Would you like to see the return of agency pricing with no discount?

[crossi]

Originally Posted by mgbino

(-----This guy... sort of. I usually read between 100-150 books a year (depending on length, obviously). I always buy the digital version to read and a physical hardback for collection purposes. I easily spend between $2,000- $4,000 a year on books - more if I were to include what I spend on buying books for my son and wife.

Reading is my main hobby, so I don't mind paying for books. If there are sales or coupons, I'll jump on them to save money, but I really don't care. I've never once blinked at paying $60.00 dollars for a PS3 game, why should $15.00 for a book bother me?

Readings my main hobby too and I can easily go through a book a day. But I also game. I bought Skyrim for $60 and have been playing it hours a day for years since it came out. At $7 for a couple hours entertainment versus $60 for thousands of hours entertainment gaming is by far the cheaper hobby.

My main gripe against the forced agency contract is that it wasn't instituted to help authors or their own business but was implemented solely to attempt to harm another business. If they really thought ebooks were underpriced they could simply have raised the wholesale price they charged retailers for them. I also approve of businesses competing for customers and disapprove of anything that hobbles that natural competion. I don't like businesses that should be competitors getting together and conspiring to avoid competing with each other.

[Snow Sciles]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not even if it's an omnibus edition of several books? I think, for example, the 12-volume complete set of George MacDonald Fraser's "The Flashman Papers":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flashman-Pap.../dp/B00DFPDBBM

is reasonable priced at £32.53 - that's £2.71 a book. I bought it in a special offer at £9.98, but I would have happily bought it at the full price had I not done so.

Well that isn't a single book, it's a collection. Priced and £2.71 per book, which is reasonable. I wouldn't spend £10+ on a single ebook, and tbh for a collection such as this, I'd still be looking for a discount because why spend more if you don't have to? The £9.98 was a very good buy.

[HarryT]

It was an excellent buy. If you don't already do so, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the "Deals and Resources" forum; I've picked up all sorts of great bargains through it, and many of the deals are only there for a single day.

[mgbino]

Originally Posted by crossi

Readings my main hobby too and I can easily go through a book a day. But I also game. I bought Skyrim for $60 and have been playing it hours a day for years since it came out. At $7 for a couple hours entertainment versus $60 for thousands of hours entertainment gaming is by far the cheaper hobby.

My main gripe against the forced agency contract is that it wasn't instituted to help authors or their own business but was implemented solely to attempt to harm another business. If they really thought ebooks were underpriced they could simply have raised the wholesale price they charged retailers for them. I also approve of businesses competing for customers and disapprove of anything that hobbles that natural competion. I don't like businesses that should be competitors getting together and conspiring to avoid competing with each other.

I assume that you keep replaying Skyrim, so at least part of that value comes from your willingness to re-live the same (or similar, as obviously Skyrim can offer a few different play experiences) more than once. I'm pretty pleased with the entertainment value I get with a solid 800 page fantasy book for 9.99 too, more so if like it enough to re-read it.

I also used to put a lot of time into Skyrim... until I took an arrow to the knee.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crossi

Readings my main hobby too and I can easily go through a book a day. But I also game. I bought Skyrim for $60 and have been playing it hours a day for years since it came out. At $7 for a couple hours entertainment versus $60 for thousands of hours entertainment gaming is by far the cheaper hobby.

I'm current doing new playthroughs of DRAGON AGE ORIGINS and AWAKENING in preparation for the October release of INQUISITION, which lets you play with the character and decisions made in the earlier games. I had four full playthough with different-race characters, originally, at about 90 hours each. And thst is hardly unique: The BETHESDA RPGs have even more exploration and experimentation gameplay than the already deep BioWare game.
No ten hour campaigns in there.

A better comparison than books might be a full series DVD set of a TV show since both will typically offer 80-100 hours of entertainment.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by mgbino

I assume that you keep replaying Skyrim, so at least part of that value comes from your willingness to re-live the same (or similar, as obviously Skyrim can offer a few different play experiences) more than once. I'm pretty pleased with the entertainment value I get with a solid 800 page fantasy book for 9.99 too, more so if like it enough to re-read it.

I also used to put a lot of time into Skyrim... until I took an arrow to the knee.

More than a few play experiences, but you don't have to do multiple playthroughs to get 100 hours out of SKYRIM. You just have to be interested in exploring the full bounds of the game in both scripted narrative and gaming mechanics. Bethesda games change their strategic focus from release to release but there is always an optimum strategy to discover that will keep your protagonist from ending up with the arrow in the knee.

(For SKYRIM it is potions that unlocks the path to single-arrow Dragon slaying.)

[mgbino]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

More than a few play experiences, but you don't have to do multiple playthroughs to get 100 hours out of SKYRIM. You just have to be interested in exploring the full bounds of the game in both scripted narrative and gaming mechanics. Bethesda games change their strategic focus from release to release but there is always an optimum strategy to discover that will keep your protagonist from ending up with the arrow in the knee.

(For SKYRIM it is potions that unlocks the path to single-arrow Dragon slaying.)

Not to completely derail this topic, so I'll stop after this, but I'm pretty sure I spent at least 2 hours in Skyrim just running around using the level 3 shout on everyone and everything in my way.

... ah, life before children.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Even going with the lower price of $14, many people don't have the money to spend $14 per three days on books. That would be $1700 a year. I could do it, but I don't want to. A 300-ish page fantasy story isn't worth that much for me.

Some people buy a Starbucks coffee every day, and it probably comes out to that much a year.

If someone buys a book every three days, she is either reading professionally and/or gets a lot of enjoyment out of reading. So it may not be an unreasonable sum to spend, even assuming that the costly books combined with free, library, and older ones average out to $14 per (which still seems kind of high to me).

[HarryT]

The only way I can see of averaging $14 a book would be if you read only newly-released books that were only available in hardback. I reckon I probably average about $5-6 a book, and they are almost all from BPH's.

[mgbino]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The only way I can see of averaging $14 a book would be if you read only newly-released books that were only available in hardback. I reckon I probably average about $5-6 a book, and they are almost all from BPH's.

Assuming you only read commercial stuff. I tend to read the academic books in my field (for my own enjoyment, not professional development) too, and they run anywhere from 9.99 to over $100.00, usually falling into the 30-50 range.

... just checked, the last one I read like that was 250 pgs, 45 pages were footnotes, $65.00.

[speakingtohe]

I read 3-4 books a week when I am working and 6-9 when I am not. I used to read more when I was younger. It is my favorite type of solitary entertainment. At times I have been in a position of not having a book to read, and I survived, but sometimes experienced anxiety. I would gladly have paid $27.00 for a book that I wanted to read and would have happily paid a fair amount for any book I thought I would read.

I feel very pampered with ebooks. I have enough books to keep me busy for a while, that I actively want to read and can get more from the library without driving 106 miles. I can usually buy the latest bestseller instantly, although I am not big on bestsellers, and I have read (and paid for in the past) many public domain books.

While I am against collusion, I feel that publishers are as free to set the prices of eBooks, just as Starbucks are free to set the price of a cup of coffee.

A friend of mine started budgeting electronically with a program that gave him a report of all of his credit card spending by category. He buys a book or two a week to read and a fair amount as gifts. Generally textbooks or bestsellers. He was quite appalled when he found out it was books $900 and Starbucks $5800. 2-4 lattes a day and lemon loaf etc. he has cut way back on the Starbucks but still it is more than he spends on books.

Helen

[Katsunami]

$5800 on coffee.... *faints*

Whaaaaat? *faints again*

[tubemonkey]

Monkey Budget 2014

• audiobooks -- $7.50
• eBooks -- $0.00
• Coffee -- $0.00

[Yapyap]

I'd gladly spend more on books if our customers (major Western IT and technology companies) paid us Western rates. Since they pay us Eastern European rates, and since most things (clothes, electronics, food, never mind translated/local books, which are much more expensive than books in English) still cost the same as in Western Europe, that leaves me with considerably little money to spend on anything not "essential". Reading (+ perhaps a week's holiday in Europe every other year, because otherwise I'd go stir-crazy) is currently the only "not essential" thing I spend on at all - it's been a while since I've bought or watched DVDs, I don't have a car, I don't drink alcohol or smoke, and I rarely buy new clothes other than T-shirts or socks.

Buying a coffee or eating out (outside travelling when that can't be avoided) is something I can afford to do maybe twice a year as a special treat, so that is ... really not a good comparison as far as I'm concerned.

I'm just fortunate I had one very good year of work a few years ago, with 16-18-hour days and no weekends off for months, which meant I could spend extra on the gadgets to read on and have some savings.

I'm glad so many people here have no problems spending whatever they wish on books. I don't consider a $5-10 price for a book unfair in any way, and I don't think books "should" cost next to nothing, but on the other hand, those prices are still too high for me and my budget to deal with on a regular basis (I'll pay it for the "must read immediately" books, but not for every book I read).

There is no way I could afford the 2-3 books a week I read at those prices, and libraries are useless for me, so I actively look for deals, discounts, coupons, legally free books, "travel virtually" for a deal whenever possible, etc. It's really simply either that, pirating or not reading books at all for me, and I'd rather avoid the last two options.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Monkey Budget 2014

• audiobooks -- $7.50
• eBooks -- $0.00
• Coffee -- $0.00

What is your budget for gadgets?