Agency pricing (almost) 1 year on...how many e-books have you NOT bought?

[theducks]

I am lucky. There is enough 'New', DRM free material at Baen to keep me happy0 when along-side re-reads of my older library

So the Authors that chose DRM infested 'Agencies' LOSE the chance to compete for my $$ without even a glance at their work.
Gee!
They are making the same amount as if their work had been Pirated

[jkeene]

I've only been using a Kindle since early December, so my numbers are definitely smaller. One agency e-book I've declined to buy at $9.99, it has a major grammar error in the sample chapter. Might be ok at $7.99, certainly at $5. I won't know until it drops.

One agency e-book I did purchase at $9.99 with no regrets. Though it did have some editing errors further in, beyond the sample chapter, in whole it was worth it. Would've been even better if I'd received any response to my feedback about those errors.

[carld]

I've bought one agency book, and it was like pulling teeth out of a chicken.

[Anthem]

Blah, I just can't care about this!

(But I thought it was important enough to post a comment, so I may be lying.)

If a book is a price I'm willing to pay I freakin' buy/license it.

[foghat]

Not a one. I haven't come across any books that I wanted that were more than $10 - which imo is a perfectly reasonable price to pay for multiple hours worth of entertainment.

Most were well under $10.

As long as the book is under $20, I imagine I'd buy it if it was an author I liked.

[Catlady]

I didn't get my e-reader and start buying books until after Agency pricing was in effect. Though I initially balked at paying $12-$15 for some favorite backlist books, I eventually caved. But when I'm just trolling for something interesting, I've been much more likely to buy Random House-published books instead of Agency books. I also always check my library on the Agency titles, whereas I'll just purchase the RH books on impulse.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, most are not aware that agency pricing is a good thing that tries to break Amazons monopolistic tendencies and tries to save a sustainable book market.

Breaking monopolistic "tendencies" by creating an actual oligopoly of publishers? Isn't that like throwing all kids in jail since quite a few of them will end up there anyway?

[hgwlackey]

I haven't kept track, but there have been a number of books I didn't buy because of price. $9.99 is my upper limit (and I'm not that stingy with my upper limit--I probably bought nine or ten $9.99 books in December, for instance). I didn't buy any of Tana French's books last year, for instance, even though I wanted badly to read them. The first one--of three so far in the series--is STILL $14.99. I put it on hold at the library months ago, and I'm just now finally reading it, but I'll take waiting over paying $14.99 for a nearly 4-year-old release. I know "In the Woods" was hardly an exception; the others just aren't coming right to mind at the moment. There was definitely more than a handful of books I skipped buying, and they were all agency.

[FizzyWater]

It'll be interesting when I do my taxes this year. I always look at my annual online spending - and I'll be curious to see if my ebook spending dropped as much last year as I thought it has.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by theducks

So the Authors that chose DRM infested 'Agencies' LOSE the chance to compete for my $$ without even a glance at their work.
Gee!
They are making the same amount as if their work had been Pirated

Oh, please. Like authors go and choose their publishers because they just have to have that DRM? Here's the reality: authors are with publishers, and said publishers either choose DRM or don't. (Most do, unfortunately.) The matter is out of the authors' hands, at least for books already under contract (which is millions of books).

For me, as a buyer, I haven't noticed prices being particularly higher as a result of the agency model. But I miss the sales, and I hate that fictionwise shrank so drastically as a bookstore because they lost the agency pubs.

I've probably bought fewer books, but it's mainly because I'd already bought more than I can read in the next two years.

[ficbot]

I have spent $34 this year. By this time last year, I had spent about $400.

[mr ploppy]

The Office of Fair Trading in the UK is investigating it for violating our anti-competition laws. We had something similar with real books called the Net Book Agreement, it took years to get rid of that, so I'm not really expecting any quick results here. Any fines the OFT hands out to publishers will only lead to higher prices anyway.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/compet...rrent/e-books/

[Keryl Raist]

What do you think of the Indies? Technically, we're all agency priced too because that's the only way we can get onto Amazon or Barnes and Noble or whatever. Granted we're mostly charging .99-5.99. Are you boycotting us as well? And if not, why not?

[amoroso]

Originally Posted by sufue

Last week, in honor of the approaching one year anniversary of agency pricing, I tidied up the list and sent it to the appropriate five publishers.

You may also want to submit them to Lost Book Sales.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Keryl Raist

What do you think of the Indies? Technically, we're all agency priced too because that's the only way we can get onto Amazon or Barnes and Noble or whatever. Granted we're mostly charging .99-5.99. Are you boycotting us as well? And if not, why not?

I don't buy a lot of Indies, but not because of the agency model. It's mostly because I've become a very picky reader and am much less willing to take a chance than I once was.

With commercially published books I can usually use a combination of what I know of the publisher's range - and the other author blurbs - to get something of a feel for the book before considering it. I can also expect a certain minimum standard of technical competence on the part of the author.

With Indie books that goes out the window. They rarely have blurbs from people I recognize, and with everyone being an independent publisher, I'm less likely to know that this group publishes books I generally like, and this one publishes ones I generally don't.

There's also the fact that Indie books vary so much in quality. I've bought and read some that I really enjoyed - I've given up ten pages into others because they were so badly written. Good Indie books can be superb, but there are a lot more bad books out there - especially as the bad books are easier to produce (no need for pesky things like editing and proofing - even on the part of the author).

It's a pity, because I know some are superb, but I also know others aren't and the sheer number of bad books out there makes it hard to find the good ones.