Following a holiday season of deep ebook discounting, prices have bounced back. The average price of a best-selling ebook is now $6.33, up from $6.16 near the end of December and $5.27, the all-time low for the metric, a month ago.
Titles like The Goldfinch (by Donna Tartt, Hachette), which was selling for under $2.00 in early December, are now mostly being sold in the $4.00 to $7.00 range.
In fact, most ebooks we are tracking are being sold in that range. For that reason, we have suspended our ebook best-seller lists that divide books into four price categories ($10 and up, $8.00 to $9.99, $3.00 to $7.99 and $2.99 and below). Today, they aren’t as useful at categorizing books of different types as they were in the summer of 2012, when the Digital Book World Ebook Best-Seller List was launched.
For instance, this week, there would only be one book on the $10 and up list and two on the $8.00 to $9.99 list, because so few top-selling books are priced that way anymore. And the top-10 list for booked in the $3.00 to $7.99 category would be identical to the top-10 ebooks in the top-25 list below.
In the coming weeks, we will settle on a more permanent way to continue to bring you the best ebook best-seller pricing analysis available.
HarperCollins and Penguin Random House Rule
Two publishers dominated ebook sales last week: HarperCollins and Penguin Random House.
HarperCollins took three of the top four spots on the list this week, all Divergent books by Veronica Roth. The first movie based on the series of young-adult books comes out in March 2014.
Penguin Random House took the Nos. 3 and 5 spots, along with ten others on the list, giving the large publisher an even dozen best-sellers to start the new year, nearly 50% of the list.
Related:
Top 25 Ebook Best-Sellers
Week Ending 1/4/14
| Rank* | Title | Author | Publisher | Price** | Change |
| 1 (2) | Divergent (Divergent Series) | Veronica Roth | HarperCollins | $3.99 | +1 |
| 2 (5) | Insurgent (Divergent Series) | Veronica Roth | HarperCollins | $6.99 | +3 |
| 3 (1) | Sycamore Row | John Grisham | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | -2 |
| 4 (7) | Allegiant (Divergent Series) | Veronica Roth | HarperCollins | $6.99 | +3 |
| 5 (4) | The Book Thief | Markus Zusak | Penguin Random House | $4.99 | -1 |
| 6 (n/a) | The Barkeep | William Lashner | Amazon | $4.99 | New |
| 7 (17) | The Fault in Our Stars | John Green | Penguin Random House | $3.99 | +10 |
| 8 (12) | The Husband’s Secret | Liane Moriarty | Penguin Random House | $5.99 | +4 |
| 9 (3) | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt | Hachette | $7.50 | -6 |
| 10 (18) | Gone Girl: A Novel | Gillian Flynn | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | +8 |
| 11 (8) | Takedown Twenty: A Stephanie Plum Novel | Janet Evanovich | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | -3 |
| 12 (14) | Command Authority (A Jack Ryan Novel) | Tom Clancy; Mark Greaney | Penguin Random House | $6.06 | +2 |
| 13 (15) | The Longest Ride | Nicholas Sparks | Hachette | $6.49 | +2 |
| 14 (11) | Mockingjay (The Hunger Games Book: #3) : | Suzanne Collins | Scholastic | $6.99 | -3 |
| 15 (10) | Cross My Heart (Alex Cross) | James Patterson | Hachette | $7.50 | -5 |
| 16 (23) | Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) | Dan Brown | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | -7 |
| 17 (20) | Doctor Sleep: A Novel (The Shining) | Stephen King | Simon & Schuster | $7.99 | +3 |
| 18 (6) | The Gods of Guilt (Lincoln Lawyer) | Michael Connelly | Hachette | $11.39 | -12 |
| 19 (n/a) | Outlander: with Bonus Content | Diana Gabaldon | Penguin Random House | $1.99 | New |
| 20 (13) | King and Maxwell (King & Maxwell) | David Baldacci | Hachette | $8.99 | -7 |
| 21 (19) | Killing Jesus: A History | Bill O’Reilly; Martin Dugard | Macmillan | $6.49 | -2 |
| 22 (n/a) | The Line (Witching Savannah, Book One) | J. D. Horn | Self-published | $4.99 | New |
| 23 (n/a) | And the Mountains Echoed: A Novel | Khaled Hosseini | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | New |
| 24 (22) | Dark Witch: Book One of The Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy | Nora Roberts | Penguin Random House | $4.99 | -2 |
| 25 (n/a) | Innocence: A Novel | Dean Koontz | Penguin Random House | $6.49 | New |
* 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 ebook pricing. Methodology available here.