I’m pretty upfront about how terrible I believe Amazon and Kindle Unlimited are for authors and the book industry writ large. It’s not just me–the web is full of stories and facts explaining how Amazon’s policies and pricing structures are lowering the income of most authors, lowering the quality of ebooks, and, as Amazon has done again and again, wreaking havoc on booksellers who are not named Amazon.
I didn’t used to feel this way about Amazon. While I’ve always worried about its impact on my local bookstore, I love ebooks and I’m always going to champion anything that makes reading easier for all, especially for all those who don’t have access to a strong library system. But, over the past ten years, I’ve seen the company hollow out much of the industry–although, yes, local bookstores have rebounded post Covid and that is WONDERFUL. (And, yes, I understand that very inexpensive books are a boon to prolific readers, especially those who love genre fiction.)
I’ve been studying Amazon’s pricing closely for as long as I’ve been a part of AAR and, lately, I’ve noticed a trend I find worrisome.
As many of you have kvetched about here, the price of many new ebooks seems to be higher than it used to be. Most of the recently published books we’ve reviewed are priced at well over ten dollars an ebook and sometimes go as high as twenty. Trade paperbacks and hardbacks of newly published books can hit forty.
What I’m seeing, in addition to that, is that almost every book, within a couple years of being published, is put on sale by Amazon for four dollars or less. Amazon has also been encouraging its readers to make lists of books they’re interested in. It’s become very easy to simply wait for the ebook version of a title to go on sale–especially if you are a KU reader and have scads of other choices–and buy it then.
I’m wondering if I’m imagining things or if this is yet another way that we are slowly paying less for books which ultimately means we are paying less to those who write and sell them.
What do you think? Is this a thing? Or am I just a paranoid weirdo? And if you are an author, I’d love to hear how Amazon’s pricing impacts your ability to be paid for the work you do.
Authors: I’m also watching with dismay as ebook versions of older books vanish from Amazon. I’d like to learn about why that happens and what it takes to get those books republished. If you have a story you can share, please email me at dabneygrinnan@allaboutromance.com. Thanks!
I have no idea why this happens but I often see e-books priced upwards of $10 that are selling for 3 quid in the UK. I suppose in some cases the books have different publishers, but not always. I haven’t noticed the reduced prices, but then those particular books were cheaper to start with, so…
I have not studied this thing as you have done, so I will give just my opinion, as I don’t know the facts.
Yes, I have this impression that the ebooks are more expensive than before, but at the same time, many of them, sooner or later, appear with a lower price or go to KU. The rising of prices is something that happens with everything nowadays in life, from food to houses to clothing, because of inflation. That’s my take on it.
I don’t want to fall into the cliché of a Mediterranean woman, but since January 2021, olive oil, in Spain, has accumulated an increase of 198%. Crazy for one of the healthiest fat that exists and that is part of our gastronomic culture.
I pay in euros. I don’t buy any e-book with a price over 6 € (5,07 GBP, 6,41 USD) so I don’t care if they price an ebook beyond that limit, I’m not going to buy it. I’ll wait until it’s cheaper or I will never read it. So in a certain sense the saying that ‘bad currency expels good currency from the market’ is true.
If Amazon is going to be as expensive as any other European book store, as Fnac or La casa del libro, I’d rather spend my money in local on line book stores.
On the other hand, I haven’t renewed my KU subscription this month. I will read more ebooks from my public library. Not many Romance novels in there, but lately I tend more towards literary fiction and non.fiction books, anyway. So I will read less and less romance in the future, I guess.
Another thing, I’m thinking about buying a different eBooks reader, as Kindle is not compatible with our regional public library system.
So I don’t know about anybody else, but with this pricing I’m going away from Amazon. It will still be my on line store for things I cannot find anywhere else. Mainly, Romance novels in English. I will still buy my yearly Sandra Brown novel in there, but on paper, not eBook.
So, I’m trying to change some things with my reading budget. Is it because of the price? I’m not sure. What I have found is that if I keep with the KU subscription I will be reading books just because they are in KU, and not real good ones. Moreover, many books with a lot of hype nowadays are not for me,
So, I’m not sure if I answered your question or I strayed from the topic. I think you have found an interesting topic. Something is happening, I see it in myself and in the decisions I am making, although I am not sure what it is. It is worth continuing to investigate.
The ebook pricing pattern I notice more is the “agency” model price-fixing that the biggest publishers established years ago at the instigation of Jobs. There is no seller discretion to discount these prices, and they are usually higher than small publisher or independent prices. Since I buy hundreds of ebooks every year, I long ago put a hard cap of $10 on what I would pay for an ebook. I have a price watch on almost 300 ebooks in my tbb list, many of which have sat on the list for years because their prices never come under $10. BUT, over enough years, that list updates because of another weird pricing practice of the price-fixers: brief sales. An overpriced ebook will be on sale for $1.99 or $2.99 or $3.99 for a day or a few days and then go back up to a price over $10. The combination of long-term overpricing and brief sales means I actually pay LESS by refusing to pay the inflated prices and waiting for the sales, and I never get the permanently overpriced ebooks. Since my tbr list includes thousands of ebooks, the never-buys are rarely a hardship. In a few cases where an overpriced ebook is something I REALLY don’t want to wait to read, I will read it in hardback from the library.
I do that too. AND I think it sucks for authors. It seems like it would be so much better if book prices were set, for most genre ebooks, at a more reasonable price. Especially given how few books most authors sell.
This is what I do too except my hard cap is $5.99. I just bought a book this month that was released in February at $11.99 and briefly went down to $2.99. Why? I don’t know. One thing I have noticed is that sometimes when an author releases a new book in a series, the previous book may briefly go down to a lesser price 2-4 weeks prior to the new book release date. I also participate in the Kindle Rewards program and tend to cluster buying books by new authors or less anticipated books to days when there are double or triple points. Sometimes if I really want an e-book that is over $5.99, I will buy it if I can use the Kindle reward to bring the price down ($3 off once you accumulate 300 points).
My preferred ebook source is Kobo (the source of my preferred eReader), but I also buy from Amazon when Kobo doesn’t carry an ebook. My extended litrpg binge of recent years has increased my Amazon purchases, and I definitely build & hold my buy list until double and triple points days. A 3% savings (if I calculated right) is worth waiting a few days.
Also, on watching prices, BookBub and eReaderIQ are the two sites I rely on the most. Does anyone know of any other or better sites?
eReaderIQ is vanishing, unfortunately. They were great.
I’ve said before that, when it comes to book purchases, I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place: I want to support my favorite writers, but I also have a very strict monthly book budget that I try to abide by (including factoring in approximately $12 a month for Kindle Unlimited). Recently, the ebook for Charlotte Stein’s WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE was priced at $12.99. No matter how much I wanted to read it and how much I wanted to support Stein (who doesn’t publish much and who, I believe, has struggled off-and-on with writer’s block over the years), I couldn’t justify that much for an ebook. So, onto the vast TBR/Wait-for-a-sale/See-if-the-library-has-it/Maybe-my-lottery-numbers-will-come-up-and-a-book-budget-will-no-longer-be-an-issue list it went. The decision to purchase (or not purchase) a book is always a matter of compromise.
Libraries aren’t an option for me – in my part of the UK the romance offering is poor and the queer romance one even worse (I’m talking about 3 titles at last count!) I’ve said before that if it wasn’t for the fact that I read a lot of ARCs there’s no way I could afford to read as many books as I do – and like Manjari, my cut off price is fairly low – I have to think very seriously about buying anything over £4.99 these days. KU fortunately includes a lot of good m/m, and often, it can be cheaper for me to buy an audiobook than an ebook, because my Audible subscription means I’m paying about £4.50 per credit. I absolutely, 100 % want creatives to be able to make a good living – but, like everyone else, I imagine, things are tight and paying over 10 quid for an ebook just isn’t in my budget.
http://www.Ereaderiq.com which is also in the UK tracks price drops on Kindle titles and authors on your watch list so you grab them when the books are on Kindle? They will notify you by email when a kindle title on your watch list drops in price. If you track a lot of titles I recommend you turn off your email notifications and check your notifications on the website daiy. Also check with Amazon UK to see if you gift yourself a KU gift subscription. It will lower your monthly cost of KU although it’s a larger amount upfront.
Check with Amazon first to see if they still allow customers to gift themselves a KU gift subscription. If not, ask for it as a gift. A while ago I bought myself a 24 month KU gift subscription lowering my monthly cost to $7.19 versus the regular monthly cost of $11.99 plus tax in the US. Also I recommend the free website http://www.Ereaderiq.com to track price drops on Kindle titles and/or authors on my watch list so I can grab any kindle title if I wish. If you track a lot of titles and/or authors I recommend you consider turning off your email notifications and checking your notifications on the website daily. Always check Hoopa or Libby or your public library and a check if your public library can borrow a title you want to read before buying any book.
Observations first as a reader and then as a writer: books have gotten way too expensive, especially ebooks. I use a Chrome extension that lets me see if any of my libraries has a book, and if not, I’ll get a sample sent to my Kindle, knowing I may never get to it anyway. Meanwhile, Amazon does everything possible to limit authors’ royalties. At the same time, the consensus among indie writers seems to be now that if ebooks are priced low, not only do they not generate income, but the price is sending a signal that the book is inferior. I don’t agree with this, but it seems to be the accepted wisdom.
Meg – would love to know the name of that Chrome extension because it sounds brilliant!
As a self-published author, I received the advice that while pricing your ebook low ($.99-$2.99) is a great way to get people to try you out, it DOES send a signal that the quality may be low. That you should price your book as if you deserve to get paid for the work you’ve done and time and energy you’ve put in to writing the book. That said, pricing above $10 seems way too high for an e-book, so I don’t quite understand anything above that.
We have KU and I use it for mostly my genre fiction in print. Books I really want to keep I generally buy on audio if it’s released in that formatand has a decent narrator. For that I use Audible credits and sales, Chirpbooks.com, and occasionally libro.com, Bookbub and NetGalley. When I buy other stuff off Amazon I almost always pick no-rush shipping which usually offers “digital rewards,” like “$1.50 off digital items” which I accumulate to buy books that are more expensive.
I use the library for audiobooks (through Hoopla mainly, but some on Libby), where I get 5 checkouts a month. My library system has a surprisingly good inventory of queer romances on audio, even though they don’t have the same books in print or ebook, aside from well-known authors like K.J. Charles or Alexis Hall.
My family makes weekly runs the library weekly for print books, then sometimes buying any books they can’t live without. We’re trying not to bring too many print books to live in our home after years of downsizing our library. I really want to keep royalties coming for my favorite authors, so it’s a balance to stay in budget and still be supportive.
i follow the free website http://www.Ereaderiq.com (US and UK version to track price drops on Kindle titles and/or authors on my watchlist so I grab them if Hoopla or Libby does not have the book. Also, check with Amazon first to see if they still customers to gift themselves a KU gift subscription. If not, ask for it as a gift.. A while ago, I bought myself a 24 month KU gift subscription lowering my monthly cost to $7.19 versus the regular US price of $11.99 plus tax. You can use a gift card to pay for it and it’s not refundable. It does not hurt authors since they are paid by the page.
When I set out to publish my first book, I did a ton of research about the different online ebook sellers. Unfortunately, they all have different royalty rates, but since you don’t want to have different prices at different venues, you have to really do some serious math to come to a price that seems reasonable for readers to spend but still nets you more than $.03 per book after they take out their royalty. I don’t understand how any writer makes any money when they price an ebook in the $0.99-$2.99 range unless they are selling a lot of books. That said, I think pricing ebooks the same as the print version is baffling.
I’m wondering if some of the authors who price their many books so low AND are not self-pubbed get bigger advances if they sell many many books.I wonder if that’s Loreth White’s strategy.
I say this half jokingly, but I really wish I could read a book first, and then decide how much it is worth it to me and pay that. Some books I get for next to nothing and they turn out to be books I love and will revisit. Others, such as the highly acclaimed literary novel I DNF’d the other day, would inspire me to ask for a refund. You often cannot know how much you will enjoy a book beforehand (unless it’s a very favorite author who has never let you down) so buying a book is always a gamble. That’s why trying to assess whether a book is worth a certain price is always a crap shoot. As a result, I prefer to use the library whenever I can, but mine often has crazy waitlists or doesn’t always have the books I want.
I’m kicking myself because I recently bought a novel at full price ($7.99) on the day it was released, and then I thought it was just eh. And to further grind salt in the wound, a week later it was available on hoopla anyway. What a waste of my book budget!!