Are you prepared to pay the same price for an ebook as for the print book?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by John F

We just don't have the numbers.

Heavy discounted or not, they are what is selling the most. Rowlings vs Francis: 300 to 1. Although MR buying/reading habits are interesting, so is the average reader, to me.

In none of the cases in your list, John, is the ebook more expensive than the RRP of the paper book. What's happening is that the retailer is discounting the paper book. The overwhelming majority of paper books are not discounted, and for such books, the ebook is (as I said) cheaper than the paper book.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In none of the cases in your list, John, is the ebook more expensive than the RRP of the paper book. What's happening is that the retailer is discounting the paper book. The overwhelming majority of paper books are not discounted, and for such books, the ebook is (as I said) cheaper than the paper book.

Going by MRSP isn't a good indication though. Amazon.ca at least seems to discount most books off MRSP. Which makes the comparison between the price of the book and eBook extremely obvious because typically they are right next to each other on the page. The only way I'm paying full price here in Canada for a book is buying it from a brick and mortar retailer, even the largest chain's website is quite a bit discounted for the vast majority of books.

A lot of the agency priced eBooks books in particular either seem to have the same price or a very close price in either direction and depending on if the province charges provincial sales tax on eBooks can actually be more expensive despite a lower list price(No provinces have provincial sales tax on paper books,but some do on eBooks because they are a "luxury" ).

I'm willing to bet this is a good bit based off your local countries paper book market and eBook market. Along with the eBook store used.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Going by MRSP isn't a good indication though. Amazon.ca at least seems to discount most books off MRSP. Which makes the comparison between the price of the book and eBook extremely obvious because typically they are right next to each other on the page.

Alas not so in Britain. Best-sellers excepted, the vast majority of books sell here at RRP, even at Amazon. Hence if the paperback sells at £7.99, I think personally that an ebook price of £4-5 is reasonable.

[sufue]

This (higher prices normally, with brief sales) is similar to what I mentioned earlier when talking earlier about price differentiation, although I didn't think of extending it to paper sales too. This is definitely a model being used by some authors where rights seem to have reverted (Archer Mayor, Julie Smith, Tony Dunbar, Joseph Flynn come to mind) as well as some non-major publishers like Endeavour. And even Amazon does this, as with the Ed McBain titles, and with their Thomas & Mercer and AmazonCrossing titles. (Probably with others too, but those are the ones I've noticed...)

Just haven't seen it with any of the really big/traditional publishers, sigh! There are a couple of series that I wish I could get, but they are locked up with the big five or big six or whatever it is now...

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Here is an interesting exercise: If you were a publisher, and the numbers in this poll were represenative of your customers' buying behaviour, how would you price your ebooks to maximise earnings?

My guess would be to set the normal ebook price about the same as the paper book price, and then ocassionally run short-duration sales at a lower price.

Then most of the customers in groups 1 and 2 would buy the ebook at the normal price, those in group 3 would buy the paper version instead at a similar price, and those in group 5 would wait and get the ebook when it is on sale at the lower price. Only the revenue from the 15% or so in group 4 would be lost, but the higher price paid by the 35% or so in groups 1,2,3 would more than make up for them if the normal price was more than double the sale price.

Perhaps the big publishers' pricing strategy is not too unreasonable after all? I know MobileRead members are not typical, but if anything I would have thought we were more price sensitive than typical readers rather than less.

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In none of the cases in your list, John, is the ebook more expensive than the RRP of the paper book. What's happening is that the retailer is discounting the paper book. The overwhelming majority of paper books are not discounted, and for such books, the ebook is (as I said) cheaper than the paper book.

RRP, MSRP, MAP, DP, ...

We are talking about what people are paying, not at all the cossed out numbers on the price tag.

[Cinisajoy]

I would be willing to bet that publishers set the prices at what they think people will pay. They are not trying to kill ebooks with higher prices. People are obviously paying those prices so why should they reduce prices and hurt their pocketbooks.
See if enough people are willing to buy at a higher price, then prices won't be cut and the pricer really doesn't care if a few don't want to pay their price because they make more off the enough than they would if they pondered to the few.

I always think of the vases when pricing comes up. They were popular so rather than reduce the price, I doubled it. Guess what people paid the new price. Of course, they didn't know what others had paid for them. So folks, it is all about making the money.

As far as best sellers, I have heard most of those buyers don't buy other books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by John F

RRP, MSRP, MAP, DP, ...

We are talking about what people are paying, not at all the cossed out numbers on the price tag.

A few dozen heavily discounted paper books on the bestsellers list doesn't counter the general point I'm making, which is that the overwhelming majority of book titles sold in Britain are cheaper as an ebook than as a paper book. If you don't want to take my word for it, ask anyone who buys a lot of books here!

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by sufue

This (higher prices normally, with brief sales) is similar to what I mentioned earlier when talking earlier about price differentiation, although I didn't think of extending it to paper sales too. This is definitely a model being used by some authors where rights seem to have reverted (Archer Mayor, Julie Smith, Tony Dunbar, Joseph Flynn come to mind) as well as some non-major publishers like Endeavour. And even Amazon does this, as with the Ed McBain titles, and with their Thomas & Mercer and AmazonCrossing titles. (Probably with others too, but those are the ones I've noticed...)

Just haven't seen it with any of the really big/traditional publishers, sigh! There are a couple of series that I wish I could get, but they are locked up with the big five or big six or whatever it is now...

The Canadian section of HarperCollins always has a rotating selection of ebooks on sale for $1.99 many of them being non-fiction.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A few dozen heavily discounted paper books on the bestsellers list doesn't counter the general point I'm making, which is that the overwhelming majority of book titles sold in Britain are cheaper as an ebook than as a paper book. If you don't want to take my word for it, ask anyone who buys a lot of books here!

I think pdurrant said the same thing in another post. I just can't remember if it was this thread or the other pricing thread.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ekbell

The Canadian section of HarperCollins always has a rotating selection of ebooks on sale for $1.99 many of them being non-fiction.

All the big-name publishers regularly do deals - I've bought an awful lot of books that way. Well worth following the "Deals, Freebies and Resources" forum here at MR to find out about them. You sometimes get amazing deals - eg a couple of years back I bought the 12-book omnibus of George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series for £9.98, which normally sells for £55.

[Cinisajoy]

I get older Random House books for $1.99 when they go on sale.

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A few dozen heavily discounted paper books on the bestsellers list doesn't counter the general point I'm making, which is that the overwhelming majority of book titles sold in Britain are cheaper as an ebook than as a paper book. If you don't want to take my word for it, ask anyone who buys a lot of books here!

Why do I need to take your word? Just post some links with sales numbers.

The Amazon sales ranking show the best sellers out ranking your books by 300 to 1. That is what is being sold, i.e. "best sellers". That guestimate is better than your "take my word", IMO.

I believe the "best sellers" number may be off, but if all you are going to offer is your personal buying habits, maybe we can agree to disagree?

[HarryT]

We disagree, John, because we're talking about two different things. You're saying that bestsellers are often cheaper as paper books than as ebooks. Fair enough - I don't disagree with that. I'm saying that the vast majority of book titles - i.e. range of titles, not individual books sold - are cheaper as ebooks than as paper books. A person who buys one book a year is probably going to buy a bestseller from a supermarket for their summer holiday. A person who buys 10+ books a month (as many MR members do) is going to buy very few bestsellers, and for that buyer most of their ebooks will be cheaper than if they'd bought the paper books.

Are most books sold to the 1-book-a-year brigade? Very probably, yes. I doubt that one person in a thousand buys the 100+ books a year that's entirely normal for MR members. We're the outliers, by any measure. But for us outliers, ebooks are cheaper than paper books, due both to the fact that most titles have cheaper ebooks than paper books, and because we pick up the freebies, deals and special offers that the supermarket buyers never see, and those can push the average price paid per book way down.

[LitaVore]

If I'm going to spend the money anyways on a personal copy then sure.

Thos I mostly buy second hand, use the library and am part of several ARC programs so I don't spend much on books to begin with.

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

...

Are most books sold to the 1-book-a-year brigade? Very probably, yes. I doubt that one person in a thousand buys the 100+ books a year that's entirely normal for MR members. We're the outliers, by any measure. But for us outliers, ebooks are cheaper than paper books, due both to the fact that most titles have cheaper ebooks than paper books, and because we pick up the freebies, deals and special offers that the supermarket buyers never see, and those can push the average price paid per book way down.

You should probably modify your statement for "members in Britain". And for what it is worth, book market size: