The Virtue of High Priced Books

[leebase]

This started out as a response to an author friend of mine who writes part time and thinks $15 and up is way too much for any book to be priced:

If you had fans willing to pay the higher price, and a publisher willing to work on your behalf to edit, market, distribute your work -- such that you could leave your day job and work full time at writing -- how is that not in the best interest of your audience?

I don't regret JK Rowling becoming a billionaire for writing the Harry Potter books. I was quite happy to spend the $15 to $20 per book each time a new one came out. Millions of folks were. And for those who can't afford the books at that price, they need merely wait awhile and there were millions of used hard backs to be had. Or wait for the paper back. Or wait for the used paper back.

And because JK Rowling has been so richly rewarded for her efforts, she continued to write books and OTHER folks were inspired to write books in the same genre....or for the same target audience.

It's a GOOD thing that books can demand "high" prices. Frankly, I think even a $25 hard back book is a bargain when put up against other forms of paid entertainment.

Write for those who can pay you and you'll also serve far better those who can't pay the high prices.

Lee

[Giggleton]

It's fine to charge whatever you want I suppose, but it's not fine to restrict access based on price. Meaning if someone wants to read your book they should be able to,

financialrestrictions = georestrictions when geography determines income, as it often does.

[leebase]

Actually, it's quite fine to charge for one's work and deny access to one's work to those who won't pay you for it. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. If content creators can't own their own works, then nobody should be able to own anything. Walk into any store you wish and just take things. Walk into anyone's house and just take things.

Communism doesn't work because folks stop working when there is nothing to gain from their labors.

But -- in the land of the real, away from childish notions of "information wants to be free" -- it is easily seen that high priced books are a great thing even for those who can't or don't want to buy them.

The reality of millions of folks paying those high prices allows for and incentivises the creation of more such books. For those unable or unwilling to pay the price -- their situation is unchanged. If an author (and the entire production chain that brings an author's work to the market) has no incentive to create the work, the work wouldn't exist. So a high priced work enables the product to exist in the first place.

Even though very few folks actually make "big money" by writing, the chance to make that money is a huge draw for others to create new works.

It is not wrong for books to exist that are priced beyond the means of some. If we gave in to the childish notion that "Billy can't afford this particular book therefore all books should be free" would not result in a good situation for "Billy". It would merely result in ALL of use not having new books to read. Billy's lot in life is unchanged and everyone else's is made poorer.

On the contrary -- Billy need only wait awhile while those who CAN and CHOOSE to pay the "high new book price" to do so and the books get created. And he can pick up a used copy, borrow from a friend, check the book out from a library, etc.

The best way to ensure Billy has books is to ensure there's a chance someone is going to be richly rewarded for creating books Billy can't pay for.

Lee

[jbcohen]

I will strike a middle ground on the issue. I have no problem paying for a book but I absolutely refuse to pay the insane prices that publishers are charging for books these days. I refuse to pay of $8 for a book, no one is worth more than that in paper back, I generally do not buy hardbacks, not becuase of price but because there are so much great stuff out there in paperback to read that I really do not have time to read the hardbacks. I agree with Leebase that there is nothing wrong with charging for ones work but $9 for a paper back thats simply down right greedy. I also require a free sample so that I can see if I like your writing style, one page will do it or two paragraphs will do it. I'm looking for two things: can you as an author manage to keep a story flowing in one direction and limit the sceen changes, many authors simply are not able to do that; and I am looking to see how many gramatical mistakes you make in the first page of the novel, there are simply too many available writting tools for authors to make that many mistakes and some of them are available for no charge so authors have no exuse what so ever.

[mr ploppy]

I got a book today that cost me $45 + $15 post from America. The writer won't get any of that because it was second hand, and he won't get anything when I resell it either (probably at or above what I paid).

But he chose to make the ebook version a limited edition by removing it for sale as soon as the paper version sold out, so there wasn't really any choice. This idea of deliberately restricting the number of people who can read a book just doesn't make sense to me.

"Write for people who want to read it" rather than "write for people who can afford it".

I can understand the vanity side of seeing your book selling for silly money on Amazon, but I don't see how that is worth swapping for a steady income from readers.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by leebase

It is not wrong for books to exist that are priced beyond the means of some. If we gave in to the childish notion that "Billy can't afford this particular book therefore all books should be free" would not result in a good situation for "Billy". It would merely result in ALL of use not having new books to read. Billy's lot in life is unchanged and everyone else's is made poorer.

If ending the silly notion of enforcing artificial scarcity means that all writers who are in it for the money stop writing and the only writers left are those who do it for the art and the pleasure of writing-- I'm perfectly okay with that.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

If ending the silly notion of enforcing artificial scarcity means that all writers who are in it for the money stop writing and the only writers left are those who do it for the art and the pleasure of writing-- I'm perfectly okay with that.

The reality of the market place those is that a higher unit prices doesn't mean more sales/profit. There is an art to pricing a product to maximize profits.... sometimes a higher price is better and sometimes a lower price.

Frankly, I don't care what books a certain book is priced at. I will decide on a case by case basis what I want to buy and what I am willing to pay for it.

For me, right now, paying more than $10 for a "fiction" ebook is not ever worth it.. considering the hundreds of thousands of books out there. Of course, a technical book is a different story. Those are investments if you can learn/earn money from the info they contain.

BOb

[rhadin]

Putting a high price on a book doesn't equate, in my mind, to artificial scarcity. Artificial scarcity is when an ebook is removed from the marketplace once a certain number are sold, regardless of the price. In the case of pbooks, we call it limited edition runs and we seem to be OK with the concept in pbooks, so why not with ebooks?

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

For me, right now, paying more than $10 for a "fiction" ebook is not ever worth it.. considering the hundreds of thousands of books out there. Of course, a technical book is a different story. Those are investments if you can learn/earn money from the info they contain.

Exactly my sentiments.

[RichL]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

It's fine to charge whatever you want I suppose, but it's not fine to restrict access based on price....

Why do you feel they shouldn't be able to restrict their own product? Is there something special about books, magazines, etc. that makes you think the producers should work for free?

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Putting a high price on a book doesn't equate, in my mind, to artificial scarcity.

No, what I mean by "artificial scarcity" is society trying to pretend that one can't make ten billion extra copies of an electronic file at the touch of a button at zero added expense. Physical objects have real scarcity because they have to be made using limited material resources. Any limitation on the number of copies of digital files is just people playing "make believe" and hoping that other people play the game with them, either by carrot or by stick.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

If ending the silly notion of enforcing artificial scarcity means that all writers who are in it for the money stop writing and the only writers left are those who do it for the art and the pleasure of writing-- I'm perfectly okay with that.

I'm ok with you limiting yourself to only those folks willing to give away their labor. I'm ok with paying folks I choose to pay. The conflict comes in when a freeloader thinks they have a right to someone who only offer's their work for pay.

Lee

[leebase]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

"Write for people who want to read it" rather than "write for people who can afford it".

How "fair" is it to demand someone work for those unwilling or unable to pay them for their work?

I agree completely that some books are priced more than I want to pay for them. When you and I draw that line on any given book may differ. That's the market in action.

However, I applaud those who command high prices and GET those high prices. I applaud those who PAY those high prices. The ability to make a living, and the chance to REALLY do well by writing gives people incentive to create the books I enjoy reading.

So even when I choose to not buy a book because of it's price, I'm glad the book exists. I'm not injured in any way by books existing that are too expensive for me to buy.

Lee

[leebase]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

No, what I mean by "artificial scarcity" is society trying to pretend that one can't make ten billion extra copies of an electronic file at the touch of a button at zero added expense.

The use case where someone creates and ebook then takes it off the market after a certain number are sold is an "out layer", certainly not the norm.

The "scarcity" that comes from pricing a book higher than "Billy" wants to or can pay for it is actually a virtue. Billy is no more harmed by a book being priced beyond his reach than the book not existing in the first place.

The virtue comes from the incentive to create books. The more money generated, the more revenue. The more revenue, the more incentive.

Lee

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Putting a high price on a book doesn't equate, in my mind, to artificial scarcity. Artificial scarcity is when an ebook is removed from the marketplace once a certain number are sold, regardless of the price. In the case of pbooks, we call it limited edition runs and we seem to be OK with the concept in pbooks, so why not with ebooks?

Because you can't legally buy a second hand ebook if you find out about it too late.