What's A Fair Price For a New Release Ebook?

[jbcohen]

Did you retain the rights to sell the book in electronic form without the assistance of the publisher? Then perhaps you can setup your own web store on the internet and sell the electronic book at a price that you define. Only problem is - can you cover your costs of the site from the book sales? bookstore.vsplash.com will charge $100 a month for that.

[Namekuseijin]

much, much lower costs I would guess when compared to running large printing machines and then transporting the physical goods all over the country.

[Ken Maltby]

Another reason the paper books go on sale, just like most other non-digital products,
is that they take up space, both in the warehouse and on the display shelf. There is a
real motivation to sell the stock on hand, to make room for items that might be more
profitable. This is not an issue for a digital product in the storage media that the servers
access.

So, one of the greatest advantages of the ebook over the pbook, is also a factor that
doesn't provide the motivation to lower the price, that a slow moving physical item does, to make room for another item. It doesn't cost your publisher any real money to keep
"warehousing" your ebook, but it sure does for any pbooks that he sells. He may not
have, or see any reason to lower the ebook price for the same book that he disparately
needs to move out of his stores and warehouses, as a pbook.

To me a book is the story and pbook or ebook makes little difference to me. To the
marketing system, there are major differences, differences that they are slow to come
to grips with, or at least with the fact that the consumer sees their pricing from a
different perspective than they do.

Luck;
Ken

[DocNoir]

I don't think "too cheap" sends the wrong impression. I think it's about gaining readers who can help spread the word. Also, since the authors have more control, the price doesn't need to be high in order for the author to get a much better royalty than he or she would in print, where you have an actual physical paper-and-glue product to pay for. So a lot of people are settling around the 2.99 area because it's fair to both readers and writers. Like the old pulp days when books cost 15 cents.

E-books can be the new mass market format. It can move a lot of books. But if the publishers insist on 9.99 or above (and some of the new releases set for later in 2011 are priced just like a trade pb), well, that's silly.

Just my two cents.

[Janette55]

I know that for me if a book, either ebook or pbook is priced over $7 I won't buy it unless I know the author and they are on my auto buy list.
I have just gotten my reader so am learning the pricing of ebooks.

I read mainly pnr, but no matter what genre, pricing goes the same. A new author at the price of $10 or way is too much for me to chance spending. I can buy two books for that price at two different stores from an author I already know is good.

I bought a book for $18 due to recommendations of how great the book was. Never again will I pay so much for a book when I have never read a book by that author, not even $9 will I pay the price. I could have gotten four books (paperback) with the buy three and get one free. That was before I bought my ereader.
But the same still goes; I will not pay over the price of $5 for a book of an unknown author. I will not pay over $7 for one that I have read a previous book and enjoyed it. I will pay $10 for a book from an author who is on my auto buy list.

Heck, if N. Singh's Psy/Changling book, which will be in HB, would charge me $25 I would pay the price. (it is going to be around $12). I'd pay $20 for it in paperback. But A. Morgan's Paladin's, if the one due out would go from $7 to $11, I would buy, from $12 and up, I would wait for it to drop. If it was ebook, I would wait for it to drop on paperback and then buy it.
For those who want to fuss with me about trees, I just planted three in my backyard. I will be buying most of my books as ebooks, but those who I have in paperback and are series, I will be buying them in paperback.
I will be planting one or two more this spring which give us a total of 12 or 13 trees.

[elcreative]

Nice planting the trees but don't worry too much... green arguments relating to paper are totally misleading, trees for paper are planted specifically for paper and replaced when harvested...

[G J Lau]

Originally Posted by DocNoir

I don't think "too cheap" sends the wrong impression. I think it's about gaining readers who can help spread the word. ... So a lot of people are settling around the 2.99 area because it's fair to both readers and writers. Like the old pulp days when books cost 15 cents.

That was kind of my thinking. I recently published a 99,000 word novel that I think is pretty decent, but I recognize that no one has ever heard of me. So I wanted to set a price that would reward risk taking (buying an unknown author) thereby maybe getting some sales, which is how I ended up at $2.99. Hey if it really takes off why couldn't I raise the price? Is that ever done?

[Anke Wehner]

My view is similar to Janette's.

$5 is a threshold... below that I may make impulse buys going from blurb and reviews from people I don't know. ($2.99 would make it more likely, though, particularly for self-published books.)

Up to $7.50 is for authors I find somewhat interesting, or that have had reviews that sounded like they would interest me from people whose opinion I trust.

Up to $10 is for authors I know I like, or possibly something recommended highly by multiple people.

I might pay more than $10 for a book by an author whose work I really, really, really like, but there are two of those at most. We're talking "this is book 12 of a series, and I love the 11 books before" here.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Nice planting the trees but don't worry too much... green arguments relating to paper are totally misleading, trees for paper are planted specifically for paper and replaced when harvested...

I would like to think that is the case, but articles such as this one do not fill me with much confidence about so-called sustainability of tree harvesting. This report specifically relates to wood, wood pulp and paper used in the UK. Here is the associated documentary video.

Has anyone analysed the environmental impact of producing e-books and readers, versus p-books? I imagine that making a comprehensive comparison would be quite complex.

For example, trees take up carbon dioxide, so arguably p-books are "green", as they act carbon stores - unless someone burns them, or until they end up in a landfill site and are broken down by bacteria - and wood is considered a renewable energy source, p-books are more durable, when printed on high quality paper, but that has high environmental impact, also production and disposal of electronic devices involves some challenging environmental issues, perhaps the amounts of electrical energy consumed editing e-books and p-books is similar, readers require small amounts of electrical energy to run them, and so on.

[BrianFreeman]

Originally Posted by DocNoir

I don't think "too cheap" sends the wrong impression. I think it's about gaining readers who can help spread the word.

I very much agree with this position. I think pricing a book lower won't give the impression of "it's too cheap to be good" to a reader. I think it'll just make it easier for a new reader to give that author a try... Just my 2 cents, of course!

Best,
Brian

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by BrianFreeman

I think pricing a book lower won't give the impression of "it's too cheap to be good" to a reader.

specially in face of high quality free software such as Calibre, Linux, or Wordpress and high calibre literature classics readily available in nicely formatted ebook format from project gutenberg.

"There's no free lunch" is an old, pre-internet phrase that doesn't quite work anymore.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Robin Spano

They think if someone wants a book, they'll buy it as long as it's reasonably priced

True.

(you know, industry standard).

Current industry standards are not reasonable.

[BrianFreeman]

Originally Posted by Anke Wehner

My view is similar to Janette's.

$5 is a threshold... below that I may make impulse buys going from blurb and reviews from people I don't know. ($2.99 would make it more likely, though, particularly for self-published books.)

Up to $7.50 is for authors I find somewhat interesting, or that have had reviews that sounded like they would interest me from people whose opinion I trust.

Up to $10 is for authors I know I like, or possibly something recommended highly by multiple people.

I might pay more than $10 for a book by an author whose work I really, really, really like, but there are two of those at most. We're talking "this is book 12 of a series, and I love the 11 books before" here.

It's pretty much like you read my mind. Less than $5, you'll see me spending wildly on books by authors I've never read who sound promising. More than $10, you have to be on my favorite author list.

Best,
Brian

[Fayth]

I'm absolutely fine with price tags between $10-$15 for a newly released ebook of a title only available on hardcover. When the cheaper paperbacks come out, $6-$8 seems more acceptable to me. I don't really hold to the opinion that simply because ebooks are cheaper to produce they should be significantly cheaper to buy.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by BrianFreeman

It's pretty much like you read my mind. Less than $5, you'll see me spending wildly on books by authors I've never read who sound promising. More than $10, you have to be on my favorite author list.

Best,
Brian

This!

I spent $12.99! for a new release from my favorite author. It hurt but she's my favorite author and I just had to have it. Every indie/new author book I've purchased has been under $5. There is only ONE author who I was unfamiliar with that I purchased that was priced at over $9.99 - but I waited until it was on sale and got it for under $5.