Now in US Kindle store, but prices are crazy

[randian]

Black Library finally has a bunch of WH40k stuff, including the Horus Heresy novels, in the US Kindle store (only about a year late). The prices are nuts though. Let's say you want Horus Rising. $8.97 in paperback or $15.99 for the Kindle edition. Generally, the Kindle editions are between 1.5-2.2x the price of the equivalent paperback and about 1.3x the hardback (if one is available). There are some bundles that get prices down to around $11/book or so, still significantly more than a paperback, and as a bonus Black Library is lazy about making them. In a 40+ main novel series only the first 25 novels have bundles that I can see, so you're stuck paying full price for anything less than about 4 years old, and the short stories and novellas don't seem to be in any bundle. I'm not sure what Games Workshop's pricing strategy is, but I find it a very poor one if it's intended to get me to jump into ebooks. If the intent is to get me to never buy an ebook from them then it's a spectacular success.

Edited December 24, 2017 by randian

[Xisor]

I know there's tax interplay that can complicate the pricing - in the UK I'm vaguely certain ebooks pay VAT where print books don't.

 

Also some exchange rate considerations, though I don't know enough to even begin to suggest how that breaks down.

 

That said: I've long moaned about the ebook pricing here. Fortunately the Amazon and BL website ones match up neatly.

[Phoebus]

It’s not just Kindle. $15.99 has been the price for Black Library eBooks for some time now. That’s about $1 more than the price point for most mainstream novels (with lower prices usually indicating something that was written a while back or a new author).

 

Really, the only pricing outrage* is Black Library pricing the eBook variant of “limited edition” novellas (with a fraction of the normal Black Library word count/page count) at $10 or more than what they charge for novels. Those prices eventually come down (e.g., Cybernetica and Ragnar Blackamane were both initially $24, and are now $16), but the obvious solution would be to just withhold the eBook edition until after the actually Limited product is sold out.

 

* I’m being semi-facetious here; I do think “limited” eBook products are overpriced, but I don’t think they constitute an actual outrage.

Edited December 24, 2017 by Phoebus

[caladancid]

I am glad to see they have finally worked out whatever the snag was on getting to the Kindle Store!

 

I generally think the prices are ridiculous, there is just no way to justify selling an eBook for more than the paperback (to me).  Most of the novels I get on Kindle, not Black Library, are 9.99 or lower even when the books themselves are new.  It is hard to imagine that people other than hardcore HH or 40k fans have been or will start supporting the line at the current prices.

 

I hope more people read the books because of this, but I also hope there is some compromise with reasonableness.

[Bulwyf]

It will never cease to amuse me that  a digital download is more expensive (by almost double in this situation) than an actual, physical book. I mean, really? Does VAT make that much of a difference?

[R_F_D]

e-Books do get charged V.A.T, certainly on Amazon.co.uk.

 

I think as ever, I'd just like BL/GW to sort out the price variations for books, collections, trilogies  - whatever the format.