Agency pricing

[bathos]

I bought a few Kelley Armstrong books from Amazon UK about a month ago. The price was set by the publisher at £4.49. A few weeks later all of those books are now £6.99. How on earth can the publishers justify that price jump? I wanted some more of her books but wont be buying them so both the publisher and author lose sales. They lose sales on both her backlist and any future books. How short sighted can they be?

There are plenty of other books out there.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Keryl Raist

I've got my book on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. I'm in the process of getting it up on DriveThruFantasy.com. Rumor has it if you've got a mac getting set up with the Apple store isn't massively complicated (but I don't have a mac, so using Smashwords was fine by me.) You can also get a paper copy on Amazon. And if you want a PDF, I'll sell one to you directly.

So, yeah, I can sell in numerous venues.

If I had the savy and the time, I could set my website up to sell .mobi, epub, and pdf, but that's a bit beyond what I'm looking to do right now. It's easier to let the big boys handle the distribution end of things.

Very nice! Not selling via Apple's iBooks is actually a benefit. It means you know how evil apple really is when it comes to eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Keryl Raist

I think this is what agency pricing, when it's that high, is supposed to do, push you toward buying physical books.

I think the publishers are idiots for using this technique, but all the same, they're doing it. They know low ebook prices cannibalize the sales of their physical books. They want to sell physical books because making and selling physical books is their business. They're currently fighting against the reality that their real business is producing content, not producing the way that content gets to people. When they realize this, and start jettisoning their physical production stuff, they'll probably go guns blazing into low priced ebooks.

In my case, I'd not buy anything and go to the library to find the eBook or pBook and read it for free. Thus, they lose money. This is not how to run a business.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by leebase

Right and there is nothing new about that. Just like hard back books always cost way "too much" before there ever were ebooks. Nothing new here. Nifnits too much, you don't buy the book.

Lee

Yeah, but those hardbacks eventually ended up in remainder bins, used book stores, and book sales for $4.99 and the like. Or at the public library for the cost of your local property tax already paid. Will that ever happen to e-books?

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Yeah, but those hardbacks eventually ended up in remainder bins, used book stores, and book sales for $4.99 and the like. Or at the public library for the cost of your local property tax already paid. Will that ever happen to e-books?

Nope. Digital goods are not the same as physical goods. There is no such thing as "used digital goods". There will never be a "we bought too many of these books so take them off our hands real cheap" for digital books.

On the other hand, digital books will never go "out of print". If you lose your ebook reader, you can still redownload all your books (from most any of the major ebook retailers).

You start getting older -- your ebook is now a "LARGE TYPE BOOK".

etc. etc.

ebooks will never be exactly the same as physical books -- and that's a good thing.

Lee

[Joykins]

What I think I find disturbing is that entry-level priced reading material is rarely going to be electronic if this is the case--setting aside things like public domain materials, Overdrive loans, Baen Webscription cascades, and promotional freebies. I don't know what this means in terms of nurturing the next generation of readers. My kids get most of their "new" releases from the library and used book sales, because they (and we) cannot afford as many books if we get them actually new.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Joykins

What I think I find disturbing is that entry-level priced reading material is rarely going to be electronic if this is the case--setting aside things like public domain materials, Overdrive loans, Baen Webscription cascades, and promotional freebies. I don't know what this means in terms of nurturing the next generation of readers. My kids get most of their "new" releases from the library and used book sales, because they (and we) cannot afford as many books if we get them actually new.

You gotta be kidding me. Kids with digital readers will have instant access to most all of the books of the world from all time instantly downloadable. Gone are the days where the sci-fi selection is paltry because your school librarian doesn't like sci-fi.

In a few years libraries will be up to speed on the ebook revolution and there will be an equal, or likely larger, selection of ebooks to check out than there are physical books.

I'd much rather be a kid of today with regard to reading opportunities than having to depend on used paperbacks and my local small town library for my universe of available books to read.

Lee

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by leebase

Why should a publisher put out an ebook for $9.99 when it's still wishing to sell it's $25 hard backs? Lunacy.

I know one publisher that puts out $6 ebooks against $25 hardbacks....

[leebase]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I know one publisher that puts out $6 ebooks against $25 hardbacks....

They also put out a great deal of their ebooks for free.

Interestingly, though, they don't put out the paper back at the same time as the hard back.

Lee

[Barty]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In my case, I'd not buy anything and go to the library to find the eBook or pBook and read it for free. Thus, they lose money. This is not how to run a business.

Oh, I think they have a few plans for your library, too...

Resistance is futile.

[Janette55]

From what it sound to me is that books from series that I read I will be forced to pay a higher price due to this whatever you want to name it. It seems that several publishing companies have gather together and have set a fixed price for their books, and will not let the businesses sell them at a lower price.

Sugar coat it any way you want, it's seems to be publishing companies gathering together to rip off readers.

I am going to have to check to see what series I buy that are from these agencies, and hope that there are very few.

I don't understand how they can't see that it is going to hurt them, in the long run. Some readers may be willing to pay the price for certain books, but many will either wait to buy them used, borrow from libraries or join online book swapping clubs.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by leebase

You gotta be kidding me. Kids with digital readers will have instant access to most all of the books of the world from all time instantly downloadable. Gone are the days where the sci-fi selection is paltry because your school librarian doesn't like sci-fi.

In a few years libraries will be up to speed on the ebook revolution and there will be an equal, or likely larger, selection of ebooks to check out than there are physical books.

I'd much rather be a kid of today with regard to reading opportunities than having to depend on used paperbacks and my local small town library for my universe of available books to read.

Lee

You're assuming publishers will allow libraries to purchase/lease their inventories. Simon & Schuster and Macmillan don't currently allow it. And now Harper Collins has added limitations. How many indie and self publishers are available on Overdrive? Not many, if any.

Paper books drop in price over time but ebooks will increase in price. For those now on limited budgets ebooks may gradually be priced out of range. Unless copyright terms change.