If you follow me, you’ll have noticed that some of my books have discounts and others don’t. And no, it’s not that I have favourite books (well, I do have one or two, but that is another story and shall be told another time). Blame the law. I’ll explain in two minutes.

Whenever I can, I do give discounts

I honestly love giving you discounts. I think it’s a way to encourage you to buy directly from me, and to strengthen the bond between author and reader. But it turns out every country has its own rules, and when it comes to books, Germany and Spain are very clear: the publisher sets a price (in this case, the publisher is me), and by law that price has to be respected everywhere, on every sales platform. Including my own shop.

Books in German: fixed price. Full stop.

As I said, in Germany the publisher sets a price (in this case, me), and that price has to be respected everywhere: it’s called the Buchpreisbindung, the fixed book price. It applies to ebooks as well as print (§ 2 BuchPrG), and anyone selling a book to a customer in Germany has to charge that price on every platform (§ 3 BuchPrG). Amazon, the little bookshop round the corner, my own shop: no exceptions.

What about a free voucher? Not allowed either. In 2015, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice told Amazon off for exactly that: giving away vouchers that could be spent on fixed-price books (LTO report, in German). If Amazon can’t, I certainly can’t.

That’s why my books in German (Der Menschengarten and, very soon, Silvana) are never discounted. Not even on my birthday. And believe me, I’d love to.

Books in Spanish: 5% at most

Spain’s Law 10/2007 also fixes the price of books, and ebooks count as “books” too. But Spanish law does leave a little wiggle room: the selling price can go down to 95% of the fixed price, and no lower (Article 9.3 of Law 10/2007, in Spanish). In other words, 5% off.

So for my books in Spanish, there’s a code for my Payhip shop: THANK YOU_5, 5% off. It’s not much, I know, but it’s what the law allows, and I give you everything I can.

What do I do instead of discounts?

Gifts, because those I can do: German law allows small extras “of little value” with the purchase of a book (§ 7 BuchPrG). And believe me, I love a discount myself: as a reader, I love paying less for things, what can I say. But honestly, you forget a discount soon after, whereas a gift tends to stay in your memory much longer.

So what happens if you buy directly from me? In my shop you get things you won’t find anywhere else: for example, printable bookmarks and exclusive Rondel phone wallpapers, with Silvana and El Jardín Humano. You’ll only find them in my shop.

By the way, if you’d like to know more about why it’s a good idea to buy directly from indie authors, I’ve written another mini article about it.

And if you join my newsletter, I’ll give you Books & Literature: A Celebration in 300 Bilingual Quotes (sign up here). It’s free, no catch, and it costs the same in every country. 😉

So now you know: if you see one of my books without a discount, I’m not being stingy, it’s the law. And if you’d like a little something extra, you know where to find me. 😎

A big hug,

Angela

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Kurz auf Deutsch

Warum gibt es auf meine deutschen Bücher keinen Rabatt? Ganz einfach: wegen der Buchpreisbindung. In Deutschland kostet ein Buch – auch als E-Book – überall gleich viel, auch in meinem eigenen Shop (§ 3 BuchPrG). Rabatte darf ich also nicht geben, Geschenke schon: Wenn durekt bei mir kaufst, bekommst du Lesezeichen zum Ausdrucken und exklusive Handy-Hintergründe aus dem Rondell. Und wenn du ch für my Newsletter anmeldest, schenke ich dir ein Buch. Ich freue mich auf dich!