MSE News: Amazon urges drop in ebook prices

Arg

KimYeovil wrote: »

More lies and spin from greedy freetards (and patronising and insulting - I can't see anything technical sounding in the quote). The cost of the physical product is a trivially small component of the costs and the value of the property.

Patronising and insulting sums your post pretty well.

FloFlo wrote:

There was a mistake made with rights so they removed the books and refunded people. Hardly a reason not to use ebooks.

You must have a few screws loose if you think that people getting mucked around after they've bought something,should be supported.

Dave_C_2

I always buy second-hand books and return them to the market stall for money off the next book. Until I can do that with an ebook the it's a no-brainer.

Then you have amortise the cost of the kindle. In round numbers over 2 years at 1 ebook per week = £1 per book for the cheapest Kindle. Add the £6 actual cost of the ebook and your ebook costs you £7 in total

Second hand book £2.50 with £1 off = £1.50 in total

Money saved over 2 years = £5.50 x 2 X 52 is well over £500

Remind me again what this web site is about

lxpeanut

I love how the publishers are using one off costs that they will quickly make back to justify making us pay too much. The DRM issue I don't mind as much with ebooks I have my kindle because I don't have room to store the physical copies of all the books I'd love to read. I don't mind ebooks basically being a lending service where we can pay to view the books but not own them but the prices must reflect that. So far I haven't paid for any books because there are many classics that I want to read anyway and I'm not willing to pay more than a couple of pounds to view something I can't own.

markedwardswriter

I have just published my first novel (Killing Cupid) on Amazon for the Kindle and really laughed when I read this: "This would include costs for encoding, formatting, rights management, software management and secure archiving."

It's true that the main cost in creating a book is the author's time and, if traditionally published, the fee or advance the publisher pays the author. But here's what you have to do to create a Kindle book:

Encoding: Open your Word document, select all, select 'plain text'.
Formatting: Make sure you have used sentences, paragraphs and pages - just like you would in a normal book
Right management: Tick drm or drm-free when uploading the book
Software management: take 2 minutes to create an account on Amazon, then wait for the cheques to arrive
Secure archiving: Stick it on a dongle and lock it in a drawer

It's a joke that publishers are selling ebooks for a higher price than paperbacks and using ridiculous excuses to justify it, and that's why the Kindle bestseller lists are dominated by indie authors like Amanda Hocking, who is well on her way to becoming the first Kindle millionaire (if she isn't already).

redpola

markedwardswriter wrote: »

But here's what you have to do to create a Kindle book

Thanks for that. It comes as no surprise to me that, as I originally speculated, those terms were all for the purposes of making publishers look good.

There was a good article on Stephen Leather in the Guardian recently where he claims that at the moment he's making £11,000 a month off his sub-£1 kindle books. Oh dear. Goodbye traditional publishers!

Good luck with your book (which I just bought).

Neil.

markedwardswriter

Thanks Neil! Hope you enjoy it.

I've been following Stephen Leather too - he is making a fortune. A lot of writers are (so far I've made enough to buy a cheese sandwich but it has only been a few days!).

antrobus

markedwardswriter wrote: »

I have just published my first novel (Killing Cupid) on Amazon for the Kindle and really laughed when I read this: "This would include costs for encoding, formatting, rights management, software management and secure archiving."

It's true that the main cost in creating a book is the author's time and, if traditionally published, the fee or advance the publisher pays the author. But here's what you have to do to create a Kindle book:

Encoding: Open your Word document, select all, select 'plain text'.
Formatting: Make sure you have used sentences, paragraphs and pages - just like you would in a normal book
Right management: Tick drm or drm-free when uploading the book
Software management: take 2 minutes to create an account on Amazon, then wait for the cheques to arrive
Secure archiving: Stick it on a dongle and lock it in a drawer

It's a joke that publishers are selling ebooks for a higher price than paperbacks and using ridiculous excuses to justify it, and that's why the Kindle bestseller lists are dominated by indie authors like Amanda Hocking, who is well on her way to becoming the first Kindle millionaire (if she isn't already).

And it's only 70p!!!

And it's a pretty good reason to go and download Kindle for PC.