Aura HD Ouch! Kobo ebook prices!

MacEachaidh · 12-11-2014, 12:20 PM

Well, that was a shock.

I've just updated my wishlist spreadsheet, where I compare ebook prices from various vendors (two Amazons vs. Kobobooks and a local affiliate), and ... what the heck has happened to Kobo's pricing?!

The Kobo sources have a slight advantage of convenience, since they're selling epubs, but that really doesn't make up for almost all the prices I checked now being 160%-220% (!!) of the Amazon prices. Kobo's always been more expensive, but to my memory it's never been by this much.

Plus, a heckuva lot of ebooks Kobo previously carried have now disappeared from the catalogue.

What's going on? Did something happen to Kobo's business strategy in the last few weeks? Has it decided to burn its bridges in a massive blaze?

BrodieKobo · 12-11-2014, 02:09 PM

Hi MacEachaidh,

Could you share some examples of ebooks where you're seeing this large discrepancy? I work for Kobo and this sort of feedback is really important to us.

Thanks!

Brodie

Lynx-lynx · 12-11-2014, 06:39 PM

Hi Brodie welcome to Mobileread and good to see your presence here.

Are you here in your work capacity? Or are you here for your leisure? Or perhaps a bit of both?

I think that Kobo's presence is a good idea and there are some of you here already who are most helpful.

I also have found quite a discrepancy with maybe half a dozen books that I've looked at over the last say three or so weeks, but haven't kept a record of them. In fact I think I just noticed some of them because they showed on pages near to the book/s that I was looking at. (I will keep looking to try and find some examples)

I compare prices between Amazon Aus and Kobo Aus, and Amazon Aus is usually cheaper, sometimes only by less than a $1, sometimes more. Sometimes however, Kobo is cheaper by less than a $1.

It's the discount codes that keep me buying Kobo books, although the problem with Aus is that not many books are able to be discounted.

On another note, I quite like the most recent changes/upgrade to the kobobooks.com website. Hurrah for being able change the view back into list format, and for pages to be reinstated instead of continuous scroll.

And best of all - to once again know what the format of the book is:epub2, epub3 and no format listing for kepub.

FizzyWater · 12-11-2014, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

On another note, I quite like the most recent changes/upgrade to the kobobooks.com website. Hurrah for being able change the view back into list format, and for pages to be reinstated instead of continuous scroll.

And best of all - to once again know what the format of the book is:epub2, epub3 and no format listing for kepub.

What?? I have to go check - I hated the scrolling page.

BrodieKobo · 12-12-2014, 12:42 AM

* Post edited based on Dr. Drib's comment - thanks for the heads up Dr. Drib *

Hi Lynx-lynx,

A bunch of us Kobo folks diligently read your posts, so first thing first, thanks for your passion and enthusiasm! We're so happy to see people who are just as excited as we are for our product and are willing to help grow it to be as best as possible. We truly appreciate your feedback, and believe me your posts are influencing what we work on.

FYI - technically I'm here from a work capacity, but I'm a passionate reader and consumer like yourself also, so to me it certainly doesn't feel like work at times!

A few things:

1) Thanks for the feedback on the website. We've been listening (and surveying) for feedback and our dev team has been working tirelessly to improve our site since we launched our new store almost a year ago. Good news is we have a ton of changes coming over the next few months, so please keep the comments active! Let me know what's working, what isn't, what you'd like to see more or less of, what can we do better, etc. I'll do my best to jump in where I can to join in on the conversation.

2) Price is super important to us. All I can say is we're working hard to get that part right, as we know it's a huge issue for our customers. Discounts are an important part of our business but we're also trying to push for new ways to get savings to our customers. For example, just today we became the first company in the world to bring BOGO's (i.e. buy 2, get 1) to eBooks - so for the first time ever, Kobo customers can get 3 books for the price of 2, on amazing high quality books! These types of discounts are finally no longer bound to traditional brick and mortar retailers... and we're super proud to be the first to make it happen (note: it's Canada and US to start but we plan on making this available in all countries very soon).

In general, we love to get your feedback and thoughts on how to improve our product. Best way is to keep posting here and we'll keep listening. While we won't be able to get to all opportunities right away, we certainly don't mind hearing and discussing them in the meantime

See you around!

Brodie

Dr. Drib · 12-12-2014, 08:01 AM

Welcome to Mobileread.

While we value your presence and expertise, please be aware that promotional links are not allowed. Please separate the two: Advice and encouragement, thoughts, hints, helpful aid [allowed]; and promotion [not allowed in regular posts].

Thank you.

Don
(Moderator)

MacEachaidh · 12-12-2014, 10:14 AM

Hi Brodie,
Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate your interest!

I second the positive comments about the website. The search seems to have improved significantly, and it's great that each listing now explicitly states the format.

Some observations:
1) It would be helpful for the ebook's format to show in the list of returns from the search, rather than having to click through on each title to know if it's epub or PDF.
2) The flagging on the database isn't bullet-proof. I found quite a few examples where the returns of a search on an author didn't include a specific title, but a subsequent search on that title did return a listing, in each case with the same author spelling I had just searched on.

Here are some quick examples of the kind of discrepancy I was referring to. The first price is from Amazon AU and the second from Angus & Robertson, the Australian affiliate of Kobo (with prices matched to kobobooks.com). Both prices are in Australian dollars.

Eric Maisel, Coaching the Artist Within - $11.74 / $22.95
Eric Maisel, A Writer's San Francisco - $10.32 / $23.19
Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life - $12.00 / $18.59
Robert Moss, Active Dreaming - $11.42 / $22.95
Robert Moss, Dreamgates - $11.53 / $20.79
Michèle Burdet, Stumbling Down the Shamanic Path - $4.16 / $12.79
Steven Farmer, Ancestral Karma - $11.74 / $18.79
Jill Dearman, Bang the Keys - $11.53 / $17.90
Jessica Morrell, The Writer's I Ching - $10.55 / $20.79
Linda Seger, The Art of Adaptation - $11.42 / $18.89
Hazel Smith, The Writing Experiment - $19.97 / $36.31
Stan Gooch, Dream Culture of the Neanderthals - $11.53 / $16.79

These aren't just picked cherries. Though many of the prices are closer to equivalent, and in some cases Kobo was actually cheaper, there are still lots more examples like this, even just in my areas of interest. Now, I'm aware that when the Amazon prices are sub-$20, it only takes a fairly small increase in the Kobo price to make the percentage difference seem huge, but differences like these certainly add up. I've also read a lot of reports by author groups and publishers about how, ahem, Another Vendor uses market share to strong-arm them into unfavourable pricing deals, so it just may not be possible for Kobo to compete dollar for dollar. I'm not buying into that particular barney, but I'd like to think that higher prices mean more equitable payment for the writers (though the cynic in me suspects it goes no further than the publishers). But self-interest has to play some part, and it's difficult to remain altruistic when the costs mount.

None of these books is fiction. I haven't got onto that part of my spreadsheet yet, but I'm expecting that that is where Kobo's pricing efforts are focused. (It's certainly where Kobo's promo deals are!) I'm not your average reader who buys whatever popular novel is trending on Twitter, so I realise the specials will probably pass me by, but I'd like to pay less of a premium for it.

Edited to add:
Brodie, as I mentioned in my OP, I found quite a few instances where titles that I had previously noticed prices for have now disappeared from the Kobo catalogue, most of them from both kobobooks.com and angusrobertson.com.au. Does this mean the end of a resale contract for certain titles, or is Kobo winnowing the titles it carries? I hope Kobo continues to be more than basically an outlet for paperback fiction.

Lynx-lynx · 12-12-2014, 05:28 PM

@MacEachaidh what publishers were the books that disappeared, can you remember?

Lynx-lynx · 12-12-2014, 05:34 PM

@Brodie, I've had a look at the three for one lists and can say that I'm not keen on this sort of promotion. Having said that I realise that it may suit others.

I find that there is a very limited number of books on offer and very few in the genres that I'm interested in. Even if I could find one book that I wanted I wouldn't buy it because I couldn't find the other two to be part of the deal.

I like the discount codes and prefer them.

On another point, when can Australia be part of the (usually) monthly Contests. It's currently limited to just the UK US and CA. Please do whatever is required legally so that Aus has access to the Contest as well.

Thanks

Jaden · 12-12-2014, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

On another point, when can Australia be part of the (usually) monthly Contests. It's currently limited to just the UK US and CA. Please do whatever is required legally so that Aus has access to the Contest as well.

And how about contests and coupon codes for Germany as well if that is possible?

I know that German books for the German market are not couponable, but books from other countries are (for example books from the US, UK or Canada). And we'd also like to be able to win eReaders.

bgalbrecht · 12-12-2014, 09:02 PM

In the US store, I was looking at the James S.A. Corey Expanse novels because the first of them is included in the 3 for the price of 2 sale, and Kobo is much more expensive than Amazon and Google Play, but cheaper than B&N (which is nothing to brag about, IMHO).

Title Kobo US Amazon US/Google Play B&N
Leviathan Wakes $9.99 $5.99 $9.99
Caliban's War $9.59 $8.89 $9.99
Abaddon's Gate $9.99 $8.89 $9.99
Cibola Burn $11.95 $4.55 $12.99

BrodieKobo · 12-12-2014, 09:08 PM

Hi Lynx-lynx,

Thanks for the feedback on the discount list, I agree with you. I'll mention that to our merch team as it's important we reach as wide an audience as possible taste wise so there's something for *almost* everyone. We'll keep working on it

RE: Contests, I'll look into that and see what's up, but I agree we need to get better at making our contests open to as many countries as possible.

BrodieKobo · 12-12-2014, 09:21 PM

@ Jaden - you're right about German books not being discountable. Wish I could help out there, but as you know it's beyond our control

I'll look into how many English books we sell in Germany. Maybe I can talk our merchandisers into 'testing' an English book offer, but may need your help convincing, lol.

danicca · 12-13-2014, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrodieKobo

RE: Contests, I'll look into that and see what's up, but I agree we need to get better at making our contests open to as many countries as possible.

I'll second that. It's dissapointing to see link for promotion and then the site informs me it's not available for me.

twowheels · 12-13-2014, 02:38 AM

I also took a look at my recently read books and some of my wish list and found that not a single book was cheaper on the Kobo site, and some were as much as 367% of the Amazon price ($3 vs $11). I didn't go through my entire list, but at best they were ~$0.25 more expensive -- not a single book was cheaper on the Kobo.

As nice as the hardware is (except for having far too many font & margin options [inside joke, sorry]), as a price sensitive consumer it would be hard to choose a Kobo given the discrepencies.

12-11-2014, 12:20 PM	#1
MacEachaidh Browser Posts: 745 Karma: 578294 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD	Ouch! Kobo ebook prices! Well, that was a shock. I've just updated my wishlist spreadsheet, where I compare ebook prices from various vendors (two Amazons vs. Kobobooks and a local affiliate), and ... what the heck has happened to Kobo's pricing?! The Kobo sources have a slight advantage of convenience, since they're selling epubs, but that really doesn't make up for almost all the prices I checked now being 160%-220% (!!) of the Amazon prices. Kobo's always been more expensive, but to my memory it's never been by this much. Plus, a heckuva lot of ebooks Kobo previously carried have now disappeared from the catalogue. What's going on? Did something happen to Kobo's business strategy in the last few weeks? Has it decided to burn its bridges in a massive blaze?

12-11-2014, 06:39 PM	#3
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,122 Karma: 93720365 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2, Libra Colour	Hi Brodie welcome to Mobileread and good to see your presence here. Are you here in your work capacity? Or are you here for your leisure? Or perhaps a bit of both? I think that Kobo's presence is a good idea and there are some of you here already who are most helpful. I also have found quite a discrepancy with maybe half a dozen books that I've looked at over the last say three or so weeks, but haven't kept a record of them. In fact I think I just noticed some of them because they showed on pages near to the book/s that I was looking at. (I will keep looking to try and find some examples) I compare prices between Amazon Aus and Kobo Aus, and Amazon Aus is usually cheaper, sometimes only by less than a $1, sometimes more. Sometimes however, Kobo is cheaper by less than a $1. It's the discount codes that keep me buying Kobo books, although the problem with Aus is that not many books are able to be discounted. On another note, I quite like the most recent changes/upgrade to the kobobooks.com website. Hurrah for being able change the view back into list format, and for pages to be reinstated instead of continuous scroll. And best of all - to once again know what the format of the book is:epub2, epub3 and no format listing for kepub. Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 12-11-2014 at 06:42 PM.

12-12-2014, 12:42 AM	#5
BrodieKobo Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 845542 Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kobo Glo HD, Aura One, iOS, Android	* Post edited based on Dr. Drib's comment - thanks for the heads up Dr. Drib * Hi Lynx-lynx, A bunch of us Kobo folks diligently read your posts, so first thing first, thanks for your passion and enthusiasm! We're so happy to see people who are just as excited as we are for our product and are willing to help grow it to be as best as possible. We truly appreciate your feedback, and believe me your posts are influencing what we work on. FYI - technically I'm here from a work capacity, but I'm a passionate reader and consumer like yourself also, so to me it certainly doesn't feel like work at times! A few things: 1) Thanks for the feedback on the website. We've been listening (and surveying) for feedback and our dev team has been working tirelessly to improve our site since we launched our new store almost a year ago. Good news is we have a ton of changes coming over the next few months, so please keep the comments active! Let me know what's working, what isn't, what you'd like to see more or less of, what can we do better, etc. I'll do my best to jump in where I can to join in on the conversation. 2) Price is super important to us. All I can say is we're working hard to get that part right, as we know it's a huge issue for our customers. Discounts are an important part of our business but we're also trying to push for new ways to get savings to our customers. For example, just today we became the first company in the world to bring BOGO's (i.e. buy 2, get 1) to eBooks - so for the first time ever, Kobo customers can get 3 books for the price of 2, on amazing high quality books! These types of discounts are finally no longer bound to traditional brick and mortar retailers... and we're super proud to be the first to make it happen (note: it's Canada and US to start but we plan on making this available in all countries very soon). In general, we love to get your feedback and thoughts on how to improve our product. Best way is to keep posting here and we'll keep listening. While we won't be able to get to all opportunities right away, we certainly don't mind hearing and discussing them in the meantime See you around! Brodie Last edited by BrodieKobo; 12-12-2014 at 09:34 AM. Reason: Feedback from Moderator

12-12-2014, 10:14 AM	#7
MacEachaidh Browser Posts: 745 Karma: 578294 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura HD	Hi Brodie, Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate your interest! I second the positive comments about the website. The search seems to have improved significantly, and it's great that each listing now explicitly states the format. Some observations: 1) It would be helpful for the ebook's format to show in the list of returns from the search, rather than having to click through on each title to know if it's epub or PDF. 2) The flagging on the database isn't bullet-proof. I found quite a few examples where the returns of a search on an author didn't include a specific title, but a subsequent search on that title did return a listing, in each case with the same author spelling I had just searched on. Here are some quick examples of the kind of discrepancy I was referring to. The first price is from Amazon AU and the second from Angus & Robertson, the Australian affiliate of Kobo (with prices matched to kobobooks.com). Both prices are in Australian dollars. Eric Maisel, Coaching the Artist Within - $11.74 / $22.95 Eric Maisel, A Writer's San Francisco - $10.32 / $23.19 Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life - $12.00 / $18.59 Robert Moss, Active Dreaming - $11.42 / $22.95 Robert Moss, Dreamgates - $11.53 / $20.79 Michèle Burdet, Stumbling Down the Shamanic Path - $4.16 / $12.79 Steven Farmer, Ancestral Karma - $11.74 / $18.79 Jill Dearman, Bang the Keys - $11.53 / $17.90 Jessica Morrell, The Writer's I Ching - $10.55 / $20.79 Linda Seger, The Art of Adaptation - $11.42 / $18.89 Hazel Smith, The Writing Experiment - $19.97 / $36.31 Stan Gooch, Dream Culture of the Neanderthals - $11.53 / $16.79 These aren't just picked cherries. Though many of the prices are closer to equivalent, and in some cases Kobo was actually cheaper, there are still lots more examples like this, even just in my areas of interest. Now, I'm aware that when the Amazon prices are sub-$20, it only takes a fairly small increase in the Kobo price to make the percentage difference seem huge, but differences like these certainly add up. I've also read a lot of reports by author groups and publishers about how, ahem, Another Vendor uses market share to strong-arm them into unfavourable pricing deals, so it just may not be possible for Kobo to compete dollar for dollar. I'm not buying into that particular barney, but I'd like to think that higher prices mean more equitable payment for the writers (though the cynic in me suspects it goes no further than the publishers). But self-interest has to play some part, and it's difficult to remain altruistic when the costs mount. None of these books is fiction. I haven't got onto that part of my spreadsheet yet, but I'm expecting that that is where Kobo's pricing efforts are focused. (It's certainly where Kobo's promo deals are!) I'm not your average reader who buys whatever popular novel is trending on Twitter, so I realise the specials will probably pass me by, but I'd like to pay less of a premium for it. Edited to add: Brodie, as I mentioned in my OP, I found quite a few instances where titles that I had previously noticed prices for have now disappeared from the Kobo catalogue, most of them from both kobobooks.com and angusrobertson.com.au. Does this mean the end of a resale contract for certain titles, or is Kobo winnowing the titles it carries? I hope Kobo continues to be more than basically an outlet for paperback fiction. Last edited by MacEachaidh; 12-12-2014 at 10:32 AM. Reason: Direct question for Brodie

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12-11-2014, 02:09 PM	#2
BrodieKobo Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 845542 Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kobo Glo HD, Aura One, iOS, Android	Hi MacEachaidh, Could you share some examples of ebooks where you're seeing this large discrepancy? I work for Kobo and this sort of feedback is really important to us. Thanks! Brodie

12-12-2014, 08:01 AM	#6
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,441 Karma: 59592133 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	Welcome to Mobileread. While we value your presence and expertise, please be aware that promotional links are not allowed. Please separate the two: Advice and encouragement, thoughts, hints, helpful aid [allowed]; and promotion [not allowed in regular posts]. Thank you. Don (Moderator)

12-12-2014, 05:28 PM	#8
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,122 Karma: 93720365 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2, Libra Colour	@MacEachaidh what publishers were the books that disappeared, can you remember?

12-12-2014, 05:34 PM	#9
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,122 Karma: 93720365 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2, Libra Colour	@Brodie, I've had a look at the three for one lists and can say that I'm not keen on this sort of promotion. Having said that I realise that it may suit others. I find that there is a very limited number of books on offer and very few in the genres that I'm interested in. Even if I could find one book that I wanted I wouldn't buy it because I couldn't find the other two to be part of the deal. I like the discount codes and prefer them. On another point, when can Australia be part of the (usually) monthly Contests. It's currently limited to just the UK US and CA. Please do whatever is required legally so that Aus has access to the Contest as well. Thanks

12-12-2014, 09:02 PM	#11
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	In the US store, I was looking at the James S.A. Corey Expanse novels because the first of them is included in the 3 for the price of 2 sale, and Kobo is much more expensive than Amazon and Google Play, but cheaper than B&N (which is nothing to brag about, IMHO). Title Kobo US Amazon US/Google Play B&N Leviathan Wakes $9.99 $5.99 $9.99 Caliban's War $9.59 $8.89 $9.99 Abaddon's Gate $9.99 $8.89 $9.99 Cibola Burn $11.95 $4.55 $12.99

12-12-2014, 09:08 PM	#12
BrodieKobo Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 845542 Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kobo Glo HD, Aura One, iOS, Android	Hi Lynx-lynx, Thanks for the feedback on the discount list, I agree with you. I'll mention that to our merch team as it's important we reach as wide an audience as possible taste wise so there's something for almost everyone. We'll keep working on it RE: Contests, I'll look into that and see what's up, but I agree we need to get better at making our contests open to as many countries as possible.

12-12-2014, 09:21 PM	#13
BrodieKobo Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 845542 Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kobo Glo HD, Aura One, iOS, Android	@ Jaden - you're right about German books not being discountable. Wish I could help out there, but as you know it's beyond our control I'll look into how many English books we sell in Germany. Maybe I can talk our merchandisers into 'testing' an English book offer, but may need your help convincing, lol.

12-13-2014, 02:38 AM	#15
twowheels Wizard Posts: 1,853 Karma: 13432974 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Clara HD, iPad Pro 10", iPhone 15 Pro, Boox Note Max	I also took a look at my recently read books and some of my wish list and found that not a single book was cheaper on the Kobo site, and some were as much as 367% of the Amazon price ($3 vs $11). I didn't go through my entire list, but at best they were ~$0.25 more expensive -- not a single book was cheaper on the Kobo. As nice as the hardware is (except for having far too many font & margin options [inside joke, sorry]), as a price sensitive consumer it would be hard to choose a Kobo given the discrepencies.

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