Sunday, March 16, 2014

Survey of the Price of the Top 100 Selling ibooks on March 2.

My last post analysed the prices of the top 100 selling ebooks on Amazon when I checked on the 2nd of March 2014. In the comments on that post I was made aware of some issues that might question the usefulness of the data I had collected. I will have more to say about that in my next post. But I promised that I would do the same analysis of Apple's top 100 selling ibooks from March 2nd, so here it is. 


Prices of top 100 selling ibooks. 

 

 

It is obvious that the majority of ibooks in the top 100 bestseller list sold for $5.99 or less. With 99c and $2.99 being the most popular prices on the list. It is interesting that only four were priced from $6.99 to $8.99. But then there were seven at $9.99, five at $11.99 and eight at $12.99. So some readers obviously want cheap ibooks while others are willing to pay more. 






In three previous surveys only a few books on the list were 99 cents, but this time there were 17 at that price.





The number selling at $2.99 has been stable, averaging 16.





The number on the list selling for $3.99 has slightly decreased.





The number at $4.99 appears to have peaked in November and be decreasing again. 


 


The number of ibooks on the list at $7 or more is decreasing. This mirrors what I found is happening with ebooks, that the price of electronic books making the top 100 bestselling list is decreasing. 

My next post will examine Bookbub, one of the reasons why this decrease in price may be occurring. 

5 comments:

Anthony J. Langford said...

Are people love a bargain. A shame that it appears they go for price rather than content.

What would be interesting to see what type of books are selling for that price ... it's rather depressing though I think.

Or perhaps I only see the negative side.
What's your view on all of this information Graham?

Btw I like the graphs.

Graham Clements said...

Anthony,

I reckon there are a millions, if not billions, of unread free and cheap ebooks on ereaders. I bet most of those ibooks bought for $9.99 and above are eventually read. A bit like all the books I picked up cheap at garage sales as opposed to those I bought new. I will eventually read all those new books, while most of those from garage sales will never be read. I have stopped going to garage sales. I think a lot of authors sell themselves short and are cutting their own throats and the future of publishing by flooding the market with cheap and free downloads of ebooks, most of which will never be read.

Anthony J. Langford said...

That's a good point. I think I'm going to hold off on self-publishing etc as I still consider it (in frustration). While the work remains unpublished, at least there is still a little hope. A $2 e book is effectively useless. For me anyway.

Reid Kemper said...

There's a Smashwords survey that says that the highest yield for books distributed by them to the major online retailers is $3.99.
http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/05/new-smashwords-survey-helps-authors.html

Graham Clements said...

I will have a look at the survey Reid.