MisterOJ Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I think I am becoming spoiled.Something I've been noticing in recent months is that ebooks for a new author or the beginning of a series have been getting very inexpensive.Like a few weeks ago, I bought the Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold for a buck.It was a great deal for a good book. The subsequent ebooks in that series were like $6-7 but I picked them up after reading it because I was turned on to the series. (The price has since went back up for this book.)You can buy the first ebook in Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds series for $1.99. It only costs $0.99 to buy the first Wool story by Hugh Howey. In all three of these cases, I have been lured in to a series by a cheap price point on the front end and then paid more for the rest of the series. That strikes me as very smart.But the flip side of that is that now there's another new series of books that I am looking at - by an author I have never read before - but the first ebook costs $9.99 - despite being out for about 5 years. I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on that now. Six months ago (when it seemed like the prices of ebooks was more uniform) I would have probably just bought the book and not thought twice about it.Are any of the other ebook readers on here experiencing anything like this too? Do you think more folks will start lowering the price on the front-end of a series in order to entice new readers and get them to pay full price for the rest of the story? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I'm reading luke Scull's debut in large part because of the cheap price and I know Mark Lawrence's first book was really cheap digitally (and had a free arc with ADWD pre-orders). So it works on me at least.I guess with series by established authors there isn't as much of an incentive though - the fact authors like Ian Banks or Stephen King have been going strong for a long time means they don't really need to offer a discount on a new series by them.That said, Waterstones had a series of promotions where the first installment of a series was only £2 for the likes of Banks, Cornwell and Peter V Brett.Back to digital. I don't think I'd be put off by an established author's new book being more expensive as I'd have an idea if I'd like them or not. Maybe once they have a loyal fanbase the publisher isn't as eager to reduce the price when they know they will have X amount sales at full price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 If it is a new author I always used library, then bought. The only reason my kindle is full of new to me authors is because of the first book being cheep. It has lead to me buying their next books at standard price. So I hope they keep this trend myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterOJ Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 I'm reading luke Scull's debut in large part because of the cheap price and I know Mark Lawrence's first book was really cheap digitally (and had a free arc with ADWD pre-orders). So it works on me at least.I guess with series by established authors there isn't as much of an incentive though - the fact authors like Ian Banks or Stephen King have been going strong for a long time means they don't really need to offer a discount on a new series by them.That said, Waterstones had a series of promotions where the first installment of a series was only £2 for the likes of Banks, Cornwell and Peter V Brett.Back to digital. I don't think I'd be put off by an established author's new book being more expensive as I'd have an idea if I'd like them or not. Maybe once they have a loyal fanbase the publisher isn't as eager to reduce the price when they know they will have X amount sales at full price?You got me excited there about Mark Lawrence's first book being cheap in ebook form. That book's been on my radar for a while, but I don't think I've every priced it. Just checked, it's $7.99. Not bad, but not what's I'd consider a good deal. Still... maybe. I think I'll need something new after I finish the First Law trilogy - and I'm about a third of the way through the final book.As for being put off by paying full price for a new author - I don't know if I'd classify myself like that. The book I am currently on the fence about is The Inferior by Peadar O Guilin. I'm definitely interested, but I don't know if I'm $10 interested. At a lower price point, I'd snap it up. Like $6 or under and I would have bought it days ago - when I first read about it on here and thought it sounded neat. But paying full price (and by full price, I mean the same cost as a physical copy) caused me to hesitate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 You got me excited there about Mark Lawrence's first book being cheap in ebook form. That book's been on my radar for a while, but I don't think I've every priced it. Just checked, it's $7.99. Not bad, but not what's I'd consider a good deal. Still... maybe. I think I'll need something new after I finish the First Law trilogy - and I'm about a third of the way through the final book.As for being put off by paying full price for a new author - I don't know if I'd classify myself like that. The book I am currently on the fence about is The Inferior by Peadar O Guilin. I'm definitely interested, but I don't know if I'm $10 interested. At a lower price point, I'd snap it up. Like $6 or under and I would have bought it days ago - when I first read about it on here and thought it sounded neat. But paying full price (and by full price, I mean the same cost as a physical copy) caused me to hesitate.I think it was £2 when the sequel was coming out. Mark's quite good at mentioning in on his thread here when his book is on offer. Speaking of which , Joe (of abercrombie) was just advertising that "the blade itself" is currently on offer as an ebook. so it seems it is becoming a popular tactic for first books in a series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 eBook prices are really inconsistent, aren't they? I've even paid as much as 13 bucks for an eBook, which seems...not quite right.I tend to agree that the first book in a series should be priced lower than the others, as an incentive to buy. Once the author has established some trust, a higher price is suitable, I think. Also, the length of the book should be a factor as well. My second book is going to be about 50% longer than the first, and accordingly I'm going to charge more for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Speaking of which , Joe (of abercrombie) was just advertising that "the blade itself" is currently on offer as an ebook.Thanks for the info, just bought on Amazon.com for $3.97.And yeah, I feel spoiled too, I don't even glance at ebooks priced higher than $10. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigima Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I'm encountering the opposite problem. I liked Bakker during his first trilogy. I know not everyone does, I'm not looking to debate that further right now.I bought The Judging Eye when it hit Kindle. I was underwhelmed. The sequel, White-Luck Warrior, wasn't available on Kindle for a long time. It's been out for a good while now in print. It's finally on Kindle. The asking price? $14.99.Not even the hardcover is that much on Amazon anymore. The paperback is currently under half that. I know a good portion of publishing costs are fixed, and I don't begrudge the publisher a profit on that. But that's not what this is. What this is is bullshit.I don't usually pay too much attention to ebook prices. Books in general aren't that expensive in small quantities so whatever, if I want the book I'll suck it up and buy it eventually. But it turns out there's such a thing as an ebook price that offends my sensibilities after all, and this is one of them.This is, incidentally, why pretty much no settlement would have been adequate for the price-fixing lawsuit and why the one they did reach is particularly inadequate. The damage is done. You can't put the collusion cat back in the bag. Ebooks are now permanently more expensive than they would have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Sometimes I get caught up in ebook pricing but then I remind myself that $9.99 is still cheaper than going to see a movie which will only last 90 minutes and be seen one time.I will sometimes purchase a physical copy of a book by a new-to-me-author if the ebook price is in the same price range because if I don't like it I can donate it instead of being stuck with it on my reader.The book I am currently on the fence about is The Inferior by Peadar O Guilin. I'm definitely interested, but I don't know if I'm $10 interested.When its an author I know and like as a person, like Peadar, I will pay whatever the book price plus pay for overseas shipping to support them. And in the case of The Inferior, I happened to like the book as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banjax451 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I have never tried out a new author/series just because it is cheap at Amazon (or elsewhere), but that has been a factor in the decision. It doesn't always work. I got Stina Lecht's "Of Blood and Honey" because I'd heard terrific things about it and it showed up on Amazon for a short time as free. I couldn't get into it. But likewise, I tried out Brad Beaulieu's "The Winds of Khalakova" for the same reason (excellent word of mouth...showed up for free on Amazon) and loved it.In general, I think ebook pricing is something I'm not qualified to speak on. That said, I think SFF publishers would be wise to heavily discount the first book in series by an author...as much as they think they can get away with...in order to drive up interest in the subsequent volumes. This would only be a good strategy for writers of series, but it would lower the bar to entry. No matter how popular something is, people will give something more of a shot if it's priced at $1.99 than they will at $9.99. I wish more mainstream publishers would take this sort of attitude. Self-published authors will often do this sort of thing...make the first book dirt cheap...get people hooked, then get your money on the other volumes. Imagine how many more people would give Abercrombie a shot if "The Blade Itself" was $1.99. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delete this account pls Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 It's a bit of a different situation for me. Price of the hardback or paperback versus price of the ebook isn't a valid comparison for me, because I live in Australia, which might as well be the moon, as far as amazon and most other book-sellers are concerned. So I have to take shipping into account. The cheapest shipping option from Amazon would still cost me $6-8, and would also take 2 months minimum to reach me. If I pay for the quickest possible shipping? It still takes 3-4 days, and costs me many many times more than the book itself. I'm talking something like 50 bucks, just for shipping. Then there's the Book Depository, who are awesome because they do free shipping, but they're also kinda slow (2-3 weeks usually), and they also aren't the best at packing. If a book arrives damaged, they'll replace it no problem, but that means another month or more of back and forth. So I don't really have an option sometimes. An ebook, even with an inflated bullshit price (oh yeah thats the other thing. Amazon dosnt have an australian distribution but they DO have an aussie kindle store, complete with a special "fuck you for living where you do" mark-up on literally everything), is probably cheaper and definitely faster to 'arrive' than anything I can find online.That being said, I'm almost never going to pay more than $14 for an ebook. If you're charging me more than that, I'll just get a hardcopy from the Book Depository. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrathOfTinyKittens Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Yeah, I just bought TDTCB (Bakker's first for those who don't know the acronym) for 12.99. I think all his ebooks are priced that high and I think it's a serious mistake by his publisher. I knew 100% I wanted the ebook and still waffled over the price - I could easily see someone who had been recommended the series or just stumbled across it passing on it at that price point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 So I don't really have an option sometimes. An ebook, even with an inflated bullshit price (oh yeah thats the other thing. Amazon dosnt have an australian distribution but they DO have an aussie kindle store, complete with a special "fuck you for living where you do" mark-up on literally everything), is probably cheaper and definitely faster to 'arrive' than anything I can find online.That being said, I'm almost never going to pay more than $14 for an ebook. If you're charging me more than that, I'll just get a hardcopy from the Book Depository.That's particularly shitty how there isn't a decent pricing for ebooks. You'd think they'd treat a large english -speaking country a bit better. I guess being isolated is tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkelinski Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I find it almost shameful to buy a book priced in the 1-5$ range. That buys you what, a fresh bread for sunday morning and I correlate the effort involved with producing a whole novel with that? Anything between the 10-20 and I start feeling like I'm paying what it should be, but then again I'm wierd I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I find it almost shameful to buy a book priced in the 1-5$ range. That buys you what, a fresh bread for sunday morning and I correlate the effort involved with producing a whole novel with that? Anything between the 10-20 and I start feeling like I'm paying what it should be, but then again I'm wierd I guess...That's good weird! I can't understand people who refuse to pay for art, and proudly; I remember well when someone told me, to my face, that instead of buying my book he'd just look on a torrent site. Leaving aside the giant assholery of the remark, does he think artists all have trust funds?Art is good. It's worth money. We should pay for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigima Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I find it almost shameful to buy a book priced in the 1-5$ range. That buys you what, a fresh bread for sunday morning and I correlate the effort involved with producing a whole novel with that? Anything between the 10-20 and I start feeling like I'm paying what it should be, but then again I'm wierd I guess...Well, yeah, but the work of producing one loaf of bread doesn't meet the bread needs of more than a few people. You have to do the same work over again to make more bread, which isn't true of a novel.I don't want to make any comments about what a book should cost here, and I'm certainly not saying that art, writing, etc. shouldn't be compensated at a fair price. I just don't think the analogy holds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 I'll pay more for a work I regard as worth the asking price, especially if the author is more obscure and so has a higher asking price.I think it's sort of like patronage - if an author has written stuff I want to see more of, I'm willing to pay extra to help make that a reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 $10 is about what a MMPB costs, so that's about what I'd consider a reasonable price ceiling for an ebook of a book that's been out for ages.Anything below that is a steal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigima Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 A mass-market paperback here is about US$7-8. It may not sound like much of a difference, but it's 20% less, over and over and over. It adds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melonica Stormborn Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 In reality, paying a full price of $7.99 (plus conversion fee) for a standard ebook is slightly more expensive than buying it from a local bookstore here (granted, it's only a matter of cents) but the deals and coupons make it cheaper upon checkout. At the very least I could take advantage when we're having a good day with the exchange rate.Lindsay Buroker's series got me - first Emperor's Edge is free and the 2nd one is 2.99. The rest are more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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