I thought I’d write about the care and feeding of the dependent writer, but as that post amounts to ‘just buy their books’ I thought I’d have to try harder.
We’re in a per capita recession here in Australia – and the chances of a full-blown recession/depression here are growing. It’s very clearly starting to spill into disposable income, which, realistically is where most people’s book spend comes from. Inflation has chewed holes in the value of everything, especially discretionary spending. I believe it’s a similar situation elsewhere. The question is, what do we do about it as writers?
Heinlein said something about a book being worth two beers – a reasonable concept IMO. The same value as an ordinary couple of drinks. A little relaxation and entertainment for a reader that doesn’t have a lot of money, and they’ll feel better about it and get a bit more value than just bladder excercise.
Now – Australian, buying from a bottle-shop that means about $4.60. Of course, in a bar, you’re not looking at a lot of change out of twenty bucks (drinking socially has become very expensive here) – and with new taxes (bound to make people happier) thirty bucks is arriving soon. I have no idea which of these option costs ‘a couple of beers referred to. I just know I can’t afford a lot of books at $30 – no matter how I would love to sell say 10 000 at that price… the reality is I might sell 10 at that price, because on tight purses, price is a decider, especially if the reader is buying a pig in poke. They don’t know that they’re going to get two beers entertainment and pleasure out of your book, but they know what they get out of two beers.
I priced my e-books at around the bottle-shop price – but I can’t do that for Print on Demand Indy books. For a long time, I tried under $5 -e-book and under $10 print. But I can’t justify that for paper, as I usually can’t price the paperbacks at that and make any money at all (for some time I cleared IIRC 6 cents on a paperback – figuring that some people wouldn’t read e-books, and this way they would sample my books. Then I decided that they were such a small part of my sales, that really, I might as well get the same sort of return as I do on an e-book. I sympathize with paper readers, but I can’t justify subsidizing them.
In theory, anyway, books were counter-cyclicals – selling more copies when times were bad (like seeds and camping equipment) because they were cheap entertainment, that could (unlike the beer) be consumed more than once and often lasted a little longer than a couple of beers too. That wasn’t true in the last downturns – maybe books no longer provided the escapism more cheaply than other things. Now, you can afford to keep your prices low if you’re going to increase your sales volume to make up the difference, but if you’re not… but then you might kill off readership… But you have to live off that income too.
It’s a conundrum. What do you think a price point which doesn’t make readers stick is? For e-books and paperbacks?
Mad Genius Club 
12 responses to “Value”
Now I’m going to have to go to the store and see what beer’s selling for these days!
Running off to check my stuff, verses books from Baen, I’m one to two bucks cheaper–$3.99 to $4.99 depending on the length–than, say John Ringo. For Indy only with no name recognition, that’s probably realistic. US dollars, mind you.
And hasn’t gone up over the last few years. Inflation? What’s that?
As a “Real” writer who’s got name recognition and book store presence, you ought to sell at the $5.99 to $6.99 level. And I hope to heck you’ve got better sales than I have!
Anything below US$6.00 for an e-book and I will usually give it a go if I get a recommendation. I know I baulk at the Raconteur Press offerings at their standard $6.99.
For a really favorite writer – up to $8.00. (Which includes some Raconteur Press items.) Above $8.00 and I wait for a sale or go find it at the public library (or ask for a review copy). To me over $8.00 for an electronic copy means TradPub and that means it will either be in the library or I don’t feel guilty about skinning them for a review copy.
For printed books? I don’t buy fiction in print anymore and am giving away printed copies of novels I do have. There are exceptions, but if I buy print I buy used, generally looking for about the same price as an e-book. For non-fiction, again it is generally used and generally $25.00 or less. That’s typically research material. Over $25.00 and I get it through ILL and scan the pages of interest.
I am not sure I am typical, though.
RacPress should be 5.99 unless you’re not looking at the US store?
I’m selling nearly nothing at $2.99 US. Maybe one or two this month.
Not a complaint, my own fault for not publishing regularly. Just an FYI for general use. Price does not enter into the equation for me at the moment.
I’ll have to get the Amazon Algo to love me first, then I can fiddle with the prices.
$3.99-$4.99 US per book, depending on the length. Shorter books go for the lower price. I should raise prices, because the cost of covers has gone up, but … I know books are a luxury product, and my readers are watching their pennies.
Beer varies between $1.50 a can for generic “beer,” and $15 a bottle for Belgian imports (larger bottle). Wine for cooking (drinkable but not special) is $13.00-$18.00 per bottle. I don’t go to bars, so I don’t know what it is by the drink, or what hard liquors are going for.
Too much of the reading public is trained for two price points: $0.99 or FREE. This has become painfully apparent after participating in some $0.99 sales. I see great resistance every time I price above that, and this has been revealed to be the case even before the global depression started in early 2020.
Even I catch myself going “errr, no” at ebooks priced over $5, and pause at books over $3. Then again, this may quickly become the norm in the future as inflation finally kicks in full force in the next 4-36 months from market collapse forcing all the fiat currency rushing back to the nations who printed it.
It’s going to get far worse before it gets better I think. On one positive note, as prices explode, good cheap re-usable entertainment that doesn’t have shipping costs will become preferred.
I’m semi-well off, and might buy a few ebooks per month at the US$5.00 level. I have a firmish limit of $10.00, though if it’s a book I really want, I’ll consider it, but that rules out 3 $5.00 books. (Lord of the Rings, $15.99. Winced, but I paid.)
Lately, I’ve been slowing down buying and am going back to rereading. OTOH, just bought finished the Rats, Bats and Vats books. (BTW, I really liked “Lucky Number 7”)
Readers do not merely buy books. They also review books — yes, a short, “I liked it! Full of adventure!” helps, because the sheer numbers helps — and rate books.
I’m still wrestling with price myself.
I’ll give almost any ebook a try at $.99 (US). If an ebook looks interesting and is below $5.00, I’ll buy it. Over $5.00, it’s pretty much got to be an author or series I already know and like. I’m reluctant to spend more than $10.00 on an ebook, and I’ve stopped buying physical books for the most part.
So if you’ve got a series, pricing the first book at below $5.00 will likely get me to buy it if it looks interesting, and after that the prices can be higher and I’ll still keep on with it.
Between $3-5 dollars is where I price my own books for pretty much the same reasons that Dave and TxRed and everyone else gave. The cost of a good cup of coffee, or a beer, or deli sandwich.
It’s pretty much the same when buying ebooks – if I’ll pay more than $6, it had better be an author whose’ books I know and love, More than $10? Forgettabout it. I’ll buy a used print copy.
I’m inline with the crowd.
For e-book novels (adjust prices up or down for longer (e.g. collections) or shorter works):
for new fiction from an author I like, I’ll easily pay up to $5 but stop and think for over $5,
for new fiction from an unknown or so so author I don’t know, prefer to wait until I’m on KU to try out, might pay up to $2.99 (no likely to pay more)
for classics that are still in copyright (e.g. Agatha Christie) I aim for $1.99, will pay up to $2.99, maybe a bit more if I need to complete a series and am tired of waiting for a sale
out of copyright, up to $0.99 (if it’s nicely formatted, no typos, etc).
Since my reading time is limited, I’m only on KU when there’s a good sale, otherwise I’m buying.
I got used to $2.99 ebooks, and thought $3.99 the higher end of my buying for a while… but then I sat and really thought about it. I’ll pay $5.99 for a mocha, these days, and not even blink, as the covid bailouts pumped so much worthless money into the economy that the value of the dollar has dropped by half from when I set my “this is reasonable” price expectations.
Given the rate of actual inflation as seen on the street, not the official government lie, today’s $2.99 ebook is soon going to be yesteryear’s 0.99 ebook. So, if I’m going to choose between a morning out (mocha and a breakfast bagel with salmon and capers = $20) and a morning reading on the back porch, $20 is not such a great thing for the book to ask as it seems.
That said, in practice, I rarely pick up books costing more than $8.99 unless they’ve been specifically recommended by someone whose reading taste or subject matter expertise I trust… but then, I rarely go to a coffee shop or cafe I don’t already know I’ll get my money’s worth of enjoyment from either, so that’s fairly standard across the board.
For our own books, they’re in the $2.99 – $4.99 range, depending on genre, and on whether they’re trying to pull readers in, or strong sellers.