Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

90% of the complaints I have seen about eBook pricing in the past 3 months have made it clear that the problem occurs when the eBook costs either (a) more than $9 and/or (b) more than the latest paper version.

Not including, of course, miscellaneous "used" books at $2, etc.

I agree: Any ebook at $7US has a hard time getting my money... I'm good with any ebook at $5 or less. $9 or more I'll hardly entertain.

Sometimes I think that maybe, if ebooks could add some "extra" material to the text, similar to DVD's extra features, it might be worth spending more than $9 for an ebook. But usually, I'm damned if I can think of what extra features would be worth that. Research notes? Outlines and drafts? Unused scenes? Character notes? And I'm not sure how desirable that would be from a nobody author (like me, for instance)... but would you pay extra for that stuff if it came from King? Rowling? Comley?

[Blue Tyson]

I wouldn't pay extra, generally speaking, but it would raise the probability of the book being purchased.

e.g. see some of the things Konrath has done with some editions - like in Draculas.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Sometimes I think that maybe, if ebooks could add some "extra" material to the text, similar to DVD's extra features, it might be worth spending more than $9 for an ebook. But usually, I'm damned if I can think of what extra features would be worth that. Research notes? Outlines and drafts? Unused scenes? Character notes? And I'm not sure how desirable that would be from a nobody author (like me, for instance)... but would you pay extra for that stuff if it came from King? Rowling? Comley?

I'm not charging extra for it (it's free), but my debut book has "extras" in the form of an author afterword "deconstruction" (because that's kind of what I do on my blog), and character portraits and short histories of why I wrote them the way I did.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

I wouldn't pay extra, generally speaking, but it would raise the probability of the book being purchased.

So you'll take extra stuff, but you won't pay for it? Extra work for authors, but no more profit? Some consumer you are!

Seriously, as long as most consumers display similar inflexibility over prices, I don't see how publishers can satisfy them anyway. If they drop the price, there will always be those who insist it be lower. As I said before, this is a 2-way street, and consumers can't just barricade their end.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm not charging extra for it (it's free), but my debut book has "extras" in the form of an author afterword "deconstruction" (because that's kind of what I do on my blog), and character portraits and short histories of why I wrote them the way I did.

I have "afterwords" in most of my books as well... I come across very few books these days that don't have them, so they are pretty much expected. Mine range from examinations of the sciences or concepts involved, to my motivations for writing the story (often both). I have yet to include a story outline, character development notes, etc.

[Blue Tyson]

No, but you can't chuck in extraneous stuff and expect people will definitely pay more for it, either.

Copying and pasting in an interview or two, or emails or notes already written is worth how much to you?

Or how much would you pay for a 457 word afterword, standalone? Not much, I am pretty sure.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

So you'll take extra stuff, but you won't pay for it? Extra work for authors, but no more profit? Some consumer you are!

Really? Really?? Really.

I would tell you why I would check out extra stuff but wouldn't pay more for it: I've no idea if it'd be any good whatsoever.

Now, if X author released some character notes for free for their first few novels and I REALLY liked them, I might start paying more for them as zie made that a habit. Especially if zie was cool about it -- "I really like doing these extra editions, but they take a lot of work, so it's either charge a dollar more or stop, and I thought it best to let You The Readers decide."

As a consumer, I don't have a responsibility to throw money at everything that might be slightly shiny.

ETA: For comparison, my ending decon is 20,000 words. My book is 60,000 words (without decon, so my "extras" are the size of 1/3 of my book.

[din155]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Really? Really?? Really.

I would tell you why I would check out extra stuff but wouldn't pay more for it: I've no idea if it'd be any good whatsoever.

Now, if X author released some character notes for free for their first few novels and I REALLY liked them, I might start paying more for them as zie made that a habit. Especially if zie was cool about it -- "I really like doing these extra editions, but they take a lot of work, so it's either charge a dollar more or stop, and I thought it best to let You The Readers decide."

As a consumer, I don't have a responsibility to throw money at everything that might be slightly shiny.

ETA: For comparison, my ending decon is 20,000 words. My book is 60,000 words (without decon, so my "extras" are the size of 1/3 of my book.

This.
I don't look at the extras in the book. Infact the only thing that I care about in the book apart from the main content is the author name. So, any amount of extra will not add anything for me unless it is another story altogether.

[din155]

Originally Posted by jessicalynn

I agree, but I would replace "latest DTB version" with mass market paperback version (usually 7.99.)

When you spend 14.99 or whatever on a hardback book, it forever remains a hardback book, which is arguably of better quality than a mmp. However, when you pay 12.99-14.99 on a new release e-book, there's nothing extra special about it except you're getting to read it upon release. When the price drops later, the edition will still be exactly the same.

So I just wait til the price drops or get it from the library.

I obviously buy it when it comes down to the paperback price. But I understand why the publishers want to keep the prices same as hardback ones at the time of release.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by din155

I obviously buy it when it comes down to the paperback price. But I understand why the publishers want to keep the prices same as hardback ones at the time of release.

I have no problem at all with the price of an eBook falling the match a paperback release. Those who want to read it immediately on publication can choose to buy it immediately at hardback prices; others can choose to wait for the price to fall when the paperback is released. Given the years-long state of my reading list, it's of no particular concern to me to wait 6 months or a year to read a book; there's always lots of other books to read.

[stonetools]

Interesting responses. I guess that the goalposts have moved from "9.99 is the natural price for an ebook because Amazon says so."

The market-clearing price of any good is going based to be based on the demand for the ebook, so time of the release and who the author is going to determine what the price of an ebook is. Size also matters ( the bigger the ebook and the more work that goes into it, the pricier it will be).

I remember some folks were shocked when Ken Follet's " Fall of Eagles" came out at $19.99 and folks confidently predicted that "no one" would buy it at that price. Well, some folks did buy it because it shot to the top of the best seller lists and stayed there a while .

"The Greater Journey" by David McCullough was another huge bestseller at 19.99. And the bestselling nonfiction book of last year was probably " Unbroken" , which was 12.99 or better all year long and has only recently slipped to #12 on Amazon's ranking.
Based on this, its pretty clear that , whatever the forum might think, the general public can and will pay more for "premium" authors. Assured writing quality still matters above all.

[HarryT]

I've just paid £8.85 ($13.60) each for four James Herriot Kindle books, simply because I've been waiting for an eternity for them to appear as eBooks, and I'm willing to pay that much for them because they are such wonderful books. For some completely inexplicably reason, the fifth book in the series was a much more modest £5.31.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Let me ask those people who think that eBooks are too expensive a question:

The standard price for a paperback book in the UK is £7.99 (about $12.30); that's what you'll pay in any physical bookshop.

What would you consider to be a reasonable price for the corresponding eBook, assuming it to be nicely formatted, error-free, etc?

£3.99. Perhaps even £4.49.

[din155]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have no problem at all with the price of an eBook falling the match a paperback release......
....there's always lots of other books to read.

I try to follow this practice but there are times when I want to read a particular book at that instant. At times like these (which are very few) I don't bother and buy it anyway. Fortunately, I am not into bestsellers and read most of my books based on recommendations from this forum so I never actually have bought any book which was priced more than its paperback version.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I remember some folks were shocked when Ken Follet's " Fall of Eagles" came out at $19.99 and folks confidently predicted that "no one" would buy it at that price. Well, some folks did buy it because it shot to the top of the best seller lists and stayed there a while.

Bestseller print lists are made by sales to distributors, not customers; returns are not considered.

Bestseller ebook lists at Amazon are calculated using free samples downloaded in addition to sales; getting a few hundred people to download a sample will cause a spike in the numbers--the thousands who download samples of new advertised books will drive highly-advertised books up the charts.

Bestseller NYTimes ebook lists refuse to count self-published books that are a substantial portion of popular ebook sales.

I'm not saying it didn't sell, or didn't sell well--just saying that "top of the charts" is a matter of publicity and hype as much as it's a matter of copies sold.

And yes, there are plenty of people who'll pay those prices. Those aren't the majority of readers. Stross pointed out that 75% of an author's fans--readers--never contribute financially to the author. The majority of readers don't buy new books full price, and the big publishers are oblivious to them as a viable market for ebooks, because our purchase levels are below their sales point.

Doesn't mean we're not purchasing; we're just not purchasing their wares.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have no problem at all with the price of an eBook falling the match a paperback release. Those who want to read it immediately on publication can choose to buy it immediately at hardback prices; others can choose to wait for the price to fall when the paperback is released. Given the years-long state of my reading list, it's of no particular concern to me to wait 6 months or a year to read a book; there's always lots of other books to read.

For what it's worth, this is fine with me, too. (Since we're polling! )

I've always accepted that the higher hardcover price is largely about "newness" and "nowness" and not about the actual materials. As long as the ebook actually falls with the paperbook, I'm fine.

BUT. I have seen cases where... somehow?... the publisher with the ebook and the hardcover are different from the publisher with the paperback. And then Pub1 won't bring down the ebook cost to Pub2's paperbook. And that's not fun.