With Amazon’s announcement about Sunshine Deals, which reward low e-book prices, I thought I’d revisit a question I’ve asked once before:
What should an e-book cost?
For some background on the economics of e-book pricing, check out this post.
Poll below. If you’re reading in a feed reader or via e-mail you’ll need to click through to see it:
Tomorrow I’ll compare the results to the last poll and we can see if pricing attitudes are changing.
MJR says
If it's a new hardcover that's hot off the press (not self-published), I think $10-$13 is fair, maybe a bit more if it's super-hot. I've paid that if I really wanted to read something and don't want to wait until the library has it etc. If the book has been around a while, I won't pay more than 9.99.
Since the publishing industry provides my family's food and shelter, I like to support it! I'm not sure how it can survive it eprices go too low.
markwilliamsinternational.com says
"@ Josin L. McQuein
Better than 90% of self-published novels aren't readable. Literally. They're incoherent, no grammar, no sentence structure, no spelling, etc."
I'm impressed. You've obviously read every self-pubbed book so you can make this claim.
Why is it that opponents of self-pub like to just pluck figures out of the air to suit their argument?
You stick to paying $10 for an ebook if you want to. We wouldn't want those shareholders struggling now, would we?
Nicole says
I tend to agree with one of the earlier comments – my gut response is that ebooks should cost less than paperbacks, which should cost less than hardcovers. In reality, I know it's not that simple due to the timing and release of each format.
I voted for the $.01 to $4.99 bracket, but I really wish there had been a $3 to $7.99 option. On one hand, I think .99 cents is much too cheap for a story in any format, and I'd gladly pay more. On the other hand, if I had to pay $10 for an ebook, I'd just go get the paperback instead.
For me the ideal number is somewhere in the middle.
Stephsco says
I am planning to buy an e-reader this week! I would pay $9.99 – $12 for a brand new book out only in hardcover. For paperbacks or books that have been out for a year or more, I would prefer to pay under $10, somewhere in $5-$9.99.
The cheaper books catch my eye for sure, but my time is valuable, so I base my book choices on reader reviews on blogs and goodreads. If I really want the book, I will pay for it. Or get it from the library, which I pay lord-knows-enough in taxes for already!
Rebecca Knight says
I recently indie pubbed my book, and I chose to put it at $2.99. That seems to be a sweet spot where it's less than a paperback, but not so inexpensive that the author doesn't get a good royalty.
Reading the first comment, I'd have to respectfully disagree with Josin on one point–I believe the reader determines what the quality of the story is, either through sampling or reading the description–for most indie books.
You can tell pretty dang fast if it's something you will enjoy or not :). Also, the less expensive an e-book is, the more likely readers are to take chances on new authors.
Before I made the decision to publish on Amazon, I'd unknowingly bought about a dozen e-books from indie authors. The price was right, and I'd enjoyed the sample, so I bought them!
Josin L. McQuein says
@markwilliams
I'm not an opponent of self-publishing, quite the opposite, if the person's done the research to know what they're doing.
I'm an opponent of bad information about self-publishing, which is what seems to pop up most often.
Stephanie Faris says
Reading the comments, it seems a lot of people are equating "e-books" with "self-published." I didn't make that leap. Pretty much every book is available in both print and electronic version now. I doubt very seriously I'd ever buy a self-published novel unless I knew the author or she was recommended. Not that there aren't some good self-pubbed books out there; I just prefer to have the endorsement of a publisher I trust.
Kristin Laughtin says
I voted for the $5-$10 option, but I'm on the higher end of that spectrum. I know how much work goes into producing an ebook, know it's not that much cheaper than producing a print book (except for mass markets), and I think it's fair to charge that much for most of them.
Nicole L Rivera says
I can get a used book for $3.99 with shipping. Publishers and authors make nothing off used book sales. If they offered an e-book at $3.99, I would buy that versus spending on a used book.
Anonymous says
The race to the bottom is distressing. Good for readers, sure, for now. But bad for anyone in the business of books, excepting monster distributors, such as Amazon.
I'd like to see top authors work to keep prices from collapsing, and for the rest of the business to follow.
I don't want to have to sell a bajillion copies to make a living. It is a lot of work to sell books, and I can't afford to give them away.
D_Blackwell says
I strongly favor higher price points. I'd like to add that the argument of manufacturing and distributing costs is specious. The cost of the product is secondary to the cost per sale, the cost of marketing in both dollars and time.
Eastbaywriter says
I self published a book @2.00 but I'm a first time author so what do i know.
Don 'Fleury
Harding A Two Dollar Novel
available on Kindle and Nook
Adam Heine says
I voted for $5-9.99, but only because I think $14.99 is too much. I probably would've gone for a $8-12.99 bracket.
Though I fully agree with Josin on the price difference published vs. self-published, as well as brand-named vs. no-name. There's room for all the prices.
Also, did you see this article, Nathan? It looks like two weeks into the Sunshine Deals, books priced higher than $10 are making a rebound in sales. Maybe.
Claire Dawn says
I don't think whether the book is hardcover or paperbook should affect the e-book. Whatever the physical book is like the conversion to "e-" requires the same thing.
For me, the price should be somewhere between $8 and $12. I think $15 for an e-book is too high.
veela-valoom says
To me $9.99 seems perfect when something is a hardcover. For a highly anticipated hardcover I think $5 is too low but $14 is much to high.
For example I bought Beauty Queens when it was released for $9.99 on ebook. I was excited for multiple reasons. First: It was released the same day as the hardcover Second: I felt like I was getting a deal without feeling like I was cheating the author
Regardless of logic I have trouble clicking the button if the price is above $10. I don't know why but I stop and think whereas when it's cheaper I just impulsively click. I'm not saying I won't buy a book for more. When i bought Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness I didn't even check the price (just did, it's the $9.99 price point). I needed the book at that moment.
I'm very bothered when the ebook is priced higher than the paperback. It baffles me and I pretty much won't buy the book. When that is the case I'll either get it at the library or won't read it. I don't buy physical copies of book. Too much dust and too much clutter.
I'm also bothered when publishers just won't release a book in ebook. For people like me who don't have physical space for more books it puts me in a quandary and they lose my money.
E says
I read the first reply in comments and decided not to read any further (comments are usually where a topic turns sour for me). However, I did want to say "self-published" doesn't mean "not edited, nobody invested time and nobody invested money". Self-published CAN mean the author hired a freelance editor, hired an artist to design the cover and invested plenty of money.
Whether you've got quality guaranteed…well, there are plenty of books by prominent publishers that I've shelled out $7.99 for and returned two chapters in, or that I've put back on the shelf after reading 10 pages.
Melissa says
The most I'd pay for a e-book is $7.99. A full audio c.d. is priced at $9.99 on average on iTunes and Amazon. However, music can be enjoyed over and over. Books are usually read once. So they should be less expensive — I'd say in the $4.99-$5.99 range. I don't buy the argument that it necessarily costs more to produce them. Sure, if you're on the East or West coasts, where the cost of associated labor is much higher. Produce an e-book in a nonunion state with no state income tax, and the cost of production would most likely decrease by more than 50 percent. If the music industry can produce an album and sell it for $9.99 — and recording is a far more expensive process, comparatively — certainly the publishing industry can do it.
Teel McClanahan III says
In my experience hand-selling paper books, I've found that there are two types of book buyers; those for whom no reasonable price is low enough and those for whom almost no price is too high (but too low a price kills the sale). I've tried applying what I learned from those experiences back onto my eBook prices and discovered that they seem to bear out. To the latter group I can easily sell them two paperback books for $50, but if I price an eBook below $5 they assume it isn't worth reading. To the former group, asking $14 for a paperback is pushing it and they'd never consider paying more than $5 for one of my eBooks.
So what should an eBook cost? I say: Price for the people who are willing to spend money, not those with tight wallets. I voted $20+ in your poll, because the people who are spending $25+ on hardbacks (ie: the readers who have been supporting the bulk of the publishing industry for decades) are willing to pay $20+ for electronic versions of the same books.
It isn't that the rest of the readers don't matter, but I believe that price parity (or near to it) with the current market-price (not just the list price) of the book is appropriate. So, after 18 months, when the hardback can easily be picked up for $5 and the paperback for $7, the eBook should also be $5 or less. If your backlist book is always available for $0.01 in hardback on Amazon Marketplace, the eBook better be in the $0.99-$3.99 range (ie: less than shipping). New books? The ones whose sales are meant to support the industry? Price 'em high.
I know I can't afford new hardbacks most of the time, but I'm more than willing to wait, along with the rest of the cheapskates.
Lisa says
Josin McQuein said:
A pro e-book should cost more than a self-pubbed, simply because you're not only paying for a brand name by way of the author/publisher, you're paying for a base guarantee of quality. You know it's been edited and you know it's going to be properly formatted.
So…how do you know whether an e-book is a "pro e-book" – whether it has indeed been edited?
I have no idea, when I look at Kindle books, which ones are 'professional' and which ones aren't.
Delorfinde says
It's hard to say for me. I'd probably put the second one as I'm pretty skint but not completely broke yet, but as it's all in dollars I'm confused as to how much that really is in pounds! So my vote isn't all that relevant. But I voted anyway 🙂
Lex says
I couldn't find the poll…;o(, so I don't know what the ranges of choice are. Regardless, I think an e-book (new release) should cost between $2.99 and $7.99. As an indie author and self publisher I refused to join the .99 crowd because, contrary to some of the posters on this subject, it does cost money to write and self publish a"pro" level book. Time is money and it takes a lot of time to produce quality work.
Unless I missed it, no one has mentioned marketing and promotion of the self published book. I think that should be added to the price; the traditional publishers certainly do that. There are several ways an idie author can promote his book for free, but it takes A LOT of time and, again, time is money. The returns (book sales) on this free marketing are slim. I've spent hours and hours on blogs, writing to book reviewers, etc and I can tell you it's a monumental effort, especially if you're also holding down a full time job.
Over the past several months I've read about thirty .99 e-books. Of those, a good 75% were poor quality and the stories were blah! The others matched traditionally published books in quality and the stories were great. I think other constant readers have experienced a similar percentage and are shunning e-books in that price range. The opportunity to sample before buying is great, but also, often misleading.
I recently purchased a traditionally published e-book for $9.99 because the genre was near to that of my own. The marketing for this book was superb, the reviews – all excellent. I read the sample and was hooked. I got the book and – it sucks. After the enticing sample, the author more or less repeats himself over and over; there's no real story, grammatical errors galore and the formatting is as bad as the worst 99 center!
I published my paperback (through Createspace) at $10.99. I would like to have priced it lower, maybe $7.99, but couldn't because I paid $39 for the Expanded Distribution program and $10.99 was the lowest price option.
Sofie Bird says
For those of you surprised anyone pays $25 for a hardback: in Australia we're paying $39. $25 is our paperback price, count yourselves lucky 😉 (And it's not the exchange rate, either – our dollar is higher).
I selected under $5, because that's what I'd pay for an unknown. But I'd be happy to pay $15 for authors I like, and pretty much anything for my favourites.
And to the "traditional books should get more because there's more work in them" – One: if an author sets up their own publishing company (especially with multiple pen names), how will you know 'traditional' from 'indie'? Two: do you think there's no work in running your own business and publishing your own books? And Three: the market doesn't run on sympathy dollars, it runs on what people will pay. A mediocre tradpub book isn't worth more money than a stellar indiepub just because the tradpub costs more to make.
David Gaughran says
John Chu said:
Anyone who says "the cost of transforming a manuscript into an e-book is next to nothing" has likely never tried it, or has seriously undervalued her time and effort. (The other possibility is that she is ok with really horrible typography.)
@John
Have you produced any e-books? Do you have any idea what you are talking about?
I've released two and they do cost next to nothing. As for typography and what not, SIFT book reviews said "This is the most professional design – both inside and out – that I have seen since I started reviewing at SIFT."
The difference between print book and e-books is that all costs for e-books are sunk costs (editing, design, formatting). In other words, you pay once to produce it and you can make infinite copies of it, and (in theory) sell infinite amounts at zero extra cost.
With print books, each time you go back to the printer it costs you more money. But there are other costs with print books – typesetting, printing, layout, distribution, and storage, that you don't have with e-books.
But the biggest thing is returns. Returns are what is killing the publishing industry. What other business destroys half the product it produces?
Returns don't really exist with e-books, or at least, when a customer returns an e-book it doesn't cost you anything.
Of course e-books should be cheaper. Significantly cheaper. But all those Manhattan office buildings won't pay for themselves.
Emma Cunningham says
It's important for the author and the publisher to be able to make enough money on the sale to keep them printing more books.
To be honest, though, I don't generally compare the cost of the ebook to the print copy. I judge the price based on how much I'm willing to pay to read that book, by that author. Since I wouldn't switch to the print copy if the ebook was out of my budget, there's no point in making the comparison.
Eva says
Assuming we are talking mainly about big publishers whose books come with that pesky DRM. And seeing as I'm not actually buying the book, but rather the right to read the book I went with the $5-$9.99 bracket.
The day I can buy an ebook in any store, own it and read it on whichever reading device I have, without having to break the law in order to do so I'll be happy to pay somewhere in the $10-$14.99 bracket. That said I'd still expect the price to drop down to (or even a bit bellow) the price of the paperback once it comes out.
Bill Az says
I voted $5-$9.99, but I think it really should be $5-$9 (none of that 99 cent crap…)
Basically: the price should be 1/2 the paperback price or 1/3 the hardover price.
Emily Wenstrom says
I work in marketing, and I run into this problem a lot: people don't like to pay for the thinking that goes into something. They want to pay for the hard product that results from it, regardless of the time and effort that went into making it creative and one-of-a-kind. Creativity is too wishy-washy a concept for people to feel comfortable shelling out dollars for. Then couple that with a digital product, something that still can't be held in your hand?
People just don't think that way. At least, not yet.
But between the rise of the creative class and the digital economy, I do think a shift in this thinking is right around the corner. Newspapers, books publishers and all content developers are working to adapt, but consumers will adapt too. It just takes time. Time to get used to handling digital content as a real product … and unfortuantely, probably time to see what happens to these important industries when their services are not properly valued.
J. T. Shea says
John Chu, good point about the marginal cost of producing an additional copy of an e-book. The incremental cost of producing one more of almost anything is less than most people expect.
And you're all too right about some writers undervaluing their own time and effort. They seem so eager to turn themselves into self-employed slaves. Some loudly boast about leading a race to the bottom and denounce anyone with greater aspirations. Talk about sour grapes!
Of course, their low valuation of their time and effort could be accurate…
David Gaughran says
And you're all too right about some writers undervaluing their own time and effort. They seem so eager to turn themselves into self-employed slaves. Some loudly boast about leading a race to the bottom and denounce anyone with greater aspirations. Talk about sour grapes!
Of course, their low valuation of their time and effort could be accurate…
@JT Shea
This is a bit of a straw man isn't it? Who boasts about leading a race to the bottom? Who is eager to turn themselves into slaves?
None of the self-publishers I know (and I know many).
In fact, all of them are quite savvy businesspeople who know exactly what their time and their work is worth.
You seem to be falling into the trap of treating e-book pricing emotionally. The job of any publisher should be to price the work at the point which brings in the most revenue for the publisher and the author. Nothing else should factor into it.
Self-publishers don't price at, say, 99c because they think that is all that they or the book are worth, it's because they have either figured out that (a) it is the price that generates the most revenue, or (b) it will allow them to capture a greater number of readers who will then go on to purchase the rest of their work at higher prices.
Let's have a bit of respect, please.
Angela Wunter says
I would say that depends on the content and the pages but has to be under the price of an paperback of the same text.
Thats how grin publishing sets its prices for their > 190,000 e-books and books. Source: https://www.grin.com/