Hate high ebook prices? Check out this experiment

[erictoma]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Who says one must have a "factual reason" to enjoy something?

That's why fans were enjoying Armstrong hair's clippings.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Charles Darwin risked his life, spent years in the sea, lost his youth nights studying by himself geology under candle light in order to write his book "natural selection"
Fiction writing is an art, and like every art, they are fans who indulge a lot their preferred authors and cherish them without any factual reason.

Neil Armstrong, the guy who wadded on the moon, discovered one day that his barber was collecting his hair to sell it to some fans for 400 dollars each teaspoon or less !

Fiction writing is an art , there is no fairness in this field .

I've seen some crazy... stuff, on the internet. But this actually surprised me.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Personally I would not pay 25 cents for any fiction book, i don't believe in fiction at all.
It is really unfair to pay more 0.25 $ for a fiction novel that was written in the most easiest way .
However, it does not bother me at all to pay more 50 dollars for a scientific or historical book, it takes enormous amount of time, studies, research, data to make those kind of books.

so, if you don't believe in fiction doesn't that mean that the fiction is itself fictitious? If we use your logic fiction does not exist which means you are wrong in your belief or maybe you are merely a fiction.

[jhempel24]

I believe he is just stirring the pot, I'd ignore him, if he doesn't like fiction, then who cares, his statement regarding drawing a freaking comic book to doing research for a book should prove that he really has no clue.

Now: To stay on topic here, I won't buy the book, I really don't have an interest in it. And it's $8.76 a B&N

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Personally I would not pay 25 cents for any fiction book, i don't believe in fiction at all.
It is really unfair to pay more 0.25 $ for a fiction novel that was written in the most easiest way .
However, it does not bother me at all to pay more 50 dollars for a scientific or historical book, it takes enormous amount of time, studies, research, data to make those kind of books.

I find non-fiction useful, but I enjoy fiction. Since you wouldn't pay for fiction anyway, why bother setting the price for the rest of us? And just what is "the most easiest way", beside proof that you need to work on your grammar?

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I believe he is just stirring the pot, I'd ignore him, if he doesn't like fiction, then who cares, his statement regarding drawing a freaking comic book to doing research for a book should prove that he really has no clue.

Now: To stay on topic here, I won't buy the book, I really don't have an interest in it. And it's $8.76 a B&N

I do care, because when the people who support the way of thinking of the publishers are saying that those that complain about the prices have unreasonable expectations, they are talking about people like erictoma.

[AdamV]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Charles Darwin risked his life, spent years in the sea, lost his youth nights studying by himself geology under candle light in order to write his book "natural selection"
Fiction writing is an art, and like every art, they are fans who indulge a lot their preferred authors and cherish them without any factual reason.

Neil Armstrong, the guy who wadded on the moon, discovered one day that his barber was collecting his hair to sell it to some fans for 400 dollars each teaspoon or less !

Fiction writing is an art , there is no fairness in this field .

seems like typical trolling to me... or if its not, I am sure you do not have a slight idea what it takes to write a book that gets published AND sells...

regarding the original post - the experiment can only make sense if there are the following requirements met:
* the originally priced books sells for some time (so we get the numbers)
* experimentally downpriced book sells for exactly same time (and period of year)
* the author wrote more books that sell
* it is not self advertising post to "increase" the numbers

[queentess]

Originally Posted by erictoma

i don't believe in fiction at all.
It is really unfair to pay more 0.25 $ for a fiction novel that was written in the most easiest way .
However, it does not bother me at all to pay more 50 dollars for a scientific or historical book, it takes enormous amount of time, studies, research, data to make those kind of books.

Technically speaking, I also do not believe in fiction, as it is fictional
I do, however, know of all the hard work that goes into creating a fictional book, and I am willing to pay the author a reasonable price for said work.

I wouldn't pay $.05 for a research book. They're boring. The cost-to-entertainment ratio just isn't worth it.

[abookreader]

ah, just to note to everybody that Erictoma mentioned on another thread that English is not his primary language.

I'm guessing his intent is more along the lines of "I don't read fiction" or "I don't find fiction worthwhile."

Myself, I am a huge believer in fiction. There are loads of scientific study which proves imagination is biologically healthy. Fictional reading is literally an exercise in imagination. I'd like to add that it is also quite necessary for most sorts of advancement. Most inventions begin as a fictional dream.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by Barcey

Personally I think the data from Kobo is much more informative.

Slides 124 through 130 from the following blog slideshare. (You can just type in the slide #)

http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/04/28...share-edition/

Excellent slideshow indeed! I also liked how they presented the idea that price is determined more on value than on anything else. IE, how valuable is it to you? Also, I like how they pointed out that features, availability and ease of use (as well as durability to some extent) goes a long ways towards determining the value of a book.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by hgwlackey

I might have bought it, but I can only find it available at two places--Amazon (I don't have a Kindle) and Books on Board (for $8 and change in Adobe PDF format, which my Sony can read but I only settle for if I'm desperate to read the book). Where's the $1.99 epub?

Blog article says it can be found on Kobo, Kindle and iBooks. You could try Kobo?

For those looking for the Amazon/Kindle version, it's only available to those in the US and Canada. I don't know about geographic availability in other ebook outlets - might be the same. I was toying with the idea of maybe buying a copy - either it's a legitimate if somewhat "unscientific" experiment on the part of her publishers, or an original approach to marketing - but found that, being in the UK, I can't buy it from Amazon. She says her publishers say it's a rights thing.

[hgwlackey]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Blog article says it can be found on Kobo, Kindle and iBooks. You could try Kobo?

It's there now, but it wasn't when I made my post. Kobo's the first place I look ('cause of their coupons).

[tselling]

Originally Posted by hgwlackey

It's there now, but it wasn't when I made my post. Kobo's the first place I look ('cause of their coupons).

And the 30% Kobo coupon works with it so at $1.39 its probably worth a read to me, even if its an unknown author.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by erictoma

Personally I would not pay 25 cents for any fiction book, i don't believe in fiction at all.
It is really unfair to pay more 0.25 $ for a fiction novel that was written in the most easiest way .
However, it does not bother me at all to pay more 50 dollars for a scientific or historical book, it takes enormous amount of time, studies, research, data to make those kind of books.

Oh please get over yourself, and go be a snob somewhere else!

Unless you are a writer of fiction and know how much research one has to do in order to write a believable book, then you don't have a clue of what you are talking about.

[Robin Spano]

Hey, I JUST found this thread, thanks to ATDrake on another post. And thanks for starting it, Ashley! I'm excited to see all the comments it's generating.

First, I'll say this: my goal is sincere. I'd like the price of my ebook (and all ebooks) to be lower than mass market paperbacks. There are tons of blogs I've posted on this week if you're curious to find out why. I think this one says it well:

Preliminary results are middling re: sales - as in, my guess is that DPS is selling 5-10x as many copies, but that might not be enough considering there's all this extra promotion going on to convince my publisher that he should lower the price on a permanent basis.

At the end of this experiment, I'll share whatever info my publisher allows me to. I don't have specific stats now, but I'm hoping to. Thanks so much for all these comments/discussions.