Epub's- ebook Price Comparisons

In my last review, the comments morphed into a different topic than the book itself and it brought up some issues that have been bothering me about the price of ebooks and how they affect my feelings about a book.

Lately, in my search for F/F books I've been getting more and more pissed off with the cost per word count in ebooks. This is especially noticeable in the lesbian/ F/F-bi genre because of its unpopularity and therefore lack of choice and availability.

At first I was not too aware of WC (word count) to price ratio because, as most readers, I'm used to thinking in terms of average mass market paperback of 250- 500 pgs. being all the same price. So I never thought in terms of WC.

With ebooks and epubs though, as Kirsten pointed out to me, there are all kinds of book lengths available and many 3K-10K short stories are being sold for almost the same price as a 100K paperback or even a 30K-40K ebook at some epubs. It's ridiculous!

Because the F/F genre doesn't have a huge amount of selections compared to M/M and M/F, we readers are often stuck with very short stories that are: not well written, edited badly and way over priced for that. Basically, we're screwed.

I'm getting fed up with it and am less willing to pay out that kind of money for crap, or something I can read in an hour. There are many free sites with often much better writing and story quality.

As far as lesbian and other f/f books go, even paper costs way more because it's a specialized niche market. So even if I want to go strictly paper, I have to fork out over $12-$16 for trade size 150-200+ page book.

Those pubs that specialize in lesbian/alternative fiction also do ebooks at times and charge the same $12-$16 for the ebook version. What...are they thinking?

So I've decided to rate different epubs based on cost per WC/page. One thing I'd like to point out is that many epubs don't give a word count. I think it's very tricky of them. However, if you wish to know, often those books are sold on sites like Fictionwise, which do list a word count for every book. And just for the record, I'm only doing epubs that offer the most f/f- Lesbian books.

I feel that Samhain Publishing is one of the fairest in its WC/ cost pricing so I set its pricing as my standard on which to judge others by.

Below is a general chart that I made up. I think if you click on it you can see it better. What it shows is that while a 20K story is 1/5 of a 100K, the cost is 1/3 to 2/3 of 100K story. I know that some would argue that the cost for a publisher is the same for a short story as a full length novel and therefore the cost has to be higher per word since the return is not the same. But as many point out, short stories and novellas sell a lot more, so the return is made up in volume. So I don't see why the cost needs to be so high for some epubs when others are keeping it at a fair and reasonable price.



Edited- MY BAD-- It was pointed out to me that Total-E-Bound prices were cheaper on their site than Fictionwise. I did get the prices for TEB from FW mainly because FW usually shows the epub price and then their price, which is cheaper.

Also, TEB has no price code per word count like Samhain does. Nor does it list WC on their book pages. So I literally would have had to open many books to get a WC to price range and I admit I was lazy on that part.

I did check with books I've bought from TEB and what they do is list the price, but when I get the CC statement, it shows that the list price is lower with a currency exchange amount, which totals the price given.

I didn't think about that this is a British company and that the exchange rate would affect the prices. Still though, they do appear to be very reasonable if you buy direct from them.

Samhain's WC/Cost key:

Short Stories: $2.50- (12-18K words)
Novellas: $3.50- (18-35K words)
Category: $4.40- (35-60K words)
Novel: $ $5.50- (60-100K words)
Plus Novel: $6.50- (over 100K words)

$ = fair price, close to Samhain's prices---I choose these sites and books over others first.
$$ = A little expensive, but still acceptable-- I'll still buy these books
$$$= Too expensive--- but for a good book I'd spend the money.
$$$$= Over the top ridiculous price for an ebook- Forget about it. I'm not spending that kind of money for any ebook, even if it's highly coveted.

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$$$ -Amber Quill Press- They don't have too many f/f books offered, but I find them to be fairly expensive for WC. Shows word count on books.

Amber Brief: (2,500 - 4,999 words)- $1
Amber Kiss: (5,000 - 10,000 words)- $2.50
Extended Amber Kiss: (11,000 - 17,000 words) $3-$4
Novella: (18,000 - 29,000 words) - $5
Extended Novella: (30,000 - 40,000 words) -$6
Novel: (41,000 - 70,000 words)- $7
Extended Novel: (71,000+ words) $8

I think Amber Quill charges too much money for what they offer and I probably won't buy from them in the future unless they are selling an author I really want to read. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$$ -Phaze- I like Phaze in general because they do offer a lot of f/f and they label it clearly, but their prices can be a high and the writing quality can be a bit iffy. Gives word count on most books.

Short story: (5, 000-12,000 words)-- $2-$2.50
Short / novella: (5,000-18,000 words)- $2- $3
Novella: (12, 000- 30,000 words)-$3- $4
Category: (30,000-60,000 words)- $5- $6
Novel: (60,000-90,000 words)-$6-
Mega-novel: (90,000 + words)- $6-

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$($)-Total-E-Bound- Doesn't hardly have any f/f, but there are a few f/f authors who I like that are pubbed through here, so I do buy from them. Doesn't show word count on their books, which I don't like.

Edited- These prices below are taken from Fictionwise, which has been pointed out to me to be higher than if you buy direct from TEB even with the exchange rate taken into account. I still don't want to slog through many of their books to get an exact price range, but on average they are $1-$2 cheaper if you buy direct from TEB.

Short Story - (10,000 to 15,000 words) - $3.06-$3.47
Novella - (15,001 - 30,000 words)-$5.11-$6.13
Novel - (30,001 - 60,000 words)-$6.09-$9.28
Super Novel - (60,001 - 100,000 words)- $7.16-$11.69
Super Plus Novel - (100,001+ words)-$11.69



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$$$-Loose-Id-- Only has a few f/f titles so I don't normally go there for f/f. Also, I just don't like their site. They don't give much info at all. They have no key code for WC to catagory, so when they list "Novel" on a book page, I have no clue what they are talking about. Going to fictionwise, this is what I came up with:

(20,000 -30,000 +/- words) - $4.99
(40,000 + words) - $5.99
(50,000 -60,000+ words)- $6.99
(70,000+ words)- $7.99

They don't sell short stories, so it looks like the lowest WC is around 20K. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$- Torquere Books- I've never bought from them so I don't have a clue about quality but I did some research. I had to go to Submissions section to get this info. It's not on their book pages. No WC or length info offered. Just price.

Sips: (3,000-8,000 words)-$1.29
Novelette: (10,000-15,000 words)- $2.49
Novella: (20,000+ words)- $3.95
Novel: (45,000+ words)- $5.95

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$$- Excessica- I've never bought from this pub either, so I can't speak to quality. They do have a book length chart, which is nice, although WC is not posted on the actual book page. Their web site is very slow to load, too slow. I would have given up if I wanted to buy something. As with a lot of epubs, the shorter the story, the more expensive in WC/cost ratio.

Short Shorts: (under 3K words)- $.99
Shorts: (3-7K words) -$1.99
Short stories: (7-15K words)- $2.99
Novella- (15-35K words)-$3.99
Novel- (35-70K words)- $4.99
Super novels- (70-150K words)- $5.99
Super XL Novels- (150-250K words)- None show up in this category.

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$$($)- Loveyoudivine Alterotica press- I only bought one book from them, which was OK. They have no WC chart, but do list word count on the book page. And they are all over the place in WC/ price. There doesn't seem to be a standard. Just some examples:

2,461 words- $2.75

3,702 words- $2

5,676 words- $2.75

9,067 words-$3
12,811 words-$3.50
10K- $4.49
14,267 words-$4


I think this press charges way too much for WC and I might, but probably won't, buy from them again unless I'm desperate for a f/f book. They do have their books through Fictionwise, which sells them much cheaper.

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$- I'll throw in Ellora's Cave even though as of this moment they don't have any f/f. It's going to change though, I hope. But they are one of the top epubs, so their stats are good to know.

Quickie: (up to 15K words)- $2.24
Novella: (15-30K words)-$4
Short Novel: (30-45K)-$4.68
Novel: (45-70K)- $5.35
Plus Novel: (70-100K)-$6.29
Super Plus: (100K+)- $7.19

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I've given a few examples of some more popular epubs, but there are some predominantly print pubs that do sell ebooks. Here are a couple that sell lesbian fiction.

$$$$- Bold Strokes Books- They are traditionally a niche print pub for Lesbian fiction- most of their print books cost between $12-16 in trade size for about 200+/- pages. Unfortunately, their ebooks are just as expensive, which is why I'd never buy and ebook from them.

They are all around $12.95 and they don't offer a huge download format range like epubs do. Nor do they give a word count. It's too bad because there are some good authors under Bold Strokes Books.

$$$$- L-Book Lesbian Fiction- They are also very expensive. They do give the WC on their book pages. What is nice about this pub is that they do offer many formats, even audio. I haven't bought from them, so I don't know about writing quality either.

60K -$10.95

175K- $13.95

One Hit F/F, F/F/M Wonders

Waring: music plays on this slide show

The other day I finished a book that really I enjoyed and like many before it, I went looking for the author’s backlist to see if she/he had written some more f/f. Outside of authors who specifically write to the lesbian audience or write erotica, in all cases the one book I read was the author’s one and only f/f, f/f/m book. *sigh*

I can’t tell you how disappointing this is to me every time. So many authors actually hit the mark and write really nice f/f stories but then stop after that one book. And what’s most interesting is that many times it was an author’s earlier or first book.

This tells me that authors are interested in writing it for themselves or in general, but due to unpopularity, lack of sales, fear of being associated with the genre or whatever the reason, they stop after that one book.

I understand that authors need to make money in order to continue writing and I don’t begrudge them that. But when I read a good f/f, f/f/m story, I want more, and from that author. Selfish of me? Yes. I’m starving for good f/f and authors who write good ones are far and few between.

There are some authors out there like Jenna Byrnes who manage to keep writing f/f in between their m/f and m/m’s even with a crappy f/f market, so it can be done. And then there’s Kirsten Saell of course who is willing to keep writing it out right, which I can’t get enough of and appreciate.

Maybe one day this situation will be different. I hope so. And I hope authors who have written it will take a chance and write it again at some point.

Authors:

1. If you’ve written a f/f and stopped at one, do you ever think about doing another?

2. If you’ve thought about or wish to write a f/f and haven’t, what are the reasons why wouldn’t consider it?

3. If f/f was a more popular or viable genre, would you consider writing f/f?

Readers:

1. When you read a good f/f, f/f/m do you check out the author’s backlist for more f/f, f/f/m and if you don’t find it are you disappointed?

Or are you OK with the f/f that was in a book but don’t bother about looking for more?

2. Ashamed to say because I don’t, but if you read a good f/f and find the author’s back list full of m/f or m/m do you also buy some of those?

2. Have you ever asked an author if they will be writing more f/f, f/f/m?

3. Have you ever asked a publisher to offer more f/f, f/f/m?