The Canadian ebook marketplace is a few years old, so just how are publishers approaching the question of pricing? In many different ways, it turns out. Instead of best practices, publishers are learning to adapt their pricing strategies to channels and markets. In this presentation, you'll learn about price differences between the retail and library channels, emerging business models and their effect on prices, and how Canadian-owned publishers are pricing their ebooks.

1. Ebook
Pricing

2. Some Context

3. United States
• ebooks accounted for 30% of all book sales in the first
half of 2013 (Bowker)
• In the US, adult fiction and non-fiction eBook sales
increased by 13.6% in 2013 (AAP)
• Sales of children’s ebooks decreased by 30.1% (AAP)
• In 2012, ebooks outsold mass market (BISG)
• Overall, the US ebook market grew by 5% in 2013
(AAP)

4. Canada
• 58% of people who had read at least one book last
year had read a book in ebook format (BookNet 2014)
• 20% of book-buyers bought one or more ebooks in
2013, up from 18% in 2012 (Canadian Book
Consumer 2014)
• In 2012, ebooks accounted for 17% of book purchases
in Canada (BookNet, 2014)

5. BookNet: The State of Digital Publishing in Canada 2014
Ebook Sales Channels

6. BookNet: The State of Digital Publishing in Canada 2014
Ebook Revenue

7. Pricing

8. No Standard
• There is no ‘standard’ or ‘best practice’
• 49% of Canadian publishers are using a Direct Pricing
model and 28% are using an Agency model (Booknet
2014)

9. United States
New York Times
Bestsellers Lists
14-Apr-14
Fiction
Suggested
list price
Print
price
Kindle
price
The King J.R.Ward 32.95 16.47 hc 15.99
I've Got You Under My Skin Mary Higgins Clark 32.50 19.50 hc 16.99
The Fixed Trilogy Laurelin Page 0.99
Shadow Spell Nora Roberts 33.04 9.50 pb 10.99
Missing You Harlan Coben 32.95 16.47 hc 15.99
Non-Fiction
Print
price
Kindle
price
Flash Boys Michael Lewis 32.95 19.00 hc 12.90
Heaven is for Real Todd Burpo 18.99 13.68 pb 8.74
Upstairs at the White House J.B. West & Mary Lynn Kotz 1.99
10% Happier Dan Harris 31.99 20.05 hc 16.99
Thrive Arianna Huffington 31.00 15.50 hc 14.99

10. “At the end of January, the average price of a
best-selling ebook was $5.36, just $0.99 off an
all-time low, recorded in December 2013. Since
then, it’s been steadily ticking up.… In just two
months, the average price has increased more
than $2.00, or a 40% rise.
After weeks of slowly ticking up, … the average
price of a best-selling ebook jumped this week to
$7.49.”
DBW Daily, March 12, 2014

11. Globe & Mail
Bestseller Lists
12-Apr-14
Suggested
list price
Print
price
Kindle
price
Kobo
price
Flash Boys Michael Lewis 32.95 19.00 hc 12.90 16.99
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth Chris Hadfield 32.00 16.00 hc 14.99 14.99
Shadow Spell Nora Roberts 19.00 9.50 pb 10.99 10.99
I've Got You Under My Skin Mary Higgins Clark 32.50 19.50 hc 16.99 16.99
The Orenda Joseph Boyden 32.00 16.00 hc 14.99 14.99
Canada

12. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
All formats Paperback Hardcover Ebook
Format
$0 $1-5 $6-10 $11-15 $16-20 $21-25 $26-30 $31-35 $36+
BookNet Canada, 2014
Price Paid by
Format in 2013

13. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
$0
$1-5
$6-10
$11-15
$16-20
$21-25
$26-30
$31-35
$36+
BookNet Canada, 2014
Ebook Purchase
Price Distribution

14. BookNet Canada, 2014
Average Ebook Prices
Ebooks
2012 2013
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Average Price Paid
(including $0 books)
8.02 6.85 6.69 6.30 6.36 6.27 6.86 8.29
Average Price Paid
(excluding $0 books)
12.60 10.66 11.38 11.77 11.69 11.32 11.59 12.72

15. An Age of
Experimen
ts

16. Different
Retail Models
• Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)
• Bundling
• Subscription
• (Series, Author cards, BitLit)

17. Direct to Consumer
• Verso just launched a D2C site a with
a goal of £200,000 in sales by year
end.
• To “juice” sales, they offered a 50%
discount on titles.
• After 1 week of going public, they had
achieved £80,000 in sales.
DBW Daily, April 14, 2014

18. Bundling
• Only 15% of Canadian publishers offer
e & print bundles for a fee
• 20% of buyers would chose a bundled
book if it was available
• 12% would pay more for it
Canadian Book Consumer Study 2012, BookNet

19. Subscription

20. Series, Author Cards, etc.
• Return of serials
• Offering the first title in a series for free or greatly
reduced price to attract readers
• Author cards
• Value adds

21. Libraries
& Ebooks

22. BookNet: The State of Digital Publishing in Canada 2014
Library Distribution

23. Harper Collins
26 checkouts per copy purchased
Instituted February 2011
Print retail: $34.99
Print library: $20.29
Ebook retail: $16.98
Ebook library: $28.84
Average price = $14.08

24. Random House
1 copy / 1 user in perpetuity
but triple retail
Instituted March 2012
Print retail: $32.00
Print library: $19.84
Ebook retail: $14.99
Ebook library: $85.00
Average price = $60.23

25. Hachette
1 copy / 1 user in perpetuity
mark-up varies, but some triple retail
pulled July 2010, back with new pricing May 2013
Print retail: $28.00
Print library: $16.24
Ebook retail: $11.99
Ebook library: $77.29
Average price = $40.42

26. Macmillan Backlist
52 checkouts over 2 years
prices close to quadruple retail
1 imprint August 2013, more October 2013
Print retail: $16.99
Print library: $10.19
Ebook retail: $10.99
Ebook library: $40.00
Average price = $40.42

27. Cuyahoga County Library System acquired
“some 300 ebook copies of Fifty Shades of
Grey for nearly $24,000 last year.”
DBW Daily, April 15, 2014.

28. Quebec Model
• Library prices for ebooks are the same as retail
• 55 checkouts per copy purchased
• Libraries purchase ebooks through bookstores and the
bookstores take a percentage on every sale as does
the distributor

29. eBOUND Publishers
• Of 67 eBOUND publishers, 46 have set a “library” price
in CoreSource
• Of those 46 publishers,19 set a hgher price for libraries