How many 'must-buy' authors do you have from Big 6 publishers?

[ATDrake]

Only three for whom I really do get practically everything they put out the moment it comes out.

But I do it in paper, both for longevity value and to match the rest of my collection of their books, although I'm willing to pick up their e-editions as a supplement if they're very cheaply priced or can be made so by an additional discount.

There are a couple of other "nice to have" favourite authors that I'm perfectly happy to pick up when there's a sale/I've some spare money, but otherwise quite willing to wait to read a library copy first and see if I like the book enough to actually buy.

I should add that aside from Terry Pratchett, my three authors are not really big names at all, even in their particular genres. More like middling-successful midlist with a decent fan following enough to keep their careers afloat.

[mrscoach]

I only have a few authors I want all their works, but I don't pay agency pricing for new ebooks, either. I tended to wait for the paperbacks to hit the market, if a hardback was released, so I am content to wait for prices to come down. If they don't come down I won't buy the book. I refuse to pay $13-16 for an ebook, which is what the books I'm keeping my eye on are going for.

[tompe]

Each book I buy is a book that is selected because I want to read it for different reasons and the book is not exchangeable with any other books. So potentially all books I read (50-100 per year) can be from the bug 6 publishers.

So I think the question is irrelevant for what you want to show.

[DiapDealer]

To be honest, without looking up the publishers of my favorite authors... I'd have no clue. But I'd have to guess my number is rather high -- given that I don't usually read many indie authors or works in the public domain. So by process of elimination, I'm guessing that the vast majority of my "gotta have it" purchases are from the "Big Six."

Oh well. I'm not interested in changing old habits this late in the game.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Doesn't that depend how much profit they're making per book? If the book is costing them $11, then:

Sell 10,000 ebooks at $14 each = $30,000 profit
Sell 20,000 ebooks at $10 each = $20,000 loss

I'm not suggesting that it does cost $11, of course, but there's more to it than you suggest.

Simplification. There's no way I can, or would want to, get into the all the small details. Although if it were an economics class that might be fun. But for a general discussion we must simplify.


I guess that I'm obliquely referring to an old program called Lemonade Stand.

The basic premise was that if your product is priced too high, people won’t buy. Too little and people will buy, but if the costs to produce it are too high, you'll go out of business.

And whatever the cost of producing a particular book may be, I could care less. For $10, or less, I can find a lot of books that I'll want to read. At $15 - $25, almost none. And if I have to wait for the price to come down a year later I'll have forgotten that it is even exists. All their advertising wasted.


Books are basically the same as any other product, and it doesn't matter how good it is. History is filled with companies that had great products, but failed because they couldn't control their costs.

Do I want the major publishers to fail? No, that's up to the decisions they make. The only decision I can make is how much do I want to spend.

[SameOldStory]

Back on topic.

There were only three authors that I would pay a higher price for their books without hesitating. Two are dead and the other one, if alive, no longer writes.

[vulcan_girl]

Off the top of my head, two, and one of those hasn't released a book in a few years.

[tubemonkey]

Zero - my favorite authors are all dead.

[susan_cassidy]

I'd guess 5-10, but I still wait until the prices go down to something reasonable. I recently bought "Changes" by Jim Butcher, after the price finally went down from 12.99 to 8.99. I can read an average novel in just a few hours, so I feel like I shouldn't spend too much on something I'll zip through in 4 or 5 hours. At least several of the "must buy" authors' books I will reread at some point, so there is some value to that.

[dkb]

I have a lot of authors I follow, but I still have price limits. Ten dollars used to be a no brainer click. But all the arguments from publishers about why they have to charge so much for an ebook has convinced me that $10 is probably too much for a DRM encumbered ebook. Especially when there are so many good reads for much much less.

The whole agency thing is just so wrong. And now HarperCollins and the 26 download limit for libraries really aggravates me. It makes me think about becoming a pirate in protest.

[snipenekkid]

Beyond The Agency matter is something which had me mostly avoiding a lot of established authors already. That is so many authors I once enjoyed today have devolved into the serialized equivalent of a "puppy mill". Too many series with the same characters and the same plots. After 2-3 of those I have had enough, most of the time it's actually after the first and about a third the way into the 2nd.

So, combine that with the new pricing model and, well, I'll opt for more indie and smaller houses for my books. On top of it are all the "classics" I've never read out there for no charge at all.

Even Amazon currently pretty much gets zero of the dollars I spend on fiction reading. Well, they do sort of via Audible but that is essentially the end of it. Non-fiction reference and research books are a different issue but I don't care who the publisher is there. I need them so I buy them if there is a reasonably well done ebook option now.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Doesn't that depend how much profit they're making per book? If the book is costing them $11, then:

Sell 10,000 ebooks at $14 each = $30,000 profit
Sell 20,000 ebooks at $10 each = $20,000 loss

I'm not suggesting that it does cost $11, of course, but there's more to it than you suggest.

Once the eBook is out there, the money is spent except for the cost to add DRM. So there does come a point where X number of copies at Y price is where they break even and X+1 is where they make a profit.

[simplyparticular]

I don't have anyone who is an auto-buy anymore. My ebook limit is around $8-12, and almost all the new releases are priced higher than that. I can wait until they hit my price limit, but most of my authors are carried at the library, so I've read them that way.

The Agency 6 lost about $1200 off me in 2010, and so far I've spent nothing in 2011. All my reading has been library books or passed-on freebies. And I've picked up 1 new hobby and gone back to an old one to spend (some of) my time, and money.

[BeccaAnn]

Since I was used to waiting for pbacks, I don't mind the wait till pback prices. I buy a couple of books on the release date, the rest I wait till the price drops and get the hardcover from the library.

[covingtoncat73]

Neil Gaiman is my top must-buy. I am into Bill Willingham's fable graphic novels and am buying them but I wouldn't eread a graphic novel.