Rise of the $13 EBook
$12.99, huh? That's the price tag I've been seeing on a few ebooks lately, and not just new releases by ginormous names either. The famous "fucking your ass, saving your life" tome, Decadent, costs $12.99, despite the paperback costing under $8. Nalini Singh's new release Kiss of Snow carries the same $12.99 price tag.
Apparently $12.99 is the new $9.99, with publishers hoping to squeeze an extra three dollars per book out of an established readership. What's $3? I can hear them asking. Not even the price of a latte!
Now, I am in no way a cheapskate. Ask anyone! I'll buy Ellora's Cave books on Amazon for $2 more just for the convenience. I've had friends offer to send me free copies of their books, and I'll choose to purchase instead– just to have said book in my kindle library. (And also to support said friends.)
But $13… Hmm… $13?? Really?? THIR-TEEN? That is *so* much money. Is that book going to be scratch and sniff? Come with a life-sized cabana boy? What exactly is a $13 ebook going to do for me that I can't find from an ebook that costs $9.99? Or $7.99? Or $4.99? There comes a point where as a consumer I simply feel gypped. $13 marks that point.
At thirteen dollars, I start to wonder if the pirates have it right. I'll bow out of a series even though I've read that author's every other book. I'll feel like the publishers and Amazon are laughing at me because I'm stupid enough to pay $13 when I have hours of Netflix I can watch for free, a zillion websites yet to explore, and a kindle app chock full of free samples from new-to-me authors. Not to mention Twitter, Facebook, and that long-forgotten thing called "real life."
Listen, I think Nalini Singh and Shayla Black and every other author whose publisher is charging this inflated rate deserves to make money. Authors deserve to make a living! However, in order to make money, you need customers. I'm concerned that inflated prices will ultimately drive book-buyers away.
The thing is– I don't linger over books anymore. It doesn't matter if a book is a Spice Brief or high fantasy, I want to read it in a day. So, as with other things in life, longer isn't necessarily better. One evening's worth of entertainment for one person is not worth more than $10, IMO. What's more, I can breeze through a book every other night indefinitely. Before I started writing, I pegged my book-budget at about $100 per month. That was a $7.99 book every other day. If books cost $13, that budget would hop up to $200 per month.
I don't spend $200 per month on cable, or internet, or netflix. $200 per month is a big, fat expense, and more than publishers can reasonably expect working readers to spend. Besides, the publishing world teems with talented, motived, and far cheaper authors just waiting to snag a market share. If readers don't want to spend $13, I can name them a half dozen other badass scifi/paranormal authors just breaking into the scene whose books are far more reasonably priced.
After all, what am I likely to find when I embark on a book by an established romance author? Lemma guess– A strong alpha male? Some vampires? A twenty six year old virgin (or near virgin) heroine who's all in her head? Bigger name authors delight me, but newbies surprise me. And for half the price, I'm likely to develop a taste for "pleasantly surprised."
What do you guys think? Is $13 too much? Am I being stingy? What do you see as a "breaking point" price where you'll no longer be willing to shell out? I wanna know!!
