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Scott Pack

Scott Pack is publisher at The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins.

E-book pricing

08.10.09

I have become obsessed with the Waterstone's e-book chart. I check it daily, which is bloody stupid seeing as they only seem to update it once a week (please sort that out Waterstone's) but I can't help myself.

The reason for this mild case of OCD is simple: in August we reduced the price of all our e-books. With the full co-operation of our authors we issued a batch of eight titles at £2.99 or below. These had all been available at “full price” up until that point, with the same r.r.p. as the printed books.

We did this for a number of reasons. We are always looking for new ways to find readers for our books. As a publisher that specialises in turning web content into books, the dawn of the e-book era is very attractive to us—a format that is closer to the original material than the printed version. E-books represent an opportunity to get our titles, especially our backlist, to a whole new audience. And, perhaps the most compelling reason, we were selling bugger all at full price.

And the results of this experiment (because it is an experiment, not a policy, precedent or fixed price structure)? Our sales have gone through the roof.

As I write, the number two book on the whole Waterstone's e-book chart is The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke. The print book is not currently promoted anywhere but the e-book has become a bestseller. Yes, that is down to the promotional price of 99p but we are looking to build a series and some strategic pricing now could stand us in good stead for books two and three. The other seven titles are also faring well at £2.99. We currently have the number one e-book in humour, number one and number eight in biography, number two in health, number one in hobbies and the top two in reference.

I am not suggesting that all e-books should be priced this way but I am convinced it has worked for us with these titles. E-books are a new way to generate revenue but they are also a wonderful opportunity to rejuvenate backlist and a route to new readers.

I don't believe there is a one-size fits all approach when it comes to pricing—forthcoming Friday Project e-books include some at £4.99 and £7.99—but at the moment customers only really have a choice between full price or free, with very little in between. I think our experiment proves that there is plenty of room for an in between if we are sensible about which books we promote and what price we promote them at.
 

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By Scott Pack

I should point out that the above article was written a couple of weeks ago. Since then Waterstone's have changed their website which threw the chart out of whack for a bit. Our eBooks are still performing well and a new batch of £2.99 titles will be appearing any minute but whether we will hit the dizzy heights of these chart positions from a couple of weeks ago remains to be seen. It is an ongoing experiment and I hope to report back in future if anyone is interested.

09 Oct 09 10:55

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By CMS

So it's a question of publishers finding their e-spot.

09 Oct 09 15:41

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By Gary Gibson

I'm delighted that you've had the courage to take this step and come out triumphant, but after reading this article I've had excessive trouble actually finding out anything else about the low-priced books you've published anywhere on the net. The Friday Project website seems to mention nothing about it, and indeed your article is the first I've heard of it. All kudos to you for your success, but perhaps you'd enjoy even greater sales if people such as myself could actually find information about the titles concerned.

10 Oct 09 05:32

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By Scott Pack

Thanks for your kind words Gary. If you go to the Waterstone's eBook home page - http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/browse/ebooks/4294964587/ - then you will see a whole section of TFP books on display. Your point about promotion/advertising is obviously a very good one but as part of the experiment we have deliberately kept this to a minimum to see how much of the sales increase could be put down to the price alone. A very tricky thing to work out but if we had come out all guns blazing with big features on our site, across the web, stuff in the trade press etc. then our analysis would have to assume that a percentage of sales was down to promotion and advertising. Now that these eight books have been out there in a reasonably low-key way and performed so well we will be launching a much wider range of titles at these price points and making a big song and dance about it. We are convinced that the pricing works and will now take that to the next step. Hope that makes sense.

10 Oct 09 06:25

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By Rachel Green

Fascinating. I wish my publisher would do the same -- I'd rather sell (x) e-books at 99p than zero printed copies at £7

11 Oct 09 07:35

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By Gary Gibson

That makes a lot of sense, Scott. Speaking as the owner of a Sony Reader, I've rediscovered a voracious appetite for ebooks, yet find myself desperately constrained due to sometimes incredibly high prices. I really hope you sell a lot of books.

11 Oct 09 07:49

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By Peta

Although I don't have an e-reader (other than iphone which does not really count!) I've downloaded several of Tor's free eBooks which tend to be the first in a series and, having liked what I read, went on to buy the whole series. I am convinced that there is a "try it, love it, buy it" market out there and that discounting a product to generate buzz/increase sales can only be a good thing. 1) Good luck with your initiative and 2) I am off to Waterstones ;)

11 Oct 09 08:48

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By John Higgs

Yeah the 'sweetspot' for eBooks is definitely between three and five quid. I'd be interested to find out what the sales figures for Agatha Christie eBooks are, now that they've dropped from about £8 to about £3.50. That got me to buy a couple, which I would not have done at £8. Ultimately if the industry as whole doesn't get this pricing issue soon, a piracy culture will become the norm and will prove very difficult to shift. It's amazing the amount of pirate books you can find online already. The sooner the majority of eBooks are DRM-free and less than a fiver, the better for everyone.

11 Oct 09 15:28

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By Julian Rivers

Scott is doing exactly what all good publishers need to do . Realise that they should price promote suitable E book titles rather than build a wall around an uncommercial [high] pricing policy. Soon other publishers and authors will want to break the convention of pricing E books higher than hardbacks , a policy which will not last .

12 Oct 09 14:08

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By Chris Nichol

Well it's good to have some EVIDENCE for a pricing strategy for once. Hopefully this will reduce the mindless bickering between those who want free content and those who want to charge the earth. A bit of INFORMED debate will be welcome.

14 Oct 09 14:53

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By Maria Schneider

I'd have to agree on your pricing strategy. For one, it's worked for my e-books, but for two, I follow an awful lot of Kindle boards and the going notion is "I won't pay the same for an ebook as a hard or paperback." Most Kindle users will give in and pay the paperback price for convenience, but generally speaking we're all looking for a deal. Oddly I've read a number of posts by Kindle owners that paid upwards of 200 dollars for the Kindle that claim they BOUGHT the Kindle to save money on buying books. They then quote the "price per book" based on their purchases over the last year. I read ebooks on my PC using mobi reader (all these readers are free, B&N has one, there's Stanza and so on.) and have been buying a lot more of them recently. As a long-time follower of Scott's blog, I'm going to have to check these titles out. Of course...they are probably only available in the UK, which will dash my hopes... But hey, I think you're right on with the pricing strategy--and delivery. So very, very rarely would I even contemplate ordering a book from the UK--just due to delivery times. Ebook fixes that.

25 Oct 09 12:36

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By Jonathan Fudge

Well, today, 1st Feb 2010, Waterstones is selling Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol at £13.59 as an eBook. However, you can get free delivery on a hard back for £11.39. Bearing in mind the high costs involved in production and delivery of physical books, the eBook should surley be CONSIDERABLY cheaper. I hate it when someone is taking the pee out of me!!!

01 Feb 10 08:26

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