According to whom? Is that including or excluding self published works versus works from a publishing house?
You’re implying that the books Amazon sells for six to ten pounds are only one or two when bought directly? I’m pretty sure that they are within a pound of the same price, in general, whether sold on or off amazon (for the same books). I’d love to see a refutation of that.
If the prices are within a pound or so, then the idea that the works from publishing houses, like Random House or Tor, that folks here would buy are not materially cheaper outside of Amazon, meaning the flood of cheap books for a pound are not really that different than the one dollar Amazon schlock out there.
I do buy ebooks from indie presses and I notice that even when directly sold, there prices are still well above five dollars and usually closer to ten to twelves.
I purposefully chose smaller or indie publishers here because already know Random House or one of the “big five” (isn’t it?) will jack you. I mean, two of this are rather political and anarchist presses and they still aren’t selling books for cheap. It sure looks like the sweet spot for ebooks is around $10 US or equivalent.
I have no idea what point you’re trying to make. Posting the prices of a few individual books is meaningless, but you already know that. If you have evidence that the average ebook price in the UK for 2015 is something significantly different than what I posted, then link to it.
My point is that the “average” doesn’t matter because you’re roping in the equivalent of $1 kindle books that are self-published. My point is that actual publishers, both large and small, sell ebooks generally in the $7-10 range, regardless of country and whether it is on Amazon or directly. So your supposed “the natural price of ebooks is a pound or two” is bullshit.
If you were trying to make a different point, it has been lost.
Unless you have evidence that the sale of the low-end books is significantly higher in one country than the other - enough to skew the average, then my conclusion is correct.
I’m waiting for any evidence to be shown to back your conclusion besides a 2014 post from a fourth tier news blog citing 2013 data. But feel free to chant “nyah nyah nyah” while putting your fingers in your ear.
I actually went out and showed you what publishers are independently selling ebooks for. Where are all of these mythically cheap ebooks from publishers that you keep mentioning? Can you find a single large or small press that sells most of their ebooks for your fanciful prices?
If you can’t produce them, then I declare my conclusion is correct (see? We can both play that childish game).
But when value, rather than volume, is considered, a different picture emerges: on the estimate that ebooks sold for an average £4.35, the Bookseller calculates that digital books earned around £381.5m last year, giving a combined print and ebook total of £1.9bn, up 7.1% on the previous year. “2015 was a stonking year … maybe one of the best ever,” writes Tivnan.
So show me all these publishers with their two pound ebooks. Four pound ebooks aren’t one pound ebooks, are they? So show me these cheap titles.
You won’t because you can’t.
Publishers aren’t offering their books, by and large, for anything below $5 and most not below $9 or $10. Those are the books people buy because they’re the ones they want to read, not $1 self published books.
So… The Guardian is wrong? What’s your evidence? Your arguments have so far been pretty much evidence-free. Please back up your claim that the £4.35 average ebook price is wrong.
If it is so correct, then you’ll have no problem showing me a bunch of £1 ebooks, right? I’ve showed you all the £6-10 ones. You must have ones to counterbalance those to show as well. If not, I declare this “discussion” over and won by me. Thanks for playing.
I’ve only asked you to demonstrate this with actual examples three times now. Strangely, you’ll respond to every part of my messages but those…
You mean, other than posting examples of actual books for sale, directly by publishers, from three sites (that contradict what you claim on price) and prices from Amazon in the UK as well? Yeah, evidence-free.
Ignoring unjust laws has historically changed the world. But only because the people ignoring the laws did so in mass protests that made headlines. Ignoring an unjust law has no effect if nobody knows you’re doing it.
The author of the linked article was very coy about their own behaviour with ebooks they have bought – clearly they were stripping DRM, but felt unable to say so because that might get them in legal trouble. To which I say, stop that BS. Own your violations of the digital lock provisions of the digital millennium copyright act (or its overseas imitators) loud and proud. Only by making your flouting of it public can we have any impact on the lawmakers who could possibly someday realize that they need to change the law.
You mean the one those companies fund? I’m sure their re-election campaigns and lobbyists don’t influence them at all.
I strip the DRM off of every book I purchase. I maintain an archive of them in Calibre and back them up to several devices in order to never lose them.
Your prices of a few individual books at a single snapshot in time, indicates nothing about the overall average cost of all ebooks sold over a year’s time. So yes, evidence free. Your argument is as foolish as that idiot Senator Jim Inhofe, who brought a snowball into the Senate as proof that global warming doesn’t exist. You show a few ebook prices, and claim it proves something about average book prices.
If you have a problem with The Guardian’s numbers, then you should take it up with The Guardian. But so far, you’ve not provided anything to contradict them.
I’m not arguing with their numbers because I state they’re including the equivalent of $1 Kindle self-published crap. You’re the one claiming that publishers sell most books for a pound or two but have yet to provide any evidence of such. I actually took the time to sample some data for you. Maybe you could bother to do this too?
That new Stephen King novel that everyone is reading? Not a £2 book. Same with the new John Le Carre.
Sorry that you can’t actually provide evidence for your argument.
I’m still waiting for you to share examples of these super cheap ebooks from any publishers. So far, nada. You can only quote the Guardian and pretend it proves your point. It doesn’t.
Either show examples of all of these one and two pound books that you claim are out there from publishers or concede that you simply can’t. I certainly have no problem showing the more expensive ones and even took the time to do so. Go cherry pick a few. Go crazy!
