The nice thing about having a blog is the ability to rant and rave a little when I'm worked up about something. I don't get worked up regularly, or even frequently, but today I'm good and worked up about the eBook pricing model.
I do follow many of the online discussions and listservs, and conversation over the last several months has often centered on eBooks, and this week HarperCollins made the news by announcing a limit on the number of times it will allow a library to loan an eBook (bad idea, Harper, but more on that later).
What I'm seeing is a lot of people opining from only half-informed (at most) positions about the way publishers "should" price their eBooks. Oh, the number of posts I've seen from the self-published who argue that they're selling scads of copies by pricing their Kindle books at 99 cents, 1.99, or even 2.99. Frankly, I think a lot of them are lying outright about the number of copies they've sold, but I guess I can't get mad at them, since we editors have been known to "inflate" the number of copies we've sold, often for purposes of our own ego gratification.
I'm sorry, but the books my company publishes are worth a hell of a lot more than 99 cents. They're also worth a hell of a lot more than 2 or 3 bucks, and I'll be damned if I'm going to allow them to be priced this way. Tell me - who's going to pay the editor? The cover designer? The proofreader? The person who actually formats the book? And please don't tell me it's as simple as hitting a "convert" button. The ePub file that we send to Kindle doesn't work exactly the same way as it works for Nook, so we need to do separate versions. And the ePub file we send to Apple for sale on its iPad store requires even further tweaks. So how is this any of this different from paying a typesetter to do the same thing?
And how about all the reviewers out there who refuse to review eBooks, and for good reason? Listen, I admit I'm not an eBook person myself, but I see their appeal and I have no desire to become a crusty old dinosaur who doesn't evolve with the times. But a lot of reviewers don't WANT to read on a screen, and I don't blame them, because I don't want to, either. So how do we get publicity for our books, then? Do we do special limited "print" runs of eBooks, and who pays for those when we're getting net revenue of a whopping 70 cents per copy sold?
But there's more to it than that. I remember from my economics courses in university that price is a signal. That is, it signals the worth of a product. Look at it this way: When you go to a $1 store, do you think you're getting high-quality products? No, you know you're getting cheap junk for the most part, but at least you're not paying the insane markup that the supermarket charges. Let's say you found a slew of books for $1 at the dollar store. Are you going to think, "Wow, what great books these must be?" Of course not.
The books that are professionally published require a lot of work by a lot of people. We are not mass-producing widgets, here; each work is an independent product and the process cannot be mechanized. Our profit margins are tiny enough as it is. We have the right to charge fair value for quality merchandise. And $2.99 is not fair value for a professionally published book. Maybe it is for a self-published book with no overhead, but I won't even get into that whole self-publishing thing here. Let me just say it's a different animal, and I understand reviewers' reluctance to ever engage with the self-published.
All those folks out there loudly declaiming on Amazon and elsewhere that we must set our eBook prices lower: Do you tell your grocery store how much to charge for groceries? Do you call the utility company and demand that they lower the cost of electricity to something that would send them into immediate bankruptcy? Do you tell your landlord that you'll pay a maximum of $100 a month for your apartment, and if he doesn't like it, you'll walk?
So, as of right now, we charge what we think is a fair and reasonable price for our ebooks. Under $10, but certainly more than $2.99. And let's not forget, shall we, that these prices are less than what anyone would pay for a print product. How much more of a discount do you want, exactly? Because if everyone starts to refuse to pay more than $3 for a book, you're going to see a lot of really good publishers go out of business, and a lot of real garbage hitting your screen.
I suppose a lot of authors out there are feeling caught in the middle - they're afraid that their publishers are setting their ebook prices too high, and that they're going to lose sales to the self-published who are practically giving their stuff away. Maybe that's happening, and maybe it isn't. But the truth of the matter is, at the end of the day - Professionally published books are WORTH MORE than self-published books, and I suspect that most people know that. Who's worth more - a plumber with a license or a vagabond you hire to unclog your pipes? If you really think about it, the $15 you pay for a hardback (after Amazon discount) is a hell of a lot of bang for your buck, so can you please stop bitching about the price of books when a 12-ounce bottle of water sells for $2, a gallon of gas costs $3.50, and Nike charges $100 for sneakers made in the Northern Mariana Islands for 45 cents?
Now, as for you, HarperCollins: You really must not bite the hand the feeds you. As an independent publisher, we have had a tremendous amount of support from libraries and librarians over the years. They buy our books and we thank them. They don't tell us how to run our business, and we don't tell them how to run theirs. Somehow, it all has worked out: We sell books; libraries buy them; authors get royalties; people on limited incomes get to borrow them for free; everyone is happy. Now, I understand the desire to ask libraries to loan out a purchased eBook to only one person at a time, which is how it works with the print books; that seems fair and reasonable to both parties. But to say that an eBook can be loaned only 26 times before it expires? That's bad karma, Harper, and I suspect you know it.
You're right. I've bought a handful of books for $0.99 and $2.99 but I don't value them much. I can't get a fancy coffee for that price so I buy the books, read a few pages and if I don't like what I read I hit delete in the same way I'd throw away a bad cup of coffee - no big deal. I live in Australia though and don't own a Kindle so most of the books I buy (i.e. not self-published ones) cost much more than that, even the eBooks. I do think differently about the eBooks I've paid $12 or $15 or $20 for - I consider the purchase more and then give the book more time to see if I like it. It's not a throaway item in my thinking like the cheap ones are.
I've worked out that $20 is my upper limit for eBooks, $25 is around my limit for paper books (I'm using Aussie dollars but as it is almost at parity with the US dollar right now - 99cents or thereabouts - it's basically the same thing). I don't think eBooks are worth quite as much as a print book because I can't loan it to someone else as I would with my print books - I really only own a license so I shouldn't have to pay as much.
If you think I'm being generous - I'm not - new releases in Australia are around the $40-$45 mark in hardback or $33-$35 in trade paperback (and new eBooks are being priced equally). I won't pay those prices for any format.
Posted by: Bernadette | March 17, 2011 at 04:01 AM
Amen!
Posted by: Alan Orloff | March 17, 2011 at 10:23 AM
I’m in a position to put the indie point of view. My novel is priced at $0.99 and £0.49, and I certainly think it’s worth more than that. But it’s not about what I think. Readers have a lot of choice, and are reluctant to try an unknown author they have never heard of, never seen in a bookshop or read about. I tried pricing higher, and sold very few copies.
I believe the figures some indies are quoting – no point lying about it, we all watch rankings too much to be taken in by false claims. In six months, I’ve sold 17,500 ebooks, and am willing to email my Amazon royalty screen prints to anyone who doubts it. I’ve made about £4500 so far. Had I charged more, my book would have stayed invisible: as it is, it’s been in the UK Kindle top 100 for 155 days. I’ve established a readership for my next novel, which will be out soon.
Readers discriminate, even at a giveaway price, because they will be spending hours reading the novel they choose. Unpopular books don’t sell – you can’t give them away. Pricing low will not automatically make your book whiz up the charts.
The thing about groceries, electricity and rent is that, if you think they are too high, you can’t go on the internet and download them illegally. Like it or not, you can with ebooks. Piracy is something publishers have to take into consideration, because it’s there, and it’s growing.
Posted by: Lexi Revellian | March 17, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Lexi states the author's POV well, I think. Authors want to build readership, not necessarily, maximize profits on the first few books. Kinda of like illegal drugs. Us pushers want to hook the readers on our characters, then raise prices when we have a bigger audience.
Posted by: Jersey Jack | March 17, 2011 at 05:42 PM
thank you. i love to read this type of information posts. again thank you...
Posted by: kiralık devremülkler | March 22, 2011 at 06:07 PM
I agree with you. Since I bought my iPad last year, I have read a lot more fiction and nonfiction business/economics books. Most I buy are from well known publishers. Occasionally I see something that catches my eye and it is only 2.99 (for example) - so I take a risk. Inevitably, such books are rife with poor grammar and overall, bad writing. I have learned my lesson.
Further, I do think that price is a signal. A higher price does imply higher quality many people.
Posted by: Liz | March 27, 2011 at 04:40 PM