eBook Prices Are Too High

When Amazon launched the Kindle, we were told that eBooks would be $9.99 for most new releases, with many other books available for less. That was true, for a while. Amazon had set the price and everyone else—publishers, authors, and readers—had to live with it. Considering that new hardcovers sell for $30 or more in the bookstore (although considerably less on Amazon, of course), the eBook price seemed like a pretty good deal. Pricing has changed now, however, and the publishers, for the most part, set the prices.

eBooks have lots of advantages, of course, all well documented: portable, space-saving, searchable. But there are also disadvantages. While some books can be lent (to other Kindle owners), many cannot; and of course lending to a non-Kindle or Kindle-app user is out of the question. Some of us still like reading actual books, turning actual pages, feeling the paper in our hands. And I happen to like more information about what’s coming—I like to know how far from the end of a chapter I am, or how many pages there are in the book. I also like being able to go back and read sections over if I’m confused about something. While that’s not impossible with a Kindle, it’s not as easy as merely flipping pages. And sometimes, when I’m done with a book, I like to sell it or give it away. Can’t do that with an eBook.

But today I’m thinking about prices. I recently had a gift card to spend on Amazon. There were a couple of new release hardcovers I was interested in, so I bought them. The first was Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. It retails for $23.95 (although it’s only 175 pages) in hardcover. (Terrific book, by the way.) Amazon sells it for $14.37. The Kindle price is $11.99, a difference of $2.38. I also got The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Amazon’s price is $15.28, with a list price of $28.00. The Kindle price is $12.99, a difference of $2.29. Weighing the costs and benefits of the eBook, it seems worth it to me to pay a little extra to have the hardcover—especially if there’s the theoretical possibility of selling the book once I’ve read it, or giving it away. In fact, I’ve found many instances where the Kindle price for a book is actually higher than the discounted price of a paperback. (Shipping must be taken into consideration, of course, but my purchases usually total over $25, in which case shipping is free.)

So, as a reader, I’m not at all happy about eBook prices.

On the other hand, there are many books available for much less (and I’m not even talking about self-published books, many of which are free or sell for $.99). For example, my publisher, Press 53, sells most of its eBooks, including mine, for $3.99 on Kindle and Nook. The paperback list price for my book is $14.00 and the Amazon/B&N discounted price is $12.62. So, the eBook savings over the discounted price is $8.63. That’s significant.

All of which is considered solely from the reader’s point of view. As an author, I’m not sure what to think. I want to make more money from book sales, but at some point the price is too high and inhibits demand, and in a competitive environment that’s the last thing I need!

The Kindle Library and the Library Kindle

Amazon has just made an interesting announcement. Subscribers to its Prime service (which costs $79/year and includes other goodies such as free 2-day shipping and streaming of many movies and TV shows) will now be able to borrow selected Kindle books (only for Kindle devices; Kindle app users are out of luck). Read about it here: Amazon Launches Kindle Lending Library. I have to say that I'm still not quite ready to become a Prime user, although I'm getting close. $79/year is less than $7/month, which is competitive with Netflix, and the more benefits Amazon adds, the more attractive it becomes.

But I'm just getting used to the OTHER library service that is connected to the library, and that is the ability to borrow books for my Kindle from my library. I still find this amazing, and have just borrowed my second Kindle book. And as much as I like actual libraries (my local library is functional, but not exactly enticing), the ability to borrow library books without actually going to the library is a big plus. Here's how it works. If your library participates and if you have a library card, you go online to your library's website, click on the "Overdrive" icon (it says "Download AudioBooks and eBooks") which in my case takes me to a site that is shared by several libraries and lists the available books. Click, borrow, download, move to Kindle (via wifi or the USB port), read. Now that I know how it's done, it only takes a few seconds.

Yesterday I finished Winter's Bone by Daniel Woordrell. I mentioned that on Facebook and a friend suggested that if I liked it, I might also like Hell at the Breech by Tom Franklin. A couple of minutes later, a borrowed copy was on my Kindle. I love owning books, of the dead-tree variety or on Kindle, but this has awakened in me the real value of public libraries. You mean I can have this book for a couple of weeks and read it and I don't have to pay anything? Wow. What an innovation!

The Impact of my Kindle on my Book Buying Habit

I bought a Kindle a couple of months ago. Part of my thinking was that I would read newspapers and magazines on it, and that would save paper, solve storage issues, etc. That's worked nicely, although I dropped my NYT subscription after the trial period because I didn't want to pay $19.95 a month. I'm thrilled with the New Yorker for Kindle, not least because it arrives on my Kindle at the earliest possible moment--the Monday one week BEFORE its cover date.

But I also Kindled up because I have too many books (a huge antilibrary) and had run out of room. I knew I wouldn't limit my book-buying solely to electronic books--among other things, there are many books that appeal to me that aren't on Kindle yet--but if there was something I wanted to read immediately I could get it right away and not worry about shelf space.

Except, for the most part, I haven't bought a lot of Kindle books. I've downloaded lots of free books. And I've bought a couple. I got one the other day by a friend because I was keen to get it, even though I know it will be a little while before I read it (simply because I have some book review deadlines). Price is a factor. One friend's book came out recently in original trade paper. Amazon sells the physical book for under $9 (a 40% discount off the cover price) but the Kindle price is $9.99. I simply don't understand that. So I haven't bought the book yet, I'm sorry to say, and I'm not sure I will until I'm absolutely ready to read it.

Which brings me to the real point of this post. I have all my life collected books. I like owning them. I like their potential. But I also like looking at them and knowing they are physically there. Since the house is full of them, I don't need any more books to feed that acquisitiveness, but hoarding books on the Kindle isn't going to give me the same satisfaction. Yes, I'm downloading free classics, but that's in part so I can box up the hard copies on my shelves. I'm no longer the book slut I was.

Unless they're free. I recently moderated two panels at the Virginia Festival of the Book. The actual moderation during the session was fun and easy, but one is supposed to prepare, and I was given a stack of books to read. I did (um, mostly; didn't make it all the way through one of them). And now I have to find some place to put all those books!

Too bad they didn't give me the Kindle editions . . .

By the way, one of the books on my Kindle is my own, and I have to say it looks great, and it's a bargain at $3.99. You can buy it here: In an Uncharted Country on Kindle. Just sayin'.