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Learn to Use It!
Over the last 3 years dPS has released a growing range of photography eBooks. To this date we’ve now released 7 – you can see them listed here.
Among the most popular of these are our two Photo Nuts eBooks written by Neil Creek. They’ve been bought and downloaded by many thousands of our readers and are:
- Photo Nuts and Bolts – Know your Camera and Take Better Photos
- Photo Nuts and Shots – Tools and Techniques for Creative Photographer
Both eBooks are really about getting in touch understanding how cameras work and getting your head around the basics of how to use them to their fullest potential – something so many camera owners don’t do.
These eBooks have always been priced at $19.99 USD each despite being our most comprehensive eBooks but on Thursday 25 August we’re increasing the price to $29.99 USD.
Also at this time we are adding a bonus to each eBook (effective today). So when you buy them you get these pocket guides bundled up with them:
- In the case of Photo Nuts and Bolts those who buy it will receive an extra Pocket Reference Guide that can be printed out and will give you hints on how to use your camera in different typical situations (pictured below).
- The Photo Nuts and Shots Bonus is a Pocket Trouble Shooting Guide – another printable guide that will talk you through a variety of common problems that photographers face while out shooting.
Today I want to give our valued readers notice that on Thursday 25th August the price will rise on each of these eBooks to $29.99.
If you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy this next few days is your last chance at the current price of $19.99 before the price rises.
Don’t Miss Out on Saving
Secure your copies of these great eBooks here:
A Few important notes about our eBooks:
- All of our eBooks come with a 60 day money back guarantee – if you buy them and find that they’re not quite for you – simply let us know and we’ll arrange a refund.
- Our eBooks are PDF based eBooks. They are not available as ‘real’ hard cover books.
- These eBooks can be viewed on any device that a PDF can be viewed on – including iPads. To get them on your iPad simply download the eBook to your computer and upload them to iBooks (or any other PDF reading App) via iTunes.
Oh the Aussie Dollar is getting a run as a reason for the price rise too? Right. Fluctuations of 10c in the dollar max.
I can understand the price increase if you had to cover an increase in materials or something. I produce a flash bounce accessory which actually has a cost a per unit price to manufacture, and since I make it in the US, rather than China, it cost quite a bit more to produce. Materials have been going up, but I find a value in keeping my prices the same for my customers.
It's better to not make as much per unit rather than nothing because you are raising the cost too much, which many seem to think is steep. I personally would take a .09 AUD loss and keep people interested in buying your product, since your overhead for the e-book is usually low. I think what you are doing here is great. Beware you can easily price your self out of sales. I rose my prices just $2 because B&H told me I should (they carry my product) and I saw sales drop. I dropped it back and sales picked back up and continue to grow with sales worldwide. So proceed with caution.
J Erhard - I'm not saying that the conversion isn't at parity at the moment - but compared to when these eBooks were first released we're getting around 30-40% less in conversion. $1USD used to bring in $1.35 (ish) AUD. Last week when we made this decision $1USD converted to 0.91 AUD.
As I say - currency conversions were not the major reason for this. Really its about differentiating our eBooks.
I agree with Peter. While it does cost you some time to create the book and some money host the files, any other costs are minimal. As far as this rationalization:
"Another smaller reason is that we’re based in Australia (as is Neil the author) and recent currency fluctuations have meant a significant shift in what a $19.99 USD sale actually means to an Aussie."
The current exchange rate is: 1.00 USD = 0.967057 AUD, so 19.99 USD = 19.40 AUD, 29.99 USD = 29.15 AUD. Not much of a difference. Having been to Australia I know cost of living is more expensive than other places, however, this is an eBook people will not pay exorbitant prices for digital media.
Rethink your plan, personally I would be more willing to pay $10yr for a premium account that gets me into a section on the site/forum for exclusive content than pay for an eBook.
At this point in sales for those 2 ebooks, it may very well be pure profit that you are using to run the business. It's your business, but have you looked at the economics of charging $30 for a pdf...I can get softcover & some hardcover photography books for the same price or less, and that is paying for, marketing, paper, printing, etc...and generally prices for books go down not up, the longer they are on the market. If the info in the books was very specialized and could only be gotten from you, then I would say the price increase was justified. The problem is, it's not...it may be great info, but its not earth shattering info, and can be found elsewhere on the web. Interesting stragety you are employing, would love to see the graph of sales before & after.
I agree with peter. I can get a professionally written, edited and printed book for that price. That's just brilliant marketing! I wasn't buying your books at $20, you can bet I'm never even going to consider spending $30. Get over yourselves.
Agree with the above. I purchase a lot of ebooks (epub format) for my reader and never pay more than $9.99 - it is an absolute price point for me. I currently have several on my wish list waiting for the price to drop. Increasing prices - regardless of content - is simply crazy in this economic climate. I have not purchased any of these books at $19.99 - I will definitely not buy one at $29.99. Sorry.
I would not by the books at $19.99 before, because they are overpriced.
You do not have any publishers fees to pay.
You do not have any printers fees to pay.
You do not have any to pay for any paper .
You do not have any distribution costs to pay.
The whole $19.99 is profit. You would not get that much per copy if they were in hard back and they would never have sold so many copies.
Another $10.00 per copy is just greed.
Your forefathers must be very very proud of you.
World economy in the crapper, DOW in a free fall, tens of thousands of dollars wiped from millions of 401k's and dPS raises the price of their eBooks by 50%. Nice way to give back to the people... Bravo!
50% increase does seem a bit steep...!!! Just sayin'...
we've not got any bundling options set up at this point Dennis. Sorry.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. A few reflections:
One of the main reasons we're doing this is that we're increasingly aware that in our range of 7 eBooks that there is a real range in terms of length/depth. These eBooks contain a heap of information - significantly more than some of our other ones - and have taken quite a bit longer to write and compile.
While we are proud that our other eBooks contain a lot of depth and information too (we regularly hear from our readers that they love our style because they're not padded out to look long with big images) - we're aware that to price them all the same gave the impression that they were all of the same depth/length.
We've previously differentiated our eBook prices along these lines with our 'Going Pro' Kit which retails for $49.99 USD and which comes together with a variety of other components on top of the eBook.
Our other current eBooks will all remain at their current rates for the foreseeable future - we don't intend to raise their prices.
Another smaller reason is that we're based in Australia (as is Neil the author) and recent currency fluctuations have meant a significant shift in what a $19.99 USD sale actually means to an Aussie.
While we'd love to just give away all our content for free or at crazy low prices - we are running a business. dPS now has a team of 15 or so blog writers, eBook authors, support/admin staff, community managers, editors, designers etc to support.
To sustain it (and to keep the daily tutorials here on dPS free) we have chosen to charge for our eBooks. I understand that our eBooks are not for everyone both in terms of topic and price and in this price increase are attempting to give everyone fair warning of what we're doing with 2 weeks notice.
Ultimately if you choose that these eBooks are not on a topic that suits your needs or that they don't suit your budget we're not going to try to twist your arm - this is simply an offer which you're willing to take or leave.
I'm more than happy to chat with any of you more on this - simply shoot me an email via our contact form and I'd be happy to answer your questions or give you more backstory into what we're doing.
Any price break if you buy both e-books? I didn't see a "deal" but thought I would ask.
scottc, Glad someone said it. I agree this does not make sense. I accept work goes into creating an eBook, however, I do question the change in price and subsequent value for money and also expect this will result in a reduction in sales.
At least we're being told about the price rise... (in response to the previous comment).
I definately would have buyer resistance at buying an ebook for $30USD. Especally when it is PDF format and not an "ebook format".
Just my 5c worth :) At least now I have the choice of spending $20 each or not..
This was "awaiting moderation" due to the embedded links. Given my experience with DPS moderation in the past, I decided to repost this without any links.
So they’ve been selling well and you decide to raise the price 10 bucks a piece?
This may seem to make sense, but for far less money (i.e., 5 bucks) many other e-books are available from truly renowned photographers. Try here: (deleted)
At this point in the business model DPS should discount the price (then I might buy them, for one reader), rather than try to capitalize on “popular” sales.
Sales are about to drop……..