Quote:
Originally Posted by GlennD
I'd love to know what goes into ebook pricing. I get frustrated when I see a 50 year old, 200-250 page Heinlein juvenile novel selling for the same price as a 500 page novel published in the last 5 years. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is currently selling for $12.99.
On the other hand, I'm part of a market that probably isn't all that large - I have a large paper library that I'm slowly converting to ebooks. I'll pull the trigger without even thinking about it when I get an ereaderiq notice that has a book I want down to $1.99 and I'll seriously consider $2.99 depending on the book. But $6.99 - $9.99 for a book I've got sitting on the shelf? Forget it.
Somewhere between $1.99 and $9.99 there must be a happy medium. I'm talking about backlist material here - I don't have any complaints about ebooks and hardbacks competing with each other at the same price either. |
I'm not planning to re-ignite the old price argument in this thread, though if it happens it happens. I have made my views very plain here, as have others. I will simply observe that Big 5 ebooks and some other tradpub ebooks are priced generally much higher than Indie and self-published ebooks. I further observe that whether or not a buyer knows or cares about the price of a paper copy of the ebook they are considering purchasing, the publisher certainly does. They have an old established business model to maximise revenue from print books, which they wish to preserve. Their concern about "devaluing" books by selling them at lower prices is a well publicised one, and the Big 5 went so far as to enter an illegal price-fixing conspiracy with Apple to gain control of retail ebook prices so as to stop Amazon discounting some titles. Despite the resulting setback they have now achieved their aim, though it is fair to say it is not proving to be the success they expected. The do price their ebooks higher at the expense of a gradually declining share of the ebook market.
DiapDealer's attitude is extremely rational for those amongst our community who never or rarely re-read books. I certainly re-read books on occasion, and like to own a copy of at least the books I really love. I don't want to pay again each time I decide to re-read. Nor for practical purposes do I place much store in an ebook being licensed rather than owned outright.
As for your Heinlein book I suggest that you list it with one of the price watch services and wait for it to be offered at a reasonable price, which is good advice for all of the books already in your library. There is no need to be tempted by the ease of obtaining a pirate copy. If you want to re-read particular books in the meantime libraries are an excellent alternative.