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Ebooks Going Up in Price ~ April 1st
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Yeah, I've been following this for months now. I am very curious to see how this pans out. My theory? Piracy will rise.
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I think so too, Tina.
What's a bummer is before the Agency 5 came along with their new contracts, ebooks and digital publishing was really on the rise. I guess they were afraid of it continuing to rise so much that it'll cut into their precious hardcover sales so they squashed it by making ebooks as much as HCs.
It's not such good news for people who bought ereaders, I guess.
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Did you guys a poor turn considering all the ereaders that just came out, LOL. Some people will have just gotten their first ones.
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Hooray for used bookstores, The Book Depository and ebay though. :-)
This deal will only hurt the "big five" and their authors' sales but it won't effect folks who buy ebooks in general. Most ebook readers buy books from epublishers anyway, not these companies. So the big guys are once again, killing themselves.I've never bought ebooks from one of the big five anyway, just the epublishers. The big five doesn't know jack about how to market ebooks. My last two books were published by a big pub and you can tell the big difference between how big pubs handle their ebook prices compared to ebook pubs. Ebook pubs know how to keep the prices where they can compete.
The big five's only doing this to try to muscle in on ebooks but it won't work because they're gonna drive more people to ebook pubs and away from the big five's ebooks. And people are just going to start getting these "big five" ebooks on sites where they are much cheaper and that's just gonna screw the authors.
I've been looking into going the epublishing route and I am more than excited about it. I bet when the big pubs see that this price thing doesn't fly and their authors lose out on ebook sales, they'll rethink it. This is why the big pubs are dying now, they don't know how to market things in the interest of authors or the readers. They think someone is going to pay a certain amount for an ebook just because they have their name on it? Please.
I don't have a Kindle anyway, I have a Sony Reader so I can't get books from Amazon anyway. Like I said, I usually just get my ebooks off of different/various sites or from the sites of epublishers themselves. In fact, it seems like most people buy straight from the epublishers but all the readers have to do is not buy the big five's ebooks and they'll come down on the price.
It won't be fair to the authors but since when has the bigger pubs cared about their authors? This is why they are in the state they are in. They only care about the money, bottom line. People are just gonna get these books illegally if the big five try to pull this stunt. If that happens, then they are going to just lose more money. I feel sorry for the authors though but this is why the big boys are in the state they are in.
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
Another thing, it's only gonna drive more business to the epublishers if the big five really do this. Ebook lovers will continue to buy ebooks. Paperback readers (me included when I was one) complained when PB prices jumped up over the years but it didn't stop me from buying books. The good thing about this is that no one has to buy their ebook from a certain site. There are many options and I wouldn't buy an ebook that cost that much when there are millions more that have a better price. You can find any ebook for almost any price but this is why I like to read ebooks from the epublishers. The only big print company I get ebooks from are Harlequin. The rest are straight from epubs. I don't even buy books out the Sony ebook store. I don't buy ebooks from any of these big pubs.The big boys continue to dig their own graves. This doesn't effect me or my buying habits in anyway. I'll continue to get ebooks that are priced fairly and I won't be going back to print either. People just gotta boycot the big five and the retailers supporting this change. Strength is in numbers. A lot of the Dear Author people have the right idea. They're not gonna let someone force them into something unfair and they will continue to buy their ebooks. Support the ebook pubs and if the big boys don't care about readers and authors, screw 'em, don't buy from them. They will continue to be unfair if they think readers/authors are going to put up with them. No one has to buy an ebook from these pubs or the folks that sell their books when there are tons of other places to buy ebooks.
Best Wishes!
Well, there's another reason why I'll put off getting an ereader.I really like the convenience of an ereader, but if the books are going to cost the same I'd prefer to have the hard copy.
Davina, don't let this discourage you from ebooks in general. You can still buy books from the epublishers and they don't rack up prices so you got many options. This only effects the big pubs but not ebooks released from other publishers.This is only gonna make things better for the original ebook publishers but I have a feeling the big pubs are gonna get such a backlash that they might reconsider. Anyway, they're being foolish and only gonna drive sales straight to other ebook companies.
There are tons of options for ebooks and they don't have to be from big publishers. One of the things that's so great about the epubs is that they present different types of books in all kinds of genres. I don't buy ebooks from the big pubs anyway because I was sick of all the books being the same, cookie-cutter formula so that's why I went to ebooks in the first place.
I'd never go back to print because like I said, there are still other options. Let the big presses stew in their own juices. And what folks need to realize is if they could hack up their ebook prices, imagine what they are gonna do to hardbacks and paperbacks. I can't imagine them staying the same. Heck a paperback might be $20 dollars one day!
I feel sorry for the authors but I'm kind of glad the big boys have finally shown the public their true colors. Authors knew how they were but now readers know.
Also, if I gave up ebooks, where would I find all the IR books I love to read? Surely not in stores. That's another reason I love ebooks because IR fiction is so popular in ebooks. Print pubs don't publish IR books on a regular basis. That's one reason I wouldn't go back to print, because they don't offer things I like. As for my historical romances, I can get those from Harlequin or epresses too. I'm good, LOL!
Don't fret about this too much guys, like folks were just saying on another writers forum, this sounds like a ploy and a bunch of hype and with all these people voicing their opinions to these pubs, I don't see this continuing for long. But while it is, people can get their ebooks elsewhere.
Best Wishes!
http://www.stacy-deanne.net
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True but they'll probably be bummed when they find out how stuck their books are when they buy from the iBookstore and how high the books will be there though.
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I certainly hope so. Fictionwise put a big wrench in the whole thing based on what the DA readers said about their wishlists but on the upside a lot of them were jazzed to help spread the word about indie/smaller pubs. Another bummer thing is I tried to find an ebook new release for a book I was really looking forward to. But since the Agency 5 are still in talks with e-retailers, I can't find a copy anywhere so I'm going to have to forget it for now. I was really looking forward to buying it Fictionwise or BooksonBoard but nope.
FW also had some showcased on their website which is an upside to the whole thing. I hope with the rise of FW, Smashwords and the like more unknown authors will come into the light. I've been finding some great gems there and indie pubbed that I review on my blog and hope the word spreads for the authors. Great voices there.
Yes indeedy! Come to the e-publishing dark side, Stacy-Deanne. We have cookies...and chocolate milk! LOL
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*whistles innocently* LOL. Not that I would know or anything. ;-)
I think you may be right about their goal, though. The ebook market and publishing industry is scarily close to paralleling what happened in the music industry. The different formats will stop it from making everything uniform because there's universal 'mp3'. They're trying to get epub to go that direction but too many folks like other formats.
Regarding formats, all you need is a converter and you can get your books in whatever format you want.I have a Kindle but I am not limited to just Amazon books. Don't get me wrong, the convenience and ease of use of the Kindle to buy a book from Amazon is incredible. And it is a shame that the publishers are more intent on punishing Bezos than in leveraging what he did to make themselves more money. But these are people who are very much tied to an old fashioned model and who really aren't visionaries.
It will not change my love and use of my e-reader. I know how to crack DRM and I have a converter. And I am one of those who will wholeheartedly pay for the books by the pubs who are not playing this game or independent epubs. As for the others that is what libraries and used book stores are for.
It is a shame, because to my mind they sacrificing the (millions) of birds they already have in hand for the uncertain ones in the bush.
Like I said, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Sounds like the big five are trying to recoup their losses in the print department and capitalize off e-books. I agree that it's gonna bite them in the butt because honestly, I've been buying more books from the smaller e-publishers anyway. I'd rather support the smaller pubs because I understand why their prices are what they are.
Chaeya wrote: "Sounds like the big five are trying to recoup their losses in the print department and capitalize off e-books. I agree that it's gonna bite them in the butt because honestly, I've been buying more..."From what I have been reading, it almost sounds like the opposite of this. The pubs don't consider readers their consumers. Their consumers are retailers and distributors. They also are very protective of hard cover sales. That is where this is coming from.
It is no secret that the CEO of MacMillan is very dismissive of ebooks. And many of the New York pubs see them as cannibalizing print books and promoting piracy. So this move is really a way to protect print books.
I find this so counter-intuitive because if they just look at the last two years in ebook sales they'll see that rather than causing them to lose revenue, ebook readers have discovered a new enthusiasm in book buying and many report an increase in their buying.
E-book adopters are very committed to the format. Seriously, think about it for a minute. If someone is going to invest 200+ dollars on a dedicated device that really has only one use, then they are going to make the most out of that investment. It isn't in their best interests to buy paper anymore. I do believe that big 5 know this, but they have adopted a stance that is more about a power play than anything else and they can't back down now. And throwing in the new pricing with the launch of the iPad is like them putting all their eggs into one basket.
And the more reviews I read about the iPad as an e-reader, the more it looks like the gamble they are making is a risky one.
As an 'OOhhh.. cool Gadget' it is getting pretty good reviews. The speed and how HD videos/tv look are what is getting the best reviews.But as an e-reader the reviews aren't as glowing. From a reader's perspective, people are reporting that it is too heavy. It isn't easily held in one hand. And even two handed, for more than a few minutes, it becomes very uncomfortable.
I've also read that the glare on the screen does not allow it to be read in sunlight. You simply can't see a thing.
And finally there is a lot of debate about the back-lit LCD screen. Some people report eye strain after too long of reading that they don't get from e-ink devices.
I do hear that the full color representations(like if you wanted to read a graphic novel or see pictures in a cookbook) are beautiful.
This is really a computer. And the difference in how one uses a computer (interactivity) vs. how one reads a book (passivity) is what is making this not optimal for reading. And really, it wasn't designed with readers in mind. The ability to read an ebook is just an add on and a way to take advantage of app developers.
Instead of the usual $7.99 - $9.99 and there abouts for books, they'll be going up to about $12.99 to $14.99 depending on the books. It's nuts and it totally sucks but it's what the publishers want and the ebookstores can't do a thing about it.
Amazon contracts are being changed to fit within the Apple/Publisher's new price diameter and it appears that their prices will go up as well. Although bestsellers may be priced at $9.99 while most books will be higher.
Dear Author has a good rundown of the situation - http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/...
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/...
The Agency five publishers involved in this are:
* Hachette (Grand Central, Orbit, Forever),
* Penguin (Berkley, Ace, Roc, Jove, Signet, NAL, Putnam),
* Macmillan (St. Martin, Tor),
* Harper (Avon, Avon A), and
* Simon& Schuster (Pocket)
So if you have auto buys in digital format that are published by these companies, be aware that the prices may go up to double digits starting tomorrow officially but may be already in effect now.
The good news is Random House books, Harlequin, Baen and the smaller pubs may not be pushed into this deal so discounts will still apply to their books.
More: http://www.teleread.org/2010/03/30/fi...
http://www.teleread.org/2010/03/29/ap...
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/show...