Friday
Oct282011
Quit Bitching About eBook Prices, You Damn Cheapskates
Posted On 
Friday, October 28 By Andrew Shaffer
Friday, October 28 By Andrew Shaffer There's a vocal minority of readers on Amazon Kindle forums who swear they'll never pay more than $9.99 for an ebook. How many of these same people plunk down $13 to see Transformers 3 in 3D without giving it a second thought? The idea that a two-hour rape of your senses is worth more than a 10-hour adventure through the mindfield of a great book is laughable. So what if Stephen King's new ebook costs $16.99. It's worth at least twice that, in terms of entertainment value – and, unlike when you're watching a 3D movie, you won't look like an effing idiot reading it.
Reader Comments (10)
I think people have a real hard time paying for something and not having a physical product to hold. They will pay $25 for a hardcover because they can hold it...but an efile....not so much.
I ran into something similar when I ran my floral business. I experimented with different formats for charging customers and found people did not like paying a "labor fee". It was one thing to pay $100 for an item, but to see $50 for supplies and a $50 labor fee, oh no. Suffice it to say, I didn't do that long.
And explaining the movie thing...I got nothing.
I have a hard time paying the larger price to get the book in ebook format when I can go to my local target or walmart and get it for half the price usually. So if the physical book is cheaper I get it over the ebook format. I read both so I consider that the better way to go it helps save me some money for my next read.
Now about the 3-D movies, I agree! I did watch one movie that way and quickly decieded it was a huge waste of my money and will not be doing it again.
@ Stephanie -- Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience. People and their damn physical objects! It's kind of funny, since money is, really, an abstract concept in the first place.
Once again, the big stores rip off the man. Seriously, amazon, walmart...putting authors out of business for their cheap ass pricing. It's insane that people plunk down $20 at hemp IRS for shitty popcorn and a b level movie won't pay $9 for a !NYT app subscription.
@Dawn -- I'm the same way. Even though the ebook is more convenient (immediately available, doesn't take up space on my shelves which are already overflowing with books), if the paperback or hardcover is $1 or $2 less, I'll sometimes opt for the physical object. The discounted paperback/hardcover prices, though, are set by the vendor (Amazon, B&N, etc), while the ebook prices are generally set by the publisher--who, in most cases, doesn't allow discounting. It's all part of a big power struggle and consumers (and authors) are caught in the middle.
@ domestic goddess -- It's a race to the bottom in this country, isn't it? And not just with books.
Am I the only one who thinks that those glasses are cool? I guess I am.
I would generally go for an ebook over a physical edition these days even if it cost (a little) more. It's just more convenient for me - plus I invariably want a new book around 10:00 p.m.
Anyway - if you think you've got it bad in America maybe you can comfort yourself with the fact that, here in the UK we pay no tax on physical books (because they educate us and are cultural and stuff) but we pay full tax (20%) on ebooks.
The logic is that an ebook is not a product but a service. Not sure that I follow the logic, but I console myself with the knowledge that I am almost certainly helping to fund some important government initiative. Possibly even a small war or border dispute in some distant country.
Hey, nothing like bitching at people to get them to pay higher prices. Tried and true marketing method. Cuss them out enough, they'll be paying $50 a book!
@ The Zug - People need to be bitched at more often.