How much do you pay for fiction ebooks?

[Anthem]

For obvious reasons my criteria (re: price) is dependent upon the book under consideration. If the book is probably crap or I am unsure about the author (or something similar, I won't list every contingency) I am unwilling to spend much but will occasionally if something has seriously piqued my interest.

But I'm willing to pay as much as is necessary for a fiction book if it is something that I truly desire. I would never artificially limit myself with price tags. Good fiction is hard to come by, and I'm willing to pay for it.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Text books and factual books are different. But for your general fiction reading, how much do you pay?[...] How much do you pay for your fiction reading?

Median? Nothing but council property taxes. I get most of my reading from the library. Average, of ebooks I buy - I don't know, maybe somewhere between five and ten dollars, shopping the Kobo discount codes.

[Geralt]

I don't differentiate between paper and ebook. If I want it I buy it.

[BadBilly]

Nothing.

At least not directly. I pay my taxes to support the library and I pay a monthly fee for Internet access. The library has all the new-ish books I want and the there are all kinds of free things online. I don't read very many books in a year. It's been a busy year and I am a slow reader. I do have one book I'm considering buying as the library doesn't have the e-book and the print on my paper copy is too small to read comfortably.

[GlenBarrington]

I will pay more for an author I know and value. I won't pay as much for new unknown authors.

That being said, I read unknown authors MUCH more than I used to and if they are good, I won't expect them to remain in the free or super cheap category forever.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by tompe

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.

The key here is that the author didn't get any money and had no say in the matter about whether he got any money. If he signs a contract with a publisher, then what the publisher and or bookstore sells the book for is a matter that is between the author and them. If one borrows a book from the library or buys it second hand, they are buying the work under legal terms that was understood by the author when he decided to publish his book. In other words, the author has implicitly agreed to all of those uses of his work before he agrees to publish. Downloading illegally is not something the author agreed to when he agrees to publish.

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.

It only doesn't stand up to scrutiny if you believe that somehow we have an individual responsibility to ensure the author makes a living from his work. We do however have an obligation to ensure that the means we choose to read a book ensure that the author has been at some point compensated for the copy we read.

--
Bill

[speakingtohe]

Should one always assume the highest price is the fairest price? Maybe one retailer cuts corners by underpaying staff or shifty dealings. But what about the guy who puts in 12 hour days to keep his business afloat and must have reasonable prices to attract buyers. Do we assume lack of integrity and shady dealings every time we see a lower price? Sometimes a higher price is only there for the benefit of the end seller and the creator may get even less then from lower priced outlets.

Helen

[Gazella]

The highest priced fiction ebook I bought cost $12.99. All the others I got for $9.99 or less.

[pagansoul]

I'm a big user of Amazon. This year they had many sales of collection packages for $2. I must have at least 10. They would be anything from 3 to 9 books combined under a theme or author. Examples are: The Naughty Box (9 books), The Werewolf Society Box by Lisa Jones (3 books), Dangerous Desires (5 books), Marriage of Convenience (4 books), Tall Dark & Deadly (3 books), Heart Stealers (4 books)...all of them combined were less than one of 2 Cookbooks I brought this year. This year I didn't spend $50 for ebooks, all fiction but I got plenty of them. The most spent on 1 was $3.

I did spend more for 'Walden on Wheels' by Ken Ilgunas because not only did I get the ebook but also the audio. Great book by the way, it's a young mans account of living in his van while going to school to save money and pay off a large education loan.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Text books and factual books are different. But for your general fiction reading, how much do you pay?

I'm generally unwilling to pay more than $5 for a fiction ebook. Of the 200-odd books I've bought this year, none were more than $10, indeed, only one was $9.99. All the rest were $6.99 or less, and all but 10 were less than $5.

My median price was $2.97, and my mean price around $2.80.

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

If I want to have it, up to € 20.
But typically in the range of € 10. And from time to time bargains in the range of € 5. But I don't actively look for low prices, I look for the books I want to have - right now...
My most expensive one has been Stephen King's "The Stand" about 10 years ago for € 50. But in this price range, I think twice about a purchase...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by stevenaleach

Nope, I just download them. If I can't find an epub/mobi(or pdf as a last resort) of any book I'm looking for with a few minutes of googling, it's safe to assume that it hasn't been released as an ebook yet.

I'm not doing this anymore out of principle.
Not because I'm a stickler for rules. For example, I frequently exceed the speed limits on the German Autobahn.
But I'm neither using pirated software anymore, nor do I download eBooks from the Darknet.
Simple reason: I've been working in the Software business myself. I won't pirate anything in my former area of income...

[stevenaleach]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not doing this anymore out of principle.
Not because I'm a stickler for rules. For example, I frequently exceed the speed limits on the German Autobahn.
But I'm neither using pirated software anymore, nor do I download eBooks from the Darknet.
Simple reason: I've been working in the Software business myself. I won't pirate anything in my former area of income...

Well, I'd certainly agree that there is no need for anyone to pirate or purchase software - I have found no need for non open-source software. I moved from DOS/Windows to Linux in 1995 and tend to think of commercial software in general as a part of the past - how things were done before the ecosystem of open source software we have today.

[VanessaDarling]

I'm willing to pay fair market value for a good book. I approach reading like I do going to the movies. Not only am I a huge reader, but I am also a huge movie buff.

If there is a movie that I really want to see, I will pay fair price to see it. I think the average price of a movie nowadays is around ten dollars. As long as the movie ticket is in that range (or lowers), then I'll pay it. Doesn't matter if it's by filmmakers that I've never heard of. I look at the plot of the film, and not the people behind the film.

I buy ebooks according to the same principle.

[Yolina]

If it's a book I want to read, I don't really care about the price (within reason of course I mean if it's £50 or something then maybe not...)
What I read is rarely the bestselling stuff and so is nowhere near as heavily discounted. When my reading media was paper, I was paying mostly £10 to £15 per book for fiction so the fact that the Kindle prices are a bit lower is fine by me. Plus there's all the ebooks promotions which sometimes yield something interesting at a bargain price. And I don't stick to known (to me) authors , or read reviews for that matter - if I like the blurb, I'll take a quick pick at the sample and then decide whether to buy or not.

[Victoria]

If it's part of a series, and I've been waiting for the next instalment, I'll pay full hardcover price - but that is an occasional event.

Most of the mainstream authors I like run $12 or more plus tax - Canadian

Thanks to MR, I started dabbling into indie writers last year - something I would never have done before. I now have a number of excellent self-published authors I really enjoy. Those books are often $5 or less. This experience has influenced my buying habits - I now think twice before buying a $12 book - I still may, but am less likely - and feel that $8 is more reasonable price for a mainstream author in an ebook format.