eBook sales are down 17%

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ekbell

I've a sneaking suspicion that the Big Name Publishers are charging more for new ebooks then most indies because they think they are selling a premium product.

Yep. The problem is that it will eventually bite them in the rump. It's kind of like the major movie studios putting all their money into the known commodities of sequels and movies based on comic books. It has the advantage of having a built-in audience, it has the disadvantage of getting stale. Sooner or later the "Dean Koontz's" of the world are going to die and it's the small press and independents who are grooming the new talent. And the new talent is getting read because cheapskates (like me) look at three books for the price of one, and think, "hey, Dean Koontz is at Overdrive."

Originally Posted by ekbell

I do think that a policy of charging premium prices at first to catch those who don't really care about prices, lowering the regular price as time goes on for those who do care with the occasional deep sale to catch the cheapskates like me isn't a bad way to maximize profit. Ebooks allow for a very long tail, much longer than the standard print book would have and it's possible to have very short steep discounts across all stores.

Except, in my case, when promotional sale prices for the bigger authors was more common, I would *buy* their books. Now, instead of waiting for the possibility that the price of a big author's book *might* come down, I just head for Overdrive. The Big Six used to make a whole lot more money from me than the Big Five does now. Except for a few books, I really have no desire to read a novel for a second time anyhow. For the most part, they've lost me as a customer (Overdrive works!). And, I'm sure, I'm not the only one – hence the title of this thread.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

An interesting experiment on backlist prices by an author that I like, Katherine Kurtz. She prices the Deryni series at different price points.

The Original Deryni series
Deryni Rising - $2.00
Deryni Checkmate - $7.00
High Deryni - $6.00

Legends of Camber of Culdi
- The set - $10.00
Camber of Culdi - $6.15
Saint Camber - $5.23
Camber the Heretic - $4.31

I would love to know what the sales are at the various price points.

She doesn't have anything to do with the pricing, her publishers do. I agree it would be interesting to know the sales figures for sure though.

The original books, done by Penguin Random House, are usually all in the $6-$7 range and don't go on sale much (book 1 has been on sale for a week or so this time around) and the Legends Camber Culdi, Heirs of Camber Culdi and King Kelson books done by Open Road all go on sale for $2 each on a very regular basis.