Royalties, Book Sales and Ebooks

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A look at royalties -- with cool charts! -- courtesy of Jim C. Hines.

The Kindle edition of Mermaid's Madness is $6.99, just a dollar less than the paperback. If Joe Konrath is right, this might be one reason for the relatively poor ebook sales. Speaking for myself, I won't buy the Kindle version for that price; I'll wait until I can afford the paperback. (Which won't be this month because I had to blow my monthly book budget on nonfiction.)

At least it's not as bad as Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, though, which had a Kindle price of $19,99! WTF! It's actually MORE than the hardcover. I was not the only one outraged. A huge number of infuriated fans gave the book 1-star, and declared a boycott. Dutton, Penguin is the publisher. Have they lost their minds? Honestly.

Comments

Davin Malasarn said…
The price difference between ebooks and print books has been interesting for me to watch. In one sense, I don't particular mind if the ebook is more because I see it as a way for writers (or publishers) to control how they want their book to be received. If I was a writer who hated ebooks, for example, maybe I'd sell my own ebooks for ten times the price of the print. Yes, I may be losing sales, but I would be gaining some control over my book. In thinking of my own actual publishing, I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, though. I keep thinking of making the book freely available, or as freely available as I can. Other times I think of only making 20 or 50 copies available. I can't decide.
9:16 AM
Tara Maya said…
But if you hated ebooks, why make it available as ebook at all? Besides, I don't think the author has control; the publisher does. Keeping the price of ebooks high doesn't serve the interests of the writer, who want to sell the content (the story), regardless of the format; it does serve the publisher... actually, I don't think it serves the publisher either. But I think publishers are actually trying to discourage ebook sales and convince the reader the hardback is worth the higher price point. The problem is, I don't think that's working.

Domey, I don't think your vacillating about whether to offer the book for free, ebook or print has anything to do with the format. I think it has to do with ambiguous feelings about whether you really want to have you work being read, and perhaps criticized, by people who are perhaps, morons.
9:22 AM
Davin Malasarn said…
Yeah, my thoughts on the formatting were more general. My thoughts on my own books have little do with that.

I can get into my own thoughts about my own publishing if you like, but it's probably way off topic! :P
9:24 AM
Tara Maya said…
Sometimes what's off topic is more relevant. :)
9:43 AM
lotusgirl said…
Wonderful link. Thanks.
9:51 AM
C. N. Nevets said…
@Domey - there is a rooster-shaped hole in the world, and it's going to take more than ~40 copies to fill it.

@Tara - Thanks for the link. It think there are several levels of interest there but it will take me a few days to really figure out what is probably significant and what merely appears interesting.
12:32 PM
Tara Maya said…
I feel the same way, Nevets.
7:44 PM
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