Cheap E-Books Crowd Best Sellers

edbro · 04-20-2011, 04:35 PM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000....html?ru=yahoo

Maybe agency pricing model might start backfiring.

Worldwalker · 04-20-2011, 05:16 PM

Hello, idiot author...

No, they're not "training their customers" -- they're responding to market demand by giving those customers what they're willing to buy. And clearly the demand is there.

Elfwreck · 04-20-2011, 05:39 PM

Agency pricing assumes ebook readers are converted hardcover readers. (After all, who else has $300 to spend on a book device?)

I think the majority of ebook readers are converted used-paperback readers, the people who are constantly looking for MORE STUFF TO READ and tired of carrying around 2-3 books at a time, and were willing to fork over $$ for a device that held them all at once. Those readers are looking for $1-5 books, and just like they were willing to scour the used book bins looking for authors they'd never heard of that sounded interesting, they're willing to crawl through book listings & take a chance based on cover art & an interesting description.

covingtoncat73 · 04-20-2011, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Agency pricing assumes ebook readers are converted hardcover readers. (After all, who else has $300 to spend on a book device?)

I think the majority of ebook readers are converted used-paperback readers, the people who are constantly looking for MORE STUFF TO READ and tired of carrying around 2-3 books at a time, and were willing to fork over $$ for a device that held them all at once. Those readers are looking for $1-5 books, and just like they were willing to scour the used book bins looking for authors they'd never heard of that sounded interesting, they're willing to crawl through book listings & take a chance based on cover art & an interesting description.

Well, I paid $70 - a $25 gift certificate for my Kobo. I only started eReading about a month ago but I am buying and reading and checking books (eBooks, that is) out from the library more. My favorite read of the past month and 1/2 was an expensive one at $12 but well worth it, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. However, the runners-up are The Other Mr. Darcy, which I got for $ 0.89 and Galore, which I am still reading and am borrowing from the library for free.

Anyway, I am not a lost hardcover sale. I can't afford many new hardcovers. I did buy Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, new in hardcover but my habit was to check out the audiobook from the library and, if I really loved it, get a used hardcover from Amazon. I have also gotten used paperbacks from the used bookstore and some new paperbacks.

That was before I got my eReadr, though. I like the instant, from-home gratification of it and, to get back on topic, I think that $5 is right for a big-name, new release in an eBook. Everything else should be less, like $ 0.99-$2.99.

abookreader · 04-20-2011, 05:55 PM

nice

"Publishing Executive who asks not to be named...."

Does anybody have a link to the full article?

jgaiser · 04-20-2011, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I think the majority of ebook readers are converted used-paperback readers, the people who are constantly looking for MORE STUFF TO READ and tired of carrying around 2-3 books at a time, and were willing to fork over $$ for a device that held them all at once. Those readers are looking for $1-5 books, and just like they were willing to scour the used book bins looking for authors they'd never heard of that sounded interesting, they're willing to crawl through book listings & take a chance based on cover art & an interesting description.

Yep.. That's me. Almost never buy hardbacks. Don't buy full price for paperbacks if I can find it used (luckily I have a great used bookstore nearby) and my Kindle/Nook/iPad are full of cheap books. Thanks to MR and Baen.

Worldwalker · 04-20-2011, 06:09 PM

I'm another one who isn't a lost hardcover sale. I've got no damn room for hardcovers, even if I could afford any reasonable percentage of the books I want to read at that price. My book budget (in both shelf space and cash) goes for the reference books that I need or want, often oversized and not suitable for my 505 even if they were available. What I read on the 505 is almost entirely fiction, a lot of fiction. Most of it fiction from decades (if not centuries) ago.

The way to get my new-book dollar is to price the kind of things I buy at yard sales and charity tables within my "impulse buy" range -- which, for a book, is $3 or so. More than that and I have to think about it, but for three bucks, I'll buy it and see if I like it -- and as Tim Myers can tell you, if I do like it I'll go buy another dozen books by the same author.

He's a perfect example: I'd never read any of his books until I talked to him on MobileRead. I tried the books. I liked them. I've bought close to 20 of them so far (the man is prolific!) and I'll get more after I'm caught up on reading these. Did he make as much profit from me as a publisher who sold me a full-price hardcover novel? We don't have to try to figure out book costs here, because it's very simple: existence always trumps non-existence, and there is no publisher who sold me a full-price hardcover novel, not in the past 5 years or so anyway. I don't have the space for them. And at the rate I read, I don't have the money for them either. Tim Myers could have made a penny from me and he'd still be ahead of the HC publishers because even before I got my ebook reader, I wasn't buying their books.

That's what the publishers aren't getting: they're "protecting" their HC sales by refusing to sell to the market that is out there waving money at them. They're too concerned about gross and not concerned enough about net, let alone volume.

They're leaving my money on the table. It's not that I don't buy books ... it's that I don't buy their books. If they want my money, they really need to do something about that.

covingtoncat73 · 04-20-2011, 06:25 PM

My current example of this with Stephen King's Dark Tower books. I am listening to them on audiobook from my public library, which has 2 of them in eAudio and 1 in eAudio and ePub. The rest, it has in physical books and/or audio CDs.

Anyway, the eBooks are $10! If they were $5, I might have bought them. However, I did get 3 of them in paperbook format for .25 each at a friends of the library sale. The remaining 4 should be at the used bookstore in paperback and the paperbacks, I can share.

Janette55 · 04-20-2011, 07:09 PM

I will admit that I do and will buy HB, but this will be only for series that I read that are already in hardback. I am willing to pay the $14 for those books. I won't say the word never, but new authors or even some that are "old" ones but who's series are not high on my list to buy, they will be bought in ebook.

And I will be honest and state that inability to read the print words in DTB is a major factor in what I buy.

HB and Trade font sizes are easier for me to read over pb. I find that I am really enjoying my reader, am reading more often from it than I do DTB, but will have to read some to keep up with series I enjoy so much.

My plans are to backtrack and buy the series that I like to read in DTB and replace them in ebooks. That way I can still read them. If they go to HB I won't be buying them, just ones that I already have started in HB.

SensualPoet · 04-20-2011, 07:36 PM

There was some useful info in the article ... but I agree the author is a bit of a red herring here. I have not been put out by agency pricing: in general, $9.99 is a barrier ... and I am much happier when the final price (with tax if applicable) lands under $8 ... or $6, depending on the content.

And for all the electrons spend railing against agency pricing around the net and here at MR, I've also noticed a lot of agency books priced far below $12.99 to $14.99. All that agency pricing seems to be doing is "windowing" new releases; a lot of back title material is priced as you might expect and almost everything is lower than hard cover, trade or mass paper, depending what's actually in print for a specific title.

I frankly don't blame publishers for trying to get a premium for new stuff because some people (and lots of people: that's what makes the books bestsellers); I just choose to read something else in the meantime. And, it has to be said, bestsellers are the MOST likely to turn up at public libraries (for free) or appear later at affordable prices.

Piper_ · 04-20-2011, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

And for all the electrons spend railing against agency pricing around the net and here at MR, I've also noticed a lot of agency books priced far below $12.99 to $14.99. All that agency pricing seems to be doing is "windowing" new releases; a lot of back title material is priced as you might expect and almost everything is lower than hard cover, trade or mass paper, depending what's actually in print for a specific title.

I frankly don't blame publishers for trying to get a premium for new stuff because some people (and lots of people: that's what makes the books bestsellers); I just choose to read something else in the meantime.

I don't blame them for the premium on new releases, either.

I don't think agency is only affecting that window, though. I had a bunch of backlist Random House books in my ereader IQ price watch list that were $5-7 when i put them on, and when they went to agency, they jumped, sometimes over $10.

I haven't seen a drop in any since then. Not that none of their books have - just none on my list. So it's hard for me to be cool that they went agency on us.

RockdaMan · 04-20-2011, 09:16 PM

Two things jumped out at me:

Quote:

"They're training their customers away from brand name authors and are instead creating visibility for self-published titles," one senior publishing executive who asked not to be identified, says of Amazon.

So whose customer are you primarily? Amazon or the publisher?

Quote:

"When I saw that highly successful authors were charging $9.99 for an e-book, I thought that if I can make a profit at 99 cents, I no longer have to prove I'm as good as them," says Mr. Locke. "Rather, they have to prove they are ten times better than me."

Mr. Locke earns 35 cents for every title he sells at 99 cents. Altogether, he says his publishing revenue amounted to $126,000 from Amazon in March alone.

I'd love to know what the publishers think about that.

Freeshadow · 04-20-2011, 09:54 PM

is it enough if I just hop around frantically waving and screaming "Me too, me too!!!" while I point at:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

majority of ebook readers are converted used-paperback readers, the people who are constantly looking for MORE STUFF TO READ and tired of carrying around 2-3 books at a time, and were willing to fork over $$ for a device that held them all at once. Those readers are looking for $1-5 books, and just like they were willing to scour the used book bins

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yep.. That's me. Almost never buy hardbacks. Don't buy full price for paperbacks if I can find it used

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

there is no publisher who sold me a full-price hardcover novel, not in the past 5 years or so anyway. I don't have the space for them. And at the rate I read, I don't have the money for them either.
(...)

That's what the publishers aren't getting: they're "protecting" their HC sales by refusing to sell to the market that is out there waving money at them. They're too concerned about gross and not concerned enough about net, let alone volume.

They're leaving my money on the table. It's not that I don't buy books ... it's that I don't buy their books. If they want my money, they really need to do something about that.

TallMomof2 · 04-20-2011, 11:05 PM

I was buying hardbacks before I bought an ereader because it was easier for me to read the book. But I never, every paid full retail. Library checkout, used or highly discounted were the only ways I'd read a hardback. Nowadays, I see if the library has the ebook (rarely) if the price for the ebook is right (well under $10) then I might buy.

rhadin · 04-21-2011, 06:35 AM

I have not slowed my pace of buying hardcover books since getting an ereader device 3+ years ago. Instead, I have increased my fiction buying.

Previously, I rarely bought fiction; just a few authors whose writing I particularly liked. I mainly bought hardcover nonfiction. Today, I continue to buy hardcover nonfiction and hardcovers of a few favorite fiction authors, just as i did previously; however, I have greatly expanded my fiction reading so that I am now buying many eboos (fiction) that I would never have bought in either hardcover or paperback -- and they are mainly indie authors. I refuse to buy in any format the James Patterson-type junk. Since January 1, I have purcahsed more than 150 fiction ebooks, which, as I said earlier, are wholly new sales, not replacement sales.

04-20-2011, 04:35 PM	#1
edbro Banned Posts: 640 Karma: 4911 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Grapevine, TX Device: iPad4	Cheap E-Books Crowd Best Sellers http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000....html?ru=yahoo Maybe agency pricing model might start backfiring.

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04-20-2011, 05:16 PM	#2
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	Hello, idiot author... No, they're not "training their customers" -- they're responding to market demand by giving those customers what they're willing to buy. And clearly the demand is there.

04-20-2011, 05:39 PM	#3
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,187 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	Agency pricing assumes ebook readers are converted hardcover readers. (After all, who else has $300 to spend on a book device?) I think the majority of ebook readers are converted used-paperback readers, the people who are constantly looking for MORE STUFF TO READ and tired of carrying around 2-3 books at a time, and were willing to fork over $$ for a device that held them all at once. Those readers are looking for $1-5 books, and just like they were willing to scour the used book bins looking for authors they'd never heard of that sounded interesting, they're willing to crawl through book listings & take a chance based on cover art & an interesting description.

04-20-2011, 05:55 PM	#5
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	nice "Publishing Executive who asks not to be named...." Does anybody have a link to the full article?

04-20-2011, 06:09 PM	#7
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	I'm another one who isn't a lost hardcover sale. I've got no damn room for hardcovers, even if I could afford any reasonable percentage of the books I want to read at that price. My book budget (in both shelf space and cash) goes for the reference books that I need or want, often oversized and not suitable for my 505 even if they were available. What I read on the 505 is almost entirely fiction, a lot of fiction. Most of it fiction from decades (if not centuries) ago. The way to get my new-book dollar is to price the kind of things I buy at yard sales and charity tables within my "impulse buy" range -- which, for a book, is $3 or so. More than that and I have to think about it, but for three bucks, I'll buy it and see if I like it -- and as Tim Myers can tell you, if I do like it I'll go buy another dozen books by the same author. He's a perfect example: I'd never read any of his books until I talked to him on MobileRead. I tried the books. I liked them. I've bought close to 20 of them so far (the man is prolific!) and I'll get more after I'm caught up on reading these. Did he make as much profit from me as a publisher who sold me a full-price hardcover novel? We don't have to try to figure out book costs here, because it's very simple: existence always trumps non-existence, and there is no publisher who sold me a full-price hardcover novel, not in the past 5 years or so anyway. I don't have the space for them. And at the rate I read, I don't have the money for them either. Tim Myers could have made a penny from me and he'd still be ahead of the HC publishers because even before I got my ebook reader, I wasn't buying their books. That's what the publishers aren't getting: they're "protecting" their HC sales by refusing to sell to the market that is out there waving money at them. They're too concerned about gross and not concerned enough about net, let alone volume. They're leaving my money on the table. It's not that I don't buy books ... it's that I don't buy their books. If they want my money, they really need to do something about that.

04-20-2011, 06:25 PM	#8
covingtoncat73 Wizard Posts: 2,745 Karma: 83407757 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Lenovo Duet Chromebook, Moto e	My current example of this with Stephen King's Dark Tower books. I am listening to them on audiobook from my public library, which has 2 of them in eAudio and 1 in eAudio and ePub. The rest, it has in physical books and/or audio CDs. Anyway, the eBooks are $10! If they were $5, I might have bought them. However, I did get 3 of them in paperbook format for .25 each at a friends of the library sale. The remaining 4 should be at the used bookstore in paperback and the paperbacks, I can share.

04-20-2011, 07:09 PM	#9
Janette55 Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 2056 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Ohio Device: Sony 900	I will admit that I do and will buy HB, but this will be only for series that I read that are already in hardback. I am willing to pay the $14 for those books. I won't say the word never, but new authors or even some that are "old" ones but who's series are not high on my list to buy, they will be bought in ebook. And I will be honest and state that inability to read the print words in DTB is a major factor in what I buy. HB and Trade font sizes are easier for me to read over pb. I find that I am really enjoying my reader, am reading more often from it than I do DTB, but will have to read some to keep up with series I enjoy so much. My plans are to backtrack and buy the series that I like to read in DTB and replace them in ebooks. That way I can still read them. If they go to HB I won't be buying them, just ones that I already have started in HB.

04-20-2011, 07:36 PM	#10
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	There was some useful info in the article ... but I agree the author is a bit of a red herring here. I have not been put out by agency pricing: in general, $9.99 is a barrier ... and I am much happier when the final price (with tax if applicable) lands under $8 ... or $6, depending on the content. And for all the electrons spend railing against agency pricing around the net and here at MR, I've also noticed a lot of agency books priced far below $12.99 to $14.99. All that agency pricing seems to be doing is "windowing" new releases; a lot of back title material is priced as you might expect and almost everything is lower than hard cover, trade or mass paper, depending what's actually in print for a specific title. I frankly don't blame publishers for trying to get a premium for new stuff because some people (and lots of people: that's what makes the books bestsellers); I just choose to read something else in the meantime. And, it has to be said, bestsellers are the MOST likely to turn up at public libraries (for free) or appear later at affordable prices.

04-20-2011, 11:05 PM	#14
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	I was buying hardbacks before I bought an ereader because it was easier for me to read the book. But I never, every paid full retail. Library checkout, used or highly discounted were the only ways I'd read a hardback. Nowadays, I see if the library has the ebook (rarely) if the price for the ebook is right (well under $10) then I might buy.

04-21-2011, 06:35 AM	#15
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	I have not slowed my pace of buying hardcover books since getting an ereader device 3+ years ago. Instead, I have increased my fiction buying. Previously, I rarely bought fiction; just a few authors whose writing I particularly liked. I mainly bought hardcover nonfiction. Today, I continue to buy hardcover nonfiction and hardcovers of a few favorite fiction authors, just as i did previously; however, I have greatly expanded my fiction reading so that I am now buying many eboos (fiction) that I would never have bought in either hardcover or paperback -- and they are mainly indie authors. I refuse to buy in any format the James Patterson-type junk. Since January 1, I have purcahsed more than 150 fiction ebooks, which, as I said earlier, are wholly new sales, not replacement sales.