What are some publishers playing at?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I love this.
Now not at you but one final thought.

Why shouldn't a publisher set a price that most people will pay?

Personally if 9 out of 10 people would willing pay the price I set, then I am not going to worry about lowering my price for the one. $13 times 9 is 117. 10 times 10 is 100. I wouldn't want to lose money.

Just a final thought: if enough people are willing to pay the price, it isn't worth it to lower the price to please the ones that think it should be cheaper.

Well, publisher should set the price at something most are willing to pay. This is classic economics theory, you price to maximize your profits. There is particular price point that does it. Below it and you leave a lot of money on the table because a lot of people are willing to pay more. Above it, and you lose a lot of sales. Where that price point is tends to be more of an art than a science, but as long as there is competition, you tend to reach it.

The fly in the ointment is that books aren't a commodity for most people. That is to say, most people don't buy generic books. Some do, but there is a reason that J.K. Rowlings sold many millions of her Harry Potter books and your average indie writer is lucky to sell a thousand (if that). People are willing to pay more for some specific titles than they are for others. Those titles change over time and for each individual consumer. I'm not willing to pay a thin dime for a copy of 50 Shades of Gray. Heck, I wouldn't take it if someone tried to give me a copy. On the other hand, a whole lot of people are willing to pay hardback prices for it.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The traditional pricing model used by mainstream publishers is to offer the ebook at a high price when the initial hardback is released, and then to lower the price considerably when the MMPB comes out six months or a year later, so the price is usually lowered - permanently, rather than temporarily - after the first wave of buyers.

Yep. As much as some sneer at the Publisher's pricing models, it's been quite successful over the year and tends to capture the two major sets of buyers who actually buy new books (as opposed to use the library or buy used books). You have one group that wants the book as soon as it's available (thus the huge midnight buying parties for the Harry Potter books) and then the second somewhat larger group that is willing to wait a while for the book to come down in price.

Over the years, I remember seeing a lot of discount pricing for hard back books, but I don't remember seeing much discount pricing for paper back books.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yep. As much as some sneer at the Publisher's pricing models, it's been quite successful over the year and tends to capture the two major sets of buyers who actually buy new books (as opposed to use the library or buy used books). You have one group that wants the book as soon as it's available (thus the huge midnight buying parties for the Harry Potter books) and then the second somewhat larger group that is willing to wait a while for the book to come down in price.

My personal experience is ARCs I've purchased from Baen just to read the book a few months early. Not quite hardcover pricing but still a bit painful. But then when I consider that once I purchased Ace doubles for about 15 minutes wages while that ARC costs me about 15 minutes wages even though book prices have far outstripped the CPI climb -- the CPI has climbed by ~720% since I purchased that Ace double making the 50 cent price for that Ace double about $3.60 in today's dollar. BTW, the Ace double I'm referring to is G-609, (Reality Forbidden, Philip E. High and Contraband From Otherspace, A. Bertram Chandler) which I was re-reading.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal experience is the ARCs I've purchased from Baen just to read the book a few months early. Not quite hardcover pricing but still a bit painful.

That's exactly it, though: Baen know that there are people who will pay through the nose to read the book early, and they take full advantage of that. A sound business strategy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Here is a simplistic example.
An American buys an ebook, and it costs them $7.99 USD.
An Australian buys same ebook and it costs them $12.99 USD.
Where is that $5 USD difference going? A small part only of 10% is the GST (tax).
Is the author or publisher getting more money from the Australian? That would be wrong & racist.
Or is someone else getting it? And why?
There should be transparency about this.

Different publishers, different countries, different prices. Also, what it's priced in AU dollars could be typical for the AU and when converted into US dollars, you get the difference. So it may not be wrong or racist. And if it was wrong, why would it be racist?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Let me edit my previous post. Thanks.

Forget sales tax. eBooks are not taxed in the US and this is not about pBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Rarely actually what?

I believe every book I click on at the U.S. Amazon site has the prices listed side by side. For example:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...VVHST0Q1Q17K70

But that's only if you are looking on Amazon. Not everyone does.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal experience is ARCs I've purchased from Baen just to read the book a few months early. Not quite hardcover pricing but still a bit painful.

But, you don't have to buy the ARC. you know in a few months the price will be lower when the real version is released. So this is your choice, not a price foisted on you by Baen. So in this case, it's not the case of Baen playing games. It a case of you being impatient.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Forget sales tax. eBooks are not taxed in the US and this is not about pBooks.

Not true. In the US it depends on the state. I pay sales tax on ebooks in Pennsylvania.

Greg

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by gweeks

Not true. In the US it depends on the state. I pay sales tax on ebooks in Pennsylvania.

Greg

Yep. I pay taxes on my Amazon ebook purchases in Ohio, too. Just looked at several of my digital invoices to be certain.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Forget sales tax. eBooks are not taxed in the US and this is not about pBooks.

They are dang sure taxed in Texas. 8% to be exact. I know I have paid a sales tax on every ebook I have bought from Amazon. Now they are not taxed in all the states, but pretty much anything I buy from Amazon is taxed.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's exactly it, though: Baen know that there are people who will pay through the nose to read the book early, and they take full advantage of that. A sound business strategy.

And Baen (Tor too sometimes) can choose to carry this series on.

eArc $15

hc $25 ebook $9.99 (both discountable if Amazon wishes)

a year later tpb $15, ebook $8.99 both discountable

a year after this mmpb $7.99, ebook $6.99 both discountable

(check Baen books by Lois McMaster Bujold or David Weber).

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Forget sales tax. eBooks are not taxed in the US and this is not about pBooks.

Not true at all. Take a look at my post in this thread for a screen shot of the receipt for a recent book I bought.

Originally Posted by shalym

Actually, in the US the tax is never included in the list price. When I look at a book in the Kindle store, it will show me a price, such as $9.99, and when I buy it, I will actually be charged $10.09, because there was $0.10 sales tax on the book in my state.

Shari

Shari

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, you don't have to buy the ARC. you know in a few months the price will be lower when the real version is released. So this is your choice, not a price foisted on you by Baen. So in this case, it's not the case of Baen playing games. It a case of you being impatient.

As I said, "just to read the book a few months earlier". My choice. Though Baen's pricing strategy is pretty clear. To quote:

As of December 16th, 2012, Baen ebooks are now available for sale at other vendors as well as at this site. At the same time, prices for our individual ebooks were raised to meet the rest of the market. Titles available in print as hardcovers only will be $9.99, trade paperbacks $8.99, and mass market paperbacks $6.99. As part of the adjustment, we have also raised ebook royalties to authors by 25%.

Given the price of an eARC is about the same in terms of the minutes I work to pay for one as a 50 cent Ace double in 1968, I don't have issues with buying 2 or 3 per year. If other publishers made their pricing policy as clear as Baen does, I would have fewer issues.

The other issue is that quite a few people do not have an increase in their income to cover the close to 2,000% increase in the average paperback book price since 1968. I also consider that at one time, I had over 25 used bookstores that I could haunt for books within easy public transit distance. Most of them are now closed along with virtually all the independent bookstores. I can't even blame Amazon for that since many of them closed before Amazon became a major factor in the Canadian book market.