How Much Will You Pay For an E-Book?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

As a Kindle owner as well as an author, I'm wondering how much you all are willing to pay for an e-book. Do you have an absolute cutoff point, or does it just depend on the author? Are you likely to buy an e-book that's priced more than a paper one?


Drew

Personally, I'm never comparing to the prices for paperbooks. I'm just too lazy to check out the prices for comparison.
I've got some kind of upper limit.
Anything up to about $ 15 is okay. Above that, it depends on how much I'm interested in the book, topic or author.
About 7 years ago, I've bought "The Stand" for ca. $ 50. Way overprices, but I just wanted to read it again and totally was into eBooks on PocketPCs back then. Today, I wouldn't pay more than $ 25 for it.

[Andrew Kaufman]

I just don't understand how some of these publishers can charge more for their Kindle versions that their paper. Everyone knows it costs them less to produce the e-books. Seems like they're just trying to take advantage of the readers,but I think it's backfiring. People are buying up the less expensive e-books and leaving the pricey ones behind.

[bevdeforges]

I'm one of those folks who won't buy the hardback version of any book if it's likely to come out in paperback at some point. (OK, one or two exceptions for books I really needed and they were only in hardback at the time.) I was to the point of paying up to about $15 for paperbacks on my book-buying expeditions to the US. (Only way to get English language reading material - prices here in France are outrageous.)

But I've found since getting my reader last spring that you can put books on your wish list and just wait until the prices come down. So far, I'll usually grab up a book on my wish list when the price drops to $9.99 or less. I've paid (a little) more if it's something of particular interest (usually non-fiction), but so far I'm more than happy to wait them out for a drop in price.

As more folks give up hardbacks, the paperbacks and e-books are going to have to earn back the initial set-up costs and author advances before the prices drop, so I don't expect overall book prices to drop over the long term.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

I just don't understand how some of these publishers can charge more for their Kindle versions that their paper. Everyone knows it costs them less to produce the e-books. Seems like they're just trying to take advantage of the readers,but I think it's backfiring. People are buying up the less expensive e-books and leaving the pricey ones behind.

As far as we can tell, it looks like mainstream publishers are trying to kill ebooks, or keep them limited to a special-interest niche, like coffee-table books or novelty art books: something that a few people really like, but aren't part of normal reading habits.

And those publishers have never really considered small indie presses as competition, because indie press publications have never been able to fight for enough bookstore space and media attention to threaten them. But they don't have to fight for ebookstore space; there's always room for one more.

[jangell2]

I am not ever going to pay more than the PB price for an ebook. It raises my hackles when I see an ebook costing more than the pb.

Since I have rarely purchased hardcovers and I wait for the PB, I don't see it as an advantage to spend $9-$10 for a recently released book in e-format. I feel like I'm spending more than usual.

I'm also concerned about just what I'm getting when I buy an ebook. I have PB and some hardcovers in my bookshelf that are 25+ years old and are still very readable. Will I be able to say that about my ebooks in 5 years? Will technology make my mobi format books obsolete requiring that I buy them again for another device? I don't have to do that for my paper books.

I plan on concentrating on ebooks that cost $5 or less. It will have to be a big "want" to spend $9 for an ebook.

I haven't read the fine print on Amazon. Have they promised that once I buy a book and I can always read it without another re-purchase? I kinda doubt it.

[Andrew Kaufman]

It does seem as if publishers are trying to take advantage of us readers. Did you know the difference in cost between publishing a hardcover and paperback is only 25-cents? What have we been paying for all these years??

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

It does seem as if publishers are trying to take advantage of us readers. Did you know the difference in cost between publishing a hardcover and paperback is only 25-cents? What have we been paying for all these years??

Seriously?

I have the impression that hardbacks are printed domestically while paperbacks are printed in low cost countries. Seems to me there should be a bigger discrepancy. Are you able to back it up?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

It does seem as if publishers are trying to take advantage of us readers. Did you know the difference in cost between publishing a hardcover and paperback is only 25-cents? What have we been paying for all these years??

I believe that's an exaggeration; printing & binding costs are more than that, even in bulk. However, I have heard that the printing costs for hardcover are only a couple of dollars more than for a paperback. And that translates to more than a couple of dollars for the buyer. There's "cost plus markup for profit." If it costs them an extra $1.50 to produce the hardcover, that translates to an extra $4-5 to the end user.

What we're also paying for is
1) immediacy--this is why paperbacks aren't available right away, and
2) perceived quality--doesn't matter if the cost difference is only a little bit; people *want* nice hardcovers on their bookshelves, and they're willing to pay more for them.

The *other* $10-20? Is just profit. I'd say "greed," except that for a long time, people were more-or-less happy to support that model. The high profit margins on hardcovers allows publishers to tolerate book returns, print more copies than they're sure of selling, and spend money on book-signings and such.

And yeah, publishers don't do as much of those things as they used to and are struggling to do less of them, but the point is, that markup absorbed costs for other spots of the industry that they can't get directly paid for. The problem is that they've worked very hard to hide those aspects of the industry (possibly as a prelude to cutting back or eliminating them), and promoted the idea that what you're *really* paying for with a hardcover is the physical object.

They never imagined a growing number of customers who really don't want the physical object. They knew there'd always be a few who preferred the portability of paperbacks, but even those tend to like a few collectible hardcovers. People who read ebooks confuse them; they've never had to market immediacy as a separate feature before.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

It does seem as if publishers are trying to take advantage of us readers. Did you know the difference in cost between publishing a hardcover and paperback is only 25-cents? What have we been paying for all these years??

I think, that's not the entire picture.
This may be the difference for the production itself.
But my estimate would be, the ratio between paperbacks and hardcovers is maybe 10:1.
This means for example, shipping hardcovers to the various bookstores is way less efficient than shipping paperbacks.
I haven't got any exact figures. But I guess, logistics may add up to about 10% of total costs.
In addition, you have to consider storage space or weight.
And as always: Total volume dictates the price. If they sell (as I've assumed above) 10 times as many paperbacks, of course these can be discounted...

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

What we're also paying for is
1) immediacy--this is why paperbacks aren't available right away, and
2) perceived quality--doesn't matter if the cost difference is only a little bit; people *want* nice hardcovers on their bookshelves, and they're willing to pay more for them.

Agreed, though the staged release is something they've built in to the process to add to the amount they can charge for the hardcover. It's not the immediacy itself that is an increased cost, but they want to make the highest margin in return for their marketing expenditure. They'll do a little reminder marketing when the paperback comes out but the bulk of it is during that initial release. Sure, there are books that are so highly anticipated by so many that the hardcover will make a good show regardless. These are rare. Most of the time, they've got to get the author out on the publicity circuit giving interviews and signing books. They've got to get the reviewers interested. They time this all for the hardcover and it doesn't come cheaply. Plus I have to grudgingly admit that, without it, many good books would go unnoticed.

[Andrew Kaufman]

Actually Elfwreck, I got the info about the cost of producing a hardback as opposed to a soft back from the the vice president of a one of the biggest publishing companies in the country. I thought it seemed like a bit of an exaggerations as well, but I don't think he would have said it if it weren't true--I mean, it's not exactly great PR for them

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

Actually Elfwreck, I got the info about the cost of producing a hardback as opposed to a soft back from the the vice president of a one of the biggest publishing companies in the country. I thought it seemed like a bit of an exaggerations as well, but I don't think he would have said it if it weren't true--I mean, it's not exactly great PR for them

I suspect that either his numbers were outdated, or he had misunderstood some part of the process. (Perhaps printing the main-center-paper part is only a quarter more for hardcovers.)

Color jackets for hardcovers are not likely to be cheaper than $.50 each (if printed in the US), even in bulk. And even as cheap as they can get for overseas production, they'd have to be printed in one place, and assembled on the books in another--that's another production cost.

Maybe he meant the raw materials only cost $.25 more for hardcovers. Or that their "production" costs, after playing with the expenses and tax numbers, are only $.25 more.

That kind of potential confusion is why I don't trust statements from the publishing industry; they will make claims about costs or expenses, but not clarify what's included. I don't mean in this particular case; I don't expect people to use exact terms in a casual conversation, if that's what this was. But for press releases--numbers for "cost of production" are irrelevant if they won't tell us what's included in those costs.

[Oldpilot]

Originally Posted by Zorz

I havent bought any ebooks

Um, so why are you posting here?

[Oldpilot]

Great discussion--thanks to all of you. If you should read the Kindle DTP publishers' forum, I think you will conclude that author/publishers are raising the bar on prices. I know I am. I find that the ideal Amazon price is $5.99 but at the same time having the book on Barnes & Noble, which discounts it by 20 percent to $4.79. Amazon matches that price and pays the 70 percent royalty on the sales price. So I get roughly $3.30 and the buyer gets an apparent bargain. (There is a small transmission fee, a dime or so for any book that is mostly text.)

I'd be interested in knowing what UK shoppers think of odd prices, say £4.01, which can result from the conversion of the USD price to the GBP price. I have gone to great lengths to make sure that prices end in point 99, in this case £3.99. Does it make the slightest difference?

Thanks again.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Oldpilot

I'd be interested in knowing what UK shoppers think of odd prices, say £4.01, which can result from the conversion of the USD price to the GBP price. I have gone to great lengths to make sure that prices end in point 99, in this case £3.99. Does it make the slightest difference?

Thanks again.

Not a UK customer, but I have bought books from Amazon at price points with .44, .67 etc and I honestly don't care. I buy a $100 gift certificate and use that until it is under $5, then I will purchase a new certificate when I think I can afford it. Granted, just after buying a certificate I tend to buy the more expensive books from my wish list.