Are ebooks too expensive?

[Rodders]

I don't think they're too expensive, but i do think that considering there's nothing physical to store or ship, they could be a little cheaper.

 

[biodroid]

They could be cheaper and Amazon could also have all books available for a series instead of books missing half the time

 

[Ursa major]

Whilst it's true ebooks don't cost much to produce ie send to the computer, the writer has spent the same time writing it as for the paper book, the editors have spent the same time, the cover has cost the same (maybe more with the need for thumbnails and what not to be considered.) these are still huge outlays and need to be offset against the cost of the book. I'm not sure it's actually fair to expect e-books to be much cheaper than the relevant paper book. (I'm referring to the trad model, not self-publishing where it's up to the author what they're happy to be paid.)

I'm sure there's been at least one thread here where the cost of producing a paper book (probably a paperback of some sort) was mentioned. I'll have a search for it.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Whilst it's true ebooks don't cost much to produce ie send to the computer, the writer has spent the same time writing it as for the paper book, the editors have spent the same time, the cover has cost the same (maybe more with the need for thumbnails and what not to be considered.) these are still huge outlays and need to be offset against the cost of the book.

In theory, eBooks should be cheaper than paper/hardbacks, because while the cost-of-production is actually not completely dissimilar (when you factor in the subsidised hardware and server/distribution costs), and obviously author/editor/illustrator/copy-editor/type-setting/publicity etc costs are the same, where there is a massive saving is in stock risk. When you buy a physical book, you're not only paying for that copy, but a share of all the copies that aren't sold (this is a huge simplification) and that are either pulped or remaindered.

All good points. Which is why I think that the price of new ebooks is often higher than it should be, but not so high as many people think.

And some of that extra price is because the publisher passes on part of the money saved in producing the book electronically in the form of higher royalties to the author. Since most writers don't make enough money to write full time and still eat, I see this as something positive. (My books always seem to sell best in paper, but I am sure this is a great benefit to many writers, and I think that is a very good thing.)

 

[Vertigo]

I'm sure there's been at least one thread here where the cost of producing a paper book (probably a paperback of some sort) was mentioned. I'll have a search for it.

We certainly discussed the price of ebooks before (maybe several times) and in that discussion we talked about the cost of printing and distributing being relatively minor against the cost of author royalties plus editing plus typesetting (still needed for ebooks) promotion etc. (not necessarily in that order) and that being the explanation for the apparently high price. This would also be consistent with ebooks of out of print books being cheap as all those costs other than royalties have already been long since 'paid' for.

On this basis I think, if you want to properly reward the authors of the books you read and you want them to be well edited and typeset (as they are frequently not with self-published cheap ebooks) then we must be prepared to pay a fair price and that fair price is arguably not far different to the price of a paperback.

Incidentally, over the years that I have owned an ereader (some 7 years or so now) my views have changed. I used to complain about the cost of ebooks being much too high but I now have (I think) a better understanding and appreciate why they are not as low as I would have liked. I still think we are having the wool pulled over our eyes a little bit about the insignificance of the costs of printing and distributing (and wasted printing) but not as much as I'd originally thought.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

This would also be consistent with ebooks of out of print books being cheap as all those costs other than royalties have already been long since 'paid' for.

Unfortunately, one reason some of them are cheap is because after they've been scanned in no one was paid to go through and fix all the scanning errors. In some books there are many, many of those and they can be quite distracting. I'm not sure why there are so many, because you'd think publishers would have scanners at least as good as the ones you can buy with just about any printer these days, and mine certainly doesn't make so many errors. Maybe they are still using the first scanners they ever bought rather than paying to replace them with something more up-to-date.

But what readers need to understand is that sometimes cheap books mean a shoddy product. I'll put up with that (reluctantly) if it means I can get a book I want that would not otherwise be available, and others may do so because they won't buy anything over a certain price. But publishers are not going to keep prices down without cutting corners somewhere; they do have to make money on the books they publish.

 

[Vertigo]

I agree completely with all your points Teresa. I bought one a few months back; I can't remember which book it was but it was one of those out of print ebooks that have obviously been scanned but, equally obviously, hadn't been proofed. One of those where they just have a plain yellow cover with the title and author 'printed' in big letters. A shame it was done so badly but, as you say, you get what you pay for and this was the only option other than buying second hand and I do find the ebooks so much easier to read. My aged eyes....

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yes, being able to change the font size was one of the things that overcame my resistance to ebooks. Since the selection in Large Print books is so limited, ebooks are a boon to old folks. (Although without them, publishers might have been bringing out more and more books in large print. Who knows?)

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The OCR is nearly purely down to the quality of original and the software. not the scanner. The two are completely separate.
The differences between cheap scanner and expensive one is

• Speed.
  
• Document feeder
• Size and duplex
  
• larger than A4

Also if it's a regular scanner with ADF they cut the pages out of binding. But a "real" book scanner today uses a camera and turns the pages automatically, the binding isn't damaged
Old paper going brown etc causes a rapid rise in OCR errors.
Proof reading is expensive. The Gutenberg volunteers are better results than a lot of scanned stuff being sold. Always check too if there are better versions of anything out of copyright.
The Kindle DX is handy as you can print the image version of a PDF that has OCR too with no margins using PDFcreator and simply use it as a image. This doesn't work easily on tablets, netbooks, small kindles etc.

The Kindle DXG great too if you need larger print. You can't annotate PDFs or sensibly change PDF print size though.

 

[Vertigo]

Yes, for older out of print books I'll always check Gutenberg, they do a remarkably good job of proofing these. I've considered volunteering myself but I suspect they have already done most of the interesting books! I did offer them an improved version of Flatland with their original pure text version with images (made up with '/' '|' '_' etc.) replaced by scans of the actual images. Not sure if their current one is based on mine or not but it is now a better version than when I read it.

 

[Timba]

Real eBook readers will probably never do colour at the low power consumption and can't do animation sensibly. But more than a clunky TOC is possible, even in existing reader format.
I don't think the current format can support progress on a Map (purely a format limitation), nor can any true eReader support video clips (Hardware limitation) but the rest can be done yesterday by publisher /Author by using either a custom dictionary or footnotes (the Kindle is based on mobi format which is basically simple HTML and all the CSS and Images in a single file. The only "state" is current location, TOC and footnotes are just HTML links) the reader viewer is a specialised web browser that can't do video, javascript or flash. The dedicated eReader hardware is so much better than OLED or LCD because it is mechanical balls for each dot, half black and White. So only changing the display uses power, it beats ANY other display tech except laser printed paper for actual reading, especially in sunlight.
So most of want you want can be done Timba, with no change to SW or HW.
Anyone that thinks the extra feature of colour, apps, video etc makes the Monochrome eReaders obsolete isn't a real reader and hasn't read a novel on real mechanical eReader. The Kindle app on a tablet, phone, iPad, laptop or a Kindle Fire is a poor substitute for actually reading on the eInk mechanical display Kindles.

Excellent info, thanks Ray.
Regarding price I do remember that not that long ago the Baen e-books were $6.00 and the author's appeared happy with the results. Baen wanted to get sold on Amazon and now the e-books are $9.99, a 66.5% price increase. To Baen's credit they made sure the author got a bump in what they made per book but basically they made money at $6.00 and certainly are making significantly more now at $9.99.

 

[Vertigo]

Yes I always thought that a little strange; most publishers complain about Amazon trying to push their prices down but Baen had to push theirs up for Amazon. A little odd.

 

[JoanDrake]

I think eventually authors will realize that free is the way to go and taking advertising on their sites is the best way to make the most money if done properly. It doesn't seem to have forced television out of business, after all.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

No, but the quality today on TV compared to 1980s is rubbish. On my first USA visit (1983 or 1984) I saw USA cable for first time and decided multichannel in UK would result in mediocrity and US dominance. I was right.

I can't see the TV advertising model working for books. It barely works any more in UK for TV (2 channels with adverts in 1982 with advent of C4) with the splintering due to Multichannel even on Freeview/Freesat never mind the abomination of the Pay TV platforms. But the last R&D dept I ran, one project was looking at rolling out a Free TV + Pay TV hybrid platform.
Google would be the only beneficiary from web sites with adverts giving free books. The Authors would starve or need a 'day job'

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm not sure how you think that would work, Joan. And since there isn't a lot of traffic to most author's sites, I doubt that advertising would bring in more than a pittance.

And why shouldn't they be paid for writing the books? It seems entirely unfair to me that readers should balk from doing so.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

We already need a day job....

 

[The Bluestocking]

Just bought an Android tablet (with a special Reading Mode setting).

Now sitting here reading this thread with interest as I'm loading up on free e-books from Project Gutenberg, Baen etc.

 

[HareBrain]

I think eventually authors will realize that free is the way to go and taking advertising on their sites is the best way to make the most money if done properly. It doesn't seem to have forced television out of business, after all.

TV is expensive to produce, which limits the numbers of suppliers that share the population of viewers and the pot of advertising revenue. It costs next to nothing to write a book and set up a website. We already have massive oversupply in terms of self-published books. I don't think the advertising model has a chance.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I'm not sure how you think that would work, Joan. And since there isn't a lot of traffic to most author's sites, I doubt that advertising would bring in more than a pittance.

And why shouldn't they be paid for writing the books? It seems entirely unfair to me that readers should balk from doing so.

I always thought the true cost of reading a book was the time it took to read it. The problem is finding books that are worth the time. I developed the policy of reading at least 20 pages before I started high school. But books did not cost $8 then. It is all of these positive reviews that hardly explain anything that I find more annoying than "bad books".

I think authors should give away the first few chapters then the readers that are interested can pay $1 to $3 for the whole thing.

psik

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Often a few pages are previewed on Amazon, Google Books or at the end of a previous book by the author.

I think some books are bit more expensive, but it's hard to compare.
1965 -1966 I had to pay 3s 6d for a children's book = £0.175, that's about £3 in today's money. The Anne Digby "Trebizon" books £1.75 in 1989. Certainly some YA books are about £7, some less, some more.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 1965 = £0.175, 2014 = £3.85 (both paperback)

$4 for smaller YA to $12 for larger Adult book (in Paper) doesn't seem unreasonable compared to 1966. An eBook should be a bit cheaper, maybe 50% for niche books and 25% less compared to cheap supermarket paper prices.