Yesterday, I was thinking that since the e-book market has changed so much since its inception, it might be fun to do a Throwback Thursday post about e-books.
A discussion topic for Throwback Thursday: Do you remember the $9.99 ebook boycott? Back in 2009, when e-book prices started going up, a group of Kindle owners joined together and started boycotting e-books priced higher than the magic $9.99 mark. (You can read the story behind the boycott here.)
With the advent of agency pricing, publishers began to set their own prices for e-books and the prices went up. Since that time, agency has come, gone and then come back again. Now, it is not unusual to see e-books priced at $11.99 to $14.99 and up.
Personally, the $9.99 e-book boycott had a tremendous effect on me. Even today, I still refuse to pay more than $9.99 for a mere license to read a book. The truth is, I don’t really own an e-book, I can’t sell or lend it, it has no first sale rights or value, and even the transfer rights to other devices are limited. Convenience in purchasing, immediate gratification and the ability to change font size are not worth the trade-off. I also won’t purchase e-books that cost the same as a physical product.
To me, it is actually sad to see older backlist e-books priced nearly as high as new books: James A. Michener’s The Source, for example, has been ranging in price from $10.89 to $12.99. The book was first published in 1965. One title presently on my watch list, Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited, is currently selling for over $20. As much as I would like to read it, I really don’t anticipate buying that one in the near future.
Since I am particular about how much I will pay for an e-book, the issue has indeed affected my book buying habits. I read a lot of indie authors who price their books at reasonable prices. I read classics from Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive. I check out the free book listings. I watch sales, not only on Amazon, but also on Barnes and Noble and Kobo as well. I I use price watching services like eReaderIQ to track price drops. I have a subscription to Scribd that I use for backlist books that I think are priced too high. As it stands, I usually manage to read 1-2 books a week, plus re-reads and haven’t run out of material yet. 🙂
The $9.99 ebook boycott has fallen out fashion, especially among the Kindle owners who started it. Now, mentioning that e-book prices are too high on the Amazon Kindle Discussion forums is more likely to get you flamed than to see any support for the position. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that everyone has to find a price point that they are comfortable paying. There may be some indications supporting the view that e-book sales are down due to prices.
So what about you? Do you have a cutoff price point for digital books? Have e-books prices affected your books buying habits? Let me know in the comments.
The eBook Evangelist 
I’ll pay more for a cookbook, but I tend to get those in hardcopy more often than not. To be honest, I only buy indie ebooks when I *buy* them. The rest, I grab at the library (even when there’s a long wait, ebook or hardcopy) or find at used book stores or thrift shops–where I eventually return them most of the time once done (yay, local economy). I sometimes pick things up on freebookdeals.com. Oh, I will pay a little more for an audiobook, when I’m in the mood for that. 🙂
Karen, you bring up a great point about the local economy and returning books to it after you’ve read them. I re-cycled my used books to charity or found them new homes. I can’t do that with used e-books. There are a lot of e-books that I read once with no intention of reading again, yet I found myself hesitant to permanently delete them because, after all, I paid for them. Given the amount that publishers charge libraries, I really wish we could donate e-books to them.
Thanks for commenting!
Great post, and well-worth revisiting. I pay more for non-fiction, but won’t pay more than 4.99 for fiction unless I’m blown away by the sample and I think I can learn something from it. I’ve noticed that Amazon is pricing its own newly-published books at 3.99.
Thanks, Carol. I think it speaks volumes when an author like yourself says something about pricing. Too often I hear people comment that wanting e-books reasonably priced means not valuing an author’s hard work. I always find it interesting when authors feel the same way as readers do about pricing. 🙂
Thanks for commenting and thanks for offering your wonderful e-books at reasonable prices!
Thanks, Glinda. I notice that traditionally published books are taking advantage of low-priced promos. The (bestseller) Girl on the Train was 1.99 recently. And speaking of low prices – Dell Zero (renamed “Who is Dell Zero?”) is on sale through September at 99 cents. I appreciate author promotions!
I rarely pay more than $4.99 and never more than $9.99 for fiction. It’s usually in the $.99 to $2.99 range. I do occasionally buy cookbooks that are priced higher but that’s so I can easily add recipes to Paprika.
I will pay more for a physical copy as I actually own the book instead of leasing the ebook. But only for non-fiction. I read ebooks mainly because of my arthritis which makes it difficult to hold a book open for long periods.
I read 1-3 books per week depending on my free time.
TallMomof2, I think you sum it up nicely: ” I will pay more for a physical copy as I actually own the book instead of leasing the ebook.” Ultimately, we are all talking about the value e-books offer. I find it interesting that both you and Karen single out cookbooks as something that has more value is therefore deserving of a higher price. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!