By Jordan Dane
One of my greatest joys was my weekly trip to a bookstore. I didn’t have to be looking for anything in particular. I just liked being in a book store and always found treasures to take home. I became addicted to the bargain priced hard cover table. I especially loved finding first time authors in hard cover for under $5.00, less than the price of a MMPB. I have a debut author collection in pristine condition, but haven’t added to that collection in a while. I still buy physical books in any format, but much fewer than I ever did.
How I buy now has changed since I have my e-reader. Technology gets me excited these days. In seconds, I can buy a book and start reading. The convenience is a marvel and I can shop and buy any time of the day or night. No store hours. No holiday closures. No “Sorry, we’re out of that book. Can I order it for you?”
After Joe Moore’s intriguing post yesterday on “The Great MMPB Vanishing Act,” it got me thinking about the quality of a book if the outer packaging goes away and all that’s left are the words. What defines quality then? Do books become a price driven commodity? Will any book do? How much will price play into the decision to buy for the average digital reader?
The Big 6 publishers have all seen revenues rise significantly as a result of ebook sales. B&N shows 140% increase in digital sales; Penguin and S&S indicate digital to be 14% & 15% (respectively), Hachette is reporting ebooks as 20% of US Sales; and Bertelsmann/Random House are reporting their digital sales in the first 6 months of 2011 has exceeded all their digital sales in 2010. Volumes might be down, but profits are up slightly. So it would appear that publishers responded to the market and moved their emphasis to digital at a decent time. No forward thinking, but they reacted to a trend and have seen benefit from that change.
But all this comes at a time when lawsuits are heating up on accusations of price fixing. Apple and major publishing houses face class-action lawsuits over allegedly conspiring against Amazon’s discounted $9.99 price point. More parties have jumped in the fray. The complaint focuses on the agency model where the publisher, not the retailer, sets the price for ebooks.
What no one seems to be talking about is how these increased digital sales are breaking down by price point. Indie book publishers certainly seem more nimble to adapt to a market trend or test a discounted price in order to increase overall sales, but what about perceived quality—Indie vs. Big 6? As readers, I think we know a quality book. It’s a subjective determination, but when you make a decision on a digital book, do you look at the publisher name? How much does price enter into your decision to buy?
Will any book do? Distilled down to words, are we turning books into commodities to be traded purely on price? If this is true, what ramifications could follow?
“…are we turning books into commodities to be traded purely on price?”
For me this isn’t a change from when my only choice was paper books. Price ALWAYS made the decision of whether or not to buy. Doesn’t matter how desperately I want a book if it’s out of my budget–and during the paper only days, more often than not, they usually were out of my budget, considering the trades run around $15 a pop.
Who the publisher of the book is doesn’t matter to me. In fact, the only time I usually look for the name of the publisher is: 1) I see a book that sounds interesting but overpriced–I want to know who’s charging that much money. Usually it’s a big publisher that is charging too much, but I’ve also seen my share of small/indie press books that are out of my price comfort zone and 2) if I’m on the fence about whether a book interests me or not, I’ll look to see who the publisher is.
As to quality–I’ve seen lame stuff both traditionally and self-pubbed, so the often touted bias against indie quality doesn’t fly with me. And thanks to the fact that ebooks are more affordable than print (usually), I’m more willing to take a chance on what has the potential to be a dud.
BK Jackson
http://www.bkjackson.blogspot.com
Although I’ve seen people in the Kindle forums who will complain about any book priced over 99 cents, I don’t believe price is the most important driving point. It certainly wasn’t with paper books and it isn’t now with digital books. I purchased a $25 book on Kindle the other day because I wanted to read the book, not because it was cheap. I think publishers need to price books at the leave they need to make money and not worry about trying to convince people to buy the book at low prices. Let Amazon.com lower the price if they want, but people are going to continue to buy the books they want to read. They may download the cheap and free books, but a lot of them aren’t being read.
Hey there, BK. Thanks for your comment. Like you, I tend to consider price since I read so much. MMPB filled the bill for me. I got hooked on them and only bought hard covers if the author was a favorite of mine or I found it on the bargain table. Now with the convenience of ebooks, with one click I can be reading. I can read a great review and within seconds, I’ve got the book. I make my decisions on the story summary, not who publishes it. And with my ereader, I can also download the first part of the book for a test drive to see if I want to keep reading. This helps with the quality issue. I’m old school enough to still miss holding a book in my hands and stare at the beautiful cover. And I’d rather give a physical book as a gift rather than a gift card or something digital, but as ereader devices and apps become more widespread, I feel secure that writers’ stories will have demand. Maybe digital books become the new mmpb where publishers might be willing to take on a new author, but much needs to be changed regarding how we make book deals in the future – what’s a fair royalty rate, what defines out of print, how will we better promote in a digital world, etc.
Price makes a difference to me, as well. I have passed on buying short stories by authors I ordinarily buy/read because the stories were priced at $2.99 and I wanted to send a message. I’m sure they got it, ho ho. I’ve also comparison-priced between e-books and physical books and used the price as a determining factor.
To answer your question, though, Jordan, I don’t think it’s a question purely of price. If a book I really want is priced at $5.99, I’m not going to pass it up to buy six books that I kind of want for a dollar apiece. Price is a factor; it’s just not the only one. The same applies to coffee (for example): I never go to Starbucks when there is a Tim Horton’s around.
Hey Tim. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion. With ereader devices expanding and digital apps downloaded for free to smart phones, I can see a strong future for digital books. It’s become the new growth area for publishers, but one that may not require the overhead costs they now have. The large houses are scrambling to redefine their role and take advantage of this trend, but with authors able to self-publish and retain more profits (from lead title authors to midlist) once their sales gain traction, I hope publishing houses will realize than any author has options these days. Sure they need to make money, but with the big advances they’re paying for Snookie books, coupled with their high cost for offices & personnel still doing business as usual, they might be hoping to keep ebook prices high to help them recoup their losses, instead of making tough decisions on how they’re conducting business. I agree that the marketplace will dictate what a fair price will be, eventually, once the lawsuits on pricing are settled. I don’t see .99 being THE price, but I have a general idea on what I’d be willing to spend on digital. On principle, and consideration of cost to produce, I expect a discount for digital.
Oh, Joe, now you got me thinking about Tim Hortons. Yum!
I agree on the price thing. When I want to read a book, I buy it. I’ve paid $12 or so for digital of a hard cover recently. I enjoyed the book, but it made me a little miffed that the same digital format will eventually get discounted once the book is not so new, yet it’ll be the same digital content. Guess I’d like to exercise my right to buy elsewhere & shop price, but with prices being fixed the way they appear to be, with publishers setting prices rather than retailers, that won’t be possible. I hope that changes. I want my good old price shopping marketplace back.
Price is not my biggest consideration. As I mentioned in my response yesterday since I went digital I am more likely to buy a new release @ $ 12.99 than I ever would have bought the same new book in hardcover. I even forked $ 14.99 for a couple of things I REALLY wanted, but I will admit if they were just things I maybe wanted to read sometime in the future I probably would have waited until the price dropped sometime in the future. However, with new authors or something that I might not ordinarily consider at a lower price – especially a limited time special price – has made a difference in my purchasing said book. I have purchased a few items like this that I wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. For example I had never read a JA Jance novel, and B&N had Until Proven Guilty as a .99 August special. I bought it. I wouldn’t have bought that book otherwise. Probably others bought it for the same reason. Probably some of those purchasers want more and will now pay standard prices. This is a great marketing tool for bringing in more readers (for an author), and wouldn’t really work with physical books. Still, I’m not going to buy a book just because it’s cheap. I’m going to buy the book because it interests me.
Jordan – You say you’re miffed when you buy a $ 12 e-book that you know will be less later. Do you ever go to the movies? When you go see a first run movie you know it’s more $$ than if you wait a few weeks and see it at a second run theatre, and will be less yet if wait to rent the BluRay/DVD. Do you regret that choice, even though you know full well it will be cheaper later?
As for your question on publisher I have never in my life made a purchasing decision based on the publisher. I couldn’t tell you who published a single book in my house without physically looking at it.
I think it’s interesting that big publishers are making more sales using ebooks. It seems they aren’t doing that bad at adapting to the whole ebook thing.
But I still hear that publishers sell way more real books than ebooks.
Hey there, catfriend. Love your name. Have two rescue kitties and am definitely a friend too. They may hate me for the runt rescue dog we just adopted. He’s a pest but a cuddler.
I found some discounted books from big named authors and downloaded them. They were an intro to the new book launch. I agree with you that this is a good idea at some introductory price and for a limited period of time. It’s also a goodwill gesture to loyal readers, and maybe a way to stir up volatility to get noticed by the LIST people.
As for movies, it’s been a really long time since I sat in a theatre. I DO wait for DVDs & rentals and our service provider offers 50% discounts for certain movies they’re promoting. Having said that, I’m not completely driven by price. Some movies are worth seeing for a theater atmosphere, but let’s face it, most aren’t. Like books, perceived quality has to be there.
The real reason I don’t attend many first run movies is the use of my time. As an author, I’d rather be spending time with the worlds I build in my head and the characters I imagine. So I’ve gotten pickier about how I spend my time away from writing. I’d rather be with friends and family with quality face time.
BTW – publishers spend a lot of money to promo their brand. I think most people are like you, not many buy books based on who publishes it. I’m more aware of this because I’m an author and in the business, but the really big books or authors, I can’t tell you who they write for. Strange isn’t it. It’s not like sports where people know who plays for what team.
Hey Taylor. I’m not sure the present time is a good benchmark to determine how successful they are with ebook sales. The agency model is a dinosaur and it doesnt seem to fit well in a growing digital age.
If big publishers continue with their higher prices and set the price for retailers like Amazon, who knows how much they could be selling in ebooks. There is a balance and it’s not all or nothing. As catfriend mentioned, introductory offers could entice readers to try a book and that special offer could go away after a certain period. But not many big houses seem willing to try this often enough.
Things are changing though. That pricing lawsuit could be very interesting.
Price doesn’t drive my decision to buy – authors I love or reviews that intrigue me will usually motivate me and unless the price is crazy (like the $35 paperbacks you get in Oz!) I will get what I want. When it comes to ebooks though I will Download free e books just for the hell of it but even 99c is too much if the book looks so-so.
Hello Clare. Thanks for weighing in. I think we both agree that when it comes to indulging our love of books, we buy reasonably and not solely because of a cheap price point. I like having choices.
But when I make a choice to go digital and spare publishers the overhead costs specifically associated with that digital production (if their accounting methods could identify those costs like other businesses allocate money), it would be nice to see an approprate discount that reflects the pared down expense. Not sure what that would be. Perhaps after these pricing lawsuits get settled, we’ll have a better idea what those price points might be and who will be allowed to set those prices.
Price doesn’t matter to me if it’s a book I want, although if an author comes out with a hardcover and I know the paperback will follow, I may wait. If an ebook version comes out in the meantime, I’d get that. But many readers do look at price, and they may be buying the bargain $.99 ebooks rather than my $7.00 book from an ebook publisher.