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Self-Publishing and the 9.99 Boycott

10/27/2011

9 Comments

 
If you are considering publishing your book on the Amazon Kindle you may want to be aware of the 9.99 Boycott. This is a movement within the community of Kindle readers that, not only refuses to buy e-books priced above $9.99, but also will assign negative tags to your books with titles such as "outrageous Kindle price", "too expensive for Kindle", "greedy publisher", or "9.99 boycott". And the more your book sells the more these tags are voted on. Some of the boycotters will go as far as leaving one star reviews on your books based solely on the price.

What is the point of this? Many people find it insane (some even find it offensive) to have e-books priced the same as regular print books. E-books are much cheaper to produce than print books and, therefore, should be priced lower. Authors like Joe Konrath have argued that the sweet spot for book pricing is around $2.99. Other authors like Amanda Hocking (before she signed her deal with St Martin's Press) have gotten away with books priced higher than that, but still below that magic 9.99 number.

Where did this number come from? Apparently when Amazon got started with a Kindle device that cost $400 their sales pitch was that readers could save $20 per book by buying e-books at $10 ($9.99) instead of the hard cover for $30.

At first when the print publishers saw the e-book market as a source of additional revenue there was no problem. However, when it became obvious that the e-book market was growing at the expense of the print market, the $9.99 price became a point of contention with the print publishers trying to protect their paper sales. This is a fight that still goes on nowadays. But that magic "9.99" number got fixed in the psyche of Kindle readers spawning such things as the 9.99 movement.

I personally think authors can charge as much as they want for an e-book. However, I will seldom buy e-books priced above $5.99 (it goes without saying that I think that even $9.99 is too much to charge for an e-book). I will not vote for boycott tags or write a review solely based on price (although it is a factor). But I think pricing is a very important thing to consider when publishing your e-book, lest you want to incur in the wrath of the 9.99 Boycott crowd!

Please check out my first collection of short stories, The Sun Zebra. 

9 Comments
cath link
11/1/2011 10:53:55 pm

I agree with what you are saying. Price has never been a stopping point for me when buying a book in print or ebook. If I want to read it, I buy it. However, I believe most authors want fame and recognition, and if price will prevent that, then if I were the author, I would consider a lower price. It's competition, plain and simple, and what you are willing to do to get what you want out of writing. My personal opinion, of course.

Reply
phantomimic link
11/2/2011 09:54:32 am

You are right, many unknown authors offset their lack of name recognition by pricing their work lower or giving it away for free. It's just one more strategy.

Reply
June Faramore link
11/16/2011 01:34:48 am

I have bought at 9.99 or a bit above, but that is only for NEW releases. Think paying a premium to have ebook delivered directly to device at midnight of release date is worth that, especially when a.) It's at least ten bucks below hardcover and b.) I have always disliked reading hardcovers to begin with(they're so unwieldly). For backlist, books that have been out more than six months, or new authors I want to try out, I do not think the price should be above six dollars. While ebooks do cost time and money to make, I feel they should be discounted at least a dollar or two from paperback to reflect the fact that they did not have to be shipped or housed. As pubs have their great machine in place to print books, I am willing to concede that the cost of formatting for digital may equate to the price of printing. But I should not have to pay storage or shipping on books that are taking up a minimal amount of virtual space.

TLDR version: Over ten is acceptable for new releases(if you want something new, it comes at a premium), but for anything else, over 5 is pretty ridiculous to me.

Reply
phantomimic link
11/16/2011 07:19:06 am

Thanks for your comment. E-books are vastly cheaper to make than print books. The only reason to pay a premium, like you say, is to obtain a hot release early. It all has to do with what you are willing to pay and whether you are willing to wait for the price to go down.

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DG Sandru link
11/17/2011 02:40:09 am

When publishers are pricing the eBooks as high as paper books, to protect the sales of paper books, they are sending two messages to the consumers, (1) we do what’s in the best interest for us, (2) we are greedy. Big Publishers have had a cartel on book selling for so long, that they forgot the meaning of competition.

Reply
Laura Novak
11/17/2011 07:24:33 am

Well written and thought out, as usual. Glad to see you are linked on Passive Voice blog as well.

I think $4.99 (price for my ebook) and below is fair. For an unknown author to go higher does not make sense to me. I would not blackball someone because of it, I just wouldn't buy it.

Reply
phantomimic link
11/17/2011 08:33:57 am

Thanks for your comments.

Sandru, yes, that is what they are doing. They don't understand that they can reinvent themselves. It will involve losses in the short to medium term, but it would give them big gains in the future. The longer they wait to change, the more they are leaving the field to Amazon.

Laura, those are precisely my thoughts. It only makes sense to price higher when people can't wait to read your next book. The listing on the Passive Voice Blog was a nice surprise.

Reply
Stephen link
11/22/2011 03:45:49 pm

Ha! The wrath of the 9.99 Boycott! It's all very true. The last part just made me laugh. You won't find any of our eBooks priced more than $9.99. The majority sit at that sweet spot. $3.99. Love the stuff you've got going on Phantomimic! Keep up the good work.

Reply
phantomimic link
11/23/2011 06:07:37 am

Thanks Stephen, $3.99 is great, e-books should be cheaper, but I would not bully an author/publisher for overpricing their e-books, I would just not buy it.

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