You see an average sized book, like the look of the content, and decide it would be a worthwhile, useful addition to your resources. How much will you pay? How much of a factor is price in your decision to buy?
Having just read a review here on Cary Cooper's new book, where Phil, the reviewer, felt that £18.99 was a bit pricey for a book of 192 pages, I wondered what other folk thought?
Julie Cooper
Spring Development.net
16 Responses
interesting question….does price = value
I have a 1994 copy of 7 Habits….18 years old….cover price THEN £10.99
current edition, new price $9.57 or on audio book for £3.99
Is it supply and demand?……apparently he has sold 25 million copies so it is hardly in short supply (nor, one suspects is he short of cash)!
It also depends who is paying for it; I’m self employed and as tight as a drum, so I bought it secondhand. An L&D manager buying it for a company library with a budget would probably happily pay the cover price.
One book recently reviewed in the book club had a cover price of £80!
My best selling ebook retails for about £1 a copy.
Rus Slater
http://www.coach-and-courses.com
Not tight, just careful!
I think if I were buying a new book on spec, rather than on a recommendation or with a view to using the material in course design and so on (and so recouping my outlay), I would need to be convinced if it was more than about £15-20. Like Rus, I am self employed so always look for a bargain. I have bought a number of books via Amazon’s second hand service for just a few quid and been delighted.
Hope that helps.
Jenny
so……
Here is an unashamed plug…
20th of July my new book is out (already available for order on amazon/wh smith and all good online bookstores!) for the RRP of £12.99 (http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=9780273771166)
Advance copies were sent to selected professionals for review and here are just three of the "recommendations" that have been forthcoming:
1. "Be Your Own Career Coach is more than a book about careers, it is a guide and supportive friend to help you think through your direction in life and work. Practical and easy to read, it is ideal for those looking to find a first career as well as those seeking a change in direction. It is full of sensible questions, interesting quotes and down to earth advice, all designed to help you decide what is best for you. As well as addressing the world of work, you are also asked to think about the type of person you are and the type of life you wish to lead. These vital issues are approached with a lightness of touch that makes the journey through the book a lot less daunting than it might be. Read it and reap!"
2. "A Satnav for the highways of modern working life."
3. "Help yourself to a new career. An ideal no nonsense guide for those unhappy at work or with ambitions for the future."
Rus Slater
http://www.coach-and-courses.com
A reasonable price, Rus….
I’d say that’s a very fair price, Rus, also interesting that it’s about career coaching, whcih is where my background lies.
My first book, The One to One Toolkit: Tips and Strategies for Advisers, Coaches and Mentors retails at £14.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-One-Toolkit-Strategies-Advisers/dp/0955968003/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337846344&sr=1-1
No one has ever complained about the price, but then I don’t know how many people have not bought on price. Ditto second book (The Groupwork Toolkit). Would it have made any difference, I wonder, to Rus’s ebook sales at all if the price was £2? £3?
Do we even remember how much we paid for a book? And as Rus asks, does price =value? I value books on hthe amount oftimes I find myself turning to them, price long since forgotten.
My reason for asking was not to get an unashamed plug (Roll up! See my Amazon reviews!! 😉 ) but because I am a good way through a book which is going to be substantially bigger and my gut is telling me to put a bigger price tag on it.
Hooray, though, for the online second hand market. I once lost a couple of hundreds of pounds worth of my favourite books – not sure if they were stolen on ‘borrowed’ from a training event. I replaced the whole lot for £40
Julie Cooper
springdevelopment.net
if I remember correctly…..
……The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy scored over the rival Encyclopedia Galactica because not only was it slightly cheaper but also because it had the words "Don’t Panic" on the cover in large, friendly letters.
Perhaps the title is more important than the price if the price isn’t totally out of the ordinary.
(I think the other benefit of the Hitchhiker’s Guide was that it was a lot more portable (about the size of a Kindle!) so maybe ebook format is another selling point)
Rus
Kindle – iPad
It’s interesting, I am becoming increasingly disinclined to buy any book these days that is not in Kindle format. The ease of use, the absence of weight and volume and plus the fact that I can adjust the text size and form to a model that I find much more pleasing to read means I look more and more askance at the old technology of the ’book’.
Not for everyone I know, but it’s perfect for me.
one Kindle or…….
….a home with over 7,000 books……..sorry, to me, no contest.
I can appreciate the convenience of a Kindle, but a real, paper, book
Yeah
Ad Infinitum
As I said Rus: ‘Not for everyone I know, but it’s perfect for me.’
Add Ad Infinitum….
….I love the ebook, Garry, it is just so convenient. I’m not knocking it.
I just like the feel of "real" books as well!
Ad Nauseum
Yes Rus, I’m about to order this kindle format book before I discuss this matter any further with you:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dealing-With-Negative-People-ebook/dp/B004QWZA1C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1337931556&sr=8-4#_
I think…
…we can all agree that we each have our preferred formats.
I am trying to drag the book club into the 21st century by offering a couple of ebooks for review per month, to give community members the choice as clearly some prefer certain media over others, but publishers seem a bit slow on the uptake. You’d think that every publisher in 2012 would offer a kindle/ebook version but this is not the case.
Hey ho, I’ll keep trying.
Kindle
Whenever the spectre of folding publishing houses or closing high street book sellers are discussed they stick some boring old fart of a representative front and centre who extols the beauty of the ‘real thing’, and by that they mean the dust gathering, space stealing, musty hard or paperback book.
Just like the Music Industry before them Pandora’s box was opened and rifled through the minute this new technology hit the streets back in 2007. 1 in 5 national retail bookshops has closed on the High Street since 2006, and 26% for independent book sellers.
What most customers want is convenience, speed of delivery and a cheap price. In Britain a survey found that one in every 40 adults was given an e-reader for Christmas, and of those 92% were Kindles.
The tide has turned, the publishers like Canute are drowning in half hearted responses.
Blimey Garry, I think your statistics must be wrong……
…..finding a bookshop on the highstreet now suggests that the closure rates are far worse than you quote!
Kindle will have the same effect on real books that calculators had on slide rules
Rus
Depends on value and need
Depends on how specialised but normal range for me is up to £15.
Tend to be buying more second hand books these days AND books for ereader (Sony or Kindle).
Cheers, Andi
online bookstore
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online bookstore
Cost of textbooks
I believe knowledge is like a treasure that no one can take it away from us.We all learned it from books.Textbooks are very in important to us specially for students it helps them widen their knowledge in different things that they want to understand.And we all know that textbooks are expensive.Good thing the Amazon textbook rental plan now contains hardcopies.Get an installment loan to pay for your textbooks.