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E-book pricing

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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Thu January 6th, 2011, 12:00 pm

[quote=""cw gortner""]Several of my friends recently got e-readers for Xmas and expressed to me varying levels of outrage that my digital books were priced $13 - $8, respectively. I explained that e-book pricing varied, depending on the place and the length of time the book has been on the market, but they seemed to think that ALL e-books should be no more than $2, max. I must admit, I was taken aback by the notion that an e-book should be priced less than a download movie-on-demand or even a movie ticket. [/quote]

I haven't read the other responses yet but as someone who has been reading ebooks exclusively for about a year now, I don't understand why some readers have a $2 cap on ebook prices. I can understand expecting the ebook price to be lower than the lowest new print book price because the cost of publishing and distribution should be less for an ebook (plus, some people feel they've lost the value of a printed book). But when I buy a book, ANY book, in any format, I'm paying for the written content, not just the publishing, distribution or the format. And to say that the written content of every book out there is only worth $2 is very insulting to the authors, in my opinion.

I can understand having personal caps on price, especially since the cost of the ereader itself is an investment. Many people have caps on printed books or anything else they consume too. We all have our budgets. But just because we set ourselves a personal budget, doesn't mean we can reasonably expect the industry to adhere to it.

Personally, I don't care so much about the particular price of an ebook but rather it's relation to the printed edition price. My rule is to not buy a Kindle book which is priced higher than the printed version offered by Amazon. I know there is a conflict here because Amazon sets their prices on printed books but publishers now have the right to set the Kindle price... so often, since there are different sources setting the different prices, it's difficult to expect the prices to always make sense. But frankly, from a customer's point of view, I don't really care - all I care about is that I see the Kindle book is more expensive than the printed edition and that's like paying more for a paperback than the hardback.

But it's not always the case that the publisher has set the price. CW, your book on Catherine de Medici is $13.75 on Kindle and it says that was set by Amazon, not the publisher - whereas the paperback is only $9.69. There is no way I'd buy that book until the Kindle price came down below the paperback price. I don't know how much control you have over that since Amazon has set the Kindle price but I can see why people have complained about it. I don't see why they expect it to be $2 though.

ETA: I just noticed the paperback hasn't been released yet so maybe when it is, the Kindle price will be reduced too.
Last edited by Mythica on Thu January 6th, 2011, 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Thu January 6th, 2011, 2:29 pm

I buy whatever format makes the most sense for me. For older (still copyrighted) stuff it is usually paperback because no ebook was ever published. For new books, I'm mostly buying ebooks. In the pre-ebook age, I almost always waited for paperbacks to come out. I rarely bought hardcovers. The same is true now... I can usually wait until the corresponding ebook comes out for the paperback release. I do balk at ebook prices that are higher than the paperback price (example: thought about getting Lonesome Dove, looked at the pricing on Amazon and discovered ebook is higher than the TP... to heck with that, might as well go with print). However, I have been induced to try ebooks by authors with new HC releases in the case of debut fiction that looks interesting and has been favorably reviewed by sources I highly regard. On rare occasions, I might also be induced to buy a higher priced ebook for a favorite author. However, on average, my experience has been similar to Susan's. Most of my ebook purchases have been for that $9.99 price for new fiction releases or just a few dollars below the paperback price. A lot of the lower priced ebooks (anything below $3, e.g.) that I've looked at have been self-published (and most of them are by newbie authors) or are a special promotion on the part of the author or publisher hoping one free book will lead to sales of the author's other books (Gabaldon's Outlander is a good example).

I do think that as more and more books are published word of mouth and reviews by trusted, highly regarded sources will become more important for consumers. I know I'd rather pay a fair price for a decent book than next to nothing for a lot of time wasting dreck. My time is worth something, too.
On the other side, a whole swath of people (myself included) grew up never, ever buying books because they were too expensive. We used the library.
This is how I grew up, too. My parents were children during the great depression and that mentality of scrimping and saving, never letting anything go to waste, and only spending money on what is necessary was a foundational part of my upbringing and hard to let go of in this age of rabid consumerism. I really only started buying books for myself in my 30-something years after I was settled, could finally afford them, and the library system near me wasn't a good option for me.

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Alisha Marie Klapheke
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Post by Alisha Marie Klapheke » Thu January 6th, 2011, 3:37 pm

MLE I agree with you about publishers becoming primarily curators. Although I did not attend the Frankfurt book fair last year, I know that the above thought was the topic of at least one major speaker--I saw it on their webpage.

I think Ludmilla is on track as well by saying that reviews by trusted sources will become more important for consumers.

I know there are a few websites such as Peroozal.comand YouAreWhatYouRead.com that help some of my friends choose the books they will purchase. I believe Peroozal lists author's recommendations for books other than their own but can the consumer trust in those lists? YouAreWhatYouRead allows anyone to make a list of their preferred books (like Goodreads, right?) and many celebrities and so forth have done so. I guess the real issue with curating and reviewing is how do readers know who is telling the truth and who is being influenced by money. I wrote about this on my blog back in October when Peroozal was first released in beta form.

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Thu January 6th, 2011, 4:04 pm

Dreaded self-pubber muscling in here.

Yes anyone can get their book available for Kindle, but that does not mean it's going to look decent. Very easy to upload, but proper formatting for Kindle is a pain in the you-know-where. If you're not worried about proper formatting it all gets so much easier.

While I don't spend nearly as much money as the "big 6" do per book, I can say that I don't mind pricing my eBooks significantly lower than print copies. I can do this because I can convert my books to ePubs for free. So when I sell an eBook I'm selling a copy of an existing file. It costs me nothing. I factor in the value of time spent writing the book and thus charge for something that didn't cost me a dime.

Self-publishing gives me a larger cut of each sale than traditional publishing does, so I won't have to sell as many books to earn out the investment for pre-release services (cover design, etc.) either.

I try to keep the prices affordable for as many people as possible for both print and digital. Of course then I go up against the idea that it's priced low because it's crap. Though most people probably don't think of that so much as "hey, a cheap book!"

Kudos to whoever pointed out that the price of the eReader is a dividing factor. Many, many, many people can't afford to spend $100+ on the device itself, and more on eBooks to read on it.

Also, thanks Margaret for your idea of free rent and groceries for musicians and other artists. Sounds good to me. Maybe we'll all end up going back to having rich patrons.

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Thu January 6th, 2011, 5:13 pm

Some miscellaneous thoughts...

This is exciting but scary for readers, writers, everyone. I worry that, in the not-too-distant future, most books will not be published in physical form. For a booklover, this is alarming but maybe it's something I should get over.


I understand what Bernard Cornwell said about why he thinks e-book purchasers shouldn't be able to lend them to friends because of file-sharing etc. That would be fine - if the pricing reflected that. If you're going to charge me a similar or even higher price for an e-book compared to a paperback, then I expect to be able to do similar things with it once I've purchased it, eg. lend it, sell it on secondhand or give it away. If you're going to restrict my ability to do that, you should charge me less.

Someone else commented that slashing e-book prices could lead to a rocketing in purchases. I'm not so sure. Disregarding a potential initial peak on excitement grounds, I think there's a natural ceiling to book purchases of whatever variety. Sure, some people are going to end up reading more than previously; and some people may start reading when they never really did before. But, give or take a reasonable margin, I think the book reader base is what it is and those consumers will have roughly the same leisure time available to read as before.

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cw gortner
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Post by cw gortner » Thu January 6th, 2011, 6:51 pm

[quote=""Mythica""]I But it's not always the case that the publisher has set the price. CW, your book on Catherine de Medici is $13.75 on Kindle and it says that was set by Amazon, not the publisher - whereas the paperback is only $9.69. There is no way I'd buy that book until the Kindle price came down below the paperback price. I don't know how much control you have over that since Amazon has set the Kindle price but I can see why people have complained about it. I don't see why they expect it to be $2 though.

ETA: I just noticed the paperback hasn't been released yet so maybe when it is, the Kindle price will be reduced too.[/quote]

I have no control, but I think the kindle version will drop when the pb is actually released (May 24). I know there is quite a bit of timing factored in now, to help maintain print volume. Amazon is setting discounts on pricing, so it's all rather muddled, too.

Lots of great comments here! Wow, glad I brought this up. It seems to me most of us are in agreement here, that pricing should reflect the value of a book and coordinate well with print versions. I too worry about the loss of physical books, because I treasure them as objects as well as for their content. I still think print will survive, but I do think mass market paperbacks will fade out. Hardcovers held their own this last quarter, according to recent book store reports, as did trade paperback, but mass market (the smaller grocery-store sized paperbacks) suffered. And the UK reported similiar gains and losses in regards to formats, so it should be an interesting evolution.

One thing a publishing friend commented to me last night is that readers seeking the $2 books are probably not my readers and never will be. They want the cheap stuff and there's plenty of it out there. However, she believes that true book lovers with e-readers will augument their purchasing with e-books and MLE pointed out supporting evidence of this, that she's buying more books because of her e-reader.
THE QUEEN'S VOW available on June 12, 2012!
THE TUDOR SECRET, Book I in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
THE LAST QUEEN


www.cwgortner.com

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Thu January 6th, 2011, 6:57 pm

I understand what Bernard Cornwell said about why he thinks e-book purchasers shouldn't be able to lend them to friends because of file-sharing etc. That would be fine - if the pricing reflected that. If you're going to charge me a similar or even higher price for an e-book compared to a paperback, then I expect to be able to do similar things with it once I've purchased it, eg. lend it, sell it on secondhand or give it away. If you're going to restrict my ability to do that, you should charge me less.
That is an excellent point and one to consider before purchasing. I still buy a few OOP's here and there, but usually once they've been read I would want to swap them off or use as trade in at the UBS. If you're not able to do that, nor even lend them to friends, I'd rather pay the same price for a *real book* than an ebook.
Dreaded self-pubber muscling in here.
Lol, you lot do get knocked around on occasion. Sorry :o
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cw gortner
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Post by cw gortner » Thu January 6th, 2011, 7:05 pm

[quote=""Divia""]I don't think that ebooks should be 2 bucks, but I do think they should be a tad cheaper than 19.99 like Ken's book. That just seems crazy to me. Way overpriced.

I'd be fine with paying $10.00.

Authors, do you think this is an acceptable price?[/quote]

I believe prevailing opinions think it should work like this (quoted from Kobo):

In the agency model, the publisher sets the price and retailers get a fixed cut of sales (about 30%). Every retailer sells for the same price.

“Agency” is about who has the power to set the price. In the traditional wholesale/retail model, the publisher sets a list price, sells books to the retailer at a given margin, and then the retailer can price it however they want as long as the publisher gets their percentage of the original list price.

In the agency model, the retailer is acting as an “agent” of the publisher, passing the book along to the consumer at a pre-agreed price. It’s like a real estate agent selling a house. You set the price, they sell it for you. You give them a commission. The agent never owns your house. They just help out.

* Side note on the agency model. It isn’t really a revenue grab for publishers. In most cases, the publisher makes less. That $35.00 Under the Dome that the publisher made $17.00 on? With agency modeling, they might make $10.50. But they won’t run the risk of some retailer forcing them to price it at $15 and making $7.50.

Also, John Sargent, CEO of McMillan, one of the big publishing conglomerates and the first to challenge amazon's wholesale $9.99 e-book policy (a tactic most insiders agree was aimed at selling more kindles, regardless of how it affected consumer perception of book value in the long run) posted, in my opinion, a very thorough and well thought out analysis here:
THE QUEEN'S VOW available on June 12, 2012!
THE TUDOR SECRET, Book I in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
THE LAST QUEEN


www.cwgortner.com

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N. Gemini Sasson
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Post by N. Gemini Sasson » Thu January 6th, 2011, 7:11 pm

I want to expand on a couple of points which have been brought up here. One is in regards to Cornwell's comment on the lending of e-books. Amazon now allows Kindle books to be loaned to one other person for a 14-day period; however, publishers can opt out of that and so far it looks like the traditional publishers are doing so.

As an indie author, I opted in for the simple reason that I don't see it being loaned once as any different as someone loaning the paperback version of my book to a friend - which I've had people do - or borrowing it from the local library. I'm fine with it, so long as it's limited. Actually, I like it a lot. There's always the possibility that the person who borrowed the e-book may like it enough to recommend it to another friend or buy another book themselves. It happens all the time with paper books. How many times has someone loaned a paper book to you and you discovered and fell in love with a new author?

Another point that Margaret mentioned is having to wade through the swamp of dross due to the increase in self-published books. In reality, no reader has to deal with this. I'm sure most e-readers discover their next read by sifting through the Amazon bestseller lists, checking in the "Customers who bought X, also bought Y" listings, or getting recommendations from individuals. In those cases the sorting has already been done for you. There are readers who frequent boards like Kindleboards and Nookboards who don't mind sifting through the mountain to find the gem. If they like an indie book enough, they recommend it or go back and buy a second or third book from the author. You also have bloggers like Red Adept who will and do read indie books. She'll fairly criticize those she does not see value in and crow about those she does.

If you check the Amazon bestseller listings for HF there are already a handful of self-published works that have risen up through the ranks to reach the top 100: Louisa Locke's Maids of Misfortune is sitting at #21 in the category. Cathleen Smith's Trio of Horror: Three Tales of the Holocaust is at #62; David McAfee's 33 A.D. is at #77; Paul Clayton's White Seed is at #93 and there are at least two other titles that are backlists that the authors now have the rights to that they self-published. Roseanne Lortz's I Serve and Jennifer Becton's Charlotte Collins are two others that are doing particularly well.

My point is that readers in general don't need to fear the influx of self-published books. The quality will sort itself out on other levels and the better ones will tend to rise to the top with time.

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Michy
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Post by Michy » Thu January 6th, 2011, 10:35 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]But, give or take a reasonable margin, I think the book reader base is what it is and those consumers will have roughly the same leisure time available to read as before.[/quote] I agree -- people are either readers, or they aren't. The physical form that a book takes isn't going to change that much, if at all. Book lovers will find ways to acquire and read books in whatever form is available, whether they be paperback, hardback, digital, or stone tablets. :D

I may be totally exposing my technical ignorance by asking this question, but..... how is the e-book takeover going to affect libraries? Will there be a system for them to acquire and lend ebooks? If not, and if ebooks take over as some predict, it is inevitable that over time libraries are really going to suffer.......

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