What most people don´t know is that when you buy an e-book, the book is not yours to do as you please. A physical book you can give away, lend, use as paper weight, whatever you like. When you "buy" an e-book from Amazon you are really buying a license to read it. I like e-books and have bought many in the past, but nowadays I buy one only if it´s really cheap, or free. Another problem: if you buy readers from different companies; I had a Kobo for some years and I bought many book from them. But Kobo left my country (Brazil) and I had to change to Kindle. Problem is I can´t read my Kobo books in my Kindle, and vice-versa, because of DRM. So, it´s not surprising that there is a big free and/or pirate market out there.
That explains a lot. As an indie author using Amazon's print-on-demand, it's impossible to have competitive pricing on physical books due to the cost of printing and their cut. I make about the same on a 2.99 ebook as on a 12.99 paperback or a 19.99 hardcover.
I was actually going to include a section on indie authors and pricing on ebooks but it was making the video too long. If I did, I would have mentioned all the things you've said. Maybe it needs to be a separate video? 🤔
From the book seller's perspective, the book seller wants to sell as many units as possible, regardless of the number of book readers. From the book reader's perspective, the book reader just wants to read books at the lowest price possible, regardless of the number of book copies the publisher prints out. So, for the book reader, the public library is like heaven. All the books you can possibly want for FREE. The catch is, the library books aren't really free. They are all purchased by the public library or donated to the public library, and the library gets funding from the government and monetary donations. And those library books are largely traditionally published books, not indie books.
That really was incredibly informative, as far as pricing is concerned I have mixed feelings I feel like so much of retail is on a race to the bottom so i want authors in particular to make good money but some of the pricing is crazy.
I honestly went into the research for the video thinking it would be simple. I thought I'd be talking about platforms and files, nope! It was fun to put together. I'm not sure how I feel either. I'd love to talk to someone in the industry to get actual profit margins on things like this because you just can't find the information anywhere.
I am registered blind and use the text-to-speech facility on my kindle, so I’m a fan of e-books. However, the problem is that e-books are, as you say in your video, often more expensive, or just as expensive as their print counterparts. This has the unintended consequence of discriminating against blind people such as myself because a sighted person can buy a cheaper print book, where is the blind person who is unable to reprint has to buy the e-book.
This was very interesting. But also super stupid this happened ngl and apparantly is still happening! I pay 12.99 a month for my audiobook/ebook subscription and get thousands of them that way. Why would I buy an ebook then?
@@lynnmadore7373 Well that is not the subscription I have. Mine is called Storytel and is definitely worth it. My library doesn't have almost any English audio and ebook, so that is not an option for me
Interesting though, E-books aside (which I think you should never buy as they're a rip off with the price imho), 12.99 might seem great but in reality, I do feel Ebooks and more expensive than physical books, even in the long run. Let's say you're a pretty consistent reader and read 20 books/year. Now let's say you get an ereader for 5 years and your subscription for all the books you want to read yourself. Cheap e-reader = 100 bucks, + 12.99*12*5 = 879.4 bucks Buy the 20 books/year physically in mass paperback print (I know this won't work for every book especially less popular ones or if you're going for a non english language), let's say your average book is 9 bucks. I usually read books around 600 pages for that price point. Now because this is a physical book that you own, you can actually sell it. Let's say it's worth 1/3rd its price, so selling for 3 bucks = 6 bucks in total. 6*20*5 = 600 bucks So in this simple example, e-reading is a lot more expensive, even in the long run for consistent readers. You'd have to be reading a whole of a lot to start becoming cheaper. Even in the case of you not selling any books, you'd be at 900 bucks, around the same costs with the benefit of you having physical books that actually hold value compared to ebooks that can't be sold, and in your case a subscription so if you stop paying you can't even re-read those ebooks.
@@taserrr I see what you're saying, but I think my option is still cheaper. Because I read about 10 books each month and most with audio (which is included in subscription). So that would be 100 each month instead of 13. I also DNF a lot of books and that is not fun when you have bought the book. So I do think it is cheaper and more fun for me
Heh, your video was recommended because I'm always complaining about ebook prices. Since I just use ebooks now because of my eyesight and ability to increase font size is a game changer, it super annoys me to see how high the prices have become. Yeah, I'm one of those who complain about how ebook prices used to be much cheaper than physical books! Now I know why!
Great video Gina! ❤ Personally I don't really own any ebooks but mostly physical ones that I've collected over many years or get from public bookshelfs. Anything that I want that I read in digital format is sourced from the Gutenberg Project and public domain or free to read.
Supply and demand. People are willing to pay the price. Lots of self published books at $3 or $5. And many of these guys pay for professional editing and book covers.
It's simple. Publishers want ebook prices high to protect their print book sales as long as possible. There is no sound reason the end consumer shouldn't get some of the benefit of the reduced cost related to ebooks.
Do you think ebooks are too expensive?
What most people don´t know is that when you buy an e-book, the book is not yours to do as you please. A physical book you can give away, lend, use as paper weight, whatever you like. When you "buy" an e-book from Amazon you are really buying a license to read it. I like e-books and have bought many in the past, but nowadays I buy one only if it´s really cheap, or free. Another problem: if you buy readers from different companies; I had a Kobo for some years and I bought many book from them. But Kobo left my country (Brazil) and I had to change to Kindle. Problem is I can´t read my Kobo books in my Kindle, and vice-versa, because of DRM. So, it´s not surprising that there is a big free and/or pirate market out there.
Yes I saw that when doing research for the audiobook video. It's the same for a lot of digital content. You're basically borrowing it
That explains a lot. As an indie author using Amazon's print-on-demand, it's impossible to have competitive pricing on physical books due to the cost of printing and their cut. I make about the same on a 2.99 ebook as on a 12.99 paperback or a 19.99 hardcover.
I was actually going to include a section on indie authors and pricing on ebooks but it was making the video too long. If I did, I would have mentioned all the things you've said. Maybe it needs to be a separate video? 🤔
@@GinaLuciaReads A second video on the topic sounds great!
From the book seller's perspective, the book seller wants to sell as many units as possible, regardless of the number of book readers.
From the book reader's perspective, the book reader just wants to read books at the lowest price possible, regardless of the number of book copies the publisher prints out. So, for the book reader, the public library is like heaven. All the books you can possibly want for FREE. The catch is, the library books aren't really free. They are all purchased by the public library or donated to the public library, and the library gets funding from the government and monetary donations. And those library books are largely traditionally published books, not indie books.
That really was incredibly informative, as far as pricing is concerned I have mixed feelings I feel like so much of retail is on a race to the bottom so i want authors in particular to make good money but some of the pricing is crazy.
I honestly went into the research for the video thinking it would be simple. I thought I'd be talking about platforms and files, nope! It was fun to put together. I'm not sure how I feel either. I'd love to talk to someone in the industry to get actual profit margins on things like this because you just can't find the information anywhere.
I am registered blind and use the text-to-speech facility on my kindle, so I’m a fan of e-books.
However, the problem is that e-books are, as you say in your video, often more expensive, or just as expensive as their print counterparts. This has the unintended consequence of discriminating against blind people such as myself because a sighted person can buy a cheaper print book, where is the blind person who is unable to reprint has to buy the e-book.
@@101drewdog and it probably doesn't help that audiobooks are even more expensive than that!
Interesting, personally, I have saved a lot of money buying e-books instead of physical copies, specially in books that don't get translated.
That is generally true. However, I do have a subscription to Audible and can download any audio book for £7.99 a month, which is quite a good deal.
This was very interesting. But also super stupid this happened ngl and apparantly is still happening!
I pay 12.99 a month for my audiobook/ebook subscription and get thousands of them that way. Why would I buy an ebook then?
Now that's a good deal. It makes no sense to do it any other way now I think about it. Especially if you read a lot.
Except that the selection with Kindle Unlimited is really lame and not worth the subscription price IMHO. I borrow ebooks via my library instead.
@@lynnmadore7373 Well that is not the subscription I have. Mine is called Storytel and is definitely worth it. My library doesn't have almost any English audio and ebook, so that is not an option for me
Interesting though, E-books aside (which I think you should never buy as they're a rip off with the price imho), 12.99 might seem great but in reality, I do feel Ebooks and more expensive than physical books, even in the long run.
Let's say you're a pretty consistent reader and read 20 books/year.
Now let's say you get an ereader for 5 years and your subscription for all the books you want to read yourself.
Cheap e-reader = 100 bucks, + 12.99*12*5 = 879.4 bucks
Buy the 20 books/year physically in mass paperback print (I know this won't work for every book especially less popular ones or if you're going for a non english language), let's say your average book is 9 bucks. I usually read books around 600 pages for that price point. Now because this is a physical book that you own, you can actually sell it. Let's say it's worth 1/3rd its price, so selling for 3 bucks = 6 bucks in total.
6*20*5 = 600 bucks
So in this simple example, e-reading is a lot more expensive, even in the long run for consistent readers. You'd have to be reading a whole of a lot to start becoming cheaper.
Even in the case of you not selling any books, you'd be at 900 bucks, around the same costs with the benefit of you having physical books that actually hold value compared to ebooks that can't be sold, and in your case a subscription so if you stop paying you can't even re-read those ebooks.
@@taserrr I see what you're saying, but I think my option is still cheaper. Because I read about 10 books each month and most with audio (which is included in subscription). So that would be 100 each month instead of 13. I also DNF a lot of books and that is not fun when you have bought the book.
So I do think it is cheaper and more fun for me
Heh, your video was recommended because I'm always complaining about ebook prices. Since I just use ebooks now because of my eyesight and ability to increase font size is a game changer, it super annoys me to see how high the prices have become. Yeah, I'm one of those who complain about how ebook prices used to be much cheaper than physical books! Now I know why!
E books are only expensive in the west.
In Japan they are one 1/2 done to one 1/4 of the price.
Oh wow, that's so interesting to know
In Italy most ebooks are at least half the price or their paper format, and often less.
Great video Gina! ❤
Personally I don't really own any ebooks but mostly physical ones that I've collected over many years or get from public bookshelfs. Anything that I want that I read in digital format is sourced from the Gutenberg Project and public domain or free to read.
Ah yes I've heard of the Gutenberg Project but I've not picked up a read from it yet. Sounds like you have very sustainable reading habits
Supply and demand. People are willing to pay the price. Lots of self published books at $3 or $5. And many of these guys pay for professional editing and book covers.
Sure but I've also seen self-published books at the $9-15 mark
In Mexico, Ebooks are more way cheaper
You don't need to pay for file conversion. That is so cheap.
It's simple. Publishers want ebook prices high to protect their print book sales as long as possible. There is no sound reason the end consumer shouldn't get some of the benefit of the reduced cost related to ebooks.
Just a little bit cheaper