Price Survey of Top 100 ebooks and ibooks.



It's time for another survey of the prices of the top 100 ebooks and ibooks.

Kindle Top 100 prices. 

Twenty-three ebooks in the top 100 were priced at 99 cents, which is very similar to my last survey in June when 22 ebooks were 99 cents. In January only 14 were priced at 99 cents, a big increase from the six in September (2012), seven in August, and three in June. This was down from a massive 34 at 99 cents in February (2012) when I first did the survey. So it seems more 99 cents ebooks are now making the top one hundred. I’m not the one buying them.

The number of ebooks at $1.99 was down to four, compared to six in June, 11 in January and eight in September. Before that the numbers at $1.99 were too insignificant to mention. 

This time there were fourteen books at the guru nominated price of $2.99. In January there were ten, 11 in June, 16 in September (2012), 15 in August, 22 in June (2012), and 32 in February (2012) at that price. So the decline of the self-publisher guru-endorsed price of $2.99 has stopped and somewhat stabilised.

Overall, there were 43 books priced at or below $2.99. In June there were 37 and January 35. So the number of cheaper ebooks in the top 100 appears to be slowly increasing.

The next most significant low price was $3.99, with 10 ebooks. Last time I checked there were 13, in January there were 11, and in September last year there were 14. So the number of ebooks in the top 100 selling at $3.99 seems to be relatively stable.

The number of ebooks selling for $4.99 rebounded to eight, after being only three in both June and January, down from nine in September (2012) and 11 in August (2012).

There were 31 ebooks priced between $3.99 and $7.00, which means there were 26 priced over $7. Last time there were 35 priced over $7, in January there were 38 ebooks priced over $7, 30 in September, 32 in August and 47 in June.

So the trend seems to be back to cheaper prices for ebooks. 

ibooks Top 100 Prices 

I only became interested in ibook prices when I purchased an ipad in January. The ibookstore does things differently to Kindle in that they only allow prices with a .99 on the end, so there are no ibooks priced at $13.13. I also gathered that I am restricted to viewing just the Australian version of the top 100 ibooks as I noticed a few Aussie authors like Mathew Reilly in the list.

Only three ibooks were priced at 99 cents, with five at that price in both June and January. This is widely different from the twenty or so usually at that price on the Kindle top 100 list. And there was only one ibook at $1.99, compared to six at that price in June.

There were 15 at the ibook guru price of $2.99, compared to 17 last time and 15 in January. So that’s 19 at or below $2.99, as compared to 43 on Amazon. So Apple users are either forced or prepared to pay more for their electronic books.

In the mid-range of $3.99 to $6.99 there were 40 ibooks, up from 29 both previous times, as compared to 31 ebooks. Eighteen ibooks were priced at $3.99 (15 and 19 previously) and 12 at $4.99 (ten and four previously). The number at $4.99 is definitely on the rise.

Forty-one ibooks were priced over $7 (49 and 46 previously) compared to 26 of Amazon’s ebooks.

There were five at $8.99 (six last time), only one at $9.99 (14 in January), only one at $10.99 as compared to four last time, five again at $11.99, six at $12.99, and five at $14.99. Still none at $13.99, do all authors and publishers have triskaidekaphobia?

So this survey seems to confirm the following: ebooks appear to be getting cheaper, while ibooks appear to be getting dearer and moving into the middle price range of $3.99 to $6.99, and ebooks are much cheaper than ibooks.

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