# ebook prices



## paulF2011 (Dec 29, 2010)

This has probably been discussed endlessly here so apologies... But.... how come ebooks are so expensive? Surely publishers are making a massive profit on ebook sales compared to real books with a physical product to make, distribution costs etc. It doesn't seem right, although in our money-grabbing society, I must admit it does sound normal.


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

ebook prices used to be a lot cheaper. That's what really makes you think.  Of course, originally Amazon was subsidizing the prices of ebooks -- telling publishers exactly what the sales price would be, and then making up the difference. 

Now they're making a point of indicating when "This price was set by the publisher."  But I still think this is a case of higher prices being charged because...they know they can get away with it!


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Me and My Kindle said:


> . . . But I still think this is a case of higher prices being charged because...they know they can get away with it!


They will only charge what we are willing to pay . . . basic economy.


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## Cloysterpete (Aug 21, 2010)

They charge high prices for ebook to stop people buying them, yes I know that sounds odd but it's true. 

They want people to keep on buying their print titles so they keep the ebook prices artificially high, after all in a few years when there is little print publishing why would an author run to give a big publisher their ebook rights when they can earn far better royalties from publishing it themselves?.


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Cloysterpete said:


> They charge high prices for ebook to stop people buying them, yes I know that sounds odd but it's true.


If this is true, can you share your sources?
Or is this opinion? If so, please don't state opinion as a fact.



Cloysterpete said:


> They want people to keep on buying their print titles so they keep the ebook prices artificially high, after all in a few years when there is little print publishing why would an author run to give a big publisher their ebook rights when they can earn far better royalties from publishing it themselves?.


There will be printed books for years and years.
It is ridiculous to think that everybody will be able to afford or even want an eReader.
Not to mention that printed medium is still the best way to leave a record for posterity.

Also, people want a professionally designed and edited book. If you ever read a book not edited by a pro, you will know what I am talking about&#8230; terrible.
I would not read a Stephen King book if it weren't edited by someone other than him.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

auge_28 said:


> If this is true, can you share your sources?
> Or is this opinion? If so, please don't state opinion as a fact.


Settle down there - a lot of people agree with this assessment, opinion or not. When publishers, especially one in particularly (Penguin!) have a habit of charging $20 for ebooks and/or charging more for an ebook than what Amazon is charging for a hardcover/paperback, the obvious conclusion that is some publishers are afraid of what the ebook market means for them and are actually trying to discourage it. Is that an opinion? Yes... but it's based on a logical conclusion on how we've seen publishers react to the market and many people have come to the same conclusion. Unless the publishers come out and say "we're scared of what the ebook market means for us" which they aren't going to do, there isn't going to be a "source" to back up this claim. Even if there's an article on it somewhere, that would just be the opinion of the article's author. That doesn't make the statement any less valid.



> There will be printed books for years and years.


Yes there will be but that doesn't mean ebooks aren't taking a chunk out of market.



> Also, people want a professionally designed and edited book. If you ever read a book not edited by a pro, you will know what I am talking about&#8230; terrible.


Can you share your sources or is this merely an opinion? You're mistaken if you think all indie books are poorly edited and designed (signing with a major publisher is not the only way to get a professional editor or designer). And you're mistaken if you think no one would read a book with an ugly cover. All you have to do is look around these boards to see how many people are heavily into indie ebooks. They have become extremely popular and the major publishers are right to be scared of them.


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## Cloysterpete (Aug 21, 2010)

Obviously if you were selfpubbing an ebook you would hire a pro to edit it, just the same way you would hire a pro to do the cover art and anything else you need, assuming you have a good book you would then be earning far more money selling many copies at a low price with 70% royalties then you would be signing with a publisher and having low sales because they priced it stupidly and paid you low royalties. Authors aren't daft, more and more are waking up to the fact that they don't need the publishers anymore, hence those publishers attempting to stifle the growth of ebooks.

Amazon have stated that with the previous pricing model publishers were making far more money on ebooks that they are now, why would publishers persist with losing money on ebooks if it wasn't about propping up their failing print sales?.

Yes, print will be around for years and years yet but it's going to become increasingly irrelevant to authors, with print sales unless it's a blockbuster how long are you going to have the book actually in print and selling?, a year?, two?, Is the book even going to earn it's advance in that period of time?, with pitiful print royalties rates of 7.5%-15% and steadily declining print sales 99% of authors are not going to make a living with print. 

The expanding digital market is where the money is to be made as the ebook will never go out of print so assuming it's self pubbed will continue to earn you 70% royalties until the day you die, print can't match that.


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## Cloysterpete (Aug 21, 2010)

Case in point - the new Koontz book, £10.00 for hardcover, £9.99 for the ebook. It's obvious that the publisher doesn't want you buying the Kindle title over the hardcover with pricing like that.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

All these prices set by the publisher...

Tick Tock by James Patterson
Hachette Book Group
New Hardcover $14.57
Kindle $14.99

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
HarperCollins
New Paperback $6.83
Kindle $9.99

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer
Hachette Book Group
New Hardcover $8.39
Kindle $9.99


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

The reason that e-books are priced so high has to do with the way the print industry works. Publishers insist that the actual printing costs of a book don't amount to much. That may be true, but this is why - the biggest cost in printing something is the printer's setup cost. Once that is handled, printing a lot more books costs just a relatively small amount of money. So, the more books that you print, the smaller the individual print book cost actually is. This works great as long as you print a lot of books.

Now e-books come along and people start buying e-books instead of paper books. Sometimes, they buy indie books with no paper equivalent rather than a big publisher book altogether. Amazon reports that it now sells more Kindle books than paperback books (earlier they announced this was true for hardcover books). So the demand for printed books now drops significantly. Publishers no longer need to print as large a number of books - if they do, many more get returned to them. But printing fewer books means that each book costs significantly more to print, and the publisher sees its profits on its print sales drop significantly. To protect against this profit loss, they have to make sure that e-books are priced close to the print book so that any print book sale lost to e-book will still pay for the printing costs of the other print books. (Alternatively, they would have to allow the cost of print books to skyrocket to pay for themselves or they would eventually have to drop the printed book altogether and switch entirely to e-book). So in essence, e-books are currently priced to subsidize print books.

This is the philosophy of the publishing industry, which understands the print business well and wants to protect it, but the e-book business not as well. What they may not be considering is how many more people may actually buy the e-books if they were priced more reasonably. If they could sell significantly more e-books than they ever would have sold print books, then they might make up the difference that way. But publishers don't trust that this would happen. After all, there is only so much that one person can read. However, I know that I buy more e-books than I used to buy print books, so I am not sure they are right.

However, eventually the price thing will work out in a way that maximizes profits. If more money can be made selling more books for less, some player will come in and do just that. And if one succeeds at this, more will follow. But these things take time.

And yes, this is just my interpretation of the situation - but it makes sense when you think about it.

Vonda


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

One other thing that I forgot to mention. The scenario I presented pertains largely to the best sellers. But the big publishers also take risks on books my new authors that will not sell as much. These books will cost more to print because they will not sell in best seller volume. However, because the best sellers cost so little to print, they are priced at a point that allows publishers to subsidize these works by newer authors, with the hopes that they will discover the next best selling author in the process.

If best sellers don't cover their own printing costs as well as those smaller works, publishers may not take as many risks on newer authors and stick with the ones that they are confident are going to sell. Or, they may decide not to come out with print versions of the more obscure works, which would limit their accessibility to those who prefer print.

The industry is changing and pricing is going to be a struggle until the market forces work all of this out.


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

Here's one of the best explanations I've read on the pricing of ebooks - the wholesale vs. agency model: http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/10/wholesale-vs-agency-sales-models-in.html

Also, if you're really interested in this subject, I highly recommend following The Shatzkin Files: http://www.idealog.com/blog/

It was interesting to note that Ken Follett's Kindle sales dropped by 48% after a $2 increase: http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/ken-folletts-kindle-sales-dropped-48-after-2-price-increase_b5337

By the way, I'm an indie author, and I have my work professionally copy edited (and I don't mean by my mom or best friend).


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

auge_28 said:


> If this is true, can you share your sources?
> Or is this opinion? If so, please don't state opinion as a fact.


Publishers have admitted that they "need to protect as long as we can the apparatus that sells physical books."

They've also said that "It was a mistake to let Amazon put out e-books simultaneously and charge the price it did [$9.99]. It will have a negative effect on the paperback."

http://www.davidderrico.com/publishers-vs-e-books/


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

paulF2011 said:


> This has probably been discussed endlessly here so apologies... But.... how come ebooks are so expensive? Surely publishers are making a massive profit on ebook sales compared to real books with a physical product to make, distribution costs etc. It doesn't seem right, although in our money-grabbing society, I must admit it does sound normal.


Actually I've seen some numbers posted (here or maybe on mobileread.com) in the past showing that e-books aren't that much cheaper to publishers per copy than print books--especially cheap mass market paper backs. People tend to overestimate how much it costs to print things in huge numbers. We're talking cents per copy for a cheap paper back, and a buck or so for a standard hardback. Prices will be higher for books with smaller print runs of course.

Personally, I'm fine paying the same for an e-book as the cheapest print version on Amazon. The way I look at it is:

1. The author is getting a fixed % royalty (say 10%) for each copy sold, I'm fine paying the same as the cheapest print version so they get the same payout. Regardless of printing savings, the author did the same amount of work writing the book regardless of the format I read it in. So if the paper back is $8.99 then I'm fine paying $8.99 for the e-book so they get the same .89 cents either way (assuming again a 10% royalty).

2. I love e-books. I hated buying paperbooks as I seldom re-read and it was a hassle to have store and move them, or lug them to the library or Goodwill to donate etc. So I'm fine paying the same price and getting what for me is a superior product as it makes reading much more convenient to me.

3. Paying the same for current books is offset in my mind by being able to get the classics for free rather than paying for mass produced reprint paperbacks of them as in the pass.

So in short, I have no problem paying up to the cheapest print versions price, and really think that's where prices should be set for the most part. I won't pay the cheapest print version usually. And I also sometimes feel a little guilty if the e-book is less than the paperback as I feel like I'm taking a few cents out of the author's pocket!


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

mooshie78 said:


> Actually I've seen some numbers posted (here or maybe on mobileread.com) in the past showing that e-books aren't that much cheaper to publishers per copy than print books--especially cheap mass market paper backs. People tend to overestimate how much it costs to print things in huge numbers. We're talking cents per copy for a cheap paper back, and a buck or so for a standard hardback. Prices will be higher for books with smaller print runs of course.
> 
> Personally, I'm fine paying the same for an e-book as the cheapest print version on Amazon. The way I look at it is:
> 
> ...


All true and I do agree because I also am willing to buy an ebook for the same cost of it's paper version (I am paying for the content, not the format). But there is a valid argument in that ebook consumers also have the cost of an ereader to consider... from our point of view, it's understandable to expect ebooks to be slightly cheaper in order to make up and justify the cost of buying the ereader itself. I know that means nothing to the publishers but it matters to many consumers.


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

history_lover said:


> But there is a valid argument in that ebook consumers also have the cost of an ereader to consider... from our point of view, it's understandable to expect ebooks to be slightly cheaper in order to make up and justify the cost of buying the ereader itself. I know that means nothing to the publishers but it matters to many consumers.


My ereader cost quite a bit less than the last bookcase I bought. (I have 3 large, 3 smallish.) Should I expect my paper books to be slightly cheaper in order to make up and justify the cost of buying bookcases?


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

history_lover said:


> All true and I do agree because I also am willing to buy an ebook for the same cost of it's paper version (I am paying for the content, not the format). But there is a valid argument in that ebook consumers also have the cost of an ereader to consider... from our point of view, it's understandable to expect ebooks to be slightly cheaper in order to make up and justify the cost of buying the ereader itself. I know that means nothing to the publishers but it matters to many consumers.


Fair point I guess. Less relevant as prices keep falling.

Also, if one takes advantage of free books, then it will pay for itself over time even if e-books cost the same as their paper counterparts.

Personally, I don't care as I was willing to pay that premium for the convenience of e-books. Being a researcher/teacher I've got a ton of text books, stats books, academic research books, scholarly journals, printed out pdfs of journal articles etc. cluttering up my house and campus office. So I don't want (nor have room for) many personal books--especially since most are things I'll only read once anyway.

So I'm fine paying for an e-reader and paying up to the cheapest print price just for the convenience. But I know others are on tight budgets etc. and have to assess things differently.

On a related note, I bought my first 2 mp3 albums off Amazon today. I'd been a stickler for CDs even though I do 99% of my listening on my ipod or my computers these days. My CD rack is about full and I just don't have room in the condo for another rack (unless I just find one that's taller to replace this one) so it's just not worth it to get the CDs anymore. Wish I'd made the change years ago!

It's like that line in Fight Club "the things you own end up owning you." Being a younger fellow and no where near ready to settle down (I move often, either within city or to a new city when changing jobs) it's just a pain having all these books, cds, dvds/blurays to find room for and pack when moving etc. So I'm getting more into embracing the digital age and reducing clutter.


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

mooshie78 said:


> Actually I've seen some numbers posted (here or maybe on mobileread.com) in the past showing that e-books aren't that much cheaper to publishers per copy than print books--especially cheap mass market paper backs. People tend to overestimate how much it costs to print things in huge numbers. We're talking cents per copy for a cheap paper back, and a buck or so for a standard hardback. Prices will be higher for books with smaller print runs of course.
> 
> Personally, I'm fine paying the same for an e-book as the cheapest print version on Amazon. The way I look at it is:
> 
> 1. The author is getting a fixed % royalty (say 10%) for each copy sold, I'm fine paying the same as the cheapest print version so they get the same payout. Regardless of printing savings, the author did the same amount of work writing the book regardless of the format I read it in. So if the paper back is $8.99 then I'm fine paying $8.99 for the e-book so they get the same .89 cents either way (assuming again a 10% royalty).


It's true that people generally overestimate print costs, but e-books also avoid more expensive costs incurred with printed books, like shipping and returns. The problem is that publishers' print overhead doesn't magically disappear just because you bought an e-book instead of a print book, since print books are still 90%+ of their business.

And authors almost always earn higher royalties on e-books than on their print counterparts. Print royalties are generally 8-15%, while e-books are 17.5-70%.

I break down the pricing, costs, author royalties, and publisher profits on print books vs. e-books in more detail here:

http://www.davidderrico.com/cost-breakdowns-e-books-vs-printed-books/


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## StaceyHH (Sep 13, 2010)

David Derrico said:


> And authors almost always earn higher royalties on e-books than on their print counterparts. Print royalties are generally 8-15%, while e-books are 17.5-70%.


Not necessarily. Depends on the publishing house. This question comes up at every book signing I've attended for the last 2 years or so. I've yet to hear an author state that they make more money from ebooks than from hardbounds or new release TPBs. Most say they get between $.50-$1.00 more on hardbounds and TPBs. They do get more from the ebooks than from mass market paperbacks though - usually quite a bit more there.


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

David Derrico said:


> I break down the pricing, costs, author royalties, and publisher profits on print books vs. e-books in more detail here: http://www.davidderrico.com/cost-breakdowns-e-books-vs-printed-books/


Good article but unless I missed it you neglected something.

When I was a small press genre publisher it was affordable for me to pay an advance of several hundred dollars, and printing was expensive but workable, however the huge wall I kept hitting was marketing. 
Marketing is hugely expensive, we are talking flyers, mailers, add space, tours and conventions. It's so expensive with no guarantee of decent returns. 
You would have the same marketing for eBooks as printed . . . however you can have the marketing hit both formats simultaneously.


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## Juzzman9 (Jan 25, 2011)

mooshie78 said:


> Personally, I'm fine paying the same for an e-book as the cheapest print version on Amazon.


I am probably not far off that opinion except one major problem - rights.

When I purchase a kindle book from Amazon I don't have the same rights of ownership as I do when I purchase a paper book. My rights with a Kindle book are severely curtailed compared to a paperback - down to the level that I am able to sell an old paperback second hand if I want to. No such luck with a purchased ebook. Because of that I believe ebooks should be significantly cheaper - I am just not buying the same rights - significantly less rights associated with an ebook.


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Juzzman9 said:


> I am probably not far off that opinion except one major problem - rights.
> 
> When I purchase a kindle book from Amazon I don't have the same rights of ownership as I do when I purchase a paper book. My rights with a Kindle book are severely curtailed compared to a paperback - down to the level that I am able to sell an old paperback second hand if I want to. No such luck with a purchased ebook. Because of that I believe ebooks should be significantly cheaper - I am just not buying the same rights - significantly less rights associated with an ebook.


I agree, in my opinion eBooks should cost less for the reason you stated. 
I do not have the option of selling or trading them to offset the purchase of new eBooks.

But on the other hand when we get books from Amazon it is understood that we do not own them in any way. We are paying to read them, anytime they don't wanna support the Kindle or whatever else we lose the books.

I wish Amazon had a subscription model . . . something like we pay $15.99 a month and in that month we can download and read an unlimited amount of books, if we let the payment laps then we lose all of the books we downloaded under that license model. This way we do not have the misconception of ownership.


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

Hmmm...  I've seen a handful of high-priced ebooks, but most of them I see are way cheaper than hardcovers... or am I on a different planet?

Lambert


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## David Derrico (Nov 18, 2009)

StaceyHH said:


> Not necessarily. Depends on the publishing house. This question comes up at every book signing I've attended for the last 2 years or so. I've yet to hear an author state that they make more money from ebooks than from hardbounds or new release TPBs. Most say they get between $.50-$1.00 more on hardbounds and TPBs. They do get more from the ebooks than from mass market paperbacks though - usually quite a bit more there.


When I said authors get "higher royalties" for e-books, I meant a higher royalty percentage. I do break down the numbers and dollar amounts in the article I linked. Generally, hardcover royalties are more than e-books as a dollar amount, because they're 15% of $25 or so, as opposed to 17.5% or even 35% of $10. Generally e-book royalties are way more than MMP and usually a little more than TPB.



auge_28 said:


> Good article but unless I missed it you neglected something.
> 
> When I was a small press genre publisher it was affordable for me to pay an advance of several hundred dollars, and printing was expensive but workable, however the huge wall I kept hitting was marketing.
> Marketing is hugely expensive, we are talking flyers, mailers, add space, tours and conventions. It's so expensive with no guarantee of decent returns.
> You would have the same marketing for eBooks as printed . . . however you can have the marketing hit both formats simultaneously.


I didn't really discuss marketing costs, especially since (as you said) there would be marketing costs for both print and e-books. (There will also be editing costs, cover design, overhead, etc. for both formats.) And marketing costs will vary wildly from publisher to publisher and book to book. I was just trying to focus on the printing costs in different formats, and also discuss the royalty issue, to show what publishers had left for marketing and all those other costs. I guess I could have made it more clear, but I did mention "advertising" among those other costs that publishers have. You're right, I'd imagine it's a pretty large portion of most publishers' budgets.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

This topic always generates a lot of different opinions.  Many thanks for them.

One thing that confuses me is why aren't more older books made into ebooks?  I'm talking about books that are more than 3 years old or those out of print.  It can be very difficult to find books out of print.  I would think that selling them as ebooks would generate at least some sales for authors' works who were once popular.  Is my thinking off with this opinion?


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Shastastan said:


> One thing that confuses me is why aren't more older books made into ebooks? I'm talking about books that are more than 3 years old or those out of print. It can be very difficult to find books out of print.


Several reasons.

Ebooks rights have to be negotiated, as they weren't part of the original contract.
Or they don't exist in electronic (word-processor) form.
The author doesn't want them to be in ebook form.
The publishers have a tremendous backlog of works to convert and have assigned priorities that may not be obvious to us. One thing to consider here is that many publishers sub-contract the conversion process to outside vendors that may be swamped with work.
The publishers don't think they will make any money on backlists.
Older out of print books can be a huge problems as in many cases it's not obvious who has the rights to sign contracts.

And there is the ever-popular conspiracy theory that publishers are trying to kill ebook sales.

Mike


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Shastastan said:


> This topic always generates a lot of different opinions. Many thanks for them.
> 
> One thing that confuses me is why aren't more older books made into ebooks? I'm talking about books that are more than 3 years old or those out of print. It can be very difficult to find books out of print. I would think that selling them as ebooks would generate at least some sales for authors' works who were once popular. Is my thinking off with this opinion?


For a large publisher, contacting authors and negotiating contracts and arranging payment for books that won't sell many copies is too large an investment for too little reward. For several decades now they've been accustomed to the business model where they print fewer titles that sell more copies (bestsellers), for which they pay huge advances. They don't know how to "print" (as ebooks) many, many titles that sell few copies each and make money. That business model isn't sexy enough for them.

On the other hand, individual authors can do exactly what you suggest themselves. Any backlisted book from a publisher won't get any promotion anyway, so why not issue it yourself and pocket that 70% royalty? If you have a lot of books sitting around making you zero dollars, you can digitize them and get a nice little revenue stream going.

I have only one previously published book to hawk, but it's been worthwhile. I can't live on the revenue, but it pays for my book purchases and a nice bottle of scotch now and again.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

RobynB said:


> It was interesting to note that Ken Follett's Kindle sales dropped by 48% after a $2 increase


This is fascinating. It indicates that the ebook consumer is exceedingly sensitive to price.

The article indicates, "the week the publisher switched from the $7.99 Amazon price on the title to the $9.99 publisher determined price, Kindle sales of the book dropped by 48%."

$7.99 is significantly below the price of most paperbacks. This may be what the consumer expects.


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## davidhburton (Mar 11, 2010)

Elk said:


> This is fascinating. It indicates that the ebook consumer is exceedingly sensitive to price.
> 
> The article indicates, "the week the publisher switched from the $7.99 Amazon price on the title to the $9.99 publisher determined price, Kindle sales of the book dropped by 48%."
> 
> $7.99 is significantly below the price of most paperbacks. This may be what the consumer expects.


I ran some polls on this last year and price is extremely important for consumers (http://davidhburton.com/?p=304


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Thanks, David.


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

Elk said:


> This is fascinating. It indicates that the ebook consumer is exceedingly sensitive to price.
> 
> The article indicates, "the week the publisher switched from the $7.99 Amazon price on the title to the $9.99 publisher determined price, Kindle sales of the book dropped by 48%."
> 
> $7.99 is significantly below the price of most paperbacks. This may be what the consumer expects.


Who says $7.99 is below the price of most paperbacks? We must be looking at different PBs. The ones I buy are usually $6.99 - $7.99.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Arkali said:


> Who says $7.99 is below the price of most paperbacks? We must be looking at different PBs.


Do you think? 

As with most things, YMMV.


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

Well, good point   And Trade Paperbacks are running $10 these days (ouch!)  But "significantly lower" and "most" had me crying foul


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

@jmiked & @ Jan Strand

Thanks for the explanations. I can see where digitizing would be a hassle for old books, but they are doing it for the classics. I guess I didn't mention that. I assume that the publishers are retaining _*all*_ rights in some cases and the authors couldn't have their books published in ebook form even if they wanted to. As to the "conspiracy theory", I don't know one way or the other. It does seem that there could be efforts for more emphasis to be placed on dtb's than ebooks. Personally, I don't see why it has to be an either or situation though. There are pros and cons both ways. In the end ebooks will be the only choice because the source of raw materials will be depleted. Yes, timber is a renewable resource, but it takes 40 to 50 years to renew. I live in an area where logging is a major industry.


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## Zell (Dec 27, 2010)

Just finished S. King's *The Stand* so I thought I'd give *Swan Song* a try to see what it's like. That was before I noticed the e-book price of $14. I don't understand how an e-book that came out in 2003 is still $14. I did not buy it. If it were around $6 or $7 I'd probably get it.


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Zell said:


> Just finished S. King's *The Stand* so I thought I'd give *Swan Song* a try to see what it's like. That was before I noticed the e-book price of $14. I don't understand how an e-book that came out in 2003 is still $14. I did not buy it. If it were around $6 or $7 I'd probably get it.


You can get cheap reader copies here:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Robert+McCammon&sts=t&tn=Swan+Song&x=0&y=0
Not eBooks but you can read them.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Zell said:


> Just finished S. King's *The Stand* so I thought I'd give *Swan Song* a try to see what it's like. That was before I noticed the e-book price of $14. I don't understand how an e-book that came out in 2003 is still $14. I did not buy it. If it were around $6 or $7 I'd probably get it.


It was about $6.50 when I bought it last year, so the price will likely come down sooner or later.

I thought it was a poor imitation of _The Stand_.


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

Shastastan said:


> I can see where digitizing would be a hassle for old books, but they are doing it for the classics.


For the most part, the publishers are not the ones digitizing the classics. They are being digitized by volunteers like those working for free for the Gutenberg Project. These works are in the public domain so there are no rights to sort out. Often, the free classics have not been professionally formatted and they often contain OCR, hyphenation, and line-break errors, although sometimes third parties take the content and add better formatting and an indexed Table of Contents and such and then sell them for a few bucks.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

To me ebooks have too many restrictions for the buyer to be costing the same or even more than paperback. DRM is one issue. 
I grumble when I see ebooks at the exact same price than the paperback. 

What really makes me mad is something I noticed lately with the genre I love reading. romance. There is a lot of backlist to still appear and I love seeing them come up more and more. But they want to charge brand new paperback prices for them. These books have been out of print for years and years. Ridiculous .

I also search the store by publication date in the subgenres I like. So I see a new book by a established romance author and its 14.99 on preorder.   . Are they insane?
These particular books don't usually come out in hardcover much at all, trade paper mabye and regular paperback. 

So lucky for me I found Zebra books which are part of Kensington and Zebra specializes in historical romance which I love reading. All these books are very reasonably priced and lend-able. I been buying a lot of those lately.

That still leaves me with finding a way to read the other books that are priced too high. With my eyes, paperbacks aren't really an option much. I will find a way, one way or another.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

@VondaZ

I agree.  It's sometimes worth paying a buck or 2 to get good formatting.

I do think that we will continue to see "high" prices for both older and new books as long as folks keep buying.  When sales decline or stop the publishers might lower the prices or just pull the item from the market.

"What really makes me mad is something I noticed lately with the genre I love reading. romance. There is a lot of backlist to still appear and I love seeing them come up more and more. But they want to charge brand new paperback prices for them. These books have been out of print for years and years. Ridiculous ."

But, if you want those books, you will have to pay the asking price regardless of how you feel about.  Just like I pay the full price for each new Vince Flynn book that comes out.  Must be impatience?


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Atunah said:


> To me ebooks have too many restrictions for the buyer to be costing the same or even more than paperback. DRM is one issue.
> I grumble when I see ebooks at the exact same price than the paperback.


I can see that view point, though I don't share it. To me the content is the same, so I don't mind the same price. And also, I'm fine paying it as e-books are so much more convenient for someone who doesn't re-read like me as it saves hassling with ditching a paper book after reading it, finding a place to store it or hassling with libraries.


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

Shastastan said:


> @jmiked & @ Jan Strand
> 
> Thanks for the explanations. I can see where digitizing would be a hassle for old books, but they are doing it for the classics. I guess I didn't mention that. I assume that the publishers are retaining _*all*_ rights in some cases and the authors couldn't have their books published in ebook form even if they wanted to. As to the "conspiracy theory", I don't know one way or the other. It does seem that there could be efforts for more emphasis to be placed on dtb's than ebooks. Personally, I don't see why it has to be an either or situation though. There are pros and cons both ways. In the end ebooks will be the only choice because the source of raw materials will be depleted. Yes, timber is a renewable resource, but it takes 40 to 50 years to renew. I live in an area where logging is a major industry.


For older books that are not (yet) in the public domain (at least in the US), I would think there would be a priority to digitize them on the publishers' part, in order to maximize profit.

For example, I am trying not to purchase any book in a paper format unless I have to for school. I had an old copy of the first Little House book that I read to my daughter. She loved it. I won't buy the rest for her because of our limited space and intention to move next May. She has a Kindle, and I would purchase this series for her gladly, but it's not available.

However, when my wife makes a trip to Detroit next week, I might just have her slip across the border to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where the books are now in the public domain, find a WiFi hotspot, and download the entire series for free, legally.

In my mind, the publishers just don't _get_ the need to meet market demand, but eventually they will come around. Sure some of the lack of e-availability is time and resources available to digitize older content, but some of this is just stubbornness as evidenced by some new books being unavailable, books that were certainly in some electronic format originally. Publishers will figure out that what they sell is really the content of the books, not the physical books themselves, or they will go the way of the railroad barons of an earlier generation who couldn't figure out that nothing could preserve their outdated business model in the face of other technological progress.


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## rscully (Jun 5, 2010)

Business cap goes on  

K, this is an opinion, based on some training I recieved on price setting, and the logic behind it.

To determine the price of anything, not just books, you must first try to understand what the customer will pay, this is the Value Created by the business or by you, the author. What I believe may be happening, is that the industry is doing two things, first, they are trying to see what readers are willing to pay, and second, they are trying to determine at what point, the readers may value the printed book over the Ebook. They likely will run a profit margin analysis and once established, they will know exactly what they can get, either way. Some people will pay the same for an Ebook, others won't. Numbers game. With an Ebook, there is far more margin and a much lower cost. There's a growing market, they will exploit it to their benefit.  

I'm quite sure that many publishing houses are taking notice and trying to establish what the future of this industry will look like in a few years. This is a turning point in the history of literature, just look at how many of us Indies are in the rankings now! This means something to all involved, and I'm pretty sure that the Publishers are watching just as close as we are. They need to get this right and I'm sure many meetings touch on this topic. They have so much more at stake, overhead, employees, including the authors they back. If they fail to get this right, they are losing out on a massive market that is roaring into the future. Quite sure the economics are being felt by many in the industry, recession aside. 

Switching hats, have to get back to writing, lol


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## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

I think we pay more for ebooks released by certain big publishers because they insisted that allowing vendors like Amazon, B&N, etc. to discount ebooks devalue books in general for readers.

But what annoys me is that they don't insist that vendors stop discounting print books.

If discounting ebooks devalue books, shouldn't discounting print books also devalue books?

Look at this report: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/2010-retailer-discounts-total-%C2%A3600m.html



> The average discount given off a book's r.r.p. last year was 26% -- slightly deeper than in 2009, when books were discounted by an average of 25.5%, according to Nielsen BookScan data. This means that for the ninth consecutive year, since BookScan Total Consumer Market records began in 2001, discounts have deepened. In 2001, discounts averaged a much shallower 17%.


Basically a few big publishers are trying to force readers to buy more print books by making ebooks artificially expensive and non-discountable. But I don't think it's going to work because readers are turning away from overpriced titles, and it's not like there's a shortage of more reasonably priced books to read!


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## jenny1983 (Sep 14, 2010)

Zell said:


> Just finished S. King's *The Stand* so I thought I'd give *Swan Song* a try to see what it's like. That was before I noticed the e-book price of $14. I don't understand how an e-book that came out in 2003 is still $14. I did not buy it. If it were around $6 or $7 I'd probably get it.


I also did not buy it. I can understand a new ebook being priced at $10-$15, but not older ones. I will not pay more than $7.99 for any ebook older than 1 year.

The way most ebooks are priced now is the equivalent of publishers never releasing a lower priced paperback version of a book.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Arkali said:


> Who says $7.99 is below the price of most paperbacks? We must be looking at different PBs. The ones I buy are usually $6.99 - $7.99.


You're probably looking at a lot of mass market paperbacks. Of the last 10 books I bought/read, 9 of them were over $7.99 (most were over $9) for the paperback because they weren't mass produced... only one was mass produced and is indeed $6.99 for the paperback. That's a common price for a mass market paperback but not for a "regular" paperback.


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## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

history_lover said:


> You're probably looking at a lot of mass market paperbacks. Of the last 10 books I bought/read, 9 of them were over $7.99 (most were over $9) for the paperback because they weren't mass produced... only one was mass produced and is indeed $6.99 for the paperback. That's a common price for a mass market paperback but not for a "regular" paperback.


Actually most MMPBs cost between $6.99 - 7.99, unless you're talking about the odd "venti" sized ones, which cost about $9.99/each.

Trade paperbacks, however, cost over $10 each.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

NadiaLee said:


> Actually most MMPBs cost between $6.99 - 7.99, unless you're talking about the odd "venti" sized ones, which cost about $9.99/each.
> 
> Trade paperbacks, however, cost over $10 each.


Sorry, are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? Because it sounds like you're disagreeing yet we're saying pretty much the exact same thing... mass market paperbacks are usually $6.99-7.99... others are more.


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## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

history_lover said:


> Sorry, are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? Because it sounds like you're disagreeing yet we're saying pretty much the exact same thing... mass market paperbacks are usually $6.99-7.99... others are more.


I thought you said $6.99 was the common price for mass produced books, which I assumed to mean MMPBs.

Most MMPBs now cost $7.99 actually. $6.99 is usually for new authors and/or launching a new series by a midlist writer, etc. I've not seen $6.99 tag on a new MMPB in a while.

I'm not really agreeing or disagreeing...just partially agreeing.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

NadiaLee said:


> I think we pay more for ebooks released by certain big publishers because they insisted that allowing vendors like Amazon, B&N, etc. to discount ebooks devalue books in general for readers.
> 
> But what annoys me is that they don't insist that vendors stop discounting print books.
> 
> ...


There are some of us who will pay a high price for a newly released book because we are too impatient to wait for the price to come down. Luckily, that's only for 1 or 2 authors for me.

I wonder if the publishers intentionally jack up the price of new releases because they know the retailers will discount them from the get go. When I go to a B-N store the new releases are discounted and even more so for club members.

I believe that a segment of the market will eventually go toward hand held reading devices such as the ipad, ipod, smart phones, and/or ereaders just because of the convenience. The publishers obviously don't think we are "there' yet though.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

I don't really care what a book or ebook costs, as long as it's below $10.00 . That's really my limit. It's not that I won't buy books above that price, it's that I'll buy fewer and they'll have to be really, really special.

I don't really distinguish between paperback and ebook, particularly since I got my Kindle, although I won't pay more for an ebook than the paperback edition.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Shastastan said:


> There are some of us who will pay a high price for a newly released book because we are too impatient to wait for the price to come down. Luckily, that's only for 1 or 2 authors for me.
> 
> I wonder if the publishers intentionally jack up the price of new releases because they know the retailers will discount them from the get go. When I go to a B-N store the new releases are discounted and even more so for club members.
> 
> I believe that a segment of the market will eventually go toward hand held reading devices such as the ipad, ipod, smart phones, and/or ereaders just because of the convenience. The publishers obviously don't think we are "there' yet though.


Well keep in mind most new releases still only come out in pricey hardcovers. And most of the time the e-book at release is still cheaper than the hardcover on Amazon etc.--even though above the $9.99.

I don't mind. Before I had to wait a year or more for the paperback as I never bought hardcovers at release. So now I can wait until the paperback is out for the e-book price to drop. No different than in the past. Book is just as good a year later as it is at launch, and I'm not in any book clubs nor have friends I read with etc. anyway, to feel any pressure to read right away.

The only problem I have is when the e-book costs more than the paperback.


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## twhvalentine (Feb 1, 2011)

Some publishers do seem more willing than others to discount their e-books, i.e. Hunger Games for $5.00. I'd be curious to see how their sales and profits compare to others who list their e-books at $7.99+. What is the sweet spot for both publishers and consumers, is what I'd like to know.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

My solution to high prices has been to buy only books by indie authors, generally from $0.99-$2.99. There is so much indie talent out there that I don't feel like I'm missing a thing.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

JimC1946 said:


> My solution to high prices has been to buy only books by indie authors, generally from $0.99-$2.99. There is so much indie talent out there that I don't feel like I'm missing a thing.


I buy both and I'm glad to see the Indie Authors are getting a chance to market their books. More indies will start and develop followings as they become better known meaning less book sales for the major publishers. Not much less right now, but......


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## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

twhvalentine said:


> Some publishers do seem more willing than others to discount their e-books, i.e. Hunger Games for $5.00. I'd be curious to see how their sales and profits compare to others who list their e-books at $7.99+. What is the sweet spot for both publishers and consumers, is what I'd like to know.


I don't think those publishers (allowing discount on their ebooks) lost anything. They give a set % discount to Amazon & other vendors (wholesale), and Amazon and other vendors usually eat the cost of discount given to their customers.


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

I just read this interesting Q&A with Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, and thought I'd share on this thread. He predicts eBook prices will drop: http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/qa-smashwords-founder-mark-coker-analyzes-ebook-prices_b5394


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

RobynB said:


> I just read this interesting Q&A with Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, and thought I'd share on this thread. He predicts eBook prices will drop: http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/qa-smashwords-founder-mark-coker-analyzes-ebook-prices_b5394


Thanks, that's an interesting article.


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## Alm Hlgh (Dec 6, 2010)

paulF2011 said:


> This has probably been discussed endlessly here so apologies... But.... how come ebooks are so expensive? Surely publishers are making a massive profit on ebook sales compared to real books with a physical product to make, distribution costs etc. It doesn't seem right, although in our money-grabbing society, I must admit it does sound normal.


 Well I don't really know "WHY" but this is just my opinion. Personally, I think eBooks will in the future be replacing hard copy books; especially with the global cultural of going "green" and preserving natural resources. I'm thinking that Publishers, distributors and anyone connected with the publishing industry will want the public to start thinking of eBooks as the new "Books" of the future. Like any product it will find it's market and price index. Therefore publishers are only setting the precedents of what they would like to see as a marginal eBook price....

But remember this is only my opinion; and like someone once told me, "opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one..."


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Alm said:


> Well I don't really know "WHY" but this is just my opinion. Personally, I think eBooks will in the future be replacing hard copy books; especially with the global cultural of going "green" and preserving natural resources. I'm thinking that Publishers, distributors and anyone connected with the publishing industry will want the public to start thinking of eBooks as the new "Books" of the future. Like any product it will find it's market and price index. Therefore publishers are only setting the precedents of what they would like to see as a marginal eBook price....
> 
> But remember this is only my opinion; and like someone once told me, "opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one..."


Nope, will never happen.
The world is to poor, America is to poor. eReaders are luxury items for those of us than can afford them and have leisure time to read.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Alm said:


> Well I don't really know "WHY" but this is just my opinion. Personally, I think eBooks will in the future be replacing hard copy books;


They may replace paper backs, but print books will always be around. They have many advantages over e-books.

1. They're a more permanent archive. Data files can be wiped out in an EMP attack. If we lose all electricity in a war or something, they're inaccessible once batteries are drained etc.

2. E-books stink for anything you need to flip through quickly. Any reference book. Any book I refer to while teaching my graduate seminar where someone has a question and I need to just flip through and find a table or figure that I don't recall exactly where it is. Or flipping back to earlier chapters when reading a novel when I've forgotten who a character is. Etc.

All that stuff is much faster and easier with a paperbook than an e-book where you can only flip a page a time or jump around chapters etc.

3. Paper is much easier to highlight, jot notes in the margins etc. than an e-book. Reading on a PC works well as it's easy to highlight with a mouse and jot notes with a keyboard. But the form factor sucks as it's not comfortable sitting at a desktop and reading or with a laptop. The one thing that could help this is iPad like tablets with screens big enough to handle letter sized documents and built in stylus support for marking up stuff.

So in short, paper books won't go anywhere. E-books may kill off mass market paper backs for novels eventually. But we'll still see hardcovers, and particularly for things like reference books, texts books, academic books (research studies etc.). I think a part of the "paper books will die!" beliefs come from people who only do leisure reading and thus don't think about other types of reading where flipping through, marking up, etc. are essential.


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## cftodd (Jan 30, 2011)

I will only pay $9.99 (at the most) for a Kindle ebook novel.The most I will pay for short stories is $2.99.


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## Paul Levine (May 14, 2010)

A high-ranking editor at one of the Big Seven (or however many there are left) publishing houses told me recently that they had to protect the brick-and-mortar chain stores.  

It pisses off B&N and what's left of Borders for publishers to (a) give away free ebooks nearing paperback publication or (b) set prices for new releases well below that of hardcover books. 

I have a new hardcover coming out in September.  I would love it to be priced in the $8 or $9 range on Kindle/Nook, but it will likely be in excess of $12.  Nothing I can do.

I price my backlist books from the 1990s at $2.99, as I control the rights.  They are vastly outselling the five higher priced, more recent ebooks controlled by the publisher.


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## Zell (Dec 27, 2010)

paulF2011 said:


> This has probably been discussed endlessly here so apologies... But.... how come ebooks are so expensive? Surely publishers are making a massive profit on ebook sales compared to real books with a physical product to make, distribution costs etc. It doesn't seem right, although in our money-grabbing society, I must admit it does sound normal.


My opinion exactly. You'd think that e-books would be cheaper but Amazon has determined that people are willing to pay the higher costs than they used to pay. It's now the new norm. Greed gets the best of everybody. It's all about making more money.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Zell said:


> My opinion exactly. You'd think that e-books would be cheaper but Amazon has determined that people are willing to pay the higher costs than they used to pay. It's now the new norm. Greed gets the best of everybody. It's all about making more money.


It's not Amazon, it's the publishers.

They wanted prices to be $9.99 at the highest for new hardback print releases, and the price of the paperback or cheaper for older titles. The publishers revolted against that model and Amazon relented and lets them set prices now.


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## Zell (Dec 27, 2010)

Another thing to keep in mind is that Amazon and book publishers working with Amazon now have all of us Kindle users over a barrel since we pretty much can only purchase e-books from Amazon.  You want e-books for your Kindle, so you have to pay the set price for them.  I wouldn't be surprised as we pull out of a staggering economy that prices will go up even further.  Again, it's becoming a new norm for Kindle users.


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## Zell (Dec 27, 2010)

mooshie78 said:


> It's not Amazon, it's the publishers.


Yes, but Amazon caved in to them. Amazon's is pretty powerful they could have flexed a little more muscle over the publishers.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

Zell, the Agency pricing (aka higher prices) are solely due to the Traditional publishing houses. Amazon tried to hold out, and pulled PB book sales for a month when it happened.

And there are TONS of places to get books other than Amazon that will work on the Kindle. It supports like 7 formats. (ok.. we all know on the K1-K3 PDF support is a joke really but it IS there, and I hear it's ok on the DX.)


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

mooshie78 said:


> 2. E-books stink for anything you need to flip through quickly. Any reference book. Any book I refer to while teaching my graduate seminar where someone has a question and I need to just flip through and find a table or figure that I don't recall exactly where it is. Or flipping back to earlier chapters when reading a novel when I've forgotten who a character is. Etc.
> 
> All that stuff is much faster and easier with a paperbook than an e-book where you can only flip a page a time or jump around chapters etc.


Most of that is a function of the ereader, not the ebook format. All the ereader programs I have for the iPad (including the Kindle app) have a slider at the bottom of the page that allows you to scan forward and backward with ease.

Mike


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

jmiked said:


> Most of that is a function of the ereader, not the ebook format. All the ereader programs I have for the iPad (including the Kindle app) have a slider at the bottom of the page that allows you to scan forward and backward with ease.


True. It can be done easier than on the Kindle for sure.

But it's still just not the same as flipping through a paper book for me even on the iPad.

It's just one area that I'm a bit of a Luddite. I'll probably always prefer paper books and printouts for my research work as I just find them easier to flip through, highlight, jot notes on etc.

But I love e-books for novel reading where I'm just doing nothing but reading from front to back.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

mooshie78 said:


> But it's still just not the same as flipping through a paper book for me even on the iPad.


Agreed. I like ebooks, but I'm not giving up DTBs, by any means. There are just too many of them I want to read/reread that are not going to be an ebook for many years, possibly not in my lifetime. 

Mike


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

Zell said:


> My opinion exactly. You'd think that e-books would be cheaper but Amazon has determined that people are willing to pay the higher costs than they used to pay. It's now the new norm. Greed gets the best of everybody. It's all about making more money.


Under the agency model, Amazon does not set the prices. They have to sell the books for what the publishers say. Amazon even notes this by the price.

As to Amazon "caving", the only other choice was for them not to sell ebooks. I doubt that the customers would have liked that option at all.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Zell said:


> Yes, but Amazon caved in to them. Amazon's is pretty powerful they could have flexed a little more muscle over the publishers.


As noted above, they tried and failed. They'd just lose too many customers not having e-books from the major publishers when the competition like Nook, Sony and Apple have them in their e-book stores.

A store like Amazon has little power as they're nothing without content provided by others to sell to consumers.

But again, I have little problem with the agency pricing scheme--as long as they drop prices to that of the paperback when the paperback is out I'm fine with it. No different than skipping the hardback and waiting for the paperback like I always did in the past. And I have no objections personally to paying the same for the e-book as the paperback--though I know others do.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

mooshie78 said:


> As noted above, they tried and failed. They'd just lose too many customers not having e-books from the major publishers when the competition like Nook, Sony and Apple have them in their e-book stores.
> 
> A store like Amazon has little power as they're nothing without content provided by others to sell to consumers.
> 
> But again, I have little problem with the agency pricing scheme--as long as they drop prices to that of the paperback when the paperback is out I'm fine with it. No different than skipping the hardback and waiting for the paperback like I always did in the past. And I have no objections personally to paying the same for the e-book as the paperback--though I know others do.


You sound like a pragmatist


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Shastastan said:


> You sound like a pragmatist


Very much so! 

And it's just not something I think is a big deal. As I said earlier, if book is priced more than I think it's worth, I'll skip it and read something else and not pick that book up unless the price drops. There's a gazillion more great books than I'll have time to read, so no skin off my nose if I have to skip some!


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## auge_28 (Oct 3, 2010)

Why dont they treat eBooks like they do paperbacks and release them after the hardbacks?
Everybody is used to waiting for less expensive paperbacks anyway.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

auge_28 said:


> Why dont they treat eBooks like they do paperbacks and release them after the hardbacks?
> Everybody is used to waiting for less expensive paperbacks anyway.


They could. But at least now people who want to read right away can usually still get the ebook for a good bit less than the hardback.

While those who want the cheaper price can still wait for the paperback release and e-book price drop. So I don't see the harm in having a more expensive ebook that's cheaper than the hardback, that then drops in price when the paperback comes out.

Just gives another buying option for people to consider.


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## NightGoat (Feb 2, 2011)

When an ebook is more than $5 I will research the book before purchase, and when the price is above $9 I will go well beyond Amazon reviews and the download samples. Anything over $11 and I'll check the library before I think about buying it. 

Anything $5 and under though I will almost purchase without much hand wringing. I used to smoke so I figure the money I was spending... not like a buy a book a day though. But if ebooks were typically around $5, they would have me purchasing a lot more.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

mooshie78 said:


> They could. But at least now people who want to read right away can usually still get the ebook for a good bit less than the hardback.
> 
> While those who want the cheaper price can still wait for the paperback release and e-book price drop. So I don't see the harm in having a more expensive ebook that's cheaper than the hardback, that then drops in price when the paperback comes out.
> 
> Just gives another buying option for people to consider.


Here comes that pragmatist again.  The more buying options, the better.


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## johnmedler (Feb 1, 2011)

There are lots of good eBooks on the Kindle for under $2.00.  I think you can get a much better deal in the Kindle store than in a bricks and mortar store.


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## robins777 (Aug 10, 2010)

johnmedler said:


> There are lots of good eBooks on the Kindle for under $2.00.


I agree there are some excellent Indie book for the Kindle at under £2 (UK).

Since getting my Kindle I have only bought Indie books from Amazon. I have looked at many others and found in almost every case I can buy the paper version cheaper and in some cases much cheaper than the Kindle version so thats what I do.


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

I'm finding some pretty insane prices lately. I don't know if it's just my bad luck that the ebooks I want to read are pricey, but a lot of the books I've been wanting to read lately are upwards of 20.00 and even 30.00. For instance, this bio on Edith Head priced at almost 40.00 (similar to the hardcover) for the kindle edition. I feel they are really taking advantage. It's insanity to charge that much for an ebook.

http://www.amazon.com/Edith-Head-Fifty-Year-Hollywoods-Greatest/dp/0762438053/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2FPVSAZUZHENA&colid=2GZ5ETTXZZM85

There's a few others book I'm interested in that are in the similar 30.00 price range too. Prices seem to be getting worse and not better, from my experience at least. I also see a lot of pricing in the 12.99 range for new biographies.


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## Trophywife007 (Aug 31, 2009)

$30.00 Yikes.  I guess I won't feel too bad about the next Charlaine Harris due out in May: $14.99 for Kindle version and $14.70 for hardcover.  I hate paying more for Kindle versions but I may have to make an exception for this one.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

sparklemotion said:


> For instance, this bio on Edith Head priced at almost 40.00 (similar to the hardcover) for the kindle edition. I feel they are really taking advantage. It's insanity to charge that much for an ebook.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Edith-Head-Fifty-Year-Hollywoods-Greatest/dp/0762438053/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2FPVSAZUZHENA&colid=2GZ5ETTXZZM85


I can understanding your logic a little bit because this looks like an image heavy book which are not ideal on Kindle and if the experience is not ideal, it should not cost that much. But honestly, if it's something you really want, I think you'd be better off getting the hardcover of an image heavy book anyway. Were it not image heavy, I would actually say $38.35 is a fair price for an ebook when the lowest new paper version is $42.61. You can't honestly expect the ebook to be $9.99 when the paper version is $42.61, that's a 77% discount!



> I also see a lot of pricing in the 12.99 range for new biographies.


I think that's a fair price for a non-fiction book. Non-fiction is often more expensive than fiction so why shouldn't that be true for ebooks?


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## cftodd (Jan 30, 2011)

Unless the book is by one of my favorite authors you will not catch me buying the ebook for the same price as the hardback.. however, if it is one of my favorite authors I will buy the ebook plus the hardback/paperback LOL.. and I will not EVER spend about $10 on a ebook favorite author or not.. I will spend up to $15 on a paperback and depending on what the hard back is I have spent between $20 and $100 for hardbacks.



Trophywife007 said:


> $30.00 Yikes. I guess I won't feel too bad about the next Charlaine Harris due out in May: $14.99 for Kindle version and $14.70 for hardcover. I hate paying more for Kindle versions but I may have to make an exception for this one.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Trophywife007 said:


> $30.00 Yikes. I guess I won't feel too bad about the next Charlaine Harris due out in May: $14.99 for Kindle version and $14.70 for hardcover. I hate paying more for Kindle versions but I may have to make an exception for this one.


Much as I love Charlaine Harris, I'll have to wait until the price goes below $10.00 I've "slipped up" and bought a few books above that price, but I'm starting to dig my heels in now and that's my "sticking point".


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