The Price of an Ebook

There has been a lot of talk the past week regarding the price of ebooks thanks to Amazon and Macmillian Publishing. If you haven't heard or read about Amazon pulling all Macmillian books off their site this past weekend (as well as samples off people's Kindles), you can get caught up on the story by reading this amazing blog post about it by Scott Westerfeld.

I'm not going to choose sides, who I think is right and who is wrong. To be honest, I think that both sides have their argument and deserve to be heard. I am going to talk about prices of ebooks and what I feel is a respectable prices for a digital equivalent to some of my favorite books.

The whole debate has spread to many blogs and message boards, including a nook message board that I regularly follow now that I'm a nook owner. Not to trail off topic, but even if you don't have an ereader, there are some great people/discussions going on about good books in general.

Anyway, back to the whole debate of ebook pricing. I didn't know what I would write my blog post about today until I read a few comments on that message board regarding the Amazon vs. Macmillian fight. I found myself quickly responding, jumping on my soapbox so quickly, I'm surprised I didn't twist my virtual ankle.

It seems a lot of owners of ereaders believe ebook should be cheaper than other versions of said book. I agree with that, but just how cheap? While most people agree that $10 is a fair price for an ebook (and I tend to agree), one poster mentioned that they believe they should be no more than a dollar...and that's when I had to jump into the thread with my own post, which was as follows:

It takes a write/author a year or more to write and edit their stories. Take into consideration everything that goes into making the book beyond just the physical printing. You need the author, agent, editor, proofreader, type setter, marketing, cover designer...the list goes ON AND ON. They don't just take the Word file (for example) and change it to epub or whatever format of the choosing. If an average reader understood how much goes into making a book, you'd be dumbfounded. I'm currently shopping my manuscript to agents. I've worked on it since March 2008 and it is now in draft 8. I worked on it every single day for over a year straight. That is before anything happens to it in the publishing world. That's just trying to get it to a quality high enough to start querying agents.

So, for the person who said that it should cost a dollar, tell me, is there something in your life that you put years into that you don't think deserves to be sold for more than a dollar? I've spent hours of sleepless nights working on my manuscript, let alone the blood, sweat and tears (literally) it has taken to get to the point it is at.

Author gets a very small percent of the money spent by the consumer on the book. When their portion is divided out (which is smaller for ebooks than it is for printed books in most cases), they then give (usually) 15% of that to their agent.

Of course, all of that also goes into a book that is printed, but several of the steps have to be formated for it to look nice and pretty on your nook, Kindle, etc. Why do you think most scanned books, pdfs, etc look like crap on ereaders and the "real" ebooks don't.

I just don't get why people think that just because it's digital they can get everything free. No one thinks beyond their pocket book that a group of people put hard hours in to make it.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Carry on.

Now, that may not be the best post I've ever written on a message board thread, but it came from disbelief and passion. I believe ebooks should be cheaper than hardback books. But ONE DOLLAR? Insanity. But, it got me thinking, how much is an ebook worth and what can we look to for pricing?

I think that $10 is reasonable as I stated above. I compare it to the price of paperbacks. They are cheaper than hardbacks, and rightfully so. I also understand why some ebooks come out after the hardback release. Isn't that like books that are both in paperback and hardback? If they were released at the same time, wouldn't most people buy the cheaper option, especially in this economy? Of course they would.

Anyway, I will now climb off my soap box, but I thought it was an interesting topic. Why do you think people expect digital versions of things (ebooks, smartphone applications, etc) to be free or next to nothing and what do you think is a good price for ebooks?

The Digital Age of Books and Music

First off, welcome to our new followers! Once we hit 60, we will be giving away a book to one lucky follower! Next, an update to our follower free book contest from when we hit 30! I never heard from the original winner, so our NEW winner of Justine Larbalestier's Liar is...

Pagecrawler!

Please email me your address at YAedge @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) by Wednesdsay, January 20th! Congrats!

Now on to our regularly scheduled post:

I don't know about you, but I have a obsession regarding my bookshelf. All books have their place and when I get new ones, I hate to see them pile up without a proper home. It takes constant shifting to get the right thickness and height all in order, along with subject/genre. I'm never happy with the arrangement and each time I walk into our studio, I have to fight myself to walk over and start pulling books of the shelf to reorganize them. Where do you put your Maureen Johnson hardbacks and paperbacks? Do you put them together or do the hardbacks go with others of their kind? Or how about those odd sized books that don't seem to fit anywhere? I'm the crazy that puts hardbacks with hardbacks, trade paperback with other trades and mass with mass paperbacks. The odd shaped/sized ones?...don't even get me started.

Growing up, I had this same situation with CDs, but it was a bit easier. I would alphabetize them by singer/group and then within that, by date of the album. Obsessive? Yes. But, I could almost name every CD I owned because of this. Over time, as I've gotten older, my CDs now sit in huge folders. Once digital download became big, I was less obsessed with keeping track of my collection. I still buy real CDs from time to time at used stores or of the groups/singers I really love, but most of the time I just download the album instantly. Why not? I can buy a CD from the comfort of my home, sitting with my cats on my lap, my dog at my feet and a glass of wine on the table next to me. I can even wear my pajamas!

You're probably wondering where this post is going. As I mentioned last month, I bought Barnes and Noble's new ereader, nook. It is my jump into the digital age of books, one I fought for so long. I LOVE reading on it (one thing I wasn't sure about when I ordered it), but I have SOO many "real" books on my shelf! I am rotating, reading one "real" book, then an ebook and so on.

It makes me wonder, at some point will I want to stop organizing my bookshelf like a madwoman and just turn on my nook and let it do the dirty work for me? I think the answer will always be "no". I love ebooks right now, but they AREN'T the same as cracking open a new or old book, smelling the ink and paper and turning the pages one by one. Like my CDs, I will always buy my favorite books/authors as "real" books, and possibly also in ebook because it's great to know that I'm always carrying around a good friend (umm, I mean book) in my purse. I love walking into a bookstore and seeing people cracked open to a page or carrying a huge stack around ready to buy. To me, books will always be around in some kind of paper format, at least one can hope!

How do you organize your books and if you have an ereader, how do you handle reading "real" books vs. your ebooks?

Paper or Plastic?

Hello from the world of ebooks. As of today, I have ventured into the slightly scary world of plastic and not paper. That is, I am now a proud owner of Barnes and Noble's nook (as you can see from the picture to the left which I took with my iPhone).

I have to admit, I have been against ebooks up until now. I am old fashion. Give me oil paint on canvas over digital painting. I always thought the same with books. I love the feel, smell and experience of a real book. I love to go to the bookstore and browse the shelves. I love used bookstores.

That was until I looked around and realized I have close to 1,000 books stored between my house and my parent's house. To move all of those books at some point would be a pain and put a pretty large dent in my wallet.

That doesn't mean I won't buy real books anymore. I will buy my favorite authors in hardback/paperback and will reserve my ereader for books that I don't plan to get signed or collect. I liken it to my cd collection. I used to buy way too many cds and found them bulky. Where to store all the jewel cases? Even if you recycle those, you need folders and folders to keep the actual disk. Since iPods (or mp3 players that is), I only buy the artists that I love. I enjoy looking at the cd jacket and having the physical cd. The rest of my music collection? I either buy used or download when they're released.

As far as buying nook, there were many reasons I chose it over the Kindle. I won't get into that now (maybe a later post), but I hope that nook lives up to my expectations. They are low, I must admit. This is my first venture into an ereader, so just having book digitally and being able to download/buy them at a touch of a button is huge. Sitting at work, I purchased two books and within 30 seconds I had them on the device to read.

I leave for vacation in a few days, and I must say, I'm excited to put nook to the test. I hope that my choice of plastic over paper pays off.