E-Book of The Talon of Horus Now Available

[Conn Eremon]

Amazon is where I do the vast majority of my ebook purchasing as well, so I am going to ditto Thee85.

[caladancid]

While we are trying to defend Black Library's pricing, let me just point out that it is MORE expensive to buy the eBook version of HH books that it is to buy the paperback version.

 

I would love to get the new work by ADB, I think he is a fantastic writer, and I wouldn't mind even paying more now. But for me with Black Library, it is getting out of hand. I don't know why all of a sudden the HH books are 11.99 to 15.99 for ebooks.

 

The sample I downloaded of ToH makes me very excited to buy it, but I just can't support whatever craziness is going on right now with Black Library/Games Workshop.

[Lucien Eilam]

I don't know why all of a sudden the HH books are 11.99 to 15.99 for ebooks.

If only somebody had taken the time to write a post explaining it somewhere.

[Emperors Immortals]

Just had to say Im glad for the opportunity to buy it. Ive now read it twice and as a CSM and Slaanesh fan im absolutly stoked. A few more references to BA and im set.

 

Now to try and pick up a limited ed copy. ;D

[caladancid]

My point was that they had raised the price of ALL ebooks, not just new ones, which has very little to do with your explanation.

[Phoebus]

I get that the logic is "If we don't raise the price for the eBooks we won't get anyone to buy the hardbacks" but until someone shows me that it costs the publisher as much to produce an eBook as it does to print and distribute a hardback book, I'll be disgruntled about this.  Mind you, this is coming from someone who was more than happy to purchase the First Edition of the book in question.

 

What makes me mad about this is the idea that physical books are increasingly being kept afloat at the expense of digital ones, and that the customer is paying a premium to make this happen.  To put it in perspective, USA Today reported last year that eBook sales had increased by over 4000% since 2008, but that sales had gone up by only 43% in 2013.  Late in 2013 and early in 2014, Forbes and other media organs indicated that eBook sales were actually down about 5%, and that the "natural point of resistance" had been reached: that is, the point where we've identified just how many people would rather read digital books as opposed to physical ones.

 

To which I would like to say, "That's B.S."

 

I don't think it's a coincidence that eBook sales slowed down/dropped around the same time period that publishers said, "Oh, crap, we better raise eBook prices so that they compare better with hardback ones."  After all, that's pretty much what several major publishers tried to achieve according to the summary of findings in the case of the U.S. versus Apple.

 

I'm a fan of Black Library.  I wish them to do well, and I hope that those authors of theirs who have consistently done this setting justice (I'm looking at you, A D-B) are graced with enough profits so that they can bathe in banknotes if they so wish.  I respect Black Library's right to seek success and make business decisions that aid in that.  I can't get behind this eBook/hardback price correlation, though.

 

Am I going to go on some sort of reading strike?  No.  Reading fiction is a hobby for me.  It's not a necessity, and it doesn't affect my wallet that much.  That having been said, I can't help but throw my two cents' worth in.

[Lucien Eilam]

I get that the logic is "If we don't raise the price for the eBooks we won't get anyone to buy the hardbacks"

 

No, it has nothing to do with protecting another format. They want people to buy the most profitable formats. That's limited editions, followed by digital direct from blacklibrary.com. If everyone was ready and willing to do that, standard hardbacks probably wouldn't even exist.

 

The logic is simply that when they release a hardback first instead of a paperback, they can charge more for the ebook.

 

until someone shows me that it costs the publisher as much to produce an eBook as it does to print and distribute a hardback book

 

Well, it kind of does, but not because either costs a lot. The price of any edition is barely related to what it cost to make, only what the market is willing to bear. Hardbacks don't cost much more to produce than paperback, but their perceived value is much higher.

[caladancid]

I am really interested to hear how you apply all of what you said to books that already existed as paperback...and in fact ONLY existed as paperbacks when the price of eBooks increased to greater than that of the paperback.

[A D-B]

 

until someone shows me that it costs the publisher as much to produce an eBook as it does to print and distribute a hardback book

 

Well, it kind of does, but not because either costs a lot. The price of any edition is barely related to what it cost to make, only what the market is willing to bear. Hardbacks don't cost much more to produce than paperback, but their perceived value is much higher.

 

 

True. And, frankly, there's a lot of the book trade's ups and downs itself in this. Please note (again) that at no point am I saying it's cheap or that I expect people to buy any format, at any point. But the value of books is something that the market itself is trying to decide right now. Production costs are much more than printing and distribution. The wages of everyone involved, for a start. Editors, layout designers, cover artists, marketers, and so on. And the authors themselves. That novel took me a year to write, during which I took on practically no other work. How much does that 'cost'? What would be a fair percentage of royalties? And so on.

 

Printing and distribution have never been things that hit the publisher as hard as many people believe, and there's a lot of everything else involved that costs money, too.

 

Largely due to Amazon, people are used to books costing next to nothing. That makes it frustrating to then have to pay a little more, but that's not even half the story. Writing isn't particularly profitable for 99% of writers at the best of times, and there's a huge movement in the author community that makes the case that Amazon is doing much more harm than good. The music industry took a billion hits, and I was the first person to argue that a CD shouldn't cost £17 with only a fraction going to the musician, but musicians have historically also made most of their money from touring, and have several other avenues available to them. That's never been the case for writers. Books costing next to nothing eventually means fewer and fewer professional authors, because it's no longer a sustainable career.

 

If someone thinks a book costing 3-5 beers is an unfair attack on the consumer, that's their call to make. I suspect my earnings are in the top percentile for sci-fi and fantasy novelists in the world, (figures seem to suggest that, and I know a fair few other authors in and out of BL) but I'd be incredibly surprised if I earned more than 50% of the individuals on this very forum. Again, I don't begrudge that or complain about it - or even believe people need to factor it into their lives at all. They don't, and shouldn't have to. I do well enough, I'm happy, and I'd do better if I wrote faster. But there's a fair argument that books being massively cheaper without printing and distribution is actually a pretty venomous model to go by. It's less about what you can subtract for an arbitrary end figure for the consumer, and more about what the final earnings are for the many, many people involved in a book's production regardless of format, given how long it takes and the effort involved. 

[Lucien Eilam]

I am really interested to hear how you apply all of what you said to books that already existed as paperback...and in fact ONLY existed as paperbacks when the price of eBooks increased to greater than that of the paperback.

 

Do you have an example? The only ones I'm aware of are the Horus Heresy novels, where they replaced the standard digital edition with the more expensive illustrated version. Those are more expensive than the standard paperback edition, but it's not the same product - their price is based on the equivalent illustrated paperback.

[RapatoR]

Slitghtly OT, but holy cow, beers are expensive in where you guys live. In Slovakian pub you could buy at least 20 beers for that price and about 40 good beers if you bought them in store. But then again, that price is 5% of my salary so yeah...

[DexC]

...musicians have historically also made most of their money from touring, and have several other avenues available to them. That's never been the case for writers.

Does that mean we can look forward to ADB spoken word tours in the future? I'd pay for that. I'd buy merch too.

[Bulwyf]

 

...musicians have historically also made most of their money from touring, and have several other avenues available to them. That's never been the case for writers.

Does that mean we can look forward to ADB spoken word tours in the future? I'd pay for that. I'd buy merch too.

 

 

BL has weekenders and some GW events in America. I am curious if ADB any other BL authors are exclusive by BL contract to only be able to attend BL/GW events or if they could host their own book signings or events. I personally would love to meet several of the BL authors (ADB at the top of the list)  and shake their hands if they were amendable. I am one of the people who consider the printed word in a sacred sense and the ability to entertain the mind as the highest of art forms.

[Bulwyf]

Slitghtly OT, but holy cow, beers are expensive in where you guys live. In Slovakian pub you could buy at least 20 beers for that price and about 40 good beers if you bought them in store. But then again, that price is 5% of my salary so yeah...

 

I'm more of a 15 to 30 year old Scotch man myself but in America the price of ToH was the equivalent of getting two large pizzas delivered to your house. Not to say there is anything wrong with beer, I do enjoy extra stout Guinness and my favorite brewpub where I live has an outstanding local brewery. But I wanted to give the pricing of the book a different context than just in beers.

[Phoebus]

 

I get that the logic is "If we don't raise the price for the eBooks we won't get anyone to buy the hardbacks"

 

No, it has nothing to do with protecting another format. They want people to buy the most profitable formats. That's limited editions, followed by digital direct from blacklibrary.com. If everyone was ready and willing to do that, standard hardbacks probably wouldn't even exist.

Don't take my word for it. I don't know what the motivations of British publishers were, but that is precisely what the big Amerian publishers were trying to do when they banded up with Apple:

 

1. Protect the hardback, whose sales were increasingly being down by cheaper eBooks.

2. Protect the "brick and mortar bookstores" where physical books are predominately sold.

3. And, of course, generally seek higher profit margin, which Amazon was cutting into with their oricin scheme.

 

But again, don't take my word for it. This is a matter of public record. Plenty of reputable media organs, from the Huffington Post to the Business Insider have provided indepth analysis of the verdict of U.S. vs Apple, to include providing the relevant excerpts pertaining to pricing schemes.

 

Well, it kind of does, but not because either costs a lot. The price of any edition is barely related to what it cost to make, only what the market is willing to bear. Hardbacks don't cost much more to produce than paperback, but their perceived value is much higher.

With respect, your answer had nothing to do with what I stated. Perceived worth to a customer and cost of production are two completely different things.