Kindle ebook pricing poll

[markbot]

What do you think of current Kindle ebook pricing? Personally, I am buying more used pbooks lately...ever since the Kindle prices were raised.

[JeremyR]

I've had mine for a month now (or close to it) and haven't bought a single book from Amazon.

Bought two from Fictionwise and one from Baen for a grand total of $11.

Mostly though I've been reading old books. Right now I've gotten hooked on the Ruth Fielding books from Feedbooks. I read one because it was written in 1922 and wanted to get a feel of how people talked back then (I'm writing a novel set then). But they're like peanuts...

[xnowimcoolx]

I bought a kindle book a couple weeks ago. It was only about 2 dollars less than the (Amazon) pbook version (still $20+) but it was 1/2 the cost of the local bookstore price. I needed it for school so the instant download helps! But still a bit steep.

[lene1949]

It depends...

I go a lot for the free books offered, but I've also paid good money for an ebook... I don't care what the hardback book sells for... I want the book in ebook format, and if I can't live without it, I'll buy it in that format.

[sirmaru]

I use an Excel spreadsheet to rank all the ebooks on my wish list by pbook pages per dollar price.

Then I buy the ebook with the best value of volume of reading material.

Thus, publishers keeping prices lower than others tend to get my business.

[Mitsuya Cider]

Depends on the book. For the most-part, they are too expensive, and should cost less than a paperback, that much is very clear to me.

[suecsi]

So far so good in the UK - Agency Pricing not here yet so most e-books are cheaper on Amazon than anywhere else.

[ChaoZ]

They are generally cheaper than pbooks, but not enough. Also, nowhere near as cheap as used pbooks. The bestseller list is a good deal, especially for hardcover, but not many of my reads come from that.

[abookreader]

It is kind of a hard question for me to answer
While there are many books that I feel are priced too high, I also find many that I feel are fairly priced and/or great bargains.

For instance - 2 of the free books this week by Alan Jacobson look really good and I see on the Books on The Knob blog this morning that the one Lisa Kleypas book that I don't own will probably be $2.99 soon since Sony has dropped their price.

So ... I have 3 books to read this weekend and I will have spent $3.

I will say one thing, it is extremely unlikely that any author will win me over as a new reader with a $12.99 or higher offering. I will occasionally buy an author I'm already attached to at those prices, but if I'm making a choice between unknowns that look interesting (and there are 100s of them out there) - the $5 or under book will win every time.

[krazy4katz]

If they are over $10, I often wait a few months. I still think they are too expensive, but I want them, they are easier to read, they don't clutter up the house, so it is worth it to me. I guess I afford the more expensive ones by reading lots of free classics as well, so the average "per book" price is not so bad.

[cleanskin]

The problem is that paperback books still provide a superior reading experience compared to the Kindle. Publishers don't seem to realize this. The only advantages of the Kindle are portability and dictionary support. But these advantages do not outweigh the number of tradeoffs Kindle users must face. One of the reasons I returned my Kindle DX was because I found myself ordering paperbacks for the same or cheaper price than the Kindle version. In fact, there were a couple occasions where the hardcover was the same price!

[DiapDealer]

The problem is that paperback books still provide a superior reading experience compared to the Kindle.

You forgot the "in my opinion" part. I for one, can (and do) switch between Kindle, paperback or hardback with absolutely no discernible loss or gain in the "reading" experience.

Publishers don't seem to realize this.

Maybe because it's not a universally accepted truth.

Am I the only one that didn't buy a Kindle simply because I thought it would allow me to read really cheaply?

[krazy4katz]

[QUOTE=
Am I the only one that didn't buy a Kindle simply because I thought it would allow me to read really cheaply?[/QUOTE]

No, I purchased my kindle because I thought it would be a superior reading experience and for me, it is.

[Soprano91396]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Am I the only one that didn't buy a Kindle simply because I thought it would allow me to read really cheaply?

No -- I bought mine because whenever I travel, easily 50-75% of the weight of my luggage is books!

[notatoad]

i try to purchase books from amazon when they are <$7 (what i feel is a reasonable price for an ebook) and i pirate any books that are more than that. hopefully if amazon sees that books below a certain price are selling better, they will adjust their prices.