How much do you pay for fiction ebooks?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Geralt

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

I don't have my Calibre database with me, but I'll check what I've paid for post-2000 fantasy

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by crossi

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.

There are at least 2,000 books that I know I want to read, and at least 500 authors I am happy to be able read anything they write.

I imagine that there are 10 times that many that I am just unaware of or have yet to be written.

Publication date, genre, price or popularity do not determine what I will read. I will pick a favorite author often, but I also read at least one new author every two or three weeks. How else will I know what I a missing. Of course there are over 100 million books to chose from so I must be missing a lot, but that is life.

We are so lucky with ebooks. So many choices in both variety and price.

From the 60's to the 90's I bought most of the books I read and borrowed a few from the library. Occasionally I traded some and sometimes I was given a book, but for the majority of the 200+ books a year I paid what was written on the spine or cover. Full price. In 1999 I moved to the Canadian north where bookstores are few and far between. Whitehorse has one and Yellowknife has 2 that I know of, the places I lived mostly had none. It was the library or the kindness of strangers or no books at all.

Luckily for me, the majority of the books I want to read are available at the library websites and I can wait if necessary.

When I buy a book, price does matter of course, just as with everything else I buy. If I can't afford it, or I think it is priced too high, I just don't buy it. And I certainly wouldn't pay a premium today because it was new or a best seller, but I might have at one time in my life.

Helen

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I don't have my Calibre database with me, but I'll check what I've paid for post-2000 fantasy

If you wish. Im gonna give you an example for the prices of books I have read in this year. These are kindle prices. Paperbacks are often more expensive.

Neil Gaiman - American Gods (2000) $6.83
Jonathan Stroud -The Amulet of Samarkand (2003) $7.69
Clarke Susanna - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) $ 8.53
Abraham Daniel - A Shadow in Summer (2006) $6.76
Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (2006) $8.98
Peter V. Brett - The Painted Man (2008) $9.04
Chris Wooding - Retribution Falls (2009)$9.99
=======
all published before 2010, average is $8.26. No 3$ in sight ~.~ Books that came out this or last year are over $10 usually.
This is all mainstream, maybe even "hardcore", very well known fantasy for people who read this genre.

[Yapyap]

The Amulet of Samarkand was a Kindle daily deal quite recently (for $1.99, I think).
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been on sale (for $2.99, I think) at least twice in the last couple of years.
I bought American Gods from Amazon for $1.99 last year.
I bought Joe Abercrombie's entire First Law trilogy from Kobo in September for $4.99 (with a 50% off coupon, IIRC).

Fantasy, including modern fantasy, does go on sale often enough - but they do tend to be very short sales. If you have a long list of "want to have" books, having them on ereaderiq or Kindle Nation Daily or another price-check site that will let you know when the price comes down, it's possible to catch them, though.

[Geralt]

Thanks Yapyap. That's useful info. I seem to always miss them, and I just find cheesy romance-fantasy which I don't want to read. Ever.
Like majority of choices given here is: http://kindlenationdaily.com/knd-qua...nters-fantasy/

Eww.

Unfortunately I can't use ereaderiq because I dont keep amazon wishlist and adding books manually is plain tiresome.
Plus I'm not from US, so there is the fact that I use amazon japan.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Geralt

Neil Gaiman - American Gods (2000) $6.83
Jonathan Stroud -The Amulet of Samarkand (2003) $7.69
Clarke Susanna - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) $ 8.53
Abraham Daniel - A Shadow in Summer (2006) $6.76
Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (2006) $8.98
Peter V. Brett - The Painted Man (2008) $9.04
Chris Wooding - Retribution Falls (2009)$9.99

American Gods I bought on 12 May 2009 for $3.35
A Shadow in Summer I got as a freebie from Tor on 21 July 2008

The others I don't have.

Recently published SF/Fantsy I've bought includes lots from Baen, at between $2.57 to $4.50 per book, as I buy their monthly bundle.

Recently published non-Baen fantasy books I've bought this year are:
The Sorcerer's Window by Lawrence Watt-Evans for $2.97 (Kobo)
Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman for $1.79 (Amazon)
Limits of Power by Elizabeth Moon for $7.49 (Amazon)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman for $1.59 (Kobo)
The Human Division by John Scalzi
Thraxas and the Ice Dragon by Martin Scott for $1.34 (Kobo)
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton for $1.49 (Amazon)
Uchenna's Apple by Diane Duane for $2.38 (Ebooks Direct)
Legion by Brandon Sanderson for $0.30 (Kobo)
Among Others by Jo Walton for $4.67 (Kobo)
Coraline by Neil Gaiman for $1.49 (Amazon)
Wicked by Gregory Maguire for $2.25 (Amazon)
The Good, the Bad and the Undead by Kim Harrison for $2.99 (Kobo)
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch for $3.38 (Kobo)


And quite a few others, but my most expensive new fantasy this year has been Limits of Power.

It a question of grabbing bargains (that are on your wishlist) when they appear.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Good, the Bad and the Undead by Kim Harrison...

If the book is as funny as the title, I must have it

[Geralt]

Kobo Rakuten is way more expensive in Japan. For example
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - 786￥ ≈ 7.8$
Among Others - 988￥ ≈ 9.8$

And honestly I never saw an interesting title at Baen. Those books look like old 70-80 pulp sci-fi/fantasy or self-published stuff. I don't read that kind of books. And I do check Baen often. Nothing of interest has ever caught my eye.

[piperclassique]

Baen covers can be dire. But you know what they say about not judging a book by its cover, don't you?

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If the book is as funny as the title, I must have it

Urban fantasy where a large percentage of the population has been wiped out by tomatoes (I kid you not).

Not as funny as it sounds, but good books (All the early titles are modified spaghetti western film titles).

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by piperclassique

Baen covers can be dire. But you know what they say about not judging a book by its cover, don't you?

Yeah I know.

But I do it. I do judge a book by its cover and so far it works just fine for me.
Maybe I missed a few gems with hideous covers, but so far I hadn't come across any utterly bad books with professional and appealing made covers either.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Geralt

Yeah I know.

But I do it. I do judge a book by its cover and so far it works just fine for me.
Maybe I missed a few gems with hideous covers, but so far I hadn't come across any utterly bad books with professional and appealing made covers either.

If you're an SF/Fantasy fan you're missing some damn fine authors by ignoring Baen.

[Waylander]

I would buy more books from Kobo as they have discount codes, but none of them seem to be working when I tried to buy the dune omnibus. Anyone got any suggestions? I am in the UK.

[John F]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

...

Not as funny as it sounds, but good books (All the early titles are modified spaghetti western film titles).

I thought they were all Clint Eastwood movie title variations? The third book "Every Which Way But Dead" I'm guessing is named after "Every Which Way But Loose", which I don't think can be classified as a spaghetti western. I'm not sure what the first title, "Dead Witch Walking", is based on (as I don't see a Clint Eastwood or spaghetti western with a similar title?)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Geralt

Kobo Rakuten is way more expensive in Japan. For example
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - 786￥ ≈ 7.8$
Among Others - 988￥ ≈ 9.8$

I didn't say that was their normal price, just that that's what I paid when I bought them. Special offers and discount codes - that's the way to get great books at great prices.

If I wanted to buy them today, the price at Kobo is $12.80 for the first and the second is $8.39. There is currently a multi-use 50% kobo coupon available, but it doens't work with all books, and it varies from country to country and book to book.