How much do you pay for fiction ebooks?

[tubemonkey]

I pay free for my books (audiobooks and ebooks) via promos and the library. Sometimes I'll spend a buck or two of my own money; but that's rare.

[danskmacabre]

My upper limit varies a lot.
For tabletop Roleplaying game manuals, I usually buy them in PDF format and read them on my tablet.
I've paid up to 16 British pounds for that, although many Tabletop RPGs are legally free for PDF versions.

For epub novels, I've not bought much and I generally get them from here or the Gutenberg project for free.
I've gone to Smashwords sometimes and got free books, often an introductory novel from an author, occasionally bought a few epubs for maybe 2 or 3 USD.

but generally there's so much decent legally free stuff out there (if you dig around) , I'm probably good to go for many years not paying at all for ebooks.

I've been buying more second hand books as well lately, not actively searching for them, just come across some bargains sometimes and buy a pbook. Makes a nice change sometimes and pbooks are often cheaper than their ebook counterparts.

[Katsunami]

Oh, and by the way... with regard to promotions and discounts, I have no remorse or anything. If I can get a discount, I'll take it. Not buying a book using promo-codes if possible would be the same as saying:

"Oh, OK. Such and such food is on offer in store X. You know what? I'll go buy it in store Y and pay more, because I think that would be better fore the economy."

LOL. Not ever.

[DreamWriter]

I generally pay no more than $5 for e-books. I also borrow them from the library.

[VictoriaP]

Some authors are autobuys even at a prerelease price of $15 or so. But the number of authors I do that with has gone down quite a bit. Lately, though, I'm noticing that publishers are sharply discounting books just a few days or so after release, sometimes by quite a bit. If that trend continues, I think my release date purchases are going to drop even further.

Most books I'll pick up at $5-7...what I still think of as mass market paperback price. If I catch a cheaper deal, great, but I don't go out of my way to wait for one if a book interests me.

[Yapyap]

Regarding deals and promotions, I'm also rather assuming that publishers as well as authors would rather that people bought a book on a deal instead of borrowing from a friend, borrowing from the library, buying a used paperback, pirating a book or getting a completely different (free, cheap or expensive) book by another author and publisher.

Keeping an eye on deals and promo coupons pretty much means that instead of buying 30 books a year, I buy 250 books a year - that means another 220 books that authors and publishers get some money for, which they otherwise wouldn't get at all. And if I find out I really love some of those books, they'll get more money from me in the future - even up to full price, if I really like that author/book/new series.

It would be nice to be able to say "price is irrelevant" and buy everything at full price. Unfortunately not everyone's income allows that.

With paper books, I do buy them new if possible (unless out of print etc) - buying new on Book Depository (with free shipping) is rarely more expensive than buying used on Amazon UK or eBay (+ shipping), and if the price difference is negligible, I'd much rather see the author and publisher get that little bit of money.

Back on topic, I've just checked my spreadsheets and I'm definitely seeing a change in my book-buying habits: last year, my most expensive ebook was $12.21 and I paid more than $4 for 171 ebooks. This year, my most expensive ebook has been $8.56 and I've paid more than $4 for 36 books.

(On the other hand, unlike last year, this year I've also been buying ebooks for my mother - about 30 of them for €9-15 on average. I can't get them any cheaper for her; ebooks in Estonian are expensive, even if still cheaper than the same books in paper. This does mean that my book budget took a noticeable hit in what I can afford to spend on myself. My mother, whose entire monthly income is €200, cannot exactly afford to buy a single book herself, and libraries, with their non-changeable font paper books are out, so it's up to me to keep her in reading material. Unfortunately she doesn't read English.)

[MattW]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm generally unwilling to pay more than $5 for a fiction ebook.

[...]

But perhaps I'm just cheap. How much do you pay for your fiction reading?

Price is not a concern of mine (within limits, I'm not willing to pay $60 for a fiction book, for example); if it's a book I want, I'll buy it. Fortunately, I can afford that.

I love books and I know how little most authors make, so, yeah, I'd feel a bit cheap if I tried to pay as as little as possible for a book. But, most importantly, I don't want to miss out on a good book just because it costs 17.99 instead of 4.99. My time is worth more than that to me; I'd rather read the book I want to read than a cheaper one just because it's cheaper.

Reading isn't about filling up my time. Taking into account what a cup of coffee costs today, I think that $5 for a new book is pretty low; it somehow devalues the medium, IMHO.

I know that here on Mobileread a lot of people buy their books like you do ($5 and lower, see this thread) and of course that's fine. It's better to read something than to not read at all -- and there's certainly enough free classics to last anyone's lifetime.

But when I choose a book, price isn't something I look at. At all.

Matt

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by MattW

But when I choose a book, price isn't something I look at. At all.

Really? I'd love to be in a financial position where I could say the same. Limited income means finding ways to stretch the budget wherever I can. If that means waiting a couple of months for a new release to drop in price I'm fine with it.

[MattW]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Really? I'd love to be in a financial position where I could say the same. Limited income means finding ways to stretch the budget wherever I can. If that means waiting a couple of months for a new release to drop in price I'm fine with it.

It's mostly a matter of priorities. Granted, for some students, the unemployed and others, buying hardcovers (for example) is simply out of the question. But consider this: people easily pay 100$ for their cable TV - that's about five hardcovers per month right there. Most people don't even read 5 novels a month.

My income is limited, too (it's certainly not limitless), but I don't have a TV (and no cable, obviously); I don't own my flat (I rent) - I don't even own a car.

I'm not trying to convince you; I just find it interesting that so many people here are obviously not only tech-savvy but own multiple gadgets, yet don't want to shell out more than a couple of bucks for a novel. I guess for people like these, bargain-hunting is part of the fun; they seem to derive some satisfaction (and pleasure) from the fact that they've gotten something cheap or for free. Me, I don't care about that.

If it's a book I want, I'll buy it.

I can't say the same thing for gadgets (I want one of the shiny new iPad Airs, but I can't bring myself to actually buy one), because they're much more expensive -- but books? No questions asked.

Matt

[piperclassique]

As you say, it's a matter of priorities. I'm quite prepared to wait to buy a book, having a TBR list beyond reasonable life expectancy. I won't be short of a book I want to read while waiting. I have a reasonable amount of disposable income, but I'm not going to throw it away. I have other, rather expensive, hobbies which are time limited, as in do it now or not at all. So that's where the money goes. I do have a car, but no television, and I grow most of our food. It's all personal choice, in the end

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by piperclassique

As you say, it's a matter of priorities. I'm quite prepared to wait to buy a book, having a TBR list beyond reasonable life expectancy. I won't be short of a book I want to read while waiting. I have a reasonable amount of disposable income, but I'm not going to throw it away. I have other, rather expensive, hobbies which are time limited, as in do it now or not at all. So that's where the money goes. I do have a car, but no television, and I grow most of our food. It's all personal choice, in the end

That is swell growing your own food. I've tried at times but not that easy in a 2nd floor condo

When I was younger I spent a disproportionate amount of money on books and magazines. Books were cheaper, but my income was much lower. My income grew and I bought more but spent less proportionately. Then 20years ago I had to get rid of all of my books. I started using libraries a lot as I set out on an adventure that had me moving fairly often.

Now I am settled again, but I have no desire to collect books. I do have a lot of ebooks, many of which I scanned before getting rid of. Not sure why I keep them as many are quite ugly. Some weird hoarding instinct I guess. And of course maybe I will some day finish Walden Pond

I don't consider buying a book throwing money away, but I also don't consider paying $17.99 for a book I will read in 2 hours and never read again a wise use of my retirement income.

Helen

[jersysman]

I am a pretty frugal (heck cheap!) person. There are so many books out there that I probably would like to read that I cannot see paying more than $4.99 for a fiction book. However, I do buy a lot of them throughout the year. I will pay more for non-fiction books. I have paid $14.99 each for a series of Civil War books and biography books run in about the same ballpark. I have my ereaderiq and Luxme accounts to keep track of prices and I make good use of any coupons or discounts that come up. I miss Fictionwise!

[Angst]

normally less than $10 for fiction books. average price, maybe $6-7.

for one of my favorite authors i will pay the full initial price ($10-15), but that is only 2-3 authors.

for George R.R. Martin's latest novel, A Dance with Dragons, I waited 2 years for the price to drop from $14 to $3.

[tompe]

I just bought a Swedish book that I really would like to read now for 180 SEK which is $27.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I disagree. But this isn't the thread for this discussion.

Perhaps you should create a thread for the discussion of the ethical use of special offers and promotions in ebook purchases, since I've noticed you raising the issue in more than one thread.

Well, I was mostly annoyed in this thread by people saying that an action was bad because the author did not get any money. By that standard buying second hand, lending books and minimizing what you pay is bad also.

If people would like to say that an action is bad because it is against the law then they should say that and not try to amplify the opinion by using reasons that does not stand up to scrutiny.