the bookstore be happy to display it; Or, trying to destroy the market can absorb the risks perceived by readers and stimulate the willingness to buy; In addition, the adoption of unusually high pricing can be used to define new quality standards and create cognitive added value. If we consider the multiple sales of multiple books, we can adopt the law of duplication, and the pricing or special price of the first volume of a series or a set of books can set the tone for the overall strategy or drive subsequent reading; Or use discount coupons to force this sale to be related to the next sale, linking different books, different time periods and different channels, but the readers should be the same. The sixth law of relativity: conservative and positive. Finally, when publishers have different business attitudes because of their own conditions and circumstances, what should be the pricing strategy? If you can't stand the loss and have the pressure of recycling, the market and readers are uncertain; If you plan to fight for a long time, win more with less, and just want to hold a field, please adopt conservative pricing, that is, the higher the pricing, the greater the discount for old books or late books. The first edition should be printed less than high gross profit. When reprinting, the higher the gross profit, the smaller the risk. If you can bear the cost, you are willing to take risks to gain a market position, and hope to quickly expand the readership, gain an advantage in the competition, take active pricing, and increase the print run at a relatively obvious or even insufficient low price, so as to achieve immediate penetration. PS: Many links in the publishing industry rely not on rational analysis, but on perceptual knowledge. For example, the development of new topics and the assurance of printing quantity cannot be answered accurately by rational analysis, which requires publishers' keen sense of smell and unique understanding. Specific to book pricing, rational analysis and perceptual knowledge are indispensable. At present, the pricing power of books is mainly in the hands of publishers, which cannot form a good market system, operating rules and self-discipline like western countries. According to the "Notice on Reforming the Price Management of Books and Periodicals" jointly issued by the State Price Bureau and the General Administration of Press and Publication, books and periodicals will be fully priced by the publishing house under the control of the pricing profit rate, except for the textbooks of colleges, secondary schools and primary and secondary schools which are subject to state price. Its pricing profit rate is: direct costs (paper, printing, manuscript remuneration) account for 45% to 55% of the pricing, indirect costs (editing fees, enterprise management fees) account for 8% of the pricing, taxes account for 2%, and circulation fees account for 35%; The total cost accounts for 90% to 95% of the pricing, and the publishing profit accounts for 5% to 10% of the book price. Of course, this pricing should also consider the issue of circulation. If the circulation is large, the cost will be low and the pricing will be low, otherwise it will be high.