How much do you pay for fiction ebooks?

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I certainly take the view that, sales apart, an author who prices a book at 99p apparently places little value on his or her own work, and that makes me wary.

I haven't noticed a correlation between higher-priced indie books and higher quality; indie books vary widely in quality regardless of price. My understanding is that authors are trying to maximize their profits and there just isn't a single foolproof formula for doing that. If I think I can sell a hundred copies at a dollar (or pound or euro) each rather than eight copies at ten dollars each, I'll sell them for a dollar regardless of how much I value my work. There's probably a point between one dollar and ten dollars that would give me a better overall return than either one, but the ability to write a novel doesn't necessarily confer mathematical ability (and I can attest that mathematical ability hasn't allowed me to write a compelling novel).

Writing a good book takes skill and effort, but so does planning a marketing strategy. Indie authors without an effective marketing strategy often have to compete by setting a low price.

[pdurrant]

As an example of a low price for a good book: The Princess Bride is currently only £0.99 in the UK Kindle store (Kindle Daily Deal).

[crossi]

I've gotten a lot of free or very low priced ebooks, especially from Baen. For a prolific author it is a great idea to sell older books cheaply in order to attract new customers especially if they think most of the people who already follow that author have already bought/read their earlier books and will only rebuy the ebooks if they are cheap.

For new authors trying to establish their name it is also a good idea to sell the first few cheaply long enough to hopefully attract some readers and get some good reviews.

It has nothing to do with not valueing their work but more with competion for readers.

[Waylander]

The most expensive ebooks I buy are usually from Black Library, as their price for an ebook that is out in paperback is £6.50, with some new ebooks costing £11.00. I don't buy these and wait for the price to come down. I don't mind paying the base price though.

[NickyWithNook]

I have paid up to about $15. Most are around $5 to $8, though $13 is a common price too. I do look for sale books but I only buy what I want to read regardless, and sometimes I'll hear friends talk about a book and it sounds good and there isn't an e-book version at the library, and I just get it.

[pdurrant]

Waiting can pay off. I've wanted to get Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey ebooks for a long time. But I was unwilling to pay $8 or so per book.

On Monday there was a one-day sale. Bought the lot for $1/ebook from Kobo.

[jersysman]

That was a worthwhile wait.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I certainly take the view that, sales apart, an author who prices a book at 99p apparently places little value on his or her own work, and that makes me wary.

I'm not quite sure about that.
We would have to see some statistics about sales figures for ebooks, profit margins and such.
Your statement could have been said about apps 3 years ago as well.
I still remember the golden days, when games for Commodore 64 about 30 years ago had been 100 German Marks = 50 Euros.
Then, on iPad, we suddenly saw apps for 1 to 3 Euros. Lots of those have been rubbish and not even worth that low price. But others simply made their revenues via volume. And I guess, same (to some extent) is true for eBooks. Some unknown author, in brick and mortar bookshops might not have been able to sell a single book. Or not even make it through publishing. But suddenly, with eBooks...

I've read an interesting article about Blake Crouch (btw: I find his work repetitive and after some time quite boring). He claimed, he makes more profit now in self-publishing for some 6 Euro per book, than before with his publisher for 18 Euros per book.
He certainly wouldn't go down to 99 cent, his sales figures simply don't force him to do so. But for lots of unknown authors, with way lower expectations about their income, the calculation very well may work out.
Didn't some game studios with 99 cent games brake numerous revenue records?

So, 99 cent per book may be low. But if total revenue still explodes: Why should this be considered "low respect for ones work"? it could be considered well thought out business model as well.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not quite sure about that.
We would have to see some statistics about sales figures for ebooks, profit margins and such.
Your statement could have been said about apps 3 years ago as well.
I still remember the golden days, when games for Commodore 64 about 30 years ago had been 100 German Marks = 50 Euros.
Then, on iPad, we suddenly saw apps for 1 to 3 Euros. Lots of those have been rubbish and not even worth that low price. But others simply made their revenues via volume. And I guess, same (to some extent) is true for eBooks. Some unknown author, in brick and mortar bookshops might not have been able to sell a single book. Or not even make it through publishing. But suddenly, with eBooks...

I've read an interesting article about Blake Crouch (btw: I find his work repetitive and after some time quite boring). He claimed, he makes more profit now in self-publishing for some 6 Euro per book, than before with his publisher for 18 Euros per book.
He certainly wouldn't go down to 99 cent, his sales figures simply don't force him to do so. But for lots of unknown authors, with way lower expectations about their income, the calculation very well may work out.
Didn't some game studios with 99 cent games brake numerous revenue records?

So, 99 cent per book may be low. But if total revenue still explodes: Why should this be considered "low respect for ones work"? it could be considered well thought out business model as well.

A lot of sales depend on customer perception. I perceive .99 as too much to throw away(spend without thinking) , and 19.99 not to much to spend if it is something I want but don't really need.

And the higher the price the more I notice the difference. .99 and 2.99 are not really different when I am thing of buying, but 19.99 and 20.99 are. A one dollar difference on a higher priced item is bizarrely more important to me than a $2 difference on an extremely low priced item.

Helen

[Geralt]

I can't say I find much worth in waiting around.
I mean its all fine and well, if you read old books, classics, old mysteries, crime novels and thrillers, romance books and self-published books

I don't read that. I read fantasy and new-ish books. And believe me, there isn't a huge overflow of sales on these types. New books and fantasy is expensive compared to older books of before mentioned type.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Geralt

I read fantasy and new-ish books. And believe me, there isn't a huge overflow of sales on these types. New books and fantasy is expensive compared to older books of before mentioned type.

It depends what you mean by 'new-ish'. If you mean 'published within the last year, and no paperback edition yet', then yes, it's a rare new issue that has a special offer taking it down to under (say) $3.

But if you mean 'published one to five years ago', then it is frequently possible to pick up a bargain, especially if the next in the series has just been published.

And if you mean 'published in the last 30 years', then bargains galore are available.

For instance, I just picked up the First two Riftwar trilogies by Raymond E Feist for $4.65 per trilogy, thanks to excellent coupons at Kobo on omnibus editions. That's $1.55 or so per original book, published between 1982 and 1992.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by Geralt

I can't say I find much worth in waiting around.
I mean its all fine and well, if you read old books, classics, old mysteries, crime novels and thrillers, romance books and self-published books

I don't read that. I read fantasy and new-ish books. And believe me, there isn't a huge overflow of sales on these types. New books and fantasy is expensive compared to older books of before mentioned type.

It depends on the reader. I reread my favorites frequently which is why I ended up with 4 stuffed bookcases and 29 boxes of favorite books in my apartment. And that was only the books I didn't read once and discard. I now have about 900 of my favorites as ebooks plus another 50 or so bought but not yet read that I want to get to so waiting for a good price is seldom a problem of "nothing to read". While I'm working my way through my TBR pile I also keep seeing new bargains that I pick up so I'm barely decreasing the stack. If I ever should finish my TBR books there are about 400 on my wish lists to choose from. I just sort the list by price since I want to read all of them. Very rarely, if there is a book I realy want to read RIGHT NOW, I'll pay extra for it but that happens once in a blue moon. Usually I can wait.

[NickyWithNook]

I don't want to have to choose what I read based on price. I'd rather spend $15 and read a book I really want to read then read a book because it's only 99 cents.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

I don't want to have to choose what I read based on price. I'd rather spend $15 and read a book I really want to read then read a book because it's only 99 cents.

But what if there are about 100 or so that you really want to read? And only so much time in a day? Gotta pick just one to read first somehow. Thats assuming that you really mean to read all of them if you can just find the time.

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It depends what you mean by 'new-ish'. If you mean 'published within the last year, and no paperback edition yet', then yes, it's a rare new issue that has a special offer taking it down to under (say) $3.

Fantasy goes around 10-20$. 3$? what? I wish xD
New-ish I mean after 2000s.

Originally Posted by crossi

It depends on the reader. I reread my favorites frequently which is why I ended up with 4 stuffed bookcases and 29 boxes of favorite books in my apartment.

Ofc it depends on the reader. That's what I've been saying.
As a general rule I don't re-read.

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

I don't want to have to choose what I read based on price. I'd rather spend $15 and read a book I really want to read then read a book because it's only 99 cents.