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E-book pricing

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Wed March 9th, 2011, 6:11 pm

I don't see why Amazon users shouldn't be able to rate and comment on all aspects of the buying experience for that product. After all, this is an online store, not some non-commercial book (or other product) appreciation site.

However, they should find a way to keep that stuff separate from content discussion. They must know that many or even most of the book reviews on the site do not necessarily relate to purchases from Amazon - people just rate books there, whether or not they bought them from the site.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Wed March 9th, 2011, 8:55 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]I don't see why Amazon users shouldn't be able to rate and comment on all aspects of the buying experience for that product. After all, this is an online store, not some non-commercial book (or other product) appreciation site.

However, they should find a way to keep that stuff separate from content discussion. They must know that many or even most of the book reviews on the site do not necessarily relate to purchases from Amazon - people just rate books there, whether or not they bought them from the site.[/quote]

They do have a spot for rating other sellers, you'll find that in your account by orders somewhere.
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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Wed March 9th, 2011, 11:12 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]I don't see why Amazon users shouldn't be able to rate and comment on all aspects of the buying experience for that product. After all, this is an online store, not some non-commercial book (or other product) appreciation site.

However, they should find a way to keep that stuff separate from content discussion. They must know that many or even most of the book reviews on the site do not necessarily relate to purchases from Amazon - people just rate books there, whether or not they bought them from the site.[/quote]



You're supposed to rate and review the product, not the experience.

G. Alvin Simons
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Rating The Experience

Post by G. Alvin Simons » Thu March 10th, 2011, 12:40 am

Amazon DOES actively solicit comments from people buying from their used books vendors. It's how they come up with the Seller Rating. I'm wondering why this isn't extended to rating the publishers & the customer's satifaction with them. I also agree that e-book pricing is totally ridiculous & no longer use that as an incentive when talking to someone interested in buying one. Thank goodness there's still free books, many out of print, available out there. I shouldn't say that too loud. Someone will figure out a way to squeeze money out of them, too.
Enjoy the debate.

Alvin

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Thu March 10th, 2011, 2:54 pm

You're right G. Alvin, they should offer that option for purchases from Amazon as well. I see a lot of people who post bad reviews of products blaming Amazon for product and shipping issues when they bought from a third-party vendor. I don't know how they missed the Rate the Seller email reminder.

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Mirella
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e-book pricing

Post by Mirella » Sat March 12th, 2011, 9:35 pm

[QUOTE=LoveHistory;77739] :D I know it's not me personally being knocked around. Or at least I think it's not. The self-pub community is indisputably full of lousy work. It's only those of us who are mediocre or better who suffer from the reputation; the rest of them deserve it. It's just frustrating that a lot of people write off everyone in the category. Makes it harder for the 5-10% who aren't writing crap. On the other hand, it will make us more appreciative of any success we manage to acheive.]

I agree with LoveHistory. There are many self-published authors who have invested time and money to learn their craft and for professional editing of their novel.

Don't forget, many of today's top authors started out as indie authors.

Self-published authors who spend the time to learn their craft well and invest the time, energy, and money to have their books properly vetted and edited can, and are, rising to the top and in direct competition with the Big 6.
N. Gemini Sasson listed many of them in her earlier post.

Self-published authors do not have the overhead, so they are able to price their books very competitively and pass the savings on to the consumer. These are the authors whose books are succeeding.

It frustrates me that many self-published authors write in isolation and fail to edit their books, putting out their books in what is little more than a first draft. How will consumers manage to sort the fly poop from the pepper? I don't know, but somehow they are and I suspect it is through word of mouth. Quality always rises to the top, no matter how it is produced or who produces it.

I've spent hours and hours researching ebook pricing through websites, consumer reports, book blogs, and forums. There is most definitely a strong belief that books should not be priced over $9.99. That seems to be price at the upper end of the spectrum. Most consumers prefer to purchase books in the range of $3 to $4. I found it interesting to note that books lower than that seemed to lose credibility with consumers because they believe them to be cheap or lack quality.

I also agree that we are in a time of great change and adjustment. As more and more people develop a love for ebooks, publishing will change. There are 6.5 million e-readers out there, and it's becoming very competitive. With e-book apps for iphones and blackberries and other smaller devices, it's never been easier to read an ebook. These numbers will continue to grow. We are on the cusp of a very large revolution.

I read both paper and ebooks, but slowly, I've come to prefer ebooks for the convenience and for the ability to change fonts, spacing, colors, and print size at a whim. I carry my complete reading library on my iphone. I no longer have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest book store or order it from my library and wait for 2 weeks for the book to arrive. I can simply order it and have it in my hands in less than 1 second. The prices are better too. I can get books for free or for no more than $9.99 now instead of paying an average of $16 to $20 for a paperback in Canada. And that means I can buy more books.

This has been a fascinating discussion with many differing points of view. All are valid. Only time will tell how the market will adapt to all these issues.

lvcabbie
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Post by lvcabbie » Wed March 16th, 2011, 7:35 pm

I have a trilogy entitled Father Serra's Trilogy of which the first The Sailor and the Carpenter, El Marinero y el Carpintero (A Tale of 18th Century California) is only waiting the completion of a decent cover for me to upload on Kindle, Nook and lulu.com.

As I've put hours upon hours of researching, revising, reviewing, editing this novel, I'm going place a $3.99 price on it - I think it's worth it.

But, unless one is a well-known writer dusting off old works or bring stuff out of the gathering dust pile, I think anything over that is simply ridiculous!

:rolleyes:

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fljustice
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Another pricing scheme

Post by fljustice » Wed May 11th, 2011, 4:20 pm

Ran across this article on subscription pricing for ebooks:

http://www.idealog.com/blog/the-subscri ... ut-it-will
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Thu May 12th, 2011, 9:43 am

[quote=""LoveHistory""]You're supposed to rate and review the product, not the experience.[/quote]

Part of the product is the price though. I don't agree with rating a product you haven't bought and used because it's unfair to judge something without even trying it. So I do agree that all the people going around negatively rating an ebook they haven't even read because they aren't happy with the price are behaving unethically.

But I do think if you try a product and feel that it was not worth the amount you paid for it, that should be included in your review/rating. My opinion is that price should be a reflection of what the product is worth so if I feel I overpaid for what I got, I have the right to be disappointed and naturally, that's going to influence my rating/review. Likewise, if I get a good deal on something (paid less than what I felt the product was worth), I will be pleased and include that in my review/rating.

Authors may not like that because they have no control over the price - but as a consumer, it's my right to consider what I got for what I paid.

Naturally, if a product is priced higher than you're willing to pay regardless of how good it might be, it would be fairly stupid to buy it anyway, knowing full well you're just going to wind up complaining about the price. If an ebook is priced higher than I'm willing to pay, I simply don't buy it and therefore don't rate it.

Granted, I should add that for a number of reasons, I don't rate/review on Amazon anyway. I stick to Goodreads.
Last edited by Mythica on Thu May 12th, 2011, 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

Greg
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E-book horror!

Post by Greg » Fri May 13th, 2011, 1:32 am

QUOTE=LoveHistory;77686]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. –Cut-
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!"[/QUOTE]

Okay second dreaded self pubber joining the fraca. Love history made a number of very valid points some of which I also considered before going the SP path. However in this ebook v’s real book discussion I’ve noticed a few important issues have not yet arisen. I will raise but two, distance and availability.
In the Antipodes distance is a crippling issue both for the writer and the sale of their work (either traditional or self marketing), with sharply rising transport costs I believe it should also be taken into consideration over in your neck of the woods. I love books and since I’m here especially history books fic and non fic. I used to enjoy nothing better than a cruise down the aisle of a book store and leisurely peruse what they had, it was a better high than any drug. Then after careful selection I’d buy a few and take them home and well you know the rest. Now this is the section of honesty that is going to hurt my fellow writers. Very few of those were new book purchases, due to the horrendous price of all new books in the Antipodes. Now I know costs are relative but it seems to me that unless remaindered book prices never ever come down, despite improvements in technology, transportation, marketing and so on.
Thus onto e-books despite my deep love of the physical object I have since last year fallen upon Kindle/Amazon and Smashwords offerings in almost a gluttonous frenzy, since over here they are affordable in fact in some cases ¼ of the price the physical (if and when it hits the shelf in this far distance land). The e-readers are a little pricey though I expect that will eventually drop to around the fifty dollar mark. Now I will point out that not all your reading public have access to a good bookstore in fact here we have easy access to four pathetic bookstores and have to travel one hundred kilometres to get to anything decent in price or selection. Thus our normal recourse over the past four years has been internet browsing via Amazon/Betterworld and similar. A saving in both purchase and transport costs. I am also certain that our situation is not unique.
Now for ebook pricing as an SP I thought long and hard about how to present my work. I believe that with the ebook market we have to shift how we view what we produce and the current dominant large publisher system isn’t a good model. I feel that we have to look back to the late Victorian period and the beginning of the golden age of serialised novels in magazines and journals to get an idea of how e-books will be played out. As we know magazines were priced somewhat lower than books since they were considered consumable. I suggest that ebooks be regarded the same way and I may also point out this style of presentation launched the careers of both Arthur Conan Doyle and Dickens. Anyway that’s a very shortened form of the ebook article I will be bringing out in my blog next week, so keep well till then.
Regards Greg

Blogging on the Tudors at http://rednedtudormysteries.blogspot.com/
Blogging on History and contemporary events at http://prognosticationsandpouting.blogspot.com/

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