How much would YOU spend on an e-Book?

[WT Sharpe]

To date, the most I have paid is $14.29 (The Evolution of God by Robert Wright). I would pay more, depending on the book, although it riles me that--because of the DRM--should my Kindle fail and Amazon go kaput, I've paid that money for nothing.

[dsvick]

For the most part I would pay up to comparable paperback prices. In some rare cases I may pay more but not too much more. This is also assuming no DRM or that it can be removed - I dont see myself purchasing something that locks me into something that I may not have down the road.

[MaggieScratch]

I picked $10, but I would be willing to wait a few months after release for that price.

HOWEVER--if I am waiting, I want it not only at a good price, but nicely formatted, with a proper cover, and without DRM. But that is a pipe dream, I'm sure.

If the publishers wanted to attract buyers of ebooks at hardback prices at release, they should add extras such as author interviews, short stories, etc.

And they should allow retail discounting as they do now for hardbacks. Even when I buy hardbacks at release, they're almost always discounted either by Amazon or Barnes & Noble, sometimes quite heavily. I think I paid around $15 each for the last two Harry Potter books, which were retail priced much more--the last one was $35, I think.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by poshm

I'm happy to pay UP TO the paperback price if it is a book I really want but obviously would prefer to pay less

I would say that 90% of the books I read are free anyway, either from free sources like feedbooks / mobileread or from the library. I enjoy shopping around for ebooks though and finding good prices.

Assuming no DRM, then I'd modify this to pay up to the competing pbook price. If it's not available in paperback, then I'd pay up to the hardcover price (or wait, as I do now with many books that are only available in hardcover).

If the ebook is crippled by DRM then it's not a functional as the pbook, so I'm not willing to pay as much.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

If the publishers wanted to attract buyers of ebooks at hardback prices at release, they should add extras such as author interviews, short stories, etc.

I think you've identified the problem-most publishers, it seems, do *not* want to attract buyers of ebooks no matter what the price. IMO they're more or less forced into it because of competition-if they don't do it, somebody else will-but that doesn't mean that they *want* to do it.

[Penforhire]

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.

Why? Assuming they have the same content, of course. (Some books are dependent on illustrations that don't work well in all formats or on all devices-so I regard that as having different content.) Also assuming DRM-free, which gives them (IMO) the same functionality.

[TallMomof2]

DRMed < DRM Free

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Why? Assuming they have the same content, of course. (Some books are dependent on illustrations that don't work well in all formats or on all devices-so I regard that as having different content.) Also assuming DRM-free, which gives them (IMO) the same functionality.

When you pay for a paper book, 80% of what you pay for is the physical-ness of the book (paper, printing, distribution, warehousing, etc.). Those costs simply don't exist for an eBook and, therefore, the eBook should cost less - to the tune of 20% of what the paper book costs.

[brainycat]

I'm with rlauzon. I don't mind spending as much as I would for a paperback, assuming that the money that's not going into production and distribution costs is going to the author.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

When you pay for a paper book, 80% of what you pay for is the physical-ness of the book (paper, printing, distribution, warehousing, etc.). Those costs simply don't exist for an eBook and, therefore, the eBook should cost less - to the tune of 20% of what the paper book costs.

Now that is simply wrong. When you pay for a book, paper or otherwise, 80% (or more) of what you pay goes to pay for the cost of preparing the book. IIRC someone on this forum said that the actual printing cost (paper, ink, distribution, warehousing, etc) of a hypothetical 10,000 copy print run is about $.65/copy. This actually seems low, to me, but don't think the cost of printing the book, as opposed to preparing it for publication, is more than $1/copy-based, of course on at least 10,000 copies.

The cost of preparing the book (including editing, proofreading, royalties, advertising/promotion, etc.) are the same whether it's published as a pbook or as an ebook.

One item that might affect the printing costs, and might therefore be eliminated when publishing as an ebook, is the cost of printing unsold copies. I don't recall anybody giving statistics on that-and I imagine it's negligible for the 'best sellers' that most people seem to focus on. If a book is expected to be a marginal seller then it would probably be more profitable to publish it as an ebook-but I still wouldn't expect the price to be significantly less than if it were published as a pbook.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Dmc

I think if I am ever going to buy an e-book, 90%-100% of that money should go to the person who did all of the work, TH WRITER. Publishers do very little work except find new books to add to their money flow. I say you get back as much as you put in!

Depends on the publisher. Most authors (particularly beginning authors) claim that suggestions from editors greatly improve their books. But the quality of the editor varies as much as the quality of the author does so, as I said, it depends on the publisher.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

It all depends. For authors like Stepehen Kind, Dan Brown, James Rollins, I would pat hardcover prices to get the ebook the day it was released. After that I will pay paperback price. I understand that ebooks will take away profits from paper books sales so I am willing to pay the price.

For independent authors I hesitate to pay more than $5 on a book.

By independent, do you mean 'unknown' or 'self-published'? It seems to me that an author that self-publishes a book puts more work into the book that an author that 'hires' a publisher, so they deserve more wages, i.e. not only the standard author's royalty but also the publisher's profits, too.

A lot of this discussion appears to be based on the idea that no further work needs to be done, other than printing & distribution, after a book is written-and that is *far* from the truth. At least to make a book successful, it is. Even for a well-known author. (Although they can probably sell a poorly-published book or two based simply on their name. After a while though, if they don't work on their publishing skills, become well-known more for how poorly their books are published rather than for how well they're written.)

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.

The reason I'm willing to accept the same price is because I consider it a convenience to have the eBook and be able to save it, move it, and read it with more flexibility. Again, with the no DRM caveat.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Chick2horse

is an e-book like a book you get off the computer

I don't know where other people live, but in my neck of the woods only the really large paperbacks are $10.

Try $5.99 to $6.99 for paper backs here.

Not that I buy new ones often.