How has your spending been, post-Agency?

[sakura-panda]

I buy nearly all of my books through Sony (have purchased from somewhere else only once) and I've bought less since Christmas; the only affect the agency model has had on my recent purchase is that it took fewer books to reach my self imposed $25 limit.

If I had not already been on a spending freeze, I'm not sure what whether it would have affected my purchases. Looking in my wishlist, only one book went up in price (most stayed the same) and that was the book I wanted, so I bought it. I guess that means the correct answer would be "the same".

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I think the ebook market is predominately the high volume book buyers, unlike, perhaps the print markets. Most people don't buy a $250+ reader if they're only going to buy/read 5-10 books a year. If the Agency publisher are good on their word, and drop the ebook prices when the book's been available for a while, they are cherry-picking the buyers who can't wait for the price drop, just like the hardcover buyers.

That's definitely true. Though I'm the oddball there since I read a book or two a month and bought a used Kindle 1!

The problem is currently that e-books are still a very small portion of sales for bestsellers, so the big publishers just don't give much of a crap about the e-book market yet.

Also agree on the second point, if they're true to their word and drop prices as time goes on (i.e. when the print paperback comes out) I have no problem with agency pricing.

I've waited for paperbacks my whole life before getting an e-reader, I can wait for a price drop on the e-book as well. The catch is whether they keep their word and stick to that.

[perost]

I voted less, but I actually got my reader just before the pricing changed. I only managed to buy one book, ironically from Amazon (I have a Sony), before pretty much all books on my "to read" list disappeared from all book stores. Now it's pretty much impossible for me to buy any books since Amazon now detects that I'm from Sweden, and any bookstore that has books that I want to read refuses to sell books to me.

I tried to buy a book from Sonys store by pretending to be from USA, but even though they actually gave me the book they didn't charge any money on my card (probably due to me having a Swedish credit card). And in that case I might as well just pirate the books so I don't have to go through the hassle of removing the DRM. I really want to be able to buy any books I like, but until the publishers come to their senses I guess they have to manage without my money.

[jusship]

I have been buying fewer books due to the geographical restrictions. The higher prices I can accept since it'll pretty much cost me the same if I got the physical book and the ebook saves me a trip to the book store and does not take up space in my apartment. But it's extremely irritating to not be able to buy the book simply because I do not live in the U.S.

[lente]

Less. Geo-restrictions limit the ebooks I can buy and recently the dollar has become more expensive (I live in europe) and made the ebooks that I can buy more expensive than paper books. Add that a lot of ebook stores (mobi and amazon for example) are charging 20% tax for international customers, this drives the price up to usually 10 dollars a book or more, which is 7.7 euro per book.(currently, will probably increase) A paper book is usually 7.10 euro (but may become more expensive as a result of dollar increase). I like ebooks, the convenience, the lightweight ereader, but I won't pay much more than I would for a paper book.

[Lirael]

I've been buying fewer books - the things I want to read went up in price, so, I've started borrowing pbooks from my local library and buying used pbooks from used bookstores. Publishers aren't going to see any more of my money in the near future.

[rvamp]

I have purchased less ebooks, some of the reasons are listed below.

1. The mainstream books that I am interested in, and had started switching to ebook format, are no longer sold at what used to be my favorite ebook store. They have and are changing their policies since being bought out by a larger corporation.

2. In fact, the ebook store that I used to buy (a lot) from has starting changing/limiting ebooks (or so it seems) from independent publishers and mainstream publishers in the various genre's from erotic to science fiction. Basically the selection is no longer there.

3. Format. I was okay with the social DRM ereader (pdb format). Although, it is difficult to share the books as I would with a paper book. Now I just lend an old laptop out to my parents or friends and they give it back to me when they are done.

If I buy a series, I want to continue that series in the same format for all the ebooks, instead of having to remember which program I need to have on my computer or ebook reader. Even when I buy paper books I want the series to be all paperback or all hardback.

4. Pricing. I would have bought a new ebook at the $6-9 dollar range, no questions asked (even if the editing, layout, format, etc was an issue). Now with the 12.99 and up for ebooks (usually from some of the mainstream publishers), its not worth buying. Why? I can wait. Wait for the library to have it, wait to find a cheap copy somewhere, wait for a friend to buy it. The extra 3 plus dollars tacked on to a new ebook adds up very quickly and then limits my budget to what books I will buy and want to buy.

[Common Sense]

For those not buying ebooks or buying less, are you turning to buying them in paper form? Just curious since maybe that is what publishers actually want.

Nope, that just gives them what they want. I'll buy them used, that way neither the publisher or the author profits.

While I wait for the used prices to drop for my favorite new books, I'm reading free Amazon books and low-price indie authors. I find myself reading all kinds of authors and genres I never would have before and really enjoying it.

There's no way I will EVER pay even the same price for an ebook as a physical book since you don't actually own ebooks and can't lend them, sell them, or give them away. The price has to be at least 50% of the physical book price for me to buy.