Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on [email protected] for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact [email protected]

Price of Sci Fi & Fantasy Books

2

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    The kindle has me baffled at times, i stopped getting the starwars book because they started coming out in hardback which obviously drove up the price and i always thought hardback was taking the piss on a book 2-300 pages long. Anyway got a pad there the other day; one of the main reasons was the kindle stores. anyways the s.war books are like 30 dollars on kindle almost twice the hardback price so screw that. could'nt get over it because a dance with dragons kindle was cheaper than the physical book.

    Some books are priced weirdly high on the Kindle store, almost as if the publisher had to release an e-book version but deliberately didn't want to sell many copies or something. That said, for the most part books on the Kindle Store are decent bargains versus going into a brick and mortar store and buying a book.


  • Registered Users Posts: 81 ✭✭lacase


    I have no problem with ebooks, but I have with their pricing policy. They have no real production cost and no distribution cost so what they are making is mostly profit. If they want to convert people to spend a lot of money to buy their ereaders they need to make ebook more competitive to cover the initial outlay and get people to buy then. Otherwise long term ebooks will end up as just another fad.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,091 ✭✭✭Antar Bolaeisk


    The actual printing of the book doesn't cost that much, it still needs to be edited and proofed before going to the Kindle so that adds a certain amount of cost, the publisher wants to get their cut (which is why Amazon published books are so cheap) and the writer has to get paid for their long toil in writing the book.

    For a brand new book I would happily around ten euro for the Kindle edition (A Dance With Dragons was €8, definitely a bargain) but I do agree that charging the RRP for a hardback edition is not on.


  • Registered Users Posts: 907 ✭✭✭macinalli


    Saw this in an email & thought of this thread. Mrs Mills, the agony-aunt at The Sunday Times, had a interesting question last week:

    Q: 'My girlfriend has just introduced me to a new verb, "to Waterstones", which means visiting a Waterstone's bookshop to peruse a book you are thinking of buying, before returning home and ordering the same book on Amazon at a discount. I am uncertain about the duplicity involved. Am I just being a wuss?' NS, Edinburgh.

    A: No, but you are making a contribution to the collapse of the local high street, further undermining the local community, chipping away at the thin veneer of civilisation and, ultimately, creating a disaffected and alienated urban environment. Is it worth it for a half-price copy of Jodi Picoult?


  • Registered Users Posts: 81 ✭✭lacase


    Even better news on cost the Book Depositary website are offering 10% discount on all books until the end of the month. This is on top of their normal discounts. This reads like an ad, but I was just on there website and saw it. You have to remember to add May 11 in the discount coupon box at check out to get it. Anything that brings down the cost of Sci-Fi & Fantasy books has to be welcome. Time to stock up :-)


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭BlaasForRafa


    lacase wrote: »
    Even better news on cost the Book Depositary website are offering 10% discount on all books until the end of the month. This is on top of their normal discounts. This reads like an ad, but I was just on there website and saw it. You have to remember to add May 11 in the discount coupon box at check out to get it. Anything that brings down the cost of Sci-Fi & Fantasy books has to be welcome. Time to stock up :-)

    I got that email as well, its pretty deadly.

    Also, I should have mentioned this before but bookdepository are affiliated with fatcheese.ie. this means that if you register with fatcheese and go to bookdepository site through the fatcheese link you get 4% cashback. ka-ching! :D


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 3,001 Mod ✭✭✭✭Black Sheep


    Regarding the collapse of high-street bookshops and 'Waterstones'-

    Isn't there any irony there, that considering large chains like Waterstones punished independent booksellers in the U.K and put many out of business, and now they themselves are struggling in the face of online sellers?

    I wonder if eventually the only brick and mortar bookshops will be Chapters-style stores doing overstocks, second hand and reduced cost books ... And everything else tending towards online sales?


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    lacase wrote: »
    I have no problem with ebooks, but I have with their pricing policy. They have no real production cost and no distribution cost so what they are making is mostly profit. If they want to convert people to spend a lot of money to buy their ereaders they need to make ebook more competitive to cover the initial outlay and get people to buy then. Otherwise long term ebooks will end up as just another fad.

    I don't think it will be a fad, in the past I've read thousands of books on paper, love the feel, the smell - the bookcases full of my precious reads - and yet today I'm reading solely off a kindle.

    As for pricing, the piracy of ebooks is now coming onstream, like music and films before them, the publishers seem to want to use DRM to make life worse for *their* customers, making a copy I pay for worse than something available for nothing. The current lending rules on amazon are a joke, and if what I buy cannot be resold second-hand, nor lent to my friends/family then it definitely has less value to me than a book in my hand. DRM-free music certainly hasn't meant itunes has to close down, I don't see why it can't be the same for ebooks.

    I have no problem with the ebook market being like the games market - on release it has a premium price (like the old hardback) then after a while the price drops a bit - even though it's all just bits and bytes.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,976 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    pH wrote: »
    As for pricing, the piracy of ebooks is now coming onstream, like music and films before them, the publishers seem to want to use DRM to make life worse for *their* customers, making a copy I pay for worse than something available for nothing. The current lending rules on amazon are a joke, and if what I buy cannot be resold second-hand, nor lent to my friends/family then it definitely has less value to me than a book in my hand.
    If they're not careful then, they'll risk alienating the customers who will source other means to get the books where they'll end up paying significantly less. High prices, in excess of hardback prices, will certainly do this. "A Dance with Dragons" for the Kindle is a good example of eBook pricing done correctly, which others should follow.
    Making books unavailable, due to territorial licensing issues, is another big issue that could put people off.
    Yes there's reasons for both of them - I don't care, really I don't. Sort it out.

    As for not being able to lend a book - it's not something I've generally done but I agree it should be possible (I mean you can also sell off your dead tree books).
    People only have so much patience before they go elsewhere. It's not difficult to remove DRM on books so that you can share with family. And from there it's not difficult to share with a larger audience.


  • Registered Users Posts: 907 ✭✭✭macinalli


    I wonder if eventually the only brick and mortar bookshops will be Chapters-style stores doing overstocks, second hand and reduced cost books ... And everything else tending towards online sales?

    I don't think it works that way. One of the reasons online is cheaper is that they're very lean and don't have lots of stock on standby to keep bricks & mortar shops in stock. If the big shops disappear, then so too do the overstocks, followed then by the Chapters style stores...


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 239 ✭✭Surion


    Regarding the collapse of high-street bookshops and 'Waterstones'-

    Isn't there any irony there, that considering large chains like Waterstones punished independent booksellers in the U.K and put many out of business, and now they themselves are struggling in the face of online sellers?

    I wonder if eventually the only brick and mortar bookshops will be Chapters-style stores doing overstocks, second hand and reduced cost books ... And everything else tending towards online sales?

    I buy virtually all books in Chapters. Eg, got the trudi caravan, Ambassadors Mission at 8.99. The hard back was 4.99 (didn't want the big size). Easons about 2 weeks ago were €18.99 or aomething like that, in there sale I've waited a few months after publication and picked up all recent fantasy stuff at bargain prices. It means waiting, but they have a fantasy type table, and I'm pretty chuffed with what I've bought off it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,707 ✭✭✭MikeC101


    The bargain table in Chapters is impressive - I got books 1 and 3 of Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" for 4.50 each on Saturday, had to buy book 2 for something like 10 euro, admittedly it may have been cheaper on book depository, but it's hard to beat being able to browse through books in an actual store and I don't mind paying a bit more to have them there and then.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,727 ✭✭✭✭Godge


    A Dance with Dragons is £12.50 on amazon at the moment (€18.27 on books depositary)


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,920 ✭✭✭AnCapaillMor


    Ok a question for the kindle dudes, does anything show up for a preorder of a kindle book. i've gone through the process of ordering dance with dragons and have gotten no emails and nothing shows on my amazon account.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,976 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Ok a question for the kindle dudes, does anything show up for a preorder of a kindle book. i've gone through the process of ordering dance with dragons and have gotten no emails and nothing shows on my amazon account.
    Nope. I've got it on preorder too but can't find any mention of it. It was the same when I ordered Embassy town.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,982 ✭✭✭Johnny Storm


    My profoundly profound thoughts:
    • bookDEPOSITory.co.uk is the biz. Great prices, free shipping. (I find books on Amazon then order them from the deposit boys)
    • I cant believe the price of books in Canada, Oz, NZ etc! I thought those were civilised countries (well Canada anyway...)?
    • I got a Kindle the Xmas before last and I sent it back due to the really piss poor selection of books available in Ireland (particularly SF). May be different now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,920 ✭✭✭AnCapaillMor


    Uhoh think I may have ordered it twice then.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,255 ✭✭✭anonymous_joe


    My profoundly profound thoughts:
    • bookDEPOSITory.co.uk is the biz. Great prices, free shipping. (I find books on Amazon then order them from the deposit boys)
    • I cant believe the price of books in Canada, Oz, NZ etc! I thought those were civilised countries (well Canada anyway...)?
    • I got a Kindle the Xmas before last and I sent it back due to the really piss poor selection of books available in Ireland (particularly SF). May be different now.

    Sure Amazon itself is incredibly cheap compared to the prices in the shops here.

    I'm amazed Waterstones had any custom at all with those prices, even if I do miss the shop.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,976 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Uhoh think I may have ordered it twice then.
    Nope - I was wrong. It's listed under "Digital Orders" in your Amazon a/c. I just checked.
    I got a Kindle the Xmas before last and I sent it back due to the really piss poor selection of books available in Ireland (particularly SF). May be different now.
    No there's still far too many unavailable. People will end up getting them on their Kindle in some way...


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,636 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    I'm a kindle using since year's start. It would be a 1:2 split between ebooks and paper; rather traditionist + there is sometime very tactile about handling a book. Apart from one discounted book at Easons (Desert Spear), I've completed avoid it relying instead on my local bookshop, Waterstones 3 for 2, but mostly bookdepository.


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,449 ✭✭✭SuperInfinity


    I think buying on the highstreet is a bit of a farce these days. I feel a bit sorry for this but of course I'm not going to spend my money to support an industry/business model that doesn't work for me. If it was like 10-20% difference I wouldn't mind paying it sometimes. But the prices....

    I saw a good book but in poorish condition (second-hand) at a store the other day with also a sale on to make it cheaper again. So I thought I may as well buy it and couldn't be that much out of pocket (I had intended on just browsing, maybe I would find something and buy it online). So I checked online, and at bookdepository I found it actually very slightly cheaper and brand new. It's a hardback book with quality pages, and being new makes a difference.

    But to think that even in some of the best offers you'll find in stores, online will STILL be cheaper. I have the feeling that that's the last book I will ever buy in a highstreet bookstore.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,920 ✭✭✭AnCapaillMor


    ixoy wrote: »
    Nope - I was wrong. It's listed under "Digital Orders" in your Amazon a/c. I just checked.


    Thank you sir and apparently i only bought it once, so cool.


  • Registered Users Posts: 907 ✭✭✭macinalli


    I had intended on just browsing, maybe I would find something and buy it online

    It seems to be pretty common nowadays - people browse in the bookshop and buy online. In fact I don't think that I've ever bought a book without looking through it first. The inevitable consequence of buying everything online though is that more and more book shops will disappear and you'll have nowhere to browse. It's easy to buy the next GRR Martin or Steven Erikson online, but it;s not easy to find a good, original book from browsing the interweb...


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,982 ✭✭✭Johnny Storm


    Turns out now that Amazon are buying Book DEpository (subject to a monopoly review in the UK)

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0708/1224300295484.html

    I can't imagine this turning out well for book-buying cheapskates like me ... :(


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭BlaasForRafa


    Turns out now that Amazon are buying Book DEpository (subject to a monopoly review in the UK)

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0708/1224300295484.html

    I can't imagine this turning out well for book-buying cheapskates like me ... :(

    Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    I use both and like them both but this is really BAD for competition.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,551 ✭✭✭Goldstein


    Turns out now that Amazon are buying Book DEpository (subject to a monopoly review in the UK)

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0708/1224300295484.html

    I can't imagine this turning out well for book-buying cheapskates like me ... :(

    So they're just buying their competition to eliminate them? bad news indeed for consumers.

    Well, at least they served us well in the past - I'm set for (at last calculation) 18 years with yet to read science fiction books :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,382 ✭✭✭PhiloCypher


    Paid 24 yoyo's for hardback Dance of Dragons in the Dubray books , am I a chump was I robbed ? how much did the rest of you pay ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,123 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    Paid 26 in the Loft Bookshop but reckoned the extra couple of euro was worth it in order to get it on midnight of release...

    Had I any patience / faith in An Post I should have just pre-ordered it on Amazon...


  • Registered Users Posts: 372 ✭✭JD1763


    Its €25 in Hodgis Figgis on special, think their regular price will be €35 given the second price tag inside the cover. I ordered mine off amazon for £12.99 and got free shipping as part of a larger order. But have to wait another few days before it arrives.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 1,129 ✭✭✭pljudge321


    Paid 24 yoyo's for hardback Dance of Dragons in the Dubray books , am I a chump was I robbed ? how much did the rest of you pay ?

    €15.75 in Waterstones, its half price in there all week. Of course you have to be in Cork which could be a disadvantage.


Advertisement