Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
But, you don't have to buy the ARC. you know in a few months the price will be lower when the real version is released. So this is your choice, not a price foisted on you by Baen. So in this case, it's not the case of Baen playing games. It a case of you being impatient.
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As I said, "just to read the book a few months earlier". My choice. Though Baen's pricing strategy is pretty clear. To quote:
As of December 16th, 2012, Baen ebooks are now available for sale at other vendors as well as at this site. At the same time, prices for our individual ebooks were raised to meet the rest of the market. Titles available in print as hardcovers only will be $9.99, trade paperbacks $8.99, and mass market paperbacks $6.99. As part of the adjustment, we have also raised ebook royalties to authors by 25%.
Given the price of an eARC is about the same in terms of the minutes I work to pay for one as a 50 cent Ace double in 1968, I don't have issues with buying 2 or 3 per year. If other publishers made their pricing policy as clear as Baen does, I would have fewer issues.
The other issue is that quite a few people do not have an increase in their income to cover the close to 2,000% increase in the average paperback book price since 1968. I also consider that at one time, I had over 25 used bookstores that I could haunt for books within easy public transit distance. Most of them are now closed along with virtually all the independent bookstores. I can't even blame Amazon for that since many of them closed before Amazon became a major factor in the Canadian book market.