Ok, granted, I haven't looked up an ebook for a few months but WTF is up w a book being $15 HC but $12 for Kindle? Or $18 PB & $15 for Kindle? Sorry, but I'm never paying those prices. I'll just get the physical copies. (And tbh, if that's the norm, there's some books I won't be reading at all now.)
Cost of materials is a smaller portion of the price. Paper is cheap. Printing is cheap. The expensive parts are the author and the editor, and they should be paid fairly for the ebook just like for the physical book.
Never said they shouldn't be. And I'm confident Am*zon can afford to do that and is also saving money on the cost of materials. That price is not a reasonable price to "purchase" a file I don't even technically own.
Just saying it doesn’t make it so. The main factor in pricing is publisher RRP, which reflects the rate they sell to stockists. When they’re significantly cheaper it’s usually the publisher that takes the hit. Most books from big presses sell <50,000, with much smaller numbers for indies.
Games, films, etc. don’t suddenly become dramatically cheaper to make when they’re downloadable rather than on a disc, so why would books?
But they do. Movies on video used to cost $80+. Now you can watch several hundred of them for $8 a month.
Maybe 40+ years ago. They certainly haven’t cost near that much since DVDs came into existence. You can watch an unlimited amount on Netflix for that, but that’s with ads and it’s 98% re-runs and slop. If you want to buy a download of a new film it costs just a few dollars less than the DVD.
I buy physical media. When I buy physical media, I OWN the copy of the movie. My issue with ebooks is that I am paying near (or more) than the cost of the physical book (which I would also OWN) for an electronic file I DON'T ultimately OWN. Everything else is a different debate.
No, in the original thread the issue of ownership is relegated to a btw in parentheses. The issue was clearly about the price. And when you download an epub or PDF you do, for all practical purposes, own it. Even if downloads are later restricted you can still run the file unless you deleted it.
And no, you DON'T own an e-file. I am not a tech person & neither are most of the people who use that technology and they're going to "download the file on their Kindle" and that's it- which Amazon can (and will, and does) remove at their discretion.
If ebook sales were priced like rentals it would make it almost impossible for publishers to pay their staff. Anyway, it’s ok to not know the economics of book production, but if your comments were really about ownership rights then they were phrased very strangely indeed. Either way, I’m out.
The PRICE for an ebook I don't own should not be near or more than the price for the physical copy. That's my point. Don't tell me the point I was making in my original thread when I'm the one who made it. I know what my intention and meaning was even if I was limited by characters.
In this thread you even suggested the main issue is Amazon not passing the savings on materials on to customers.
I suggested that Amazon is profitable enough to do [WHATEVER]
…and that’s not even starting on how the big streamers rely on cutting the pay of 99% of the people who work on a film/show down to a bare minimum.
It should not be more than a physical copy.
I've been astonished by this as well. If I like something enough to spend that much on it, it's bc I want it to be MINE, something I hold in my hands when it isn't on a shelf, proudly shown off as piece of my collection and sign of my good taste.
I'm not paying those prices for a ebook that someone else can just delete. I'll take the physical copy thank you very much. I do think if I pay over 20+ dollars for a hard cover it would be nice if it included a scan code for the ebook.
Library card & Libby app for free kindle and audiobooks
Yes, I mentioned exactly this in my next post in the thread. That's well & good IF you have one near you but that doesn't change the fundamental issue which is that "purchasing" an electronic file (that I don't ever actually own) should not be near or more than the price of buying the physical book.
Check them out for free at the library.
Yeah, the market has completely abandoned cheaper ebook prices for mainstream books. A small token discount is usually all you get now, outside sales.
Authors will generally get more from a $15 ebook than they will from a $15 physical book. I'm told that the physical cost of a printed book is not significant enough to make a major difference in price.
I totally get the economics of it, but as a consumer it feels real bad.
Regardless of the underlying economics of who's responsible for setting the price and the costs involved on the backend, the "purchase" price of an electronic file I don't even get to actually own should not be near (or more) than the cost of buying a physical copy.
I love my ereader. I can’t track across a page since chemo. Ereaders allow me to enlarge, change color, change font at will to accommodate whatever I need. Regular books no longer work for me.
This isn't about the pros and cons of an ereader. I don't have a problem with them, and own one myself. This is about the price for ephemeral electronic files the reader doesn't own versus physical copies.
There is that.
The point of an ebook reader, for me, is to take a chance on an author, or for books I don't necessarily want to own physical copies of, but still want to read. An electronic file (I don't even technically OWN, btw) should never be that expensive, sorry. It's fine, just means more library trips... 🤘🏼
Exactly! They were supposed to replace paperbacks. Why pay for a device to get overpriced books
I add a lot of books and favorite authors to BookBub wishlists and call it a day. Almost everything goes eventually to $1.99 and then I pounce with zero regrets. 😂
Honest question bc I really do wanna make my books $5.99, but I do everything by myself.... Like to Make a 100k novel takes 103.5 hours with editing About how long should a book be if it's $5.99 US? Entertainment should be accessible you know
Your book should be as long as it takes to properly tell the story. I can't tell you how long it should be, I only know that I wouldn't pay more than $4.99 for an ebook, and it needs to be more than 300 pages for me to consider paying that price.
Thank you! I'm on anystories rn but those prices are too much! Also they pay in popcorn peanuts and wishful thinking so I'm publishing myself next series!!! I could make a 300 page book in maybe..... idk... I did my first book took one day? I sat there and just kinda did it That's the wolf prince
There are still so many cases (especially academic publishers, which don't even get me started...) they'll set the price ridiculously high for the eBook version and it's not too different from the HC or paperback, or in some cases, the Kindle edition is somehow more expensive than the HC.
I suppose they can (and apparently DO) do that, but they're shooting themselves in the foot.
I've found that there are more expensive Kindle or ebook editions than their physical counterparts, which I found completely insane
Yeah, that's always wild to stumble upon.
Amazon gets discounts for the physical books, but the publisher is setting the price for the ebook. This skews the relative prices.
Saaaame
I rarely buy ebooks at full price. I wait for them to be like 2.99 or I only read books through my Kindle Unlimited subscription (which works for me financially because I read so much). Paying $15 for an ebook is theft.
My local library system has most stuff available as ebook format. My wife is a voracious reader, she gets a different audio book every few days. They have movies too! It’s a great resource for those on a budget. There are physical branches all over the region for those that prefer that.
I mentioned this as a solution in the next post in the thread so yeah, I'm grateful I'm near a library, but that doesn't change or affect the original issue.
I love paying for physical media and would rather drink bleach than pay for ACCESS to a file!!!
I get ebooks only because I am out of room.
Aggravating isn't it?! I cannot for the life of me understand the high prices on kindle editions. I have a physical book in my cart, it was $9.15 when I had added it. I was waiting to add a few more things to get the free shipping. Just before Thanksgiving, it went up to $13! PB, no less.
Yeah, their physical book prices vacillate wildly from day to day. I really loathe them.
Try your local library! You can get them for no cost! (p.s. they rip off libraries that purchase kindle versions, too.)
Yes, I mentioned that solution in the next post in the thread but it doesn't change the issue of how buying an electronic file I don't ever actually "own" is almost the same price (or more) than buying a physical copy.
I bet they're charging your library $42.50 for a 12 month ebook license. I wish we were paying those ebook prices.
See, what I do is wait for price drops, and I have a range I try to stick to. I very rarely buy an ebook at full price unless it's already priced within my established expenditure range. There are algorithmic engines which can be used to search for price drops, plus Kindle has daily deals.
The publisher sets the price for ebooks and the retailer sets the price for physical copies.
Thank you, that's information that helps explain this. It's a dumb and unnecessarily convoluted reason because capitalism, but it IS a reason.
It's only possible because ebooks are licensed even though they present transaction as a purchase; and that's because the law treats ephemeral copies (copying the book from disk to memory) as infringing if no license. There's no such dodge for physical books so the first sale doctrine apples.
Not to give unsolicited advice, but where I live, borrowing from the library is very common. Also we make little neighborhood libraries in little boxes outside our houses and those ones don’t even need registration or anything. But I’m sorry if this is not an option for you. Books are so expensive.
I mentioned in my next post where I elaborated a bit more that all this ultimately means for me is more trips to the library :)
Meanwhile, our tax dollars are at work furnishing public libraries with ebooks than can be checked out/renewed/returned/requested online for free.
I mentioned that in the next post in the thread
Buy indie. Generally much more sensible ebook prices.
I know some indie authors are turning to itch.io and most prices I have seen so far are around 3-5 dollars per book. Maybe worth exploring when you feel like giving new authors a go. 😅
I won't pay over £6 for an ebook. The file was written. It now costs nothing, unlike a physical book.
Editing, design, typesetting, copy editing, marketing, legal and financial management, etc., all take work, not to mention the physical overheads of wherever the people doing that work are based. The cost of printing, storing, and distributing a book are a fraction of the overall costs.
Obviously there are plenty of horrible, parasitic publishers, but there’s also a good reason why so many independent, non-profit, and all around decent presses also price their books this way. The overall labour that goes into making an ebook is only marginally less than that for a paper book.
Once upon a time I worked for a large non-profit publisher where 90% of my job was “find what things appear wrong about our books on Amazon then sort it out”. When it comes down to it, some fraction of every single book sold was dedicated to “that weird kid who fixes the Amazon data feed”.