Paranormal & Urban Fantasy, Monthly Group Reads discussion

In light of some questions that have been brought up I thought it would be a good idea to have an official discussion on book pricing. What we feel about it, what our limits are and how we feel about the e-book market and their idea of pricing.

So, do you think e-book publishers are pricing their books too high?

Have you found sites where ebooks are actually cheaper than paperbacks? (page count being equal of course)

Does price matter to you when purchasing books or ebooks?

I personally think that mainstream booksellers are really taking advantage of the e-book market. They are charging too much when you don't actually have a physical book to take to a signing or put on your shelf.

I think e-books should only be 1/2 what the paperback sells for. That would be fair.

honestly, the price of ebooks doesn't bother me...but then i also used to easily spend a lot of money on books and i still do. while producing ebooks may be cheaper, there are still other factors that are worked into the price - paying the author, the publisher, the copy editors, marketing etc...some one posted a breakdown over a amazon a while back, and the actual cost to publish the book itself was only like 5-10% of the cost...

I personally thing that many of the ebook publishers are greedy lil pricks! lol

Considering the lack of paper and printing that is involved I just cant see an ebook costing equal to or even more than the paperback.. which has certainly been the case.

I have also seen shorter books (150 pages) priced at $5 or more. This is about the price of a normal sized book!!

From what I have been told this isn't the authors fault.

I imagine the ridiculous pricing on ebooks has something to to with the reason pirating has gotten out of control.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT and will never condone pirating in any form. (I even pay for Napster for my music! lol)

There are some authors, my A-List usually, that price is not an issue. Because I have to have the books as soon as I can get my greedy lil hands on them because I love the writing so much.

What are your thoughts and limits?

Delicious Dee the book slut wrote: "honestly, the price of ebooks doesn't bother me...but then i also used to easily spend a lot of money on books and i still do. while producing ebooks may be cheaper, there are still other factors ..."

Amazon takes 65% off the top when the a book sells: I had no idea they had such a high expense bottom line.

Amazon did change their ways - they have a segment where the publisher gets 70% (anything priced between 2.99-9.99 and Amazon is the lowest price sold.)

♥Tricia♥ wrote: "I personally thing that many of the ebook publishers are greedy lil pricks! lol

Considering the lack of paper and printing that is involved I just cant see an ebook costing equal to or even more t..."

I think the mainstream publishers are struggling not to go under and are grasping at e-books life-preserver a little too late. It took them too long to get with it and now they are trying to make up for their losses.

It's sad really. Because it's the common man that is suffering for their lack of foresight.

you know, I keep hearing that number bandied around, but have yet to actually see the proof. Why would they go from that to 30% (with their new royalty scheme) - that is a huge drop in income...

here is how i understand how the pricing works...maybe someone can provide me more insight...

publisher x wants to sell book.
they price book at $20
they offer book to Amazon, borders, B&N for 50% of the list price, so $10
amazon/borders/b&N then choose to sell book for $8 (rounding up from 7.99, which seems to be the MMPB norm) - so they essentially lost $2 on a sale...
so that 65% quoted, is that from the $8 that they sold the book...i.e. $5.20 that they actually make off the sale, so the publisher get 2.80 (on top of the $10 that they already got when amazon bought the book wholesale)...

Lynn wrote: "Delicious Dee the book slut wrote: "honestly, the price of ebooks doesn't bother me...but then i also used to easily spend a lot of money on books and i still do. while producing ebooks may be che..."

Delicious Dee the book slut wrote: "you know, I keep hearing that number bandied around, but have yet to actually see the proof. Why would they go from that to 30% (with their new royalty scheme) - that is a huge drop in income...
..."

Dee, lets see if I can help.

A publisher sets the price of the books, it's printed on the back cover above the barcode. This is where it all comes from. Publisher has book price (on back cover) for $20. All major outlets take the same 65% off of that price, so the publisher only gets $7 from the bookseller for their $20 book. Then the book stores sell it for the price on the back or an accasional discount - the publisher already has thier money. The bookseller will make $13 off of each book they sell.

Now if this is a small paperback, then the figures would drop: Publisher sells book for $2.80 ... store charges 8.00. Don't forget, the publisher pays for printing and shipping and author royalities out of their $2.80.

Bookstores have rent and employees to pay. That's why Amazon can affort to only take 30% - and it guarntees them the lowest price on the net. Right now, Amazon and the bookstores are at war, each trying to capture the same market. I think that they have just now started to cooperate.

That's why the higher prices on the e-books... Does that clear anything up?

Actually that doesn't because it would seem that ebooks would still be cheaper considering what you explained lol

♥Tricia♥ wrote: "Actually that doesn't because it would seem that ebooks would still be cheaper considering what you explained lol"

Not if the mainstream booksellers have decided to use Amazon to make a hefty profit. Making up the the bookstore losses by charging the same or more for the e-books.