HUGE reduction in eBook prices

[caladancid]

I am not sure if Amazon forced it, or if BL finally decided to be reasonable, but the prices for Kindle BL books have gone down a ton! Yes!!

 

edit-

 

For clarity, it isn't all the books but it is many of them.

Edited May 1, 2019 by caladancid

[Marshal Rohr]

I fear this will only encourage more 80 dollar limited editions without the kind of content we got in SotE

[caladancid]

I don’t think I get it. Or are you saying reducing the price of ebooks will make them increase prices elsewhere?

[Apothecary Vaddon]

No, he's saying that expensive limited editions may become more commonplace, and not the kind that are jam packed with content a la Spear of the Emperor

[caladancid]

No, he's saying that expensive limited editions may become more commonplace, and not the kind that are jam packed with content a la Spear of the Emperor

Ok. Then I really am not understanding what this has to do with the Kindle versions of BL books going down in price.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

If the price of books in general on a platform go down, then surely something else will have to compensate, and that might be the special editions. 

[MegaVolt87]

If the price of books in general on a platform go down, then surely something else will have to compensate, and that might be the special editions. 

 

Only so many wales you can harpoon though. I am happy to wait months/ years for the HH softbacks. The bigger initial released ones just are not worth the money IMO. Thicker cardboard, some art not worth the mark up. I expect a proper leatherback/ hard cover + great paper quality for AUD$45 edition of a book. If the "hardback" HH books were like the primarchs ones, I would buy them. 

[Marshal Rohr]

 

No, he's saying that expensive limited editions may become more commonplace, and not the kind that are jam packed with content a la Spear of the Emperor

Ok. Then I really am not understanding what this has to do with the Kindle versions of BL books going down in price.

If ebook prices are going down, then we will all have to wait longer for a general release if BL can’t rely on them to bring in revenue like softbacks since the day the ebook is released it’s released for free on a hundred different torrent sites. It essentially makes limited editions black libraries only release option unless they hold back releasing ebooks until the very last wave something is released. For instance, Heresy books had their limited edition run, and then hardback and ebooks and then soft covers. Now they may only release ebooks with the softcover which can sometimes come out months or years after the hardback or general release. For an illustration search through the thread on the Ragnar Blackmane book ADB did where someone talks about downloading it. Edited May 2, 2019 by Marshal Rohr

[caladancid]

 

 

No, he's saying that expensive limited editions may become more commonplace, and not the kind that are jam packed with content a la Spear of the Emperor

Ok. Then I really am not understanding what this has to do with the Kindle versions of BL books going down in price.

If ebook prices are going down, then we will all have to wait longer for a general release if BL can’t rely on them to bring in revenue like softbacks since the day the ebook is released it’s released for free on a hundred different torrent sites. It essentially makes limited editions black libraries only release option unless they hold back releasing ebooks until the very last wave something is released. For instance, Heresy books had their limited edition run, and then hardback and ebooks and then soft covers. Now they may only release ebooks with the softcover which can sometimes come out months or years after the hardback or general release. For an illustration search through the thread on the Ragnar Blackmane book ADB did where someone talks about downloading it.

Ah ok. Tracking all. I am still happy these are reduced to a more reasonable price. We will see if in the future it’s a double edged sword I suppose.

[DarkChaplain]

Ebook prices going down only need to be compensated elsewhere if the prices going down actually result in reduced revenue. The way I see it, lowering the prices will drive up the sales volume, especially on Amazon, where before people would just move on to something else on the marketplace. If people think they're getting a better deal for their money, they're more willing to buy another, and another, rather than balking at the individual price and never daring to dive into the setting.

 

On top of that, ebooks are a digital product. We don't see paperback prices going down, but ebooks cost BL *nothing* to manufacture and sell. They're an intangible string of 0s and 1s. With Amazon, they don't even host them on their own servers and pay for traffic, either. They can easily afford lowering the ebook prices if the expectation is to drive more sales, hit the bestsellers sections more often, and get into people's faces. There's a reason why the Horus Heresy kept hitting NYT bestsellers rankings with its Mass Market format, but never really did again after switching to hardbacks that could be 6 times as expensive for a single copy, with ebooks being priced at ludicrous levels.

 

Their supply of ebooks is literally infinite. Demand for highly-priced ebooks on an exceptionally competitive marketplace, however, is not. Something has to give if you want to increase overall revenue: Raise prices, relying on a tiny minority of customers to make up for lost sales (the model Kirby drove with GW for ages, which spiralled them into ever further price hikes while moving relatively fewer products, year after year; also a model that is heavily utilized by mobile gaming companies), or you lower the bar of entry to attract a wider audience and offset the price reduction through additional sales.

A bit of a price reduction can easily motivate people to dig in double what they used to. Heck, even just looking at GW's bundle deals and two-army starters across both 40k and AoS, with a hefty discount compared to buying the kits individually, drives up sales volume enough to be worth doing and even expanding with more boxes on a quarterly basis. And that's for physical products with extra production effort, packaging, warehouse room, shipping to stores, etc. Ebooks have none of that attached to them. They're basically a modern byproduct of even just getting the book into print in the first place.

 

Discussing ebook piracy over this is also a bit silly, when you consider that a) it's already happening anyway and b ) the people involved are fans who I'd assume are just as willing to support authors they like as you or me, but may either not be liquid enough to afford BL's premium prices on a regular basis, be it for personal reasons or simply due to living in a low-income area - something that's been forcing compromise for the past two decades. Take Valve's Gabe Newell's comments on those emerging markets for reference in relation to video games. If your product costs as much as half a month of full-time work nets you in income, people will resort to sourcing it for free. They'll never be able to afford your products at a reasonable rate.

There's also the group of fans that'd wait for, say, a Horus Heresy paperback in the format the series started in, but are unwilling to wait for about a year if not more these days for the format to arrive, while online discourse is passing them by entirely and moves into the Siege. Those people will likely still continue buying the paperbacks, but do not wish to delay the experience for an indeterminate amount of time. Unless, of course, they ditch a book because it was terrible, but then you'd wonder if they'd even finish the ebook....

 

Generally, though, this move changes exactly nothing about the piracy aspect. If anything, it encourages previous pirates to come back and buy a book themselves for cheaper than before, especially when it comes to authors whose works they've previously enjoyed for free. None of this is without precedent (again, I can only refer back to gaming, where many traditional pirates stopped pirating altogether over adequate pricing and receiving a better service by spending money - it's a fascinating subject to follow). Rather than cheaper ebooks heralding an age of darkness, it may entice a reduction in piracy. After all, what do pirates care if a book gets cheaper? They got it for free anyway. You can't get cheaper than free without paying them to pick up their copy.

 

Lastly, I think BL has tested the waters sufficiently with their Humble Book Bundles over the years. They do well, get their material under the people, and go for peanuts. You can literally get nearly half the HH series for what, $15 sometimes? People will recognize good value like that and buy, even if it's free somewhere else online.

Edited May 2, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[Rob P]

Looks like physical book prices have gone down as well on Amazon - no idea why

 

Edit: ignore me - it's just usual fluctuations - some just look really low at the mo

Edited May 2, 2019 by Rob P

[Panzer]

I wouldn't be surprised if the e-book prices went down only because sales are too low. As already mentioned it's way too easy to pirate e-books and it always feels bad to pay lots of money for just a lot of digital words. Proper books at least have some physical value as well in that they can look pretty and you have something to put on your shelves. An e-book practically disappears when you close the app.

[DarkChaplain]

Doesn't help when ebook prices are identical with paperback prices. Omnibus volumes for 20€? 19,99€ for the ebook. In places, you'll even find ebooks more expensive than the print editions. It's not sensible, and not intuitive, and turns people off. Adding to that Amazon's price fluctuations (and thankfully those exist even in Germany, where prices are fixed to the MSRP printed on the back under normal circumstances, but the ruling does not affect English editions) and you'll see that print editions can be 5-6€ cheaper (omnibuses especially) compared to their digital, intangible counterparts.

[Kelborn]

Yeah, I was confused to see eBooks being more expensive than regular ones. Imho, the other wax around makes more sense as it is way more easier to get a pirate version of an eBook than a paperback.

 

Does it only affect a certain series Like the HH or is it generaly cheaper?

[b1soul]

@ Apothecary Vaddon

 

"If the price of books in general on a platform go down, then surely something else will have to compensate, and that might be the special editions."

 

Lowering prices might actually raise revenue and profit. It would depend on how the market reacts. It could result in a large increase of unit sales.

[caladancid]

Yeah, I was confused to see eBooks being more expensive than regular ones. Imho, the other wax around makes more sense as it is way more easier to get a pirate version of an eBook than a paperback.

 

Does it only affect a certain series Like the HH or is it generaly cheaper?

 

Because of Amazon discounts for physical copies, almost every BL eBook was more expensive than its physical counterpart once they were released. 

 

No longer! I honestly never thought BL would do something so customer friendly.  I've been doing my part to reward that decision haha.

[bluntblade]

Just to clarify, this is on Amazon and not the BL site, isn't it?

[aa.logan]

Just to clarify, this is on Amazon and not the BL site, isn't it?

And to further clarify, can anyone give examples of titles- I’m not seeing any

[Fenriwolf]

 

Just to clarify, this is on Amazon and not the BL site, isn't it?

And to further clarify, can anyone give examples of titles- I’m not seeing any

 

Deathwatch:Shadowbreaker is 11.50€ (give or take in the £=>€) on amazon and while it's not avaiable on their site the usual BL price for ebooks of first-edition-in-hardback is usually 13.5€

 

That's always been the problem,they started pricing ebooks based on the price of the first print of the book and then never update it,and this messed up stuff big time when hardbacks became the "first edition",to the point where the later released paperback is cheaper than digital

Edited May 4, 2019 by Fenriwolf

[caladancid]

Just to clarify, this is on Amazon and not the BL site, isn't it?

 

 

 

Just to clarify, this is on Amazon and not the BL site, isn't it?

And to further clarify, can anyone give examples of titles- I’m not seeing any

 

 

Yes on Amazon, I haven't checked BL site- don't go there very often any longer.

 

Most of the HH dropped to 11.99 from 15.99.  I bought Vengeful Spirit at the new price point. 

[Ascanius]

I know someone who used to pirate the Horus Heresy audiobooks when the only option was Black Library's very high prices, but now subscribes through Audible to continue the series. I use Audible now myself, especially since when there isn't a new one I can try other Black Library books (currently listening to Shadowbreaker) or books from other authors I enjoy - listened to L.A. Confidential earlier this year, which was a very different experience even though I've reread it probably a dozen times in print.

[caladancid]

So some very weird stuff going on with BL ebooks.

 

None of this week's releases are available on Kindle, though they are all available on the Apple book store.  Additionally, none of the books previously mentioned here as being reduced in price on the Kindle webstore have had a comparable reduction in the Apple store.

 

I am a bit fed up with BL's utterly ridiculous business practices, and now I am wondering if they are continuing to struggle with Amazon.

[DarkChaplain]

The inconsistency is what's getting me. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it, and that makes it tough to either plan ahead or even just get excited about upcoming stuff.

[Marshal Vespasian]

I can remember a time when BL softcover books in english were 5€ on amazon.

As much as I love 40k I dont really need the books in my shelf. Actually after moving quite a bit over the last few years, I am pretty glad about every book, that I can get on my ebook reader.

[Biscuittzz]

So some very weird stuff going on with BL ebooks.

 

None of this week's releases are available on Kindle, though they are all available on the Apple book store.  Additionally, none of the books previously mentioned here as being reduced in price on the Kindle webstore have had a comparable reduction in the Apple store.

 

I am a bit fed up with BL's utterly ridiculous business practices, and now I am wondering if they are continuing to struggle with Amazon.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. When a lot of their works were restricted to the BL site itself I think they were able to price it however they wanted and basically said to customers take it or leave it. If they want to benefit from the overall Amazon service they have to start falling in line with the standard ebook versus print edition pricing structure, otherwise Amazon will likely tell them were to go.