May 17 2010
Monday Links: eBook Deals, pricing, and Twilight
A couple things about pricing. First, there may be some legal hurdles for the Agency model in the UK because if Apple is having some say about pricing then agreements between Apple and a group of publishers could be seen as collusion. There is, however, the possibility that because competition is strong for digital retailing that even a collusive agreement could get a pass. (I don’t see much difference in the US v. UK law as explained in the Bookseller article).
In print pricing news, Anchor will be releasing the mass market version of Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol in October for $9.99. It’s noted that the mass market is a premium version so I don’t know if that means it’s the Venti sized mass market or regular sized mass market with special paper or something. At $7.99, we aren’t too far away from a $9.99 price point for mass markets. I think romance readers would revolt but the once a month reader? Maybe not.
Another journalist suggests that print hardcover prices might increase due to the decreasing ebook prices, particularly for those that are of high quality. I agree with a lot in this post, but most specifically that I will pay more for a high quality hardcover. I bought an illustrated version of The Secret Garden
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Ebook Specials and Freebies:
Hachette is doing its specials again. Two books are available at $1.99.
- Between the Sheets by Robin Wells
- A Highlander Never Surrenders by Paula Quinn
Samhain is giving away Elle Kennedy’s Heat of Passion for FREE until May 28th at the nook and Kindle stores.
Harlequin has a site wide buy one, get one free sale (referred to as a BOGO). This begins May 26th and runs until May 31. For a limited time, enjoy a BOGO sale at eHarlequin! For every book you buy, you'll get a 2ndbook FREE with coupon code BOGO43D! Expires May 31, 2010, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Lowest-priced books are free.
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Tessa Dare posts the details on the sales of her werestag novella. Despite the under 1K sales numbers, Dare is happy with her experiment but cautions that it might not be for every author.
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Amazon is removing the free books from the best seller list. Sarah Weinman of Daily Finance explains why this is both good and bad. The good is that readers, authors, and publishers get to see what people are really buying. The bad is that the trend of digital book pricing is already moving downward despite agency pricing and that a paid list might only serve to put more pressure on reducing prices.
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One of my favorite literary blogs is the one by Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. The agents of the literary management group run the blog and their posts are always interesting even if they rarely intersect with the romance world. Recently, agent Jessica posted on an article in Atlantic where an author contemplates the reasons behind the success of Twilight, High School Musical, and Taylor Swift. Jessica asks the commenters to engage in “a little trend analysis. What does it say that vampire books are huge? ….It's tricky to make these sweeping statements about what we're reading and why, but formulating wild generalizations is part of the fun.”
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May 17, 2010 @ 09:21:32
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May 17, 2010 @ 10:27:07
So true. I don’t mind paying premium — up to $30, discounted or not — for beautifully created hardcovers. I actually spent almost $60 for 2 hardback fairy tale books with illustrations and annotations printed on high quality acid-free paper.
I honestly don’t see the point of paying HC price for just text (exception: Harry Potter series b/c I just couldn’t wait!). Text is text whether it’s HC, trade, MMPB or digital.
May 17, 2010 @ 10:44:47
Is the eharlequin bogo sale on print books only or ebooks too, does anyone know? Thanks!
May 17, 2010 @ 10:51:45
I really don’t like the format of those oversize paperbacks. Too tall and skinny for my tastes. I also hate it when that’s the only mass market format available. I’ve been catching up on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, and it seems to me like his mms are only published in the bigger format.
May 17, 2010 @ 11:35:19
@Allison. It’s for print books only.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:17:40
I’m kind of interested in the cover that shows up with the blog entry on the main page. The Perfect Play? Review coming soon?
May 17, 2010 @ 12:19:46
@Jennifer Estep: Ditto.
I think the fancy “venti” size books exist so they can use up a lil more paper and charge extra $2 per copy.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:32:48
Pssst: I think the Tessa Dare link is broken or something? I couldn’t click on it from my feed reader and clicking on the link from the DA page only sends me to Tessa Dare’s website for a page not found message.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:41:24
@Christina B. Thank you! I had some extra coding in there.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:43:32
@Carin: Me too, that is one hot cover.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:45:25
@Carin Oh, I didn’t know that would still show up. I have some thoughts about the cover and then deleted them. I am trying to run down some more information and will do a post on it eventually.
May 17, 2010 @ 12:54:08
@Jane: Jane, now the link leads to tessadare.CO – the m seems to be missing. When I add it manually it works just fine.
May 17, 2010 @ 13:05:31
@Estara I think I finally got it right.
May 17, 2010 @ 14:18:36
I was amused by the link at the end of that book pricing article:
What’s the bug up Apple’s @$$?
Not the sort of headline I generally expect from CNN.
May 17, 2010 @ 14:32:50
Interesting that Hachette is doing special pricing for Between the Sheets again. They did it last year (06/09) and I purchased it for $1.99 then. I’m not sure if they’ve discounted the Paula Quinn before.
Um, don’t they have any other books? They have to discount the same ones again? Really???
Sorry, I feel a little cheated for some reason. I ‘ll get over it. ;-)
May 17, 2010 @ 15:11:14
J.A Konrath wasn’t picked up by his publisher for the 7th installment of his
Jack Daniels series. He’s inked a deal with Amazon’s new Encore imprint for it!
EBook out months before the paper edition and at $2.99 (of which he’ll get 70%).
I know he’s been having great successes with his self-published stuff on Amazon,
and as a midlister myself, I’m soooooo goind to be following this as it unfolds:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
May 17, 2010 @ 20:44:54
Oh, BTW — Since Tessa posted her Samhain #s, here’s another from an erotic romance writer who pubbed something with Samhain last month.
http://www.genreality.net/show-me-the-money
May 18, 2010 @ 18:25:41
At $7.99, we aren't too far away from a $9.99 price point for mass markets.
Ahahaha, you lovely Americans. Try buying books in Canada sometime – our dollar is around parity most of the time these days, but I’ve still had to pay up to $10.99 for mass markets. They were actually cheaper back when there was a huuuuge difference between our currencies than they are now, when we’re about even. $7.99 on a regular basis would be heaven, man.
Stumbling Over Chaos :: Here, linkity, linkity, linkity…
May 21, 2010 @ 11:53:33
[...] Dear Author has some great links to recent publishing news. [...]
Dec 01, 2010 @ 17:25:22
Dear Jane,
You wrote of a hardcover of “The Secret Garden” with gorgeous illustrations. Would you give me the publishing information and the illustrator’s name? I’d love to buy copies for Christmas for three great-nieces who turned ten this year. Thank you and the lovely person who referred me to you.
elainec
Dec 01, 2010 @ 17:29:34
@Elaine Carlini-Davis: It is this one but we have it in hardcover.