E-book prices

[EcanusPublishing]

Hello

I was wondering how people who are e-book fans are feeling about the current prices of e-books. Historically the price of an e-book has been far lower than the equivalent printed version. Some would say rightly so, but the quality and competition has increased dramatically, the expectations of readers who are purchasing e-books are increasing.

Does the price have the greatest impact on why you decide to buy an e-book or is it the overall specifics of a book ie the cover, the blurb, the reviews? Would you view an e-book with a low book price as being of low quality?

Darren
Ecanus Publishing

[piperclassique]

The price is a factor in my decision to purchase or not, but the availability of a good sized sample will count for more. This is for unknown to me authors......
If the work is by an author I know and like, then I _might_ buy sight unseen. I won't pay more for an ebook than for a paperback, and would expect the ebook to be cheaper to reflect the lower distribution cost. And I don't expect DRM pollution. I buy a lot from Baen, who entice me with free books, which results in me paying for the rest of a series.
Life is too short to waste on poor books!

[cromag]

Price is a major factor for me, since I'm not philosophically bound to any particular format. For instance, a couple years ago I read a recommendation for Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak series. The first two titles were $.99, and I don't have to think very much about that kind of investment, so I bought them ... and really liked them. The next ones in the series were around $7 each -- and I was able to find paper copies at the local used book store for $2 each -- so I bought the hard covers.

His latest came out a couple months ago and the ebook was priced at $25. I'm simply not going to pay that. I checked out a copy at the library.

It depends on the author, of course, but I can't see myself paying much more than $5 for an ebook. Especially if paper copies are available cheaper, but even if not there are just too many other good books out there that are within my price range.

[crossi]

I'll go as high as $7.00 for a single backlist novel or $5 for novellas like Harlequins. I expect new releases to be higher but except in rare instances I won't buy them at those prices but will wait until they are backlist and the price drops. If the price never drops then I'll simply pass on that book or author. I buy too many books and there are too many that are well priced to let myself be overcharged.

[DiapDealer]

I just paid $14.99 for a DRM-free Tor (Macmillan) ebook. I'm trying real hard to feel put-out about it, but I'm afraid I'm failing miserably.

How bad I want to read a title determines how much I'm willing to spend. There are no other factors for me.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by EcanusPublishing

Historically the price of an e-book has been far lower than the equivalent printed version.

Not from the big publishers they haven't. Before Agency pricing we were able to get discounts/coupons which often brought prices down to a decent level yes, but list prices were often the same as the print list price. With Agency pricing the street price of paper books is almost always less than the ebook. At least in the US that's how it's been. Small presses can be a bit different and are often lower for ebooks than paper (which are often trade sized paperbacks).




For me it depends. If it's an author I know and love or something recommended by a select few people I generally don't have a huge problem paying $8ish ($10-$15 for a few). If it's an author I've never heard of but sounds interesting I'm more in the $2-$6 range unless you catch me at the right moment.

All that goes out the window if I just really want to read a specific book though. I paid $15 for the Dragonship eArc from Baen plus $6 for the final release and don't regret the $21 one bit nor did I have to think twice about buying it.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How bad I want to read a title determines how much I'm willing to spend. There are no other factors for me.

Amen to this.

[DiapDealer]

I'm horrified by my own grammar. I, of course, meant; "how badly I want to read a title..."

Carry on.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Amen to this.

Preach on, Brother! If it's a book that I want, then I buy it.

[fjtorres]

Price matters.
I have a TBR list hundreds deep (for contemporary ebooks) 30,000 deep (classics), and 2000 deep for print books so I'm rarely in much of a rush to actually read a book I run into. If it interests me *and* the price is right (paperback range) I'll but and add it to the TBR queue. Right now the only exceptions are VORKOSIGAN, 163x, RCN, and HONORVERSE titles. But since those are BAEN titles I get them via their monthly bundles which means a $4.50 price instead of the nominal $6.

On principle I will not buy anything from the Price Fix Six. Period. (Anything from them I'll mooch off the library.)

I don't care one bit what the publishers or their apologists claim about their costs; to me the only thing that matters is the book's *value* to me. (Hence the paperback benchmark.) If the publisher can't get their costs in line with that scale that is *their* problem, not mine. I have no sympathy for rip-off artists. (Not that all publishers fall in that category, but I do have a list... )

[david_e]

.....

[pidgeon92]

I have no issues with pricing. With great resources like ereaderiq.com (to let me know about price drops on books in my wishlist), and my local library, I pay little (generally $5.99 or less) or nothing for a majority of the ebooks that I read.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by EcanusPublishing

Hello

I was wondering how people who are e-book fans are feeling about the current prices of e-books. Historically the price of an e-book has been far lower than the equivalent printed version. Some would say rightly so, but the quality and competition has increased dramatically, the expectations of readers who are purchasing e-books are increasing.

There are no reasons other than pure greed for the ebook version (ESPECIALLY backlist) to ever cost as much as even the mass-market paperback version ($2-3 less, due to the lack of any physical manufacturing, transfer [well, there's *some*, but it amounts to well under a penny], warehousing costs, or needed space on the shelf at the storefront), nor for it to EVER, under ANY circumstances, be of any lower editing quality.

[haydnfan]

If the library has the book I go for that option first.

If the ebook is priced the same as the pbook version (and I mean MSRP not market value) I go with the ebook.

If the ebook is more expensive I go with the pbook.

If there are many complaints about poor quality on the ebook, I go with the pbook regardless of price.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by EcanusPublishing

Does the price have the greatest impact on why you decide to buy an e-book or is it the overall specifics of a book ie the cover, the blurb, the reviews? Would you view an e-book with a low book price as being of low quality?

If you are looking to publish eBooks from somewhat unknown authors, don't price yourself too high or they won't sell.

Also, the cover is important. If it looks like it was slapped together in Photoshop by a 5-year old, then a lot of people won't bother to read the blurb. Some of the covers on your site are not good enough to bother to get past it. One in pa[i]rticular is Red. The cover is awful.
Next worst is Purple followed by Black. They just don't work. Treasure Quest of the Third Reich has a problem with the cover. When any of the letters run into the Star of David, they lose contrast and are difficult to read. Some of the others are just of poor contrast. Take a look at how well they can be read at the size you show next to the blurbs and you'll see what I mean.

Also, there's no way to actually buy any of these eBooks. Plus, there's no price listed.