Angry Robot Books Want Your Opinion on Ebook Pricing

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by ahammer

that cool that goes to me not knowing. I would still think downloading the book is better then a cd with the book as you could read it till it gets to you for people that want it now. the one thing I do know now thou when I get a reader I will be buying from baen.

AFAIK Baen is the only one doing this. But if you're into science fiction or fantasy it's awesome.

[ficbot]

WRT to people paying for stuff they can download for free, the Canadian singer Jane Siberry did an interesting experiment where she offered her whole catalogue for DRM-free download off her website under a 'pay what you think it's worth' system. She found after several months that less than 20% of the people were choosing to pay nothing, and of the 80%+ who were VOLUNTARILY paying even though they did not have to, about half of those were paying MORE THAN the suggested amount.

[basschick]

i used to buy used books cheap, but if there was an author or book i really liked, i'd buy a new copy to support the author and give the used one to a friend to help spread the word.

Originally Posted by Xenophon

P.S. The presence online of free, no-DRM copies of many Baen books does not appear to interfere with sales of either dead-tree or electronic copies of those books! People who like a series have a strong tendency to support the author (and publisher!) by actually purchasing copies/bits of the previous entries in the series, even though they've got free copies/bits -- yes, they really do buy copies of bits they've already gotten for free. The key is the combination of a product people want with pricing that is perceived as being fair!

[Pascal Scheffers]

Originally Posted by ficbot

and of the 80%+ who were VOLUNTARILY paying even though they did not have to, about half of those were paying MORE THAN the suggested amount.

The problem with that model this is only regarded to work for the mid to lower echelons of authors (any industry). The big fear seems to be about losing the big cash cows, the J.K. Rowlings. Once people know someone has already made half a million on a book, I think the numbers will reverse to maybe 10% paying, 90 taking. They really would hate to lose those.

But I really like the new model a lot. I've had too many reads where I picked up a book and didn't like it after three chapters, I don't feel like paying $10 for that. It is also something authors can do on their own, maybe even facilitated by a site like this one. I've certainly enjoyed -and- paid for a lot of free content over the last three years.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Pascal Scheffers

The problem with that model this is only regarded to work for the mid to lower echelons of authors (any industry). The big fear seems to be about losing the big cash cows, the J.K. Rowlings. Once people know someone has already made half a million on a book, I think the numbers will reverse to maybe 10% paying, 90 taking. They really would hate to lose those.

But I really like the new model a lot. I've had too many reads where I picked up a book and didn't like it after three chapters, I don't feel like paying $10 for that. It is also something authors can do on their own, maybe even facilitated by a site like this one. I've certainly enjoyed -and- paid for a lot of free content over the last three years.

I've heard the above claim made many times. But a number of those Baen books routinely hit the best-seller lists. For example, the David Weber books that included bound-in CDs in the hardcovers only had them in the first few copies... um, I mean the first printing of... wait for it... 100,000 copies. Which sold out, and went into a second and third HC printing, sans CD.

And the presence of the free online copies seems to have no more effect on the Weber books than on the less-popular books.

Your claim might be true for Steven King or J.K.Rowling (or might not). But we have an observed data point that suggests that hitting the middle of the NYT best-sellers list (around 6th-8th on the list) is not enough popularity to make that behavior kick in.

Xenophon

[sirbruce]

This is because the vast majority of readers haven't gotten into ebooks yet, so the fact there's a free ebook available has little impact on pbook sales, and even less so when pbook sales are high.

[Justy]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

1. If you were going to buy an ebook when would you be most likely make your purchase in relation to the release of the physical book?

• If you were going to buy an ebook when would you be most likely make your purchase in relation to the release of the physical book?
• If the ebook was available before the physical book was released
• If the ebook was available at the same time as the physical book
• If the ebook was available and the physical book was no longer available in stores
• I will not buy ebooks

Umm... where's "I will not consider the pbook version if I can get an ebook?"

This question allowed for multiple answers so I picked the the first 2 options, I'd buy the eBook before the pBook is released or at the same time, but I'm not going to wait till the pBook is out of print.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

This is because the vast majority of readers haven't gotten into ebooks yet, so the fact there's a free ebook available has little impact on pbook sales, and even less so when pbook sales are high.

This may be true when it comes to impact on pBook sales. But it cuts no mustard with respect to eBook sales. Anyone who can find the eBook for purchase can equally easily find a legitimate copy for free download. Especially when folks at Baen's Bar tell them where to look (also with the publisher's blessing).

I'm sure we can easily find people who say "oh, I just downloaded the legitimate free copies." I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find that there are plenty such. But I also see a steady stream of people who say things like (paraphrasing) "I read some of the free downloads, and then came to Webscriptions to buy the rest -- even though I have the rest for free already." And Arnold reports over at the Bar that each time there's a CD in one of the books, sales of the content that's on the CD take a bump up.

Your quite correct observation that "[...] the vast majority of readers haven't gotten into ebooks yet [...]" provides no explanation for the observed behavior about eBook sales.

Xenophon

[sirbruce]

I agree, but even paid ebook sales are still small. So while it's true that so far free ebooks don't seem to hurt paid ebook sales or paid pbook sales, if ebooks become increasingly popular in preference to pbooks, then free ebooks could begin to hurt combined ebook/pbook sales. And this is true whether the free ebooks are from the publisher or from pirates.

But I'll stipulate it's still too soon to tell, and so far Baen's model is working well.

[sirbruce]

Resurrecting this thread:

So, the first of Angry Robot's ebooks are due out 26 June 2009, according to the website. Ebook formats and pricing are still not announced, though.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Why do English speakers find it so difficult to distinguish between "effect" and "affect"?

Because to the average person, the words are interchangeable. Misusing them doesn't really have much affect.

[sirbruce]

Follow-up from their website:

SirBruce
May 15th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Hey Lee,

Angry Robot’s first ebooks are due out June 26; when are you going to announce ebook pricing and formats?


Lee
May 15th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Hi, Sirbruce,

Thanks for your query. We’re just finalising details with the major etailers, and expect to make the announcement very soon! I think most people will be happy…

[basschick]

hopefully lee will be back here to announce when the prices are up. first off, always good to hear from a publisher, but secondly if a publisher gets into the mindset of making announcements like that on all the ebook boards, blogs and sites, they'll see more sales and that will encourage them to continue with more ebooks.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Because to the average person, the words are interchangeable. Misusing them doesn't really have much affect.

I don't think it's so much that they're interchangeable as that they're indistinguishable to many ears.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

In that light, it strikes me that if you want to support ebooks, one way to do it might be to try and buy them more often directly through the publisher's website whenever it's feasible.

I wish there were more authors who offer their works directly from their web page, preferably Paypal as a method of payment. E-mail delivery within one business day would work just fine for me.