It all started with John Lehman’s call-to-arms to app developers:

“Those of us in app development love to talk about how ridiculous it is that people will drop $4 every other day on a cup of coffee but will not ‘waste’ 99 cents on our hot new app. I hope by now we’ve learned something: This comparison doesn’t work.”

Lehman goes on to explain that Starbucks coffee is a trustable experience, and ‘your app’ is not; that is has no free substitute and the app does; that its craftsmanship is on full display unlike an app, and so on.

Then, Nate over at The Digital Reader picked up the baton and made the comparison with e-books, adding a few other points about author brands, Project Gutenberg, and so on. But it was in the comments that I found this gem:

“Just because you don’t approve of the decision tree people use to make purchases doesn’t mean they’re not using it or that it is invalid.”

True words. The point that I have tried to make with indie authors when I’ve discussed pricing over the years is this: There is no such thing as a good price or a bad price. There is only a relative price: What does this sum represent, relative to the other like choices people will have at this same level? Take the example of $50. It might be a fair price for a dinner for two at a restaurant, or a pair of shoes, or an Xbox video game. But if someone tried to charge you $50 for a gourmet chocolate chip cookie, you’d balk. It’s not that you can’t afford $50. Rather, it’s that relative to your other choices in that same market, that price is well beyond your comfort zone. There are numerous alternatives at lower price points which provide the same value to you.

Relative pricing doesn’t mean people won’t choose your product. There may be times when you decide you want the fancy steakhouse dinner even though you could eat at McDonald’s 50 times for the same price. But it would be foolish of the steak house to assume that its average customer is going to choose to come there on a nightly basis. So they market themselves as the special experience, and target customers accordingly.

Similarly, book publishers recognize that some authors are brand names who can command more, and they price new releases by those authors at higher levels—that’s why for years, it was considered a mark of success to become famous enough to merit a hardcover. Those books cost more, and having a publisher print one for you meant they felt your readers would pay the extra. Not all authors merited a hardcover. So, in the minds of many readers today, they transfer these expectations to the e-equivalents and expect to pay less for the indie-unknown than they do for the new King or Grisham. They look at the choices available to them at the price point of ‘best-seller,’ and they decide to either spend it, or allocate those dollars elsewhere.

So, with that in mind, I present the following case study: What choices are available to me for my entertainment spending these days? If I pass on the Big Pub Bestseller, what can I do with that money instead? To start, I checked the Kobo bestseller list. The first non-series novel to appear on it that interested me was Gone, Girl by Gillian Flynn, which is at #9 on the list and currently selling for $13.99. Now, let’s see what else I can get for my entertainment dollar at around that same price point …

TIER ONE: $11 and above

$15.99 ….. one movie ticket for a 3D film (source: Cineplex.com)
$15.00 ….. one drop-in pottery class at the Ceramics Museum
$15.00 ….. my share of a restaurant dinner date with my sweetie
$15.00 ….. typical price of a Nintendo DS game at local second-hand shop
$14.99 ….. typical price of new workout dvd, including shipping
$13.99 ….. price for current e-book produced by legacy publisher
$12.99 ….. one movie ticket for a general film (source: Cineplex.com)

TIER TWO: To $10

$10.00-15.00 ….. my price range for a one-year magazine subscription
$10.00 ….. my share of a restaurant brunch date with my sweetie
$10.99-14.99 ….. one full album on iTunes
$9.00 ….. one general admission to the Royal Ontario Museum on Fridays after 4:30 p.m.
$7.99 ….. one-month membership to Netflix (unlimited streaming of all available titles)

TIER THREE: To $7

$6.50 ….. a drink, small treat and writing time with two hours free wifi at local fancy coffee shop
$5.99 ….. one HD movie rental on iTunes
$4.99 ….. one non-HD movie rental on iTunes
$4.99-9.99 ….. my price limit for paid Kindle books
$3.99 ….. price for one issue of a Dell fiction magazine, without coupon code, at Fictionwise

 TIER FOUR: To $3

$3.00 ….. one single-fare public transit ticket (for free live events)
$1.99-4.99 ….. price I will pay for an indie book by a known-to-me author
$1.99 ….. price I will pay for an indie book by a new-to-me author
$1.29 ….. one song download on iTunes
$0.99-1.99 ….. price for average Kindle Deal of the Day book
$0.99-4.00 ….. price I will pay for paid apps on iTunes
$0.25 ….. price to rent a locker for visit to community centre to use the free pool or track

TIER FIVE: Free

Free ….. admission to Art Gallery of Ontario permanent collection on Wednesdays after 6 p.m.
Free ….. guided ROMwalk walking tour led by staff at Royal Ontario Museum
Free ….. download of free games and apps on iTunes
Free ….. on-line viewing of Canadian National Film Board films
Free ….. on-line viewing of major network shows (CTV, CBC, Slice, Global, etc.)
Free ….. on-line viewing of classic films at Archive.org
Free ….. on-line viewing of music videos at Vevo and YouTube
Free ….. download of free books from Project Gutenberg, Mobile Read, Kindle Free Books,etc.
Free ….. download of free classic magazines on Project Gutenberg

I could go on, but you get the idea. None of these choices are good or bad choices in and of themselves. But they do exist on a relative scale in my head when I weigh my decisions both for time and money. The ROMwalk might appeal to me more than a movie on Netflix if the weather is nice and the featured walk (there is a schedule, updated yearly) interests me. But if the walk of the week is featuring an area I can’t get to by transit, or it’s one I’ve done already, or the weather is bad, or I’m not feeling great and can’t be bothered to get out of bed, I’ll go online for the book or movie.

Similarly, a brunch out for pancakes with my sweetie is a favourite outing for me and one I will nearly always choose if given the option. But this entertainment choice is dependent on his being able to accompany me. If he isn’t, I will definitely choose something else. Whether that is ‘download an e-book and curl up on the couch’ or ‘go to the coffee shop to read magazines and write for a bit’ depends on a whole bunch of things. If I’m buying at the coffee shop, I won’t spend more money on a book—I’ll read what I have already or download a freebie, for instance. Or, if a new book is out that I really want, I’ll spend the money on that, and not on the coffee.

The mistake is thinking that $4 or $7 or $13 are inherently good or bad prices, because they’re not. The only absolute is that every reader will have a scale in their heads which on some level resembles mine. The higher you price yourself on the scale, the more options you’ll have available to you, at or below your number. It doesn’t mean you won’t choose the high end sometimes. But you’ll have to think about it a lot harder and be a lot more sure of what you’re buying. I’ll buy the Gillian Flynn because I like her stuff, but my price point for new-to-me authors is a lot lower because, at the $14 level, there are so many more sure things I can enjoy.

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"I’m a journalist, a teacher and an e-book fiend. I work as a French teacher at a K-3 private school. I use drama, music, puppets, props and all manner of tech in my job, and I love it. I enjoy moving between all the classes and having a relationship with each child in the school. Kids are hilarious, and I enjoy watching them grow and learn. My current device of choice for reading is my Amazon Kindle Touch, but I have owned or used devices by Sony, Kobo, Aluratek and others. I also read on my tablet devices using the Kindle app, and I enjoy synching between them, so that I’m always up to date no matter where I am or what I have with me."

3 COMMENTS

  1. That was a very good read. Lots of excellent points and thoughts to ponder. Reminiscent of some pricing discussions we had here in 2011.

    In passing I would mention that in my recent visits to paper book shops with my then gf, who still reads paper, I was irritated by the fact that all the paperbacks were essentially all the same price. Great book, ordinary books and book from new writers. Crazy.

    What comes out from the article and the topic as a whole, for me, is that indie writers need to get away from this whole ‘value’ illusion and get away from the whole ‘what is my writing worth’ thing. The right price is the price people will pay that results in the maximum overall earning for you. I am impressed by an author with higher earnings more than an author with higher sales.

  2. Well said. As an industry, we need to figure out how to make books less expensively (industry standards), make the quality of the book more visible before purchase (branding? samples?), or make the deal more appealing at the start (bigger cover images? flap copy?).
    I suggest we discuss it over pancakes.

  3. What I did learn from this article is that I didn’t learn anything. Just pondering.

    However, it did lead to me thinking that while all people make their choices in a similar way, some people’s time is more valuable than others. Not just necessarily for themselves (possibly everyone thinks their time is as valuable or even more than another’s) but measurably: in terms of GNP, making history or just plain own income.

    In economic terms, in English, I believe it’s Opportunity Cost. What you “give away” with your time and resources, when doing something else.

    How much time does reading a book take? Relatively much when compared to most alternatives in the article. So the people who value their time, or have less of it, should logically spend it with books that are as MUCH of value to them as possible. And they should be quite willing to pay good money for it, instead of doing something more wasteful with their time.

    I’m leaving out “normal and below-par quality” reading out of this, because the supply-demand is excitingly weird these days. And the classic $99 hamburger case is another extreme.

    So instead of comparing how much books cost, maybe readers and authors plus everyone inbetween should start thinking: how much is this book worth.

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