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What is a reasonable price for formula e-book?
Hello everyone! Hopefully I’ve posted this question under the correct category. Anyway. I am a self taught makeup formulator. I can create a lot of the trendy cosmetics young women are into. For example: Gel glitter, pressed glitter, liquid matte lipstick, waterproof metallic lipstick, waterproof gel eyeliner, and lip gloss.
What i I would like to do is teach other people wanting to start a cosmetic like how to create some of these products in the form of an ebook. But I am having a lot of problem with deciding how to price something like this.
I haven’t been able to get much feedback on this question from Facebook groups I am in. Except one girl with larger following who offered market the ebook for $50 and she would get a 40% commission off every sale ?. That’s obviously waaaaay too low considering what chemists charge for one formula.
I would greatly appreciate any feed back! ?
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10 Replies
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The price should be determined by what your customers are willing to pay.
If your customers are the people on this forum, then asking us what is a good price is a good idea. However, it’s unlikely most of the people here are your customer base. But maybe there are some.
Whether you think $50 is way too low doesn’t matter much. It’s whether your customers think it’s too low (or too high) that matters.
To figure out your price, ask and answer a few questions.
1. Who are your customers? You say people who want to start their own line but you should get more specific about this. Is it chemists who want to start their own line? Is it social media influencers that want to start their own line? Is it people who already have a brand and want to expand? You’ve got to narrow it down.
2. Where are your customers? There might be some customers here but not enough for you to make a lot of money at this. If you’re not getting feedback from the Facebook groups you’ve asked, you probably don’t have many customers there either. Do you have an email list? Do you know other people who have an email list that would be willing to rent it to you?
3. What are your competitor’s asking? Are they even selling any books?
You can find formulation books on Amazon that go for $6 - https://amzn.to/2XdOZRb
or some that go for $170 - https://amzn.to/2IHZtix
4. Will anyone buy this at all? Before you even write the book you need to to know this answer. You should also ask your potential customers what topics they specifically want covered. Just because you think gel glitter is cool, that doesn’t necessarily mean your customers will want to learn to make them.
Another thing, your background will also play into how much you can charge. A book by a “self taught” formulator wouldn’t be able to command as high a price as a book by a “cosmetic chemist with 20 years experience in industry.” Of course, this still depends on your customer. Maybe they would see this as a plus.
The bottom line is keep the customer in mind, talk to them, and they’ll tell you how much to charge. If you are not getting answers about pricing, that means you have not found where your customers hang out. Keep looking.
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Thank you so much! I am mainly wanting to market to people who already have a brand and are wanting to expand. Or people who want to start their own brand and market it to social media influencers. I definitely didn’t have professional chemists in mind.
I don’t have a lot of active followers on my social media accounts, so that is why it is hard for me to get very many responses. And The facebook groups I am in are filled with people who don’t necessarily sell cosmetics. Many of them sell hair, eyelashes and some offer coaching services. So that is why I decided to come on here. Thank you so much for your feedback. Much appreciated! ?
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Customers prefer formulators with background in chemistry. You can create amazing formulas but if you are not a chemist not many people would be willing to pay. Regarding pricing have a look at swiftcraftymonkey blog. She sells ebooks with formulas (non color cosmetics).
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I guess that would depend on who you are marketing the formulas to. I would be marketing it to young makeup artists and young women who are active on social media and Are wanting to start a cosmetic line. I know for fact, that demographic does not care whether the person has a degree in chemistry or not. They just need the formula to work
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There’s a company TBK Trading https://tkbtrading.com/ the sells makeup ingredients to the DIY market that has a client base that you are seeking to tap into. You might contact them to see if you could work out some sort of distribution deal with them for a makeup formula e-book. You might also see if there is some sort of national organization for professional makeup artists if that is your target market.
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If a person were to come to this site and was just interested in starting a cosmetic line (not formulating) with no experience in formulating we would most likely recommend that they consider private label.There are hundreds of colour cosmetics formulas available for free on sites such as UL Prospector. You need to work out what your book will offer that people can’t already get for free. Below are some questions to consider.Will you provide information on how to start a business and on the regulatory requirements? This varies from state to state and by country/region.Are these formulas that can be made at home or that need specialised equipment to manufacture?Have they been manufactured previously and stability tested?Are the raw materials readily available? This would be the advantage of working with a supplier as suggested above.Are you interested in teaching the chemistry side of formulating or just providing formulas?Good luck with your ebook. -
Thank you very much! I didn’t even thought of that! ? I’m very familiar TKB Trading lol
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ozgirl said:
If a person were to come to this site and was just
interested in starting a cosmetic line (not formulating) with no experience in formulating we would most
likely recommend that they consider private label.There are hundreds of colour cosmetics formulas available for free on sites such as UL Prospector. You need to work out what your book will offer that people can’t already
get for free. Below are some questions to consider.Will you provide information on how to start a business and on the regulatory requirements? This varies from state to state and by country/region.Are these formulas that can be made at home or that need specialised equipment to manufacture?Have they been manufactured previously and stability tested?Are the raw materials readily available? This would be the advantage of working with a supplier as suggested above.Are you interested in teaching the chemistry side of formulating or just providing formulas?Good luck with your ebook.
Hi! Thank you for your advice. I initially wanted to start a cosmetic line through private label. And some of the issues I ran into were 1. The amount of time it takes to research a company that private label the type of makeup I knew young women would be into. 2. Many of them have extremely high MOQ. That’s the reason I became interested in learning how to formulate makeup lol
I’m familiar with UL prospector. But the average beginner DIYer does not. Not to mention, the average DIYer cannot easily buy those ingredients. All of the ingredients I use will come from TKB Trading and MakingCosmetics.com.. Also, I only got a basic understanding of how to formulate makeup looking at free formulas. I still had to do a lot of trial and error on my own. The advantage of my ebook is that it would be simple, easy to understand even for a beginner.
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Are you familiar with glamourcosmetics
https://www.glamourcosmetics.it/it/
Quite an impressive choice of makeup ingredients. W/Si emulsifiers for foundations, film formers for products like mascaras and eyeliners, some nice silicones. DIY reseller.
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IMO People would be more interested in a package that includes videos and online troubleshooting consultation, and not just an Ebook.
You can also partner as a raw materials reseller, both for an extra profit, and to offer a better value for customers so they know where to source all the ingredients.
You may need to repackage to sell smaller quantities, so customers don’t have to buy the whole drum.
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