Do some publishers have any idea?

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

So in general, you are paying less per book (your earlier message indicated that you pay about $9.00 per book), in some instances, you pay far less, like when you got a deal at $4.

You need to take note of the AUD and the USD.
I'm an Aussie and pay Aussie dollars, so that $9 for instance is the USD price not the higher AUD price I actually pay, which would be around $12.60.

That $4 is about $5.85 to me.

If you go back and look again, you will see I am paying more for the ebook than those paperback prices.

My apologies, if that was confusing, but the web pages show me the USD price, not what I actually pay in AUD, which is higher. And most here are American or buy in USD.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Timboli

You need to take note of the AUD and the USD.
I'm an Aussie and pay Aussie dollars, so that $9 for instance is the USD price not the higher AUD price I actually pay, which would be around $12.60.

If you go back and look again, you will see I am paying more for the ebook than those paperback prices.

I'm using your numbers. Since both currencies are referred to as dollars, perhaps it would be best if you always quote in one or the other.

Originally Posted by Timboli

Certainly a good option for many, and my mum still mostly reads library books (large print ones). She buys the odd ebook to read on her iPad.
[...]
Been decades since I've read a library book ... exceptions being the remaindered library books I have bought from overseas libraries ... ha ha.

You should seriously check it out, if the cost of ebooks is bothering you. If funds are limited (or even if they're not, really) I'd consider re-engaging with your library. Not as a your sole source of books, but as one really good source among many.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by maximus83

You should seriously check it out, if the cost of ebooks is bothering you. If funds are limited (or even if they're not, really) I'd consider re-engaging with your library. Not as a your sole source of books, but as one really good source among many.

No need, I have ample books to read, way past my life expectancy.
I can wait for the market to do the right thing or ignore eventually.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm using your numbers. Since both currencies are referred to as dollars, perhaps it would be best if you always quote in one or the other.

Alas, it is not quite so easy.

The ones I have listed in AUD are because my program has provided them to me. Other than that all I see is USD.

That expensive ebook you mentioned was $12.19 USD at one point, briefly, which I am guessing was around $16.50 AUD to me ... more than I wanted to pay ... and then it jumped hugely. Now if I wanted to buy it, it would cost me $32.94 AUD currently, which is $23.36 USD.

[Sirtel]

It seems to me that the problem lies with the Australian publishers, not publishers in general. Both The Darkling Child and The Sorcerer's Daughter are about 5 USD for me.

I feel for your situation, but there's not much that people in other countries can do. Frankly, if I were you, I would just use a VPN.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It seems to me that the problem lies with the Australian publishers, not publishers in general. Both The Darkling Child and The Sorcerer's Daughter are about 5 USD for me.

£5.99 at Amazon UK, with the paperbacks at £9.99. That seems reasonable enough to me. I should add, though, that every single book in Terry Brooks' "Shannara" universe has been at sale at Amazon UK for 99p. That's how I bought them. Amazon's occasional "Big Deal" offers where they put an entire series on offer for a day are the way I've bought many whole series.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

The data was not of course either 100% complete or accurate, nor was it claimed to be.
It was simply the best available. The data was scraped from Amazon and other sources. It was sufficiently complete and accurate to be useful and far more than a mere guess. Citing a couple of statistically insignificant instances is not sufficient to relegate it to this status, no matter how little you may like its conclusions.



What I said is that you can draw an inference from the fact that it has gone commercial and major industry players are buying it. It proves nothing except that it is safe to presume that those buying it see some value in it where you regard it as being a guess with little or no value. Perhaps some of these buyers are more qualified to judge its value than I? Or even you! It is not safe to infer from this that the data is 100% accurate. It is safe to infer that people paying for it regard it as more than a mere guess.

In any event I suppose our disagreement on this is pretty pointless now given the current situation.

Of course the data scrapped isn't units sold, it ranking, which doesn't really mean much. Translating that to actual sales involves a bunch of guesses and assumptions. At best, you can conclude it's somewhere between 0 and 100 percent accurate and the people who actually know, aren't talking.

It's really an exercise in human psychology. It's a lot like polling. People know polling isn't accurate, it's shown time and time again that polls are frequently quite inaccurate but politicians and news media pay hundreds of millions of dollars for it because it's the only game in town. People want to know and will latch and treat whatever they can get as accurate.

TV ratings is really the same way. Billions of dollars are spent based on ratings, yet the accuracy of ratings is unknowable and likely not particularly accurate since there is no way to know exactly how many people are actually watching a show. Ratings are just an estimate based on sampling a handful of viewers who may or may not be indicative of the populace as a whole. They do their best, but that doesn't make it accurate. It's just everyone has agreed to treat it as accurate because that's the only way to make things work.

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Amazon's occasional "Big Deal" offers where they put an entire series on offer for a day are the way I've bought many whole series.

Whoah. Is that just an Amazon UK thing? I've never seen a "big deal" on Amazon US. If I'm just missing it I definitely want to figure out where to find them.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

if I were you, I would just use a VPN.

Ding ding ding! The solution to all geolocation-based highway robbery. NordVPN.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Alas, in the US I often see ebooks costing the same or more than the mass market paperback edition.

Lots of people post that statement when the mass market paperback hasn't yet been published. On publication, months later, the ebook price drops.

[Sirtel]

I wonder if it's possible to gift ebooks internationally? Has anyone tried to gift an ebook to someone in a different country? If it works, then that could be a possible solution also.

[darryl]

The large Australian publishers do indeed bear a good share of the blame, though they are of course mostly local offshoots of the Big 5. Australians have been ripped off forever in all sorts of areas. In books they are still aided and abetted by successive Governments. For instance, it is incredible to me that we still have parallel import legislative despite many recommendations from our productivity commission and the like. Agency pricing has been in force here continuously since its implementation by the Conspirators. Our competition authorities did not even look into it. The multi-national publishers are only taking advantage of the opportunities provided to them. Fortunately, there are now a number of easy solutions available to avoid this.

[asleyam]

Originally Posted by maximus83

Ding ding ding! The solution to all geolocation-based highway robbery. NordVPN.

I use an always on vpn, I am located in Australia. That vpn does not mean I can circumvent geoblocking (books not licensed for sale in AU) or buy those in the Amazon Store (that are licensed for sale in AU) without paying conversion rates that are close to buying in $AU.

Both amz and apple stores require the residential address to match the account. To get the same rates as American residents I would have to have an American address. Simply having an ip showing me in US will not allow me to get the US prices available to people in USA.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I wonder if it's possible to gift ebooks internationally? Has anyone tried to gift an ebook to someone in a different country? If it works, then that could be a possible solution also.

It's been tried. Giver and receiver have to use the same Amazon, usually Amazon.com AND the exact book has to be available in both counties but can be a different price (I think). If the gift is disallowed it is replaced by a giftcard.

Now Amazon.co.uk allows gifts some of this may be out of date.