Publishing companies need to innovate regularly to create new value for their customers. But innovation in itself should not be the final goal. Not only must you spot opportunities, but you should capture value so you get paid for it.

There are two kinds of innovation. One is in value creation, and the other is in value capture. Many businesses stop the creative process when a good idea is developed, believing that once it is implemented, it will generate money. But unless value capture—maximizing the return on your idea—is also contemplated, you can leave money on the table.

For example, publishers look to authors as the source of ideas. But when a significant new concept is acquired, the process typically falls back into a routine. The content is published and distributed as has always been done—through bookstores (bricks and clicks). After a certain period, the tome is relegated to backlist status, profit is not maximized, and potential gains are lost forever. 

As revenue decreases, thoughts of increasing sales often fall back on pricing issues. However, changing the price of a book from $15.95 to $14.95 or running a special offer for a limited time do not constitute pricing innovation. When sales and revenue bottom out, the blame is placed on the product life cycle, the belief that the book has run its course, and it is time to replace it with a fresher title.

But a key to increasing revenue and profits is not to publish more books but to sell those you already have on hand. Here are 10 concepts for maximizing your return on ideas:

1. Value-Based Pricing

The most familiar is value-based pricing. This occurs when the publisher charges according to the content’s worth to the customer and stops setting prices by simply marking up production costs or calibrating against competitive prices. The challenge is how to determine the perceived value, but you may have control over that, too. When selling to corporate buyers, you can use your presentation and negotiating skills to increase the value of your proposal and, subsequently, the amount of money you receive for the sale.

You can increase the value of your book to those who are mentioned in it. When you name a person or company in your text, it becomes worth it for them to help you promote it. You might even get people or companies to pay you to include their names in your book.

2. Auctioning

Another technique is to auction your books. This works when your book is used as a fundraiser by an association or school. The downside of auctioning is that the final price may be below what you had expected. You can eliminate that problem by setting a minimum bid. as the Association of Publishers for Special Sales (APSS) did when auctioning seats to its annual Book Selling University. The auction for each day began with a minimum bid.

3. Demand-Driven Pricing

Demand-driven pricing relies on fluctuations in demand to drive changes in price. This could apply in cases where you are selling seats to your seminar or workshop. An early-bird special might entice early adopters to register, with later deals to lure laggards.

4. ‘Name Your Price’

You could also allow prospective buyers to name their own price. You might use this technique as the starting point for negotiating with a corporate buyer interested in purchasing a large quantity of your books. The buyer will start with a low offer, expecting you to respond with a higher price. Generally, the final price is somewhere in the middle.

5. Sponsoring

Get a corporation to sponsor your book. Two bachelors researched a book about why some marriages last so long. In Project Everlasting, they induced a company to give them a motor home in which they could travel the country interviewing people in successful marriages. They also received sponsorship money from hotel chains, jewelers, and 1-800-FLOWERS.

6. Change the Value Carrier

What is the value carrier in your offering? It is the part of the experience on which you hang your price tag. This could be your slogan (“The only book that gives you …”) or it might be your author’s reputation.

7. Bundling

Bundling represents another way to change the price carrier. In this practice, you offer several products as a package, and the total price is less than purchasing each individual piece separately. You could bundle a backlist title with a popular one in your frontlist (perhaps from a different author). A variation is the all-inclusive offer. Here you include a book (or books) as part of a seminar or consulting package. These actions make competitive price comparisons more difficult.

8. Giveaways

Use your book as a razor-and-blades model similar to a company like Gillette selling a razor inexpensively (or giving it away) to lock you into years of purchasing blades for it, thus securing a future revenue stream. An example is to give away the first chapter of your book through your website, enticing people to purchase the remaining chapters. A continuity program is an example of this technique.

9. Change Your Segment

Instead of selling your children’s book through Barnes & Noble and Amazon, sell it to children’s hospitals or libraries, parent-teacher organizations, schools, homeschooling groups, daycare centers, and moms’ clubs. When selling directly to buyers in these categories, you can price your books based on the quantities purchased. Since there are no distribution discounts or returnable books, you can be more profitable even at a lower price.

10. Volume Selling

Sell books in large quantities to corporate buyers, associations, or even the military. This introduces pricing incentives such as coupons and self-liquidators.

The bottom line is an improved bottom line. Look for new ways to market your books and capture value so you get paid more. Unless you do that, you are not maximizing your revenue opportunities.

---