I was looking at some books Amazon suggested I buy since I'd bought another one similar. I'm sure we all get these reminders from time to time, and I'm always willing to check them out. I did buy one for $1.99. I looked at a couple more, but they were $8.59 and $9.99 so I passed. After all, I could buy nine $1.99 books, with the money saved by not buying the higher priced ones. And I will.
Author David Gaughran had an interesting blog on this subject the other day in his post:
Who's Afraid of Very Cheap Books?
He gives the reasons that he isn't at all afraid of them, and I agree. Totally.
Before ereaders, we had used book stores where I bet most of us spent a lot of our book budgets. At least, I did. Those and libraries, along with occasional purchases at the grocery store or an actual bookstore, helped me get most of the books I wanted. If I'd had to rely on bookstores, I would have read maybe twelve books a year versus that many a month. I simply couldn't afford the high costs.
Today, I subscribe to several bargain/free ebooks sites where I get listings each day that I can scan. If a book catches my eye, I read a sample. If it's interesting (and appears to be edited!), I buy it. Prices range from free to at most $5.99. And the higher priced books tend to be by authors I know.
Strangely enough, I've found the self-pubbed/small press pubbed books have about the same ratio of good/bad reads as the "big" publishers put out. And the lower prices mean I can buy more of those authors' books.
So...I'm in favor of cheap books. Probably most readers are, too. I wonder about other authors.