What's a book worth?

[crich70]

I think I might have been to that bookstore some yrs ago. I attended the Grant Pilgrimage several times back when I was in the BSA (as a kid) and one time I found my way to a bookstore. A lot of hills in that town. The kids must have very strong legs from an early age. lol. I also have some autographed books (by Nancy Kopp). She signed them to me when I bought them locally (a used bookstore I frequent had a small sale of her books some yrs back). I have all 5 (in paperback) with her autograph. I don't know if they will ever be worth much as far as $ but just having them is great.

Originally Posted by rePete

I have a couple of author autographed books. One I bought in Galena, IL from a high end used books store - I 'afforded' a small book by Ansel Adams that was signed. I learned a lot about photography from Ansel, wore out his 'basic' series so the book was more valuable to me than the price I paid for it - could care less what it may or may not be worth now

[leebase]

Just rechecked "The Bourne Objection". It's still $14.99 for the kindle version. That's $1.50 cheaper than the hard back. Still, some time has passed and NOW I can buy the used hard back for $3.50.

So approximately 6 months has gone by and the publisher has to compete, not only with other ebooks, not only with other hard backs, but with the USED version of the hard back.

Of course, at $3.50 this used hard back is less than half the price of the paper back version which will be out in another 6 months.

Hope this helps illuminate the "time window" that the publishers have to bring in the most money. It's really very small. Anyone not willing to pay $14.99 for the ebook need merely wait abit.

Lee

[stonetools]

Well, round these parts people seem to howl if they have to pay significant prices for any ebook.
I think it comes down to what you value. I'm willing to pay a premium for quality nonfiction( the most I ever paid for a book was $30 or so for Ken Burn's "The Civil War"). Recently I paid $14.99 for another well-written nonfiction ebook, "Freedom Summer." I just don't think people are going to ever write quality nonfiction for the $5 or less most folk here seem to want to pay for ebooks.I guess I'm kind of giving to the cause here rather than maximizing my book buying dollar. Another way I "give to the cause" is to subscribe to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine- because I want to see the SF short story form survive.
Generally, for the mystery and SF fiction I buy to keep myself entertained, I do look to maximize my dollar and look for the best deal I can get. I'm likely to make a big exception for that come July , when GRRM comes out with ADWD, but generally, for genre fiction I'm all about bargains.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by leebase

Hope this helps illuminate the "time window" that the publishers have to bring in the most money. It's really very small. Anyone not willing to pay $14.99 for the ebook need merely wait abit.

But since ebooks aren't legally resellable yet, there is no significant market for used ebooks. I don't want to read printed books, in fact it is hard for me to do so now that I'm spoiled by the Kindle.

Ebooks can go on sale of course, with temporary price reductions but I think the fact that the publisher's goal as you say is to bring in the most money is a big part of the problem, shouldn't the goal be to illuminate the world with the flame of knowledge?

If the problem according to the publishers is the second hand market then the second hand market needs to be eliminated, there are two ways to do this,

1. Restrict sales to specific sites and specific methods. Draconian DRM.

2. End the practice of selling books, turning all texts into Donation ware and rely on the network and the goodness of humanity to keep track of content sources and cash flow.

I prefer method number two.

"If there is nothing to steal there can be no thieves"

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Well, round these parts people seem to howl if they have to pay significant prices for any ebook.
I think it comes down to what you value. I'm willing to pay a premium for quality nonfiction( the most I ever paid for a book was $30 or so for Ken Burn's "The Civil War"). Recently I paid $14.99 for another well-written nonfiction ebook, "Freedom Summer." I just don't think people are going to ever write quality nonfiction for the $5 or less most folk here seem to want to pay for ebooks.I guess I'm kind of giving to the cause here rather than maximizing my book buying dollar. Another way I "give to the cause" is to subscribe to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine- because I want to see the SF short story form survive.
Generally, for the mystery and SF fiction I buy to keep myself entertained, I do look to maximize my dollar and look for the best deal I can get. I'm likely to make a big exception for that come July , when GRRM comes out with ADWD, but generally, for genre fiction I'm all about bargains.

i agree that i wouldn't mind paying more for quality work. but as with most people here, i don't have an unlimited budget, so i mainly just try to get as much quality as i can for the price that i'm willing to pay :P

that said, i recently bought a number of $0.99 books. they were good, but to be honest i didn't expect much at that price so i was pleasantly surprised i also understand that one of those books was actually the first book that author had published, so the 0.99 pricing was to garner new fans. i reviewed the book based on that and only added that future works would be better if they underwent proper editing. (with the understanding that said author would price the next books in the series higher)

[patrickt]

The right book at the right time is worth a lot to me but I frequently don't know what it's worth until I've read it.