Deeply Discounted Big-Six Ebooks Pop on Best-Seller List, Driving Down Average Ebook Price
The average price of a best-selling ebook inched down to $7.86 this week, driven not by less expensive self-published works but by deeply discounted big-six titles.
Following the success of Hachette’s Beautiful Creatures series selling at $2.99, Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins and Hachette have ebook best-sellers this week selling for $2.99 or less.
Debbie Macomber’s 1984 novel Heartsong is being sold by Random House as an ebook for $2.99 and hit the best-seller list at No. 10. Sandra Brown’s 1990 novel Mirror Image is being sold by Hachette as an ebook for $1.99 and hit the best-seller list at No. 12.
While those titles are older and represent a move among big-six publishers to market and sell back-list ebooks at a discount, two other titles on the list are newer and may represent a shift in strategy to sell recent releases.
Into the Darkest Corner, a HarperCollins novel by Elizabeth Haynes, was released in June 2012. It is currently being sold for $1.99. And The Painted Girls, a Jan. 2013 novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan from Penguin, was a Kindle Daily Deal on Feb. 25 for $2.99 (which is why it is on our list at that price, despite being sold for $14.99 currently).
Are these price drops an attempt at a new strategy for big publishers?
“Part of the way we bring our authors’ books to market is to offer well-placed and well-timed price promotions,” said a HarperCollins spokesperson when asked about a new pricing strategy.
We’ll have to wait and see if it continues to learn more. Hachette did not respond to request for comment before press time. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Penguin declined to comment.
See the rest of the the best-seller lists for the week ending March 3:
– Digital Book World Best-Selling Ebooks Priced $10.00 and Above
– Digital Book World Best-Selling Ebooks Priced $8.00 – $9.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling Ebooks Priced $3.00 – $7.99
– Digital Book World Best-Selling Ebooks Priced $0.00 – $2.99
Read and comment on our methodology.
Sponsored by:
| Rank* | Title | Author | Publisher | Price** | Change |
| 1 (2) | Safe Haven | Nicholas Sparks | Hachette | $ 5.62 | +1 |
| 2 (3) | Alex Cross, Run | James Patterson | Hachette | $ 11.99 | +1 |
| 3 (5) | Wait For Me | Elisabeth Naughton | Self-published | $ 2.99 | +2 |
| 4 (n/a) | Calculated in Death | J. D. Robb | Penguin | $ 14.99 | New |
| 5 (11) | The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel | Matthew Quick | Macmillan | $ 9.99 | +6 |
| 6 (6) | Gone Girl: A Novel | Gillian Flynn | Random House | $ 12.99 | – |
| 7 (1) | Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures Series #1) | Kami Garcia; Margaret Stohl | Hachette | $ 5.22 | -6 |
| 8 (12) | A Week in Winter | Maeve Binchy | Random House | $ 12.99 | +4 |
| 9 (8) | Rush (The Breathless Trilogy) | Maya Banks | Penguin | $ 7.99 | -1 |
| 10 (20) | Heartsong: A Novel | Debbie Macomber | Random House | $ 2.99 | +10 |
| 11 (9) | Touch and Go | Lisa Gardner | Penguin | $ 12.99 | -2 |
| 12 (n/a) | Mirror Image | Sandra Brown | Hachette | $ 1.99 | New |
| 13 (n/a) | The Painted Girls: A Novel | Cathy Marie Buchanan | Penguin | $ 2.99 | New |
| 14 (n/a) | Into the Darkest Corner | Elizabeth Haynes | HarperCollins | $ 1.99 | New |
| 15 (4) | Beautiful Darkness (Beautiful Creatures) | Kami Garcia; Margaret Stohl | Hachette | $ 6.99 | -11 |
| 16 (13) | Guilt: An Alex Delaware Novel | Jonathan Kellerman | Random House | $ 12.99 | -3 |
| 17 (16) | Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy | E. L. James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -1 |
| 18 (n/a) | Dead Asleep | Jamie Freveletti | HarperCollins | $ 0.99 | New |
| 19 (7) | Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures) | Kami Garcia; Margaret Stohl | Hachette | $ 7.59 | -12 |
| 20 (15) | Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy | E. L. James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -5 |
| 21 (18) | The Forgotten | David Baldacci | Hachette | $ 9.99 | -3 |
| 22 (n/a) | War Brides | Helen Bryan | Amazon | $ 2.99 | New |
| 23 (n/a) | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | $ 8.33 | New |
| 24 (17) | Fifty Shades Of Grey: Book One Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy | E. L. James | Random House | $ 9.99 | -7 |
| 25 (10) | Beautiful Redemption (Beautiful Creatures) | Kami Garcia; Margaret Stohl | Hachette | $ 8.89 | -15 |
* Previous week’s list rank in parentheses.
** Price reflects minimum price across all retailers throughout the week. Price may vary between retailers and may change throughout the week. Contact Iobyte Solutions for more information on e-book pricing.
Methodology available here.
| To receive this information in your inbox every morning at 8:00 AM Eastern Time, subscribe to the DBW Daily below. |
Pingback: Deeply Discounted Big-Six Ebooks Pop on Best-Seller List, Driving Down Average Ebook Price | The Passive Voice | Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, Disruptive Innovation and the Universe
Pingback: Erik Robert Nelson | Will the Big Six finally cave in to ebook price pressures?
Pingback: 4 Top Tips For Creating A Spectacular Author Platform!