Price as Criterion for Book Selection?

[Assassin]

Price is ultimately a factor for everyone, some readers pain tolerance is just higher than others. I won't pay over five dollars for an unknown author but will pay more for a book I definitely want.
The question for me is what is a reasonable entry level price for an unknown author in the Mystery/Detective/Thriller categories, with a book of 75,000 plus words? Should they be content to charge $.99 or can they reasonably push for up to $2.99?

[theducks]

Exceeding my Price point limit stops further consideration of the content.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JDK1962

On this and other forums, I've read a number of posts about boycotting books above a certain price level, or books by the six major publishing houses that are doing agency pricing.

My question: does anyone buy books with price as the ONLY criterion?
...
Bonus points: what criteria do you apply that you believe helps you find great reading material?

Nobody buys books with price as the only criterion. (Nobody's that wealthy... "I buy everything under $4" is ridiculous.) Many people refrain from buying books with price as the only criterion--regardless of how well they like the author or believe they'd enjoy/use this book, if it's over a certain price, they won't buy it.

My current cap is $6 for fiction novels, but that's flexible; if a work comes out by an author I like very much, I'd be willing to pay more. How much more, I'm not sure.

My absolute blocker is DRM--if it's got DRM, I'm not buying at any price. (Any. I don't download free books with DRM.) This is a matter of principle--I think DRM is broken; I won't be put in a position of maybe committing crimes to get access to my purchases; I believe I won't run out of non-DRM'd reading material.

I've barely touched the selection at drivethrurpg and e23, Smashwords is always growing, Baen still has things on my to-be-read list, and if I read nothing but Yuletide fanfic for the rest of the year, I wouldn't be caught up by the time this year's Yuletide comes around.

For finding good reading material, I read recommendations on Dreamwidth and here at MR, and spend some time clicking around at random at Smashwords and Fictionwise. This is horribly inefficient... and when I run out of stuff to read, I'll consider new methods.

[aformerescort]

To me, this depends on how useful the book is going to be for me. I will pay more for business books than fiction... and I do expect an ebook to cost a little less than print.
I have been reading ALOT more since I got by ipad, and because it's SO easy, ebooks have become impulse purchases... so I try to stay below $7 since I'm buying more quantity than I did with physical books.

[Giggleton]

I would buy every book if I could, and then give them all away.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Richard, please remember that you only speak for yourself, instead of generalizing.

Books would not be selling for $9.99 is people were not buying them. But many of us are buying, and it is not a big deal.

DixieGal, I'm confused. I thought my responses made it clear I was speaking for myself. I do think, however, that everyone considers pricing. Everyone has a price point at which they will blink. It may be $5 or it may be $300, but I have not found anyone who is 100% indifferent to pricing 100% of the time. Of course, the exception proves the rule, so I guess there are people who are 100% indifferent to pricing 100% of the time.

As for books selling for $9.99 and people buying them, it would be interesting to know which books they are buying at that price. Are they buying asuthors with whom they are familiar or are they buying completely unknown self-published authors? It would also be worth knowing how many books at that price they are buying that are written by unknown authors and are self-published.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by rhadin

DixieGal,
As for books selling for $9.99 and people buying them, it would be interesting to know which books they are buying at that price. Are they buying asuthors with whom they are familiar or are they buying completely unknown self-published authors? It would also be worth knowing how many books at that price they are buying that are written by unknown authors and are self-published.

I will happily pay $9.99 for a "favorite" or highly recommended (by friends/family) author. I can not see myself paying any more than that, however. I am more suspect with any other materials; $6.99 is a much more comfortable price point for "regular", known to me authors. Unknown authors are much lower on the price poll - $2.99 or less. I will, however, pay more if I've enjoyed the first book in a series by an unknown author. For instance, Abigal Hilton's Guild of the Cowry Catchers series. I was gifted the first book, purchased books 2 and 3, and am anxiously awaiting the 4th.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I will happily pay $9.99 for a "favorite" or highly recommended (by friends/family) author. I can not see myself paying any more than that, however. I am more suspect with any other materials; $6.99 is a much more comfortable price point for "regular", known to me authors. Unknown authors are much lower or the price poll - $2.99 or less. I will, however, pay more if I've enjoyed the first book in a series by an unknown author. For instance, Abigal Hilton's Guild of the Cowry Catchers series. I was gifted the first book, purchased books 2 and 3, and am anxiously awaiting the 4th.

It sounds like a perfect scenario. The way it should be

[caleb72]

As usual in these discussions, I come from a slightly different angle. Books in Australia are outrageously expensive in general, so ebooks when bought elsewhere (eg. Smashwords and Amazon) are ridiculously cheap to me.

But even so I'm starting to find that I, like many people here from the U.S. and other countries that enjoy better prices, am starting to put lower limits on what I find acceptable and what I find a bit harder to swallow.

The first reason for this is that getting into ebooks has exposed me to a huge range of independent fiction out there that now competes for my time against traditionally published authors. Generally, independent authors charge less than $5 a book - sometimes considerably less. So now perhaps I'm in a position of choosing between Stephen King - Full Dark, No Stars at $14.81 and David Michael - The Door to the Sky at $2.99.

The second reason is that I'm finding on the whole that moving into the ebook market has resulted in me buying much more than I have previously - and reading much more than I have previously. Even at reduced pricing $14.81 per book is going to start hurting if I go through 2-3 books per week. Before it was maybe 1 a week at most. Additionally, I previously would read books that were loaned to me by family members which incurred no cost at all.

That said, I would have bought The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss at any price once it came out.

So basically, it can depend on the price...except when it doesn't. Nice and clear.

Regards
Caleb

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

It's not that books are fungible, it's that there are so many more books that I want to read than there are hours in the day, and for my actual reading time, there are hordes of books clamoring to be read.

I think this is true for the entire market and one of the reasons I see no reason to fear or be angry about publisher-set pricing.

I do understand that occasionally there's an issue I have with an artist or company that makes me personally boycott them (can someone say Jane Fonda?). I get it that a certain portion of folks are just offended that publisher-set pricing has raised the price of ebooks from those publishers.

However large said group is as a percentage of this forum, I think they are nowhere near large enough to matter. What you've written is what matters. There is simply TOO much choice, TOO much content for anyone to pull off price control (as in "controlled beyond what the market will bear").

I have put off buying books because of their price. I have bought books at premium prices because they are from the few of my "must read" authors. If I really want to read a book but the price is too high, I need merely wait to check it out at the library or buy the paper back when it comes out, or buy the book used. There are no "used ebooks" but, then again, I have not lost my ability to read a paper book just because I bought an iPad.

Mostly, though, I just move on to read other things. Like you wrote so eloquently -- "there are so many more books that I want to read than there are hours in the day".

Lee

[leebase]

Originally Posted by bashfulbanshee

I only buy books when I'm about to immediately read them. I never buy books just because they're a bargain, even if they are in my genre of interest. There's just too much risk that I won't get around to reading them! I hoarded enough cheap second hand books already, it's a habit I've finally broken.

Me too....now, that is. I used to buy books and then lose them before I ever got around to reading. Now with instant delivery, I hold off buying a book until I'm going to read it.

Lee

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by leebase

I used to buy books and then lose them before I ever got around to reading.

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

My absolute blocker is DRM--if it's got DRM, I'm not buying at any price. (Any. I don't download free books with DRM.) This is a matter of principle--I think DRM is broken; I won't be put in a position of maybe committing crimes to get access to my purchases; I believe I won't run out of non-DRM'd reading material.

Hi, Elfwreck. Interesting point, and I feel like it moves me a bit closer to what I was trying to get at with my original point (and didn't manage to convey).

When trying to figure out what to read, we all have factors that are intrinsic to the book (author, story, genre, previous experience with author, word-of-mouth, etc.) and those that are extrinsic (DRM status, price, publisher, NYT bestseller status, whatever). I think I go more for intrinsic factors, most often author (and authors recommended by authors I admire).

You'd skip a book that you really want to read, only because of its DRM status? I loathe DRM as well (karma to you for your loathing ), but I think I'm too much of a junkie to not read it anyway (as a library copy, as a DTB, or I'd strip the DRM and accept the consequences for my civil disobedience.)

[astra]

Originally Posted by JDK1962

You'd skip a book that you really want to read, only because of its DRM status?

I do

[JDK1962]

Originally Posted by astra

I do

I respect the principled stand, but I don't think I could do it. I'd feel like I was giving the publisher way too much control over my reading, and would go around the wall. If I was really mad at the publisher, or about the pricing, I'd do it in a way that deliberately deprived the publisher of a sale, i.e., buy a DTB second-hand.

I feel as if my willingness to put up with crap has gone down as I've gotten older.