Welcome!!! It's been another week of GREAT books! I hope YOU had a great week of Reading!! This post is always up by NOON every Sunday and most of the time earlier!
BLOG UPDATES: If you are reading this on Saturday BEFORE MIDNIGHT, it is the LAST DAY to enter the Just Couldn't Put It Down #Guiveaway Blog Hop! You'll see that icon in the LEFT SIDE COLUMN! (Keep in mind some blogs are a day ahead and are already done with this Hop. That's the bummer about the last day of the Hops. I hope you already HOPPED there and entered!)
**Also! "Remember Mia" will be ENDING SOON on the 21st!
I will be drawing winners for the Freedom to Read Hop, and will do so after both Hops and Remember Mia is over. I will announce the winners next Sunday!
On my mind:
I ponder this question every single time when I type this column each week, OR when I am shopping for myself for ebooks at Amazon and some cost so much that I decided to do a search to find out WHY ebooks cost SO MUCH MORE MONEY as compared to their counterpart, print books at times. Why is one book worth $14.99 and another worth HALF that at $7.99? The following is what I found.
Here is one article I did find helpful, from March 20, 2014,
Ask Bethany House Why Are ebooks SO Expensive? AND from July 30, 2014 from
AMAZON and HACHETTE (in a dispute against EACH OTHER - BOTH stating their case of which I take NO side in, but the subject matter matches which is what I am talking about here today - the HIGH price of ebooks!)
Amazon says the SAME THING I DO! Do NOT spend more than $9.99 OR LESS for for ANY ebook!
Both of these links (above) and are bolded for your ease to read them) so please go back and click on them to learn why ebooks cost so much, and besides that, these are VERY interesting articles!)
I must "agree" with #Amazon in this one article that states NOT to pay over $9.99 for ONE ebook, especially when they first come out "UNLESS" you are DYING to read it and just cannot wait! (I am NOT singling out #Hachette here AT ALL! Please understand just because this ONE article happens to be about Hachette, I am NOT putting them down NOR am I agreeing that they are price setting - besides, this is an OLD article and no longer applies even if it ever did.)
I am just seeing that we are looking at #NEW #RELEASES anywhere from $12.99 AND UP, and lately the price-point of $14.99 has inched up there, too!!! I think this is outrageous! (I remember a huge author last year or it might have been the year before), but that publisher priced that EBOOK at $19.99!!! WHOA!!! NO WAY!!! That WAS taking advantage of US in that case! Since then that price HAS dropped, and within about 2 weeks, that price was down to $14.99 where it STILL REMAINS!!! We have THAT book to thank for those prices. (At that initial time, ebooks were ONLY being sold at about the $9.99 price-point!)
I feel when the ebooks were selling at the $9.99 or lower price, it is of MY opinion that publishers/authors were probably selling a LOT more ebooks back then, while I don't have the luxury of having the sales reports, of course, I am just using common sense.
As the books fall OFF the list, so do the prices for 'most' books. DOWN they go! Virtually, this is the same thing as with the print books, too, except if you are in a bookstore like Barnes and Noble, I have seen the print books at some awesome sales as low as 30% to 40% OFF, BUT, ONLY WHEN THEY ARE NEW RELEASES, so that kind of blows that first article I posted because as SOON as they are no longer a NEW release, the prices go WAY back up HIGH AGAIN.
Will we ever come to an agreed price with ebooks? That is my question. My answer: if publishers want to see their sales go UP, then they should drop the cost of ebooks so they sell more. This is NOT HARD to figure out! Anyway . . .
What do YOU think of ebook prices?
With ebooks, it STILL IS the 'wild, wild west' out there, of which I don't appreciate being price-gouged. SOMETHING needs to be done! I don't have an answer for that??? I'll think of one!
Edit: I just got to read the FULL article about the OLD disagreement between Hachette and Amazon, (I have no idea what Amazon had this to say about ebooks now, but "I AGREE with state!" AND I guess I should have been more vocal as to 'why' I feel the way I do about ebooks, so here is what Amazon said and how I still feel:
“With an e-book there’s no printing, no overprinting, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out-of-stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books,” the company wrote. “E-books can be and should be less expensive.”
I agree! There is so little cost for retailers that I don't understand the 'why' publishers make ebooks so expensive? I DO agree that the amount the retailer makes, that 30% IS HUGE for the author and for us! However, that is across the board - EVERY Retailer, even Barnes and Noble or ANY e-retailer takes that amount/hit.
This does make me wonder what the author gets paid in the long run?? I hope WELL!! THEY are our bread and butter, or else that Retailer is NOT going to get money from me. There is only 70% to spread out, so I really wonder how that works? GOOGLE TIME!!!
Okay, here is one article I found
HERE from 2011, but I would assume (even though assuming is never good to do as my teachers back ALL through Jr High and High School constantly told us 'if you assume, it makes an 'asouf) that the pay structure would still be the same.
I also want to make sure ANY AND ALL AUTHORS (especially my favorites!! And especially dp) get paid, and get paid WELL so they continue to write with a vengeance!
I'll continue to look this up and see what else I find. I'll continue this article as a Part 2, and give what I find 'when' I find it!
Okay! What do you say we HIT THE BOOKS?!
FICTION: EBOOK AND PRINT COMBINED
1. Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian by E L James
ebook: $7.99
print: $9.89
2. The Girl on the Train: A Novel by Paula Hawkins
ebook: $6.99
print: $8.20
3. Nemesis (FBI Thriller, An Book 19) by Catherine Coulter
ebook: $11.43
print: $18.36
4. Code of Conduct: A Thriller (Scot Harvath Book 14) by Brad Thor
ebook: $12.99
print: $16.83
5. Earth Bound (A Sea Haven Novel) by Christine Feehan
ebook: $5.99
print: $8.00
6. The English Spy by Daniel Silva
ebook: $14.99
print: $14.83
7. All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr
ebook: $13.99
print: $15.29
8. The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir
ebook: $5.99
print: $9.00
9. Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts
ebook: $ 1.99 - DON'T MISS THIS ONE AT THIS PRICE!!
print: $10.75
10. The Rumor: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand
ebook: $ 8.99
print: $13.05
11. Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel by Jessica Knoll
ebook: $11.99
print: $15.00
12. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
ebook: $ 8.99
print: $14.05
13. A New Hope (Thunder Point series) by Robyn Carr
ebook: $ 6.99
print: $15.56
14. Truth or Die by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
ebook: $14.99
print: $16.99
15. Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
ebook: $ 8.99
print: $11.37
I hope you have found some inspiration to read this week with these books or even others you may already have! Here are the rest of the books, up to #20!
MANWHORE +1, by Katy Evans (Gallery)
PROTECTING JESSYKA, by Susan Stoker (Susan Stoker)
DARK PLACES, by Gillian Flynn (Broadway)
IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT, by Judy Blume (Knopf)
QUEEN OF FIRE, by Anthony Ryan (Ace)