My thoughts on e-book pricing

Lately, I've seen that meme floating around again, the one where you see the cup of coffee on one side and an e-reader on the other bringing up the point that you can get an e-book for the price of a cup of coffee. It asks that people forgo their coffee to buy a book. I can understand the premise. Some e-books are around the same price as a cup of coffee, and books last longer than a cup of coffee.

But I've found most of the e-books I want are more expensive than my favorite caramel frappuccino that I get on occasion. This leads me to the fact that I have a problem with how e-books are priced these days. In some cases they're almost as expensive (or more expensive in a few cases) than the paperbacks.

I've been doing research on e-book pricing (read that as I've gone through and looked at e-books on Amazon and Smashwords to see if I'm right), and have come to realize from my, admittedly limited, research that the main difference in e-book pricing depends on how it's published. Or rather, who's doing the publishing. In general, I've seen that self-publishers tend to price their books in the $3-$4 range. Small presses are around the $4-$5 range. The Big 5 are $5 and up. There are exceptions to all of these. These are just averages I've come up with perusing the e-book market on my own.

Another thing that intrigued me was the percentage of the profits that authors receive. I can't find the link where I saw it broken down, but I saw that self-publishers get most of the profits (based on price, the site algorithms, and where it's being published), small press publishers get a smaller percentage (but it's still a very good one), and the traditionally published even less. The last is what baffles me. There's almost no overhead for them in the publishing of e-books, and yet from what I remember authors get a very small amount of the profit from e-books.

I believe that the pricing of e-books is variable, based mostly on who holds the rights to the book. It's a little cheaper to support an indie author than a traditionally published author, but in spite of the occasional trip to Starbucks (or your treat of choice), it's still possible to support your favorite authors. And even authors new to you. (That meme irritates me a little.)

What are your thoughts on e-book pricing? Have you seen something different than I have?

Reviews ahead

I've been trying to read a book a day, though one of the books I'm reviewing now it took me two days to read. Partially because it was awesome but I had other things I needed to focus on so I took a break after a couple hours the first day and finished it up the second. All of these were free e-books from Amazon, three of which I found through the "Top 100 Free" in the Kindle Store.

The first book I read was actually something I've wanted to have for a long time. It's the first book in Patti Larsen's Hayle Coven books, Family Magic. I've been interested in seeing how the story unfolds since I first heard about it from Patti herself. So when Patti announced that it was free on Amazon, I jumped at the chance to pick it up.

In the beginning of the story, we meet Sydlyn Hayle (who prefers to be called Syd). She's a rebellious teenager who hates the fact that she's the member of a magical family. She just wants to be normal, and not have to deal with everything. When someone endangers the coven, Syd has to step up and help save her coven.

I was initially put off by how whiny Syd appeared in the beginning. But I moved past that further into the book and was thrilled to see her step up to the plate. I really like this first book and will be moving on in the series when I can. You can get it at the following links:

Amazon
B&N
Smashwords

The next book, which turned out to be more of a novella, was A Dark Kiss of Rapture by Sylvia Gray. In it, we meet Raze, a fallen angel turned vampire. Raze has never found a woman he could love. As the story unfolds, we're taken through a dark and twisted maze to search out an enemy who's managed to dump a dead body on his doorstep. He tracks them to Chicago, where he meets the one woman who has opened his heart. When she's put in danger, Raze steps up to protect her.

This was a wonderful story. Intense, fast paced, but it didn't leave anything out. I'd love to read the rest of the books in the serial and will be picking them up as soon as possible. You can get it at the following places:

Amazon
B&N

The third book I tried reading was Phantom Summer by Amy Sparling. Seventeen year old Taylor Gray moves in with her mother to get away from her traumatic past. When she gets there, she picks up a job doing ghost tours. The guy running it becomes more than just a friend. When Taylor sees a real ghost, her past comes crashing down on her head again.

I will admit, I didn't get through this one. I just couldn't get into the story. I'm not sure if it was the characters, the flow of the story, or the pace since it seemed a little slow to me. I'm not saying it's not a good book. It just wasn't right for me. I don't suggest you take my word for it. Go buy the book yourself and see what you think. You can find it on Amazon:

Amazon

The fourth book I read was the one that took me two days instead of just one. That book is Prince of Wolves by Quinn Loftis. I loved this story and would have finished it in one day except, as I said earlier, I had other things to do and didn't want to get too sucked in.

Jacque is a 17 year old looking forward to her senior year in high school. When a gorgeous Romanian foreign exchange student moves in across the street, Jacque and her two best friends figure they're just going to be sighing over him and drooling a little whenever they see him.

Then Fane and Jacque discover they have a bond deeper than any either of them has felt before. The only problem is Fane is a werewolf, the son of the Alpha in Romania to be precise and the prince of the pack there. Jacque is his fated mate. Fane never expected to find her in a small Texas town, so he's unprepared for his reaction to her.

Their relationship is threatened by the crazy Alpha in the small town and someone else stepping up to claim Jacque as his mate, even though it's obvious she belongs with Fane. Fane and Jacque have to fight their way through the situation to remain together.

To start, the start of things made me giggle because of Jacque and Fain's confusion. Neither of them expected to have their life mates show up before the senior year of high school started. Fane was actually planning on it taking a couple centuries. So imagine his surprise when he encounters her. The story gets a little more serious as the conflict with the local werewolves gets worse. But they fight it to the end and come out on top. This is another book I can highly recommend. It's still free on Amazon and Smashwords for a little while longer. You can find it at the places below:

Amazon
B&N
Smashwords

All of these reviews are my own, and not influenced in any way by the authors. I would recommend picking up the books and making your own decisions regarding them. Mine are just one in the many that all of these have received.

Enjoy!