The Sword and Laser discussion

R. Scott Bakker has posted on his blog that he has delievered to his agent the manuscript for The Unholy Consult, the final book in his Aspect-Emperor series. See his blog post http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2014/03...

If you haven't yet read Mr. Bakker's fantasy novels (which begin with the Prince of Nothing series), then check 'em out. Complex epic fantasy that is beautifully written and thought provoking.

I can't say I am looking forward to this. His last book was a slog with shock for shock's sake. There was pretty boring.

Scott Bakker is a superb writer, I've loved all of his novels and I can't wait for The Unholy Consult. At least that's what I thought until I read Nathan's scathing critique: "There was pretty boring."
It really has me rethinking my love of Bakker's prose.

Why are his e-books so expensive ?
Pretty much every book of him is 12$+ for the kindle edition....

It seems like they're all 11 and less, and I think 11 is increasingly becoming the standard price point. Which makes sense since the actual materials of the book don't contribute at all as much to the final price as do the work of the editors, publishers, marketers, cover artists, etc. Expecting kindle books to be reduced significantly in price is like expecting a digital download to be way cheaper than a dvd. The stuff you get inside that experience is way more expensive than the method of delivery.

Not sure I agree with that, Rob. Any physical book sold at retail has to give up a significant amount of the sales price to the store or e-tailer. It's at least 50%. Whereas with ebooks, the publisher keeps 70%. There's a distinct advantage to selling ebooks even for publishers. And for Indie authors it's a no-brainer.

I am 90% certain that those numbers don't match up with what the Writing Excuses podcast came up with, when they did their ebook vs hardcover vs softcover, and came to the conclusion that the former made the least amount of money for publisher and writer.

W/r/t self-published people, of course it's a no-brainer, you generally aren't paying editors, marketers, publishers, etc etc.

Anyway, the only point is, ebooks at a slight discount rather than a gigantic discount makes sense, and Baker's books look like they're at what is becoming the standard kindle price.

Rob Secundus wrote: "I am 90% certain that those numbers don't match up with what the Writing Excuses podcast came up with, when they did their ebook vs hardcover vs softcover, and came to the conclusion that the forme..."

If I may wade into this discussion, in the last year I have jumped onto the eBook bandwagon HARD. I've had a Nook for years, but I bought it simply to read Cory Doctorow's ePub releases. But then this year I discovered that Humble Bundle does eBooks too! And then StoryBundle. And I've got more eBooks than I can read for the next few years. I guess that's the first source of Ailiddin's question. Between bundles and constant deals - people are used to getting eBooks super cheap because no one is buying them except when on sale.

But you also mention something I've been thinking of since I really started thinking about eBooks. Up until now it's been a tiered experience just like movies. When movies first come out your only option is a movie theatre. Then, later, there's DVDs, HBO, Netflix, etc. When books first come out (before eBooks) there's Hardcover, then if you wait softcover. Hardcover usually costs a LOT more than soft - like $20-$30 vs $8-$12. But if you want to be part of the early conversation (something I rarely care about) then you need to get the hardcover. But what do publishers do in the eBook age? What can you do to make the first eBook release worth more than the later one? (Because at least a hardcover book is nicer than a softcover) You can do dynamic pricing, but to some degree that already happened to physical books as they got old so that the stores could clear the shelves.

Then I realized it - hardcovers are the new hardcovers. What? Well, people like collector's items and physical things - people are buying vinyl again instead of just MP3s. So I think the eBook gets the paperback price and the hardcover gets the more expensive price because you have a pretty thing to display. HOWEVER, I think they also need to do like the vinyls are doing now and come with a free eBook. So the hardcover is for display and pretty, but the eBook is for taking on the airplane (and for backing up in case of house fire, flood, or tornado)

Actually this isn't where I get my references.
I have a wish list of around 70 books on Amazon for Kindle books(scifi, fantasy and crime/thrillers).
The huge majority of those are available in mass market paperbacks and the price of the e-books vary between 4.99$ and 8.89$.
A few are only available in hardcover and for those the price vary between 9.99$ and 12.99$ ( exceptionally 14.99$ but never for long) for the e-book.

And then there is R. Scott. Baker where every e-book is 10.99$ and has been that way for a long time...

It does not make any sense, except if you are trying to price yourself out of the market....

I haven't read the first two books in this trilogy, yet. I've been waiting for the third so I can read them all at once. The Prince of Nothing trilogy was excellent, though, so I've got high hopes for the follow up books.