Quote:
Originally Posted by BuddyBoy
And, unfortunately for folks like you and me, there are ebook shoppers who are willing to pay higher prices, enough to maximize the profit of the supply meets demand curve at a higher price than we'd like to pay.
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I guess I'm part of the problem then. I'm against agency pricing, but in favour of paying what a book is worth. If I'm loving a series and the next book in the series debuts at $13.99 for the e-book, I'm thrilled to pay that. I also buy indie books at $0.99. It's not about the cost itself, it's about what I perceive the value to be. I'll pay nearly any asking price as long as I think I'm getting value.
The world has become obsessed with low prices. Wal-Mart's slogan recently has been "Save money, live better." Yet, people I know who shop at Wal-Mart replace their products more frequently than people who buy from specialty shops that offer a broader range of quality, and better advice to their customers than any box store. The Wal-Mart customers paid a lower price, but did they get better value in the long term? In most cases, no.
I'm not against paying for what I want, and don't begrudge authors and publishers making money off of giving me what I want. If they go too high I won't buy, I won't pay any price. But why should I complain about, for example, $8.99 for a book I'll be enjoying for weeks when a movie ticket can cost that (or more) for a less than two hour experience? How about the $60 video game that's about 8-10 hours long, how's that compare to the time it takes to read an average length novel? $8.99 for an e-book from a beloved author is a bargain compared to most forms of pay-as-you-go entertainment.
And I must re-iterate: I'm against agency pricing, and part of that is *because* I feel that authors deserve to be paid what the market determines their writing is worth (not an arbitrary amount that the publisher tries to force all books to be sold at).