Two different publishers lost sales to me last night because of price.
I had happily read on my Kindle long and juicy samples of two novels (I use the term loosely) of the sort I used to borrow from the library: single-use, disposable, mildly-pleasurable but B-level fare. For convenience-sake, last night I was ready to pay actual money. But then I saw the price: $12.99. That's too much for a single-use book. Eight dollars or less would have guaranteed a sale to me. $9.99 would have made me think about it. But $13 was an automatic no.
Related to this is the story of Ammonite and Slow River, in print since 1993 and 1995 respectively. For most of their ebook life, they were priced under $10. They sold steadily though not spectacularly. Then Randomhouse joined the rest of the Big Six and went to agency pricing (a setup in which the retailer, in this case Amazon, is forced to sell the book at the price set by the publisher; no discounting allowed).
Both books are now priced at $11.99. That's more than the paperback. $11.99 for a book that is old enough to vote. $11.99 for another old enough to marry.
Sales have dipped--though they haven't plunged, which is interesting. I'm trying to work out what this means for me, money-wise. Given the antediluvian accounting methods of trade publishing, it'll be about a year before I get royalties based on last month's sales If sales dip only mildly, I'll make about the same as before. (I have an excellent royalty rate from RH, based on list price. I wish I could say the same for my more recent contracts. But that's another conversation.)
My hope is that RH starts to experiment with price. I hope they let the resulting data drive their decisions. My guess is that, to date, most publishers have been responding from indignation and fear rather than data. However, given the clear (clear, finally, to even the most recalcitrant publishers) trend towards ebooks, my hope is that this is changing. (You might find Mike Shatzkin's latest post interesting--and, hey, he quotes my good friend Dave Slusher.)
As I've said, until I get my royalty statements I won't know what kind of impact this is having on my income. Meanwhile, I thought I'd pick your brains.
What kind of prices are you willing to pay for what kind of books? Are you like me, in that perceived quality is something you factor in? Is convenience the biggest driver in your decision? How do you make your choice about when and how and where to spend your precious book money?
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I read a lot but have limited room for books. I use a Sony Ereader, I find numerous articles for free on the web as well as numerous older books and Sony Ereader Site does offer free ebooks.
ReplyDeleteBut if it is a book that I want to read I have paid the $13.00 price but feel that the price is too high. I like the feature at the Sony site that allows you to search via price ranges such as $0.00 - $5.00.I think $5.00 is a good fair price to pay for any ebook.
One other point I feel it is outrageous that etextbooks are so highly priced! Information should be made available to all for a reasonable price.
Publishers are telling readers that the physical book isn't worth anything and that the entire value is in the story. Except when a writer's cut of a book's cover price is determined. Then the value of the story is minimal. As you said, that's another matter.
ReplyDeleteWhile the view that the story is the entire vlaue of a book is flattering to the writer, that's not the way that readers see it. To readers, e-book cost nothing to produce. Publishers know that isn't true. Writers know it too. But try to convince the general public of that. As far as readers are concerned, the incremental cost to produce more copies of an e-book is zero. So the readers expect an ebook to be priced less than a physical book. The real costs have nothing to do with it.
I'm not willing to pay any amount of money to the right to license a book. I want to own my books. That being said, I think Amazon's practice of buying like a wholesaler & selling like a retailer is basically a "loophole" of the pre-internet age, & the agency model simply addresses that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not opposed to e-book price windowing, at a point. Sure.
I also will only buy a mass market if I have no other choice. I tell my wife-- "if you want to surprise me for my birthday or something, just find any of those mass markets I own in a hardcover or trade paper edition-- maybe an Australian edition or something?"
I don't pay attention to book prices, much. The jump from hardcover to trade is all I really notice? I really only notice when there is a $50 to $150 academic or art book that I really really want, but obviously have to budget for. Or again, drop birthday/Xmas hints. Absolute All-Star Superman is my current Project: Greed hope.
I'm a steady reader, get many books (paperback mostly) which wait to be read and visit the library once a week, on average. The library doesn't always carry the full "catalog" of a writer who catches my interest, and that can lead me to buy. In some cases ebooks are making that easier.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of J.A. Konrath whose campaign to sell ebooks directly has made sense to me. His prices are self-determined and vary, depending on the place they hold in his backlist. If you have not read his blog, you should do so.
I hope to find and read good books under $5, below paperbacks' typical cost and am more apt to buy a new-to-me author for that. If I'm engaged by that book, I'll return for more.
Word of mouth or "Word of Social Network" may gradually replace shelf placement as a way to catch my interest. I'll be very reluctant to spend more than the cost of the paperback for a new release. I have books waiting on my shelves and can force myself to hold off on the hard cover, especially if I'm not trying to "collect the whole set."
Wow, so three interesting and very different perspectives already. Excellent. Keep 'em coming...
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm not fully on board with ebooks yet. The only one I've ever paid for was a lesbian romance that I couldn't get through interlibrary loan. The price for that was $11.95, which is pretty much the max that I would pay for any electronic book. I bought it directly from the publisher, and hope that the benefit went directly to the author I was trying to support.
ReplyDeleteI would never buy an ebook that I could check out of the library in paper form, but as a librarian I'm there all day. I wouldn't buy a book in e-format that I wanted to add permanently to my collection at home, such as the most recent Connie Willis--I ordered that in advance from my local independent bookseller. The only time I would consider buying an ebook would be to get something from an author I liked that was no longer in print, and the price would probably have to be less than $10.
Algot, I've read many blogs, including Konrath's, on pricing and indie publishing. I've read many trade articles. I think I have a good grasp of what various interest groups think.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm looking for individual reader responses. How do people who have bought my books (and books like them) feel, what do you/they think, about ebook pricing.
And, oh yes, the book networks, e.g. Goodreads, Library Thing, various FB pages, and so on, are driving word of mouth. But to what extent are they driving pricing?
Helga, thank you. Good info.
ReplyDeleteI think that expensive book pricing in a depressed economy shows a lack of hubris on the part of the publisher. Many people are struggling to find the money to afford entertainment and let's face it...a life without entertainment is pretty damn boring. That being said, ebooks priced at the $10.00 mark are too expensive and it shows only greed to me.
ReplyDeleteMy general rule of thumb is that for an ebook I'll pay the current paperback price of a book minus the current going used book price. I give up the right to resell my book by buying ebook, so that's why I subtract that price. So for Slow River, I'd generally consider up to around $7 based on current going rates. I did actually pay for the ebook version at $8 because we read it in a book group which made getting it sooner more of a priority. That was before the current rate was instituted though. No way I'd pay $11.99 when the paperback can be had for $10.24. Random House is being very shortsighted. I think Amazon knows way more about pricing to get the optimal sales volume than RH does. That is for Amazon at least; they obviously aren't pricing to optimize for the publisher or author though.
ReplyDeleteKing Rat, I find our thoughts are pretty similar on this.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I'll pay $10, if I know the book is really good. I won't pay ten bucks for a guilty-pleasure once-only read.
The most I have paid for an ebook has been £7.99. I am quite happy paying under £5, start to hum and haw at about £6.99, and wouldn't consider anything over the £9.99 mark. I have not deliberately set these limits, they are just where I feel comfortable(or rather, where I start to feel uncomfortable). Also, I won't buy an ebook if it costs more than the physical book does. Again this is an intuitive response, since it seems crazy to me that anyone could think that selling ebooks for more than physical books is a sustainable business model. I know that there is an argument to be made about the the disconnect between readers perceptions of the cost/value of an ebook and the real costs of production but it seems to me that if publishers/retailers do not understand what their market wants and how they want it then they will soon cease to have a market at all.
ReplyDeleteFor all that I love my kindle(and I really do) I still want physical books. Ideally I want all of the books I own in both formats but I can't imagine I will ever be able to afford two version of every book going forward, never mind re-buying my existing library.
I take comfort reading for travel. For the plane, cheap paperbacks, as takeoffs & landing are when I need it most. For the hotel, I have my computer(s) so I can take a bunch of Gutenberg downloads. But I always take Blue Place, Slow River and Ammonite. For these, the price isn't so important. . . . the hardback copies I have of the first two cost more.
ReplyDeleteI'll reread quality fiction many times over the years. It's worth what it costs.
So far, my only experience that's related to ebook purchasing is buying downloadable audiobooks. I do it via an annual Audible subscription. Each book is one credit, instead of however much it would cost if I were buying it in another format. Because it's one credit regardless of length, I often find myself buying titles that are as long as possible -- that I might not, in fact, buy in paper -- to feel like I'm getting maximum value.
ReplyDeleteQuality is a big factor, as is postage to Australia if the book isn't available here as well as the postage time involved. Sales tax is also a factor on books bought here, so eBooks have made it easier for me but I would still opt for the hard copy of a book that I know I'm going to want to hold.
ReplyDeletekazolis, Kathy, Sara, Jude, this info is v. interesting. Thank you. So many publishers don't seem to get the emotional components of buying decisions.
ReplyDeleteI think we're going to see some serious shifts in price points this year.
My publisher (HarperCollins in Australia) also uses the agency model, but their system for ebooks is to knock 20% off the cheapest available paper edition. So if a book is first released in hardcover or trade, it's a higher price, but once it comes out in mass market paperback, the price drops.
ReplyDeleteThis seems eminently sensible to me, but Australia has really only started getting the hang of ebooks in the last 12 months or so, and has the benefit of seeing what other countries have done first, and learning from their mistakes.
Also we have an issue here where paper books are insanely expensive compared to the US so we have different expectations. $12 is actually incredibly cheap for even the the smallest adult paperback. A YA novel might sell for $15, an adult fantasy novel for $22.95, and a trade paperback can be $35. Don't ask about hardcovers, just don't!
I've yet to embrace the ebook bandwagon, partly because I've not found an ereader I get along with and partly because I quail at the thought of having to maintain two separate mental library indices for 'shelf' and 'electronic' (or, alternately, replacing as many of my hard copies with ebooks as possible).
ReplyDeleteI guess for the foreseeable future the most I'd be comfortable paying would be mass-market prices or slightly less, because I value ebooks a little less than a mass-market. $5.99 "feels right." But then I also balk at paying more than $12 for a CD unless I'm specifically supporting the artist (indie albums at shows, that kind of thing).
To the left, I buy books from Subterranean and pay 'too much' for them relative to the amount of content, so it's not like this is at all a rational decision. :)
Since picking up a Kobo, I've pretty much done a dive into e-books, but my book purchasing habits haven't changed as much as I thought they would.
ReplyDeleteI buy my "one-shot" reads as e-books, more or less; mysteries or my fluffy enjoyable reads that I know would otherwise just clog up space in the library or other bookshelves in the house - which are already full. And sometimes I'm tempted by the price when a book is out in hardcover - I got a great deal on the latest Bill Bryson, for example, as an e-book, which tipped me over into buying the e-book rather than the physical copy.
That said, I'm also (barely) an author, so I tend to be willing to buy books without griping in the slightest about the pricing. I mentally relate the pricing to the hours of entertainment I'm about to get - and especially compared to movies, I know I'm coming out ahead. I believe in the value of a book, and they're one of the few things I generally splurge on.
E-books have been more about "space" and ease of vacation packing to me than anything else. I certainly enjoy it when I can find the e-version for cheaper than the physical copy, but I also know how the "slice of the pie" settles in the grand scheme of things for the author, and I don't begrudge them at all.
I have not and will not ever pay more for an ebook than I would a paper book. I will sometimes buy the ebook if it is the same price as the paperback (under 9.99), but only after hesitating. I think it is just stupid price them that way. When I see a higher price for an ebook, it pisses me off. I know it's not the author's choice, but I will not contribute to that system. And if I see it used for $.o1, then I might get that.
ReplyDeleteI also will very rarely go over $9.99 for an ebook. I also rarely buy hardback books anymore though. My budget and my available space do not justify it. I will wait for it at the library or wait for the paperback; there are lots of books to read in the mean time.
When digital photography became viable in the professional realm, clients started (and continue) wanting everything cheaper. Digital is so much cheaper they insisted! Well, it's actually not - it costs a lot more in the long run when all the costs are factored in.
It will take many years for readers to get over believing that a paper book has equal value (certainly not less) than an electronic one. And by that time the price of paper may be so high as to make it untrue.
I have a couple of your books in ebook format, and I am pissed that I didn't buy the others before the price went up. But even for your books, I will not pay that price. I would if I didn't already own them all in hardback and paperback. But that is a great exception to my rule. I don't think this is sustainable anyway, so I'll just wait.
Having said all of that, I do believe that most authors are underpaid for their work. That's not the point. You are getting a small portion of the overall pie. I'm a believer in the lower price/higher volume scenario anyway.
I don't mind paying around $10 for a book I am pretty sure I will re-read (tho' my preferred format is trade paperback). But for someone whose work I am just trying out or where it's definitely going to be once-only, my limit is about $5.00. That's convenience money, to save me the time commitment of stopping by the library.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm curious about is the way in which exceptions to the usual rules of commerce work. For example, if you go to Isuma.tv, you can download all three of the feature films made by the Inuit people (either by Igloolik Isuma Productions or by the women's Arnait Video Collective). The download is pay-what-you-can, though it suggests $10 (Cdn). It seems to be doing fairly well in terms of circulating these films to folks around the globe although, to be fair, I suspect the principle of distribution and the desire to educate non-Inuit is as important here as is the desire to keep making money in order to keep making films.
Still, it is food for thought...
In the long run, I much prefer reading a paper book. I'm currently re-reading Laurie King's Folly on my partner's Kobo, but am irritated by the number of spelling errors, missing punctuation, etc. I don't remember the printed book (which we loaned to someone and did not get back, thus the ebook) being so error-laden. Is this a common thing with ebooks?
Tansy, those Australian prices are iniquitous!
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I think we're underpaid, too. And the lower-price-higher-volume scenario is a dream for many of us.
Wendy, in the early days of ebooks, yes, it was very, very common for the files to be error-laden. (And as publishers aren't always as good about correcting files as they should be, ebooks formulated early are still for sale in this sorry state today.) It is/was a workflow issue. Ebooks used to be seen as a fiddly bit; they weren't worked on until late in the book process. They didn't get full focus. Things (I think) are changing. E editions are becoming huge profit generators. Managers are paying attention.
I read a lot and own around 1500 books, mainly paperbacks. I am happy to pay the hardback price (usually discounted on amazon.co.uk or in Waterstones - I am in the UK) for a book by a favourite author, as I don't want to wait for the paperback version. I will also pay full price for special edition books from small publishing houses like PS Publishing. I will continue to buy physical books, but not at the same level as before now that I have a kindle. I find I tend to read more lightweight or 'trashy' fiction on the kindle, books I would not keep once finished.
ReplyDeleteWhat I DO object to is when the kindle version of a book (often several years old) is priced higher than the paperback. While I appreciate there has to be some cost in bringing the book to publication in the first place, plus royalties to the author, I cannot see how publishers can justify enforcing a higher price for an ebook, which is basically one item copied from a digital file. There are no printing or paper costs per ebook, unlike a physical book. My fear is that in trying to enforce a high price for an electronic copy, publishers are (inadvertantly) encouraging readers to look for pirate downloads and that by trying to control a rigid pricing structure, they are simply shooting themselves in the foot. It also smacks of profiteering, especially when the cost of an ebook is noticeably higher than the physical book.
I would suggest that a newly published book should have the ebook version priced at £2 or £3 less than the hardback version, with a similar pricing structure for the mass market paperback eg. £6.99 physical £4.99 ebook. And the same could apply to older books, after all, the ebook is an ideal way to market an extensive back catalogue at little cost to the publishers.
What I would say is that publishers should take note of how the music industry lost out to the download revolution by insisting on maintaining high prices for CDs and enforcing DRM on MP3s. Publishers have access to a huge back catalogue of books still in copyright which they could sell at, say, £4.99 or less in ebook versions while still nurturing and promoting new authors.
Murf61, I think everyone here agrees that old books shouldn't cost more as ebooks than pbooks. I certainly do.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicola!
ReplyDelete1) Now that I have a dedicated eBook Reader (sorta--an iPod Touch) as opposed to what I was using before, a PC, I'm more willing to purchase eBooks these days.
2) I'm probably the exception in the sense that in theory, I'm willing to purchase an eBook if it costs more or equals the price of the print version (that's currently the case in Japan). But I'm deeply aware of the industry so I'm the deviant when it comes to US/UK readers.
3) Having said that, haven't really bought a book that's priced beyond $9.99 but that's because I have a huge TBR pile (since I review books) so I probably won't be buying any eBooks--or books--anytime soon.
4) There have been impulse buys however, especially when I see a title at $0.99. I already read Tobias Buckell's Tides from the New Worlds before (got one for review) but when I found out he was now selling it at $0.99 as an experiment, I bought one as a way of giving back to the author.
5) Related to #4 is that Amazon unfortunately charges me an extra $2.00 for Kindle purchases since I don't live in the US (& selected countries). So there is an extra hesitation on my part when purchasing from Amazon. Not that the competition is any better. Local iBookstore, in terms of fiction, is mostly public domain books, while Barnes & Noble doesn't sell outside of the US. Right now, I'm more interested in buying titles from indie retailers like Weightless Books and Wizard's Tower Press.
Charles, I hear you on the extra $2. I look forward to the day that gets fixed. I also look forward to the day that indie retailers like Weightless and Wizard's Tower (yay for both!) have everything I want.
ReplyDeleteMost of all, though, I look forward to more price experimentation and, eventually, a clear understanding (on the part of readers, writers, publishers, retailers, etc.) of how this pricing works.
I started reading ebooks in 2007 on an Ebookwise. It didn't read too many formats so I usually only bought from smaller but established epubs like Samhain, Ellora's Cave, and a handful of others. Because of this, I got used to paying maximum of $5.50 for a full novel.
ReplyDeleteI've reached the point now though that I hate reading paper books. It's just inconvenient to me on many levels. However, I will not pay more for an ebook than what it sells for on paper. And often, I won't even pay that.
I read a lot in the GLBT genre and those books, paper versions, are usually pretty expensive. Trade size, 200 pages usually sell for $16. That's quite high, but I get that it's a niche market and they can't be mass produced.
However, I've seen many in this market selling ebooks for $11.99. Bold Strokes sells their ebook versions for $11.99, which I just won't pay. Don't care how much I want a book. But you can get them for $9.99 on other sites. I think for the niche group a $9.99 would be tolerable, but I'd still probably get my GLBT from those smaller epubs or sites like Smashwords.
What also comes into play is DRM. Like those Bold Strokes books. I couldn't read them on my Ebookwise, so even at $9.99 it was useless to me. And I still have resistance because of DRM.
I can buy DRM free books from small pubs to read on any device for $5.
I've downloaded some ebooks from the library, mainstream ones, which I liked because I won't pay the higher price for the ebook. But the library usually doesn't carry niche genre ebooks. So I have to take a huge financial risk for an author I might not know if I want the ebook version.
I have a tremendous amount of resistance to buying an ebook from the Big 5. And now Harper Collins has pissed me off with their 26 lend limit at the library before libraries have to buy a new "lease."
My main issue with not wanting to pay more for an ebook is that I can't sell it or give it away and technically, in many cases, I'm leasing the book for full price.
And to be honest, I haven't bought a book in months because of this. I want to read ebooks only, the books I want (lesbian) are too expensive, and mainstream books from the Big 5 are too much. So... I've saved a lot of money that would have gone into their pockets over the last few months. Good for me, bad for authors.
"ebooks priced at the $10.00 mark are too expensive and it shows only greed to me."
ReplyDeleteSigh. Do you begrudge paying that much for a first-run film at the multiplex? Or a play at a fringe theater? Or an evening of live music? Maybe you do, but you probably just avoid attending those events and make do with borrowed videos and the like. If people want quality art/entertainment on demand, they pay a premium, relatively speaking, to get what they want when they want it. Later on, as demand ebbs, the products appear in less desirable formats and are priced accordingly.
I agree that ebooks should not cost more than the price of the cheapest available (new) physical copy, but a book in any format is going to cost more up front. I don't see that ten or fifteen dollars is too much to pay for a new book.
springer, enjoy-live-with-other-people always carries a premium. (Why? I don't know. It just does.) Also, the price isn't for purchase, but lease.
ReplyDeleteLeah, yes, publishers of queer lit need to figure out how to price things efficiently so as not to lose their readership. Having said that, I think queer lit is going to be one of the categories that sees the most upheaval, i.e. indie publishing.
You are exactly right.
ReplyDelete11.99 for a garden variety novel of the type you describe I would never, ever pay.
For my say, two favorite authors ever, perhaps.
And maybe for a really great large anthology.
Otherwise, for fiction, forget it.
I get a decent royalty rate from my mostly e-publisher. I can leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteBut as a reader, I'd like to see ebooks a bit cheaper than paperbacks and then have the price drop as they are out longer. I'm an avid reader, a couple of books a week at least, and I'm reading more and more on my iPad, so paying 10 bucks for the equivalent to a paperback bites.
I hate the thought of high prices hamstringing authors. That bites.
I don't think 99c is fair for a book price (speaking as an author having written a number of books, sold and unsold) and as a reader that low of a price makes me suspicious. Konrath isn't the fairest comparison to what I write, either, since I write fantasy and SF (lower selling genres) and erotica (fair selling once you're established) and he writes thrillers, which are the top selling genre. He also did his time in the trenches,
something a lot of writers like to forget.
All that said, would I self-publish and price that low? Never say never.
I'm mostly a paper-book reader, and I buy a lot of books. However, I'm pretty certain that I will be investing in an iPad soon - at least in part to acquire a device on which I can read books without wanting to dig my eyes out. Since I enjoy re-reading old favorites, such as Ammonite, I imagine it would be nice to be able to have e-book copies on my device to keep my hard copies company. But... I probably won't actually buy them since I've already bought the hard copies and I can't see spending more than a few dollars for the convenience factor. That's why I suspect that, instead of duplicating my library favorites electronically, I'll use the iPad primarily for reading things that are not available in hard copy and books that are in the public domain. Oh, and for emergency sequels for ongoing series when I'm trapped on a long commute and desperately need to know what's going to happen next.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if there were a way to verify your paper copy for a discount on an e-version, but I recognize that's not actually plausible technology.
over here in Europe prices for English paperbacks are already slightly higher, around 11€ (15$) and 18 SFR (23$) unless you’re going for Bestsellers which are available at 6.99€ (9.80$) from French and German Amazon. Ordering directly in the US is not really an option with current exchange rates.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of ebooks has yet not really arrived over here at least not in the countries in my direct neighborhood. The few titles available don’t meet my taste and english titles are often only available through accounts with us-stores.
So I guess I would pay the same price for an ebook as for a paperback, if the files were better produced and if they came with everything the books come (author bios, praise, preview and an index that can be navigated). I’m fully aware that the production of an ebook doesn’t come for free, but many of the books I ordered so far gave me the impression they were not really made for book lovers.
So despite loving all kinds of gadgets I’m still not ready to exchange all books for ebooks, I don’t see how anything could replace my ooolllld Ammonite-edition, except for the pleasure to have it always with me and not having to go upstairs and fetch it. But I’m not ready to pay more for the ebook edition than I payed for the paperback back then.
Anon, I didn't think I'd read on the iPad much, but I do it more and more. I turn the backlight all the way down (the apps backlight goes more dim than the iPad backlight) and read in the dark and don't disturb my husband with a lamp. We're both happy. I also travel between 2 houses so it's great to bring only one device. And, well, my phone.
ReplyDeleteMy friends with iPhones are reading more and more kindle books on them, as well. The convenience factor can't be beat.
I do buy paper books, too, but I'm loving the iPad for reading. My daughter, who has vision issues, is now reading on the iPad as well.
Enjoy!
I'm answering before I read any of the other replies.
ReplyDeleteI'll say up front I am not fond of the agency method for book selling, though I think some of the arguments for it are legit (fear of monopoly, independents unable to compete, etc). When it comes to new hardcover releases I don't think $12.99 is out of line for the ebook version, when the hardcover in a bookstore is usually more than that, usually significantly more. (Unless you catch it on discount.)
In my paper book days I rarely ever bought hardcovers. Price was the biggest deterrent, just can't afford them because I read a lot of books. But I also don't like the format, they're big, heavy, and have uncomfortable, hard corners. So I always waited for the mass market. When I got my Kindle and Amazon could discount new releases I actually bought a lot of new releases at $9.99. The couple extra dollars over the mass market price was little enough to tempt me into buying quite a few books that in the past I would have normally waited to pay less for. So publishers were actually making more from me personally.
Now that Amazon can't discount I'm back in the waiting for mass market release mode, and the attendant price drop for the ebook version. For most books. There are two ebooks this year that I'm paying $12.99 for. They are books from authors I love in active series I am reading. I read a lot of series and for all the rest I'm just waiting.
The much more difficult pill to swallow is when it comes to books that have been out a while, sometimes a very long while as you mentioned with your books. If an ebook is priced the same as the mass market version I'll buy it. But I'd like to see them a dollar less or so. (Penguin was doing that with their mass markets, but I noticed one that I have on pre-order they have it priced the same, so that might be at an end.)
Where it gets really tricky and frustrating is that publishers have been much more heavily focusing on trade paperbacks in recent years. Some books never have a mass market version. (I don't believe yours have except for Ammonite?) This keeps the ebook prices unnaturally inflated because they relate the ebook price to the paper format price. If a book is never released in a cheaper paper version we never see a cheaper ebook version either. I have an extremely difficult time stomaching paying $10 to $12 for an ebook of something that was published 20 years ago!
I'm all for supporting authors with my book dollars, but I don't think high prices for ebook versions of old books is doing them many favors. I believe that an author with old backlist titles selling for around $4-6 will do a lot better in the long run due to volume. (Assuming they don't have a truly pitiful royalty agreement anyway.) Since the publisher doesn't have to continue paying for new print runs to keep ebooks in print, I don't think that price range is unreasonable for old books.
People like me want to rebuy their favorite books as ebooks and a low price encourages that. A low price also encourages more impulse purchases from people who may be iffy about giving an old book from an author they've never read before a try. And I think ebooks more than paper books benefit to a huge degree from impulse buying.
SeattleRobin
Robin, yes, old books should have lower prices--both p and e. In my opinion.
ReplyDeleteEveryone, this is a good discussion. Thank you.
To me, the worst problem with ebooks nowadays is not price (though it is sometimes problematic, too) but DRM and geographical restrictions. I live in Spain and can only buy a small fraction of the ebooks in, say, Amazon because they are only for sale only in USA (something similar happens with amazon.co.uk, waterstones.com, the Apple iBookstore and many other ebook stores). They will, however, happily sell me the paper versions of those same books. It annoys me no end.
ReplyDeleteThus, to me the ideal ebook store is something like www.webscription.net No DRM, no geographical restrictions, 6$ per book (sometimes less). I'm buying books from them that I wouldn't have even considered buying before, but at 6$ each I buy, and buy a lot.
Odo, have you tried Wizard's Tower or Weightless?
ReplyDeleteOh, why did I have to click on those links?
ReplyDeletenicola: Yes, sure. I usually buy there, and at fictionwise.com and webscription.net. But they are lots of ebooks that they don't sell. For instance books published by Tor, Orbit... Those are almost impossible to buy from Spain (and I guess many other countries as well) in ebook format. Oddly enought, I can quite easily buy them in dead tree version :(
ReplyDeleteHelga, because you're helpless before my evil powers of suggestion?
ReplyDeleteOdo, I think this global rights thing will be sorted (at least for new books) within a year or so. Fingers crossed.
nicola: I hope so :)
ReplyDeleteI bought an iPad a year ago and have been steadily accumulating ebooks, especially when I find $0-5 sales. (I LOVE Subterranean for putting their stuff on Webscriptions.) For a while, I still preferred paper copies, especially for single-use books, because I could then swap them on bookmooch.com or paperbackswap.com, where I trade for out-of-print goodies.
ReplyDeleteHowever, just last weekend, I hit the point where I'd rather have everything digital. I was cleaning out the bookshelves for the umpteenth time, and finally I said, "Fuck it." I'm tired of shelving these things, carrying them around, having to stop reading in the car when it gets dark, making room for more shelves in my house... I'm ready to switch my entire library. I started calculating what it would cost to buy my in-print stuff over again as ebooks. The total is pretty appalling, even more so when I noticed how many series books were only partially available in e formats. I can see exactly when ebook rights got added to contracts! But it's frustrating to see that I'll be stuck with half-paper, half-ebook even within a single series.
And then there are all the OOP books, and the in-print books from authors who are never going to sign ebook contracts (like Patrick O'Brian, who isn't around to do so, and J.K. Rowling, who just won't). I'm sorely tempted to spend a weekend putting together a book scanner.
Anyway. For new hardcover releases, I'm OK with $10-12. I think the price should come down as soon as the cheaper paperback edition comes out, and right now that is not always the case. $14 is getting awfully greedy. And I really, really wish books that are, say, ten years old or more would be $5 or less rather than the current paperback price of $7 or $8, because that would make replacing my paper copies a lot more feasible.
Stephanie Leary: Subterranean Press is not selling books through Webscriptions anymore. I asked them by email and they said "We need to focus on putting the books out in channels that move more quantity" and "I'm afraid we're only able to secure US/Canada rights to most of our ebooks."
ReplyDeleteToo bad, because I live in Spain and won't be able to buy their ebooks.
We still have Night Shade Books, Baen, Chizine and Angry Robot, though.
Odo: I hadn't noticed that! But they are up on Weightless, which Nicola linked upthread.
ReplyDeleteOh, great, thanks! But this is recent. I checked Weightless Books last week and they weren't there. I wonder why the people from Subterranean didn't tell me about this. I wrote to them yesterday and they said that their books would only be available to US/Canadian customers. Weird.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Stephanie!
There's not been an e-book I haven't bought because of price. There have, however, been purchases I've deferred due to price. In general, for a read-once kind of book, I'm not willing to pay more than $5 and it may get infinitely deferred.
ReplyDeleteI used to think that e-books should cost less, but after I realized each physical bookcase in my house cost us $217 per year in floor space (even without accounting for the room to move around them), and that we have 11 floor-to-ceiling bookcases, I started to realize there's cost and then there's cost. E-books do not have the same kind of ongoing cost. Storage for e-books is cheap by comparison.
Also: dust. Sadly, I'm athsmatic. Paper books really aren't helping in that department.
dsmoen, I hear you on the dust. I'm v. allergic. Also to the mildew that creeps into all old pulp collections. (Two years ago I bought a bunch o' plastic book cover/bag things and stuffed all my ancient paperbacks in those. My breathing improved about 200%.)
ReplyDeleteWe have a glass-front bookcase that covers most of the paperbacks. That's helped a lot, as has Mr. Dyson's Incredible Sucking Device.
ReplyDeleteI realized I might have sounded paradoxical about price. I'm sometimes willing to buy a frivolous book at a higher price than I'd normally pay if I happen to be in the right mood. For example, I bought a whole bunch of them recently when I was looking for a particular kind of book for a particular reason. I won't re-read them, but they were interesting in their own way.
These days, I almost always read samples first.