# £8.99?!? Black Library Book Prices



## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

I can't believe Battle of the Fang is £8.99! Black Library paperbacks used to be £5.99, which was pretty reasonable, but they have slowly crept up and up. Even Stephen King's latest paperback is only £5.99, and he's the master of horror!!!

well I see another master of horror, and it is the Black Library book price decider!:shok:

Rev


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

The Euro prices seem to be entirely normal... Or wait... Look at those "Age of Darkness" Ebooks. I could swear that they cost double the amount they did a week ago.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

All the Space Marine Battles books are £8.99, most of the rest are £7.99 just like the majority of books you can buy of a similar size.


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## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

still, these are times of austerity!!


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## Weapon (Mar 5, 2009)

Any books that I've ever bought have been around ten euros.


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## Tyrannus (Sep 19, 2010)

You can get it for £5.99 in Play.com. That's where I get all my BL books.

I try and never spend more than £5 on a book and I spend on average £3 a book. Just look for the best deals, you don't need to buy from BL themselves.


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## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

I honestly believe the "Space Marine Battles" prices are a testbed for future BL prices. Right now in the States, we pay 8.99$ for a regular book and 11.99$ for a Space Marine Battle book (Rynn's World, Hunt for Voldorius, ect). With the recent price increases to the regular Wargaming hobby, I can see the books coming next.


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## Euphrati (May 24, 2009)

The Battle Books are dimensionally larger that the standard BL paperback (format B paperback- though I dislike the larger font size as well), have the additional center info/colour pages, and the covers have the partial gloss finish.

These things (in and amongst others) add up to a slightly higher book price.


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## BlackGuard (Sep 10, 2010)

Actually I bought most of my Warhammer books at the nominal price of 8USDs -- which I believe translates into around 4 Euros ... maybe? So yea ... USA. 

On a serious note -- the books don't seem any more or less expensive than anything else.

Also mind you I by my books at places like Barnes and Noble when I'm feeling rich (good paycheck!) or Half-Price Books (for poor folks like me).


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## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

Euphrati said:


> The Battle Books are dimensionally larger that the standard BL paperback (format B paperback- though I dislike the larger font size as well), have the additional center info/colour pages, and the covers have the partial gloss finish.
> 
> These things (in and amongst others) add up to a slightly higher book price.



And for all intents & purposes, those "extra" things, aren't needed one bit. Do they add into our "experience" with each book? I'd wager that most folks would argue that it doesn't. Also, each book has massive issues with the text/print spacing issues in which that "406 page book" is (when reduced to a normal 8.99$ book format (size & spacing) essentially a 300-330 page book.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

I like the maps and such they include, it's just that they often don't make sense or don't match the images I have in my head.


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## Chris Wraight (Jun 4, 2010)

Diatribe1974 said:


> And for all intents & purposes, those "extra" things, aren't needed one bit. Do they add into our "experience" with each book? I'd wager that most folks would argue that it doesn't. Also, each book has massive issues with the text/print spacing issues in which that "406 page book" is (when reduced to a normal 8.99$ book format (size & spacing) essentially a 300-330 page book.


Can't speak for all SMB books, but _Fang_ is just over 500 pages, and around 115,000 words. That's slightly longer than the average BL novel.

From early feedback, people seem to have found the three maps helpful, too. People are bound to have different opinions on this, but I think there are lots of readers who enjoy getting extras - as long as they're well thought-out and contribute something to the story.


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## slaaneshy (Feb 20, 2008)

If a book is good I don't mind paying more for it...but there is a creep towards the £10 mark, which is concerning, as I usually buy a book a week for my commute, so I will have to start reading slower!


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

That or pick em up of amazon.


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## raider1987 (Dec 3, 2010)

Most books I get through play for about £4, I only order through BL.com if I CANT WAIT for it. Like Blood Reaver or Battle for the fang, both of which were incredible.


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

Chris Wraight said:


> Can't speak for all SMB books, but _Fang_ is just over 500 pages, and around 115,000 words. That's slightly longer than the average BL novel.
> 
> From early feedback, people seem to have found the three maps helpful, too. People are bound to have different opinions on this, but I think there are lots of readers who enjoy getting extras - as long as they're well thought-out and contribute something to the story.


thank you Chris.  Yes, i too enjoy the extras.

And everyone. their book prices are competitive with the standard across the industry. As your sizes change, so will the price of the volume. Mass Market paperbacks for instance, cost less than Trade Paperbacks, due to their smaller size. Hardcovers follow the same model. They're bigger, thus cost more money. you're welcome.

you can thank me later.

CP

So, there's nothing to flip out about. You'll be fine, it's not the end of the world.


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## Brother Emund (Apr 17, 2009)

Hang around for a while opcorn:, maybe 6 months, and then buy them second-hand on E-Bay for a fraction of the price!


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## Pyroriffic (Feb 28, 2010)

Chris Wraight said:


> Can't speak for all SMB books, but _Fang_ is just over 500 pages, and around 115,000 words. That's slightly longer than the average BL novel.


Just to add to this, _The Gildar Rift_ is at least this as well. So yeah. Not all teeny tiny...


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

Pyroriffic said:


> Just to add to this, _The Gildar Rift_ is at least this as well. So yeah. Not all teeny tiny...


ah, wonderful! no more short books!

CP


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

Commissar Ploss said:


> thank you Chris.  Yes, i too enjoy the extras.
> 
> And everyone. their book prices are competitive with the standard across the industry. As your sizes change, so will the price of the volume. Mass Market paperbacks for instance, cost less than Trade Paperbacks, due to their smaller size. Hardcovers follow the same model. They're bigger, thus cost more money. you're welcome.
> 
> ...



ill have to disagree with you there. ive noticed the increase over the last few years and to be honest it doesnt make sense to me as i feel BL novels have got more popular so more people are buying and they making more profits anyway. for me the price of SMB books are worth it as you get alot for your money but the normal novels are like 7.99 yet you can normally buy them on play.com for half that. so if they can sell them at that price point why cant the people who actually produce the novels?!
obviously the best way round it is to buy off play.com but it still doesnt get round the point that BL supply someone else with their novels and they can be sold cheaper. it strike me that if they can do that then BL could drop their prices too.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Unknown Primarch said:


> ill have to disagree with you there. ive noticed the increase over the last few years and to be honest it doesnt make sense to me as i feel BL novels have got more popular so more people are buying and they making more profits anyway. for me the price of SMB books are worth it as you get alot for your money but the normal novels are like 7.99 yet you can normally buy them on play.com for half that. so if they can sell them at that price point why cant the people who actually produce the novels?!
> obviously the best way round it is to buy off play.com but it still doesnt get round the point that BL supply someone else with their novels and they can be sold cheaper. it strike me that if they can do that then BL could drop their prices too.


Shock horror.

You mean Black Library act like nearly every other publishing house? God forbid.


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## Bayonet (Aug 13, 2010)

E-bay is your friend, I usually pick up HH books on auctions for £1-£4.


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## soniya (May 21, 2011)

Hi Tyrannus. Many times I spend more money for BL books. I will try and never spend $5 above. Thank you for sharing this.
*

Online Library
*


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

Baron Spikey said:


> Shock horror.
> 
> You mean Black Library act like nearly every other publishing house? God forbid.


whats with the fucking sarcasm? 

are you that retarded that you quite happily get ripped off and think nothing of it haha thats funny!


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Unknown Primarch said:


> whats with the fucking sarcasm?
> 
> are you that retarded that you quite happily get ripped off and think nothing of it haha thats funny!


Hardly getting ripped off. Its the way the market works. Buying online is usually cheaper regardless of the market, and Amazon and Play have always been able to drop the prices of books. However if BL (or other publishers) dropped their prices it would therefore drop the RRP and they would lose money, thus it would be stupid for them to do it. 

If anyone is that bothered just buy off Play or Amazon you can usually pick up most BL books for a fiver or less. Otherwise I can't really see what your whinging at. If you don't want to pay the RRP don't, there are many ways to get around it.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

At least with this price increase, which is happening everywhere, we get, fantastic artwork on the covers, cracking preorder system (when ordered through BL) great customer service, i defy anybody to phone up and be pissed off with the service you get from those guys, good steady stream of quality books and finally a set of authors who interact quite frequently with the fan base.

Not bad for 9squids right?


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Hardly getting ripped off. Its the way the market works. Buying online is usually cheaper regardless of the market, and Amazon and Play have always been able to drop the prices of books. However if BL (or other publishers) dropped their prices it would therefore drop the RRP and they would lose money, thus it would be stupid for them to do it.
> 
> If anyone is that bothered just buy off Play or Amazon you can usually pick up most BL books for a fiver or less. Otherwise I can't really see what your whinging at. If you don't want to pay the RRP don't, there are many ways to get around it.



i always buy off play.com but i always say about everything thats overpriced that if they sold things abit cheaper they will get more sales overall and eventually more profit. thats why i cant understand why england is so overpriced with tax when if things were less taxed people would buy more because they have more cash in there pockets and eventually the government gets all that tax money anyway but then you dont have tons of waste items clogging up warehouses everywhere. probably not exactly the case with BL but you get the idea.

once people start to think things are expensive they will stop buying brand new and get secondhand but then those people waiting arent buying new and then profits will go down. look at the games industry trying to find ways to stop the boom in secondhand game market because its obviously effecting brand new games. they started to introduce codes that you have to buy when you have a secondhand game to access online features and we all know online is the new single player know days. 

that could be a sign as to what will happen when standard BL novels reach £8.99 or even £9.99 which they will eventually do. how will you feel about buying new then when its that price. probably not favourably as some of you guys are now id say.


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## increaso (Jun 5, 2010)

I buy from Amazon almost exclusively. Whether the book is £7.99 or £8.99 RRP is irrelevant to me. 

COTE has explained why people might buy from BL direct (namely pre-release shipping) and why BL don't personally sell them below their RRP.

I don't think £8-9 is expensive for a book, but I wouldn't pay more than the cheapest I can get it. However, the pricing is similar to any other comparable novels RRP.

On the side issue of tax, I agree that if we were taxed less I would buy more. We don't pay VAT on books (or at least I believe that is the case), but I agree with the general principle. This government's money saving policy is completely contrary to economic growth.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Unknown Primarch said:


> whats with the fucking sarcasm?
> 
> are you that retarded that you quite happily get ripped off and think nothing of it haha thats funny!


The sarcasm was my response to the fact you were bitching about BL's prices when most other publishers charge similar prices for their books, I thought that was obvious...or was I being too subtle? :smoke:


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## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Hardly getting ripped off. Its the way the market works. Buying online is usually cheaper regardless of the market, and Amazon and Play have always been able to drop the prices of books. However if BL (or other publishers) dropped their prices it would therefore drop the RRP and they would lose money, thus it would be stupid for them to do it.
> 
> If anyone is that bothered just buy off Play or Amazon you can usually pick up most BL books for a fiver or less. Otherwise I can't really see what your whinging at. If you don't want to pay the RRP don't, there are many ways to get around it.


I buy my books via Borders & with my 10% off card (and the occassional BOGO deal), tend to save a ton of cash (specially when I get enough "Border Bucks" saved up and then get a couple books for free every month too).


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## malko888 (Mar 14, 2011)

nothing should be cheap.
things should be expensive
and people should get paid too much for what they do.
beating down prices is bad for everyone.
be free with your money,
it might come back to you...


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

malko888 said:


> nothing should be cheap.
> things should be expensive
> and people should get paid too much for what they do.
> beating down prices is bad for everyone.
> ...


that's one way of looking at it.  well said.

CP


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

Baron Spikey said:


> The sarcasm was my response to the fact you were bitching about BL's prices when most other publishers charge similar prices for their books, I thought that was obvious...or was I being too subtle? :smoke:


fool, im talking about why are the prices so high when some secondary outlets regularly sell the books at half the price. surely if anyone is able to sell at those mark ups its the actual company that produces them? 
just to keep it simple for you. play.com sell AoD for 3.99 yet BL sell it for 7.99 doesnt make sense to me.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Unknown Primarch said:


> fool, im talking about why are the prices so high when some secondary outlets regularly sell the books at half the price. surely if anyone is able to sell at those mark ups its the actual company that produces them?
> just to keep it simple for you. play.com sell AoD for 3.99 yet BL sell it for 7.99 doesnt make sense to me.


We've already explained why. Because they would lose a lot of money! Publishers cannot afford to half the RRP of their books. Its not hard to get your head around.

The reason why Amazon and Play charge less? In an attempt to lure a lot of trade directly away from the publisher, simple. But if Black Library dropped their prices to say £4.99, that would become the new RRP. And not only would BL lose money from direct sales, but so would Amazon and Play as they would then have to charge less than the new RRP in an attempt to maintain sales. Its also to do with the fact that Amazon and Play sell a lot more than books and what BL sell, in terms of quantity and what they actually stock. This means that they can actually charge less and still make a significant profit across the board. BL and other publishers don't have that luxury.


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## mal310 (May 28, 2010)

Unknown Primarch said:


> fool, im talking about why are the prices so high when some secondary outlets regularly sell the books at half the price. surely if anyone is able to sell at those mark ups its the actual company that produces them?
> just to keep it simple for you. play.com sell AoD for 3.99 yet BL sell it for 7.99 doesnt make sense to me.


Its all down to volume. Amazon (and Play.com for that matter) literally sell millions of different items and god knows how many units each day. Therefore they can make less profit on each item as the overall volume of items sold will make up for this. Selling 2000 items each making 1p profit makes you the same amount of money selling 20 items each making you a £1 profit. 

Black Library on the other hand is very much a niche market selling one type of item and considerably less units than Amazon and Play.com. Therefore they sell at a higher price because they simply cannot compete with Amazon etc on volume. 

Now I know that BL produce the books and they must sell them to Amazon at less than the price that Amazon charge. But the above argument still stands true. Say (and these are all obviously all hypothetical figures) the production cost is £1 per book. Amazon buys from BL for £3.50 and charges £3.60 on its website. They make 10p per book which they can live with due to their volumes. BL makes £2.50 profit per book from this. On their own website (which will have its own costs attached) they wish to further increace their profit so they charge more and they can do this because their titles are available exclusively from themselves for around a month and some people (obviously enough to justify the price) are prepared to pay a premium to read the book early. 

I'd imagine that the sales from the BL website must slide conciderably after the titles are available elsewhere as that unique selling point is no longer there. 

The fact is this, if you don't want to pay the high BL direct price then don't. The only reason to is to get the book early (or go digital as BL do not licence out these rights).

Child-of-emperor also makes a very good argument above as well.


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## increaso (Jun 5, 2010)

mal310 said:


> I'd imagine that the sales from the BL website must slide conciderably after the titles are available elsewhere as that unique selling point is no longer there.
> .


I agree, but as a side comment it is worth adding that Amazon often set the pre-sale a pound (or so) below the price the book will go for on release.

As an example: Prospero Burns was set at £3.99, it went up to approx £5 and it is now £4.87.

So Amazon are even competing with BL on the pre-sale front. 

The only true advantage of BL is that pre-sale books are sent out 1 month early and, as you say, digital stuff.

Quite annoyingly, we pay VAT on ebooks and if we did not the BL ebooks could in theory be priced similarly to the Amazon paperbook price.

[Edit: Funnily enough the current two unreleased HH books have yet to follow the above pattern]


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## cheeto (Apr 1, 2011)

I would claim inflation is playing it's part but I haven't noticed an increase in prices here state side... Maybe they are just more progressive in adjusting their prices to account for inflation in the UK...


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