[Halk]

Originally Posted by koland

Even if your assumptions are right (low priced, $8 books only) and ignoring some of the sales open only to members (granted, these are usually 5-year members only), if you have to buy $200 worth of books to "break even" and you read 40 books a year, you would still be above the $200 break even point (assuming you stick with only $6 books; you'd be well above if your books averaged $8-$10). That also assumes you buy no subscriptions (not everyone does).

But that ties me in to Fictionwise completely. It also assumes that all of the books I read are relatively popular modern paperback types. That's not the case, I seldom read very new books (equivalent of hardcover I guess), and I read maybe 50/50 free and in copyright books. So I'd need to be buying everything that I paid for from Fictionwise. If I end up buying 30 books from Fictionwise, that's 50% more than I would expect, then I've only lost around $10. I'm willing to drop that $10 in order to not tie myself in. Any saving made from the buyers club is so small that I think it's best to either wait until I know I'm going to be buying lots of books from them, or just simpler to forget about it all together. Unless I was buying best sellers... more below

And for the free book - if you watch carefully, you can find one for 9.99, maximizing savings. Of course, if you are member and ignoring micropay, it would have been 8.50, so you aren't saving the entire $10 at that point (except that if you had not purchased the membership, it would have cost the entire $10, so you really are saving that $10 and only need to recover another $20 to break even ...).

That's only if I can find a book I want at $10. And I really am not saving $10. I could have bought the book from Fictionwise and got a 45% micropay rebate, which I've explained above comes to about $2.25.

Really, you can ignore micropay in your calculations, as you'll get less back, but spend less if you are a member. At 15%, that's about $135 in books for a break-even point, if you maximize the free book's value.

I've not ignored micropay But it is NOT 15%, as I've said above. It comes out as less.

Of course, if you use cash to pay for new bestsellers, which average $15-20 each, that won't take long (and you'll then probably have the entire amount in micropay to spend on "cheaper" books, and you still get your discount on those and micropay when they are not having these crazy end-of-year sales on their entire catalog).

Best sellers are, I think, where the cut is for the book club. Anyone who can buy 10 books a year from Fictionwise at $20 would benefit from the buyers club. I certainly won't be doing that, there's a lot of books already written, and I've got a lot of catching up to do before I reach the point where the only books I'd want to read are new ones. There's a few exceptions of course, for fiction books in a series, when the next one comes out it's very tempting to buy it. Indeed the only purchase I have made from Fictionwise has been the last Terry Pratchett book, and I'll no doubt buy any books he comes out with as soon as they're released.