I’ve had a fair few comments since launch. Mostly positive. It’s a good book; it’s a colourful book; it’s a well-organised book; it’s (oh yes) a big book.

Most commonly, though, is another riff: that’s it’s an expensive book. There are three reasons for this, so I thought I’d share them.

Reason #1: High fixed costs.

The first (and least important) reason is simple: production and distribution. This isn’t a dime novel; with 1,200 large-format colour pages, each copy costs around £30 just to print! Add shipping and handling (another £5-£8) then factor in the 55% bookseller discount (which comes off the RRP, not the net) and the result is I make around 7-8% profit on the print book. That doesn’t leave me much leeway to cut the price.

Of course, I also sell the book from my own site, avoiding the bookseller margin. Can’t I discount that? Well, I could – but Amazon, among others, gives a price match guarantee if you see the book cheaper elsewhere. So it’s cut everywhere or cut nowhere. You do get a signed thank-you when you buy direct, so that’s the method I’d recommend.

The bright side: booksellers often offer discounts – check amazon.com to see who’s selling cheap. (Which is fine with me; they’re eating into their 55% profit margin, at their own risk.)

Reason #2: Darwinism.

Second, the whole purpose of the book involves investing time now to enable a six-figure income in 100 days’ time. A top 1% income isn’t a free gift: you have to work for it. This book is a work plan, not a shortcut.

Anyone not prepared to risk £30 of their own money for the chance of a £100,000 income probably isn’t the sort of person who’d invest the 100 days of time the book asks. The methods aren’t magic; those 100 days involve work. So the high price makes the audience somewhat self-selecting. People who pay are already motivated to earn six figures, and prepared to invest what it takes to get there.

The bright side: it’s win-win: if you’re unsure about whether you can make the investment, fine, don’t make it. I’m not holding a gun to anyone’s head.

Reason #3: I just don’t want to.

This is going to make me sound like a value-of-labour nut (which I’m not) but think about this: I spent three years of my life and a five-figure sum of my own money bringing 100 Days to market. It took a year just to work out what each chapter needed to do and how they should clump together into sections.

It was a labour of love, but it was also hard work, and I’m not going to give it away. Any more than I work for my clients for free.

The bright side: The higher the price, the fewer people will buy it. So if you take the plunge, you can use the 100 Days methods without being discouraged because every other freelancer in Starbuck’s doing the same. (Nice as that’d be for me.)