I have thoughts about ebook pricing.
And I’ve decided that I’m going to start putting those thoughts BACK on my blog like God and the internet intended back in 2010.
I saw a reader today respond to an author who was talking about WHY authors price books at $6.99 and above instead of the bare bones$0.99 or even FREE with a comment along the lines of:
“The problem with ebooks is that you don’t really own them, you’re only owning a license. You can share them. You can’t resell them.”
Reader… I HAVE THOUGHTS.
First, let’s get to the bare bones of WHY you’re only buying a digital license and that’s because… that’s all you can ever buy from a retailer! That is ALL THEY ARE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO SELL YOU. (If you’re an intellectual property attorney and I am not correct on this, please do feel free to correct me in the comments. I am happy to revise this.)
See, the way this whole thing works is I upload my book on a self-publishing platform or a big publisher does the same. Amazon/Barnes & Noble/Apple does not own that content! They’re selling it, but they don’t own the copyright.
They have no right to reproduce that content without my (or any publisher’s) consent. This is a good thing. It protects creators.
But here’s the downside to that from a reader/buyer perspective. If I decide to UNpublish a book, then they can no longer host that license and unless you download that ebook file to your reader and never update your device, then they can’t continue to host that file in their cloud of bits and bytes.
That’s not them being jerks, that’s them following the law.
In this theoretical situation, I have withdrawn my permission for them to sell or host that book. They can’t let you download the ebook anymore, even though you bought a license!
Now again, if you’ve downloaded that ebook to an ereader and you never sync that kindle or tablet again, never unload it, then you’re not going to lose the file, and that’s why I make all my Bookfunnel books you buy from my direct store downloadable (except for audiobooks because of massive and very costly piracy concerns.) But if you’re using the cloud storage on Amazon or Apple or B&N or any digital retailer to store your books, then that ebook can only be stored in that cloud for as long as that retailer has permission from the publisher to keep that content.
And THAT is why you’re only buying a license to read that book. Because that’s all you can buy from a retailer.
Now let me let you in on a secret that doesn’t seem to bother anyone in any other form of entertainment.
That’s the way ALL DIGITAL MEDIA works.
Music from Apple? Digital license.
Movie from Prime? Digital license.
Software from Adobe? Digital license.
That’s the way intellectual property works in the digital space. But somehow I only see people complaining this loudly and this hard when it comes to paying a fair price for books.
So let’s really examine what $6.99 will get you in life these days.
It’ll get a cup of fancy coffee from Starbucks that’s gone in thirty minutes or probably less.
It’ll get you a delicious In N Out Burger (also gone pretty quickly.)
It’ll get you five and a half songs on iTunes from Gracie Abrams’s new album that last about sixteen minutes. (Solid buy. The new album is great.)
It’ll get you half an audiobook from Audible that lasts for… maybe six hours.
It’ll get you a rental of Project Hail Mary (FANTASTIC MOVIE) on Prime with a dollar to spare! (But just a rental.)
Or it’ll get you a book from an indie author that’s over three hundred pages and lasts for hours or days, depending on how fast you read.
So yes, let’s be smart about how we spend our money, but let’s not use the “it’s just a digital license” as an excuse to criticize indie authors for pricing their books fairly.
Writing books costs money, and my career is proof that you CAN make a good living as a writer with luck, hard work, and perseverance. But that’s only because I charge a fair price for my books.
