Note: I talked about this last week over at Magical Musings and wanted to share it on my site as well.
There’s been a lot of debate this summer over what the price of e-books should be. E-books should be $9.99 or less. E-books should be $3.99 or less. E-books should be 99 cents.
Pfft. Whatever, dudes.
Because you know what? In the end, the debate about e-book prices is all just noise. Because the fact is that readers will pay what a book – e-book, print, or audio – is worth to them. Not what retailers or publishers or even writers think that book is worth.
Should a cup of coffee be $5 or more? Even for a double-shot vanilla bean salted caramel espresso latte that melts in your mouth? Probably not. But people will pay that much for it. And do you know why? Because they want it. There are lots of articles out there talking about how much money you can save – thousands of dollars a year – if you just cut out that $5 cup of coffee every day, but there’s a coffee shop on practically every corner.
Last year, The Republic of Thieves, the third book in Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards series, was released. I could have saved money buying the e-book or the hardcover book online, but I went to the store and got the print book, even though it was $28. Why? Because I wanted it.
I had been waiting on that book a long time (so had my significant other), and I was happy that it was finally out. To me, it was worth paying $28 to read more in the story/world.
People spend money on the things they want, and I want to read good books – no matter if they are 99 cents or $28.
What about you guys? Do you think e-books should be a certain price? Why or why not?
