Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

My frustration - and I can only speak for mine - is that publishers want me to pay differently for an ebook that the print book. Hell, I was ticked off when publishers started using trade paper books as an intermediary between hardback and MMPB. I don't think ANY fiction book is worth $26 or even $15. My personal "sweet-spot" for the average-length fiction story is $5-$6, but I'm happy to pay less if I can get a nice deal and have been known to pay more if I want it NOW and don't want to wait for it to have a deal or come down to a MMPB price.

Right. Basically, Baen have it right I think. $6 is good for new books. $5 and $4 for older ones that people are not as interested in they do also for some titles - and even some omnibuses.

I hate trade paperbacks, too. Take up too much space, often the paper is crappy for the price, the covers curl up in our weather, yuck fonts and spacing etc. etc.

The pricing above for ebooks is what Dean Wesley Smith advocates similarly on his website I think, 4.99 or so for a novel/collection for the books they do independently.

In those ballparks are good value for reader money. Basically a bit less than what a paperback could be made for.

Now we have the Australian situation where two of the six big publishers want to charge 13-15 for OLD books and $21-$35 for new ones. Crazy. And there they were saying agency pricing means same prices for everyone.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Now we have the Australian situation where two of the six big publishers want to charge 13-15 for OLD books and $21-$35 for new ones. Crazy. And there they were saying agency pricing means same prices for everyone.

It's been many years since I looked into proxy servers, but there must be some safe, secure, inexpensive proxy services through which you can appear to reside in the geographical location of your choice. It's detestable that sellers drive you to need a proxy service, but c'est la vie. With a proxy service, you can appear to be in the UK, the US, or elsewhere. If the seller restricts by payment type, then you'll have find a location-neutral payment method.

edit: I saw HideMyNet mentioned by someone as a good service. I have no first-hand knowledge. $4/month for VPN and selectable proxy location. Something like this only makes financial sense if you purchase a sufficient number of books each month.

[Blue Tyson]

Sure, but it is a hassle though. Make up new account, do fake details, get a different prepaid card. Also costs money if you want a secure one. Also slower and resource consuming, going through a vpn.

Some of them have options for tons of different countries, vpn services.

Whereas in a minute or two in most cases you can get the book for free.

[Kevin8or]

It's a detestable state of affairs, but the hassle could make sense for you, if e-books in Australia become much more expensive than elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Whereas in a minute or two in most cases you can get the book for free.

If you take that option, a VPN service might still be useful to you for personal security. Not that I'm encouraging it.

[sabredog]

I took a different path than using a VPN to circumvent geographic restrictions

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Companies aren't people though. So realistically no-one in general terms will ever care how they 'feel'.

Clearly you haven't had discourse with the folks running for the Republican nomination for president or with the right-leaning members of the U.S. Supreme Court. According to them, corporations are people.

I'm waiting for them to declare a baseball bat is just an unthinking, skinny, juvenile delinquent and thus entitled to vote.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Clearly he feels that the avalanche of cheap and free books in the Amazon catalogue is not a good thing long term for the book industry. He seems to want the publishers to do more, not less, to defend the value of books. What do you think of THEM apples?

I think he is right about the long-term. I look at the change in my own book-buying habits and do not see good things for the publishing world, i.e., both authors and publishers.

Until I received my first ereading device (Sony 505) 4 years ago, I spent $5,000 and more each year on books, nearly all hardcovers. During the first year of my 505 ownership, my hardcover purchases declined but only by about 10%. I was still finding my equilibrium. During that first year, MR introduced me to Fictionwise and Baen and between Sony, Fictionwise, and Baen, I spent close to $1,000 on ebooks.

In my second year of 505 ownership, my visits to the local bookstore, which occurred in previous years as frequently as weekly, declined to a couple of times a month, and sometimes once a month. My hardcover purchases declined by at least 25% from the year before but, more importantly, my ebook purchases for money declined as well. I had discovered the world of free ebooks.

This past year, my first year with my upgrade to a Sony 950 and the giving of my 505 to my wife, hardcover purchases have declined dramatically. I spent about $1,500 on hardcovers and I visited the local bookstore on average once a month.

But an even steeper decline occurred in ebooks. In 2011, I spent less than $200 buying ebooks, yet I increased my ebook library by more than 650 ebooks. Obviously, most of them were free. Of the ones I did buy for dollars, nearly all were purchased at either Baen (a couple only) or Smashwords (99% of them) and the price was $2.99 or less with but a couple of exceptions where I splurged and spent up to $4.99.

It is not that I am reading less -- I'm not; I'm actually reading more than ever thanks to my Sony 950 -- but I am spending less because so many books are available at no to very little cost. I do not even look at ebooks that are sold for $7.99 or above. In my first year as an ebooker, I looked and occasionally bought $7.99 and up priced ebooks; now, I do neither.

I simply do not see the value in ebooks to warrant pricing at $11.99, $12.99, or higher. If I strip the DRM or cleanup the formatting or scanning errors, I increase the value, but that is me doing the work that the authors and publishers should be doing. Consequently, I do not see ebooks as value laden. I see them entirely as read once and delete, which doesn't warrant high pricing.

Am I missing out on some of the better authors? Yes, but there are more than enough very good to excellent indie authors at $2.99 or less to read that I see no sense in spending higher sums. I suspect that Amazon will ultimately make free the ebook the price point; it certainly is doing nothing to encourage high price purchases but is doing a lot to encourage free.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Clearly you haven't had discourse with the folks running for the Republican nomination for president or with the right-leaning members of the U.S. Supreme Court. According to them, corporations are people.

I'm waiting for them to declare a baseball bat is just an unthinking, skinny, juvenile delinquent and thus entitled to vote.

I'm waiting for a right-wing politician to execute a bunch of corporations - otherwise they are just hypocrites with their person thing.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Clearly you haven't had discourse with the folks running for the Republican nomination for president or with the right-leaning members of the U.S. Supreme Court. According to them, corporations are people.

I'm waiting for them to declare a baseball bat is just an unthinking, skinny, juvenile delinquent and thus entitled to vote.

Why not? It's smarter than the candidates.....

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I think he is right about the long-term. I look at the change in my own book-buying habits and do not see good things for the publishing world, i.e., both authors and publishers.

Until I received my first ereading device (Sony 505) 4 years ago, I spent $5,000 and more each year on books, nearly all hardcovers. During the first year of my 505 ownership, my hardcover purchases declined but only by about 10%. I was still finding my equilibrium. During that first year, MR introduced me to Fictionwise and Baen and between Sony, Fictionwise, and Baen, I spent close to $1,000 on ebooks.

In my second year of 505 ownership, my visits to the local bookstore, which occurred in previous years as frequently as weekly, declined to a couple of times a month, and sometimes once a month. My hardcover purchases declined by at least 25% from the year before but, more importantly, my ebook purchases for money declined as well. I had discovered the world of free ebooks.

This past year, my first year with my upgrade to a Sony 950 and the giving of my 505 to my wife, hardcover purchases have declined dramatically. I spent about $1,500 on hardcovers and I visited the local bookstore on average once a month.

But an even steeper decline occurred in ebooks. In 2011, I spent less than $200 buying ebooks, yet I increased my ebook library by more than 650 ebooks. Obviously, most of them were free. Of the ones I did buy for dollars, nearly all were purchased at either Baen (a couple only) or Smashwords (99% of them) and the price was $2.99 or less with but a couple of exceptions where I splurged and spent up to $4.99.

It is not that I am reading less -- I'm not; I'm actually reading more than ever thanks to my Sony 950 -- but I am spending less because so many books are available at no to very little cost. I do not even look at ebooks that are sold for $7.99 or above. In my first year as an ebooker, I looked and occasionally bought $7.99 and up priced ebooks; now, I do neither.

I simply do not see the value in ebooks to warrant pricing at $11.99, $12.99, or higher. If I strip the DRM or cleanup the formatting or scanning errors, I increase the value, but that is me doing the work that the authors and publishers should be doing. Consequently, I do not see ebooks as value laden. I see them entirely as read once and delete, which doesn't warrant high pricing.

Am I missing out on some of the better authors? Yes, but there are more than enough very good to excellent indie authors at $2.99 or less to read that I see no sense in spending higher sums. I suspect that Amazon will ultimately make free the ebook the price point; it certainly is doing nothing to encourage high price purchases but is doing a lot to encourage free.

How much less are the authors making at the lower prices versus agency prices? At the old 8-15%, probably not that much. However, the big 6 publishers are losing everything...

I wrote this back in 2009. It's very relevant to what you are saying.
And The World Changed - Chap 4.rtf
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...8&d=1233593328

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Heh. Let me throw in a completely different view about publisherrs and pricing, straight from a highly opinionated KIndle blogger:



LINK

RTWT. Obviously, Mr. Switch11 rejects the idea that publishers are overpricing books. Elsewhere he says:



Clearly he feels that the avalanche of cheap and free books in the Amazon catalogue is not a good thing long term for the book industry. He seems to want the publishers to do more, not less, to defend the value of books. What do you think of THEM apples?

It's death to book publishers. Period. But that's not death to writing or reading. Publishers are just being disintermediated out of existence. And nothing is going to stop that fact, at this stage...

Stonetools, why don't you check out this link? It's only 30 pages,and not a scree for piracy. It's a big picture view of what is going on in the digital world.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38305

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The publishers aren't being ripped off by their customers...

No? Then what's filling all those torrent sites? Family recipes?

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Companies aren't people though. So realistically no-one in general terms will ever care how they 'feel'.

Nothing to do with how they "feel;" it's about how they'll react... and no one's liked their reactions so far.

[Blue Tyson]

Stupider they get, the more likely they are to die though.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

No? Then what's filling all those torrent sites? Family recipes?

Yeah, cookbooks are pretty popular too.

[spindlegirl]

edited