Our first price rise in 6 years

June 7, 2015·Jane

Eat Your Books launched in August 2009 - here was our first ever blog post - with 550 indexed cookbooks. Since then the site has grown enormously - more than 5,600 cookbooks are now indexed plus we added magazines (2,300 are indexed) and online content. The recipe database is now nearly one and a quarter million recipes, with more than 180,000 having Online Recipe links to the complete recipe.

During that time we have kept our fees for a Premium membership at the same rate. From July 1 we will be increasing the annual membership rate to $30 and the monthly fee to $3. This will allow us to continue the growth and development of the site.

26 comments

mftoJune 8, 2015

I have been a member for many years and during those years my husband's diet health needs have changed many times. EYB has always been here to help me cope. Thanks, EYB.

megganJune 8, 2015

Well worth the money!

westerJune 8, 2015

Wow, that long already! I remember the first post on LibraryThing about this site. For extra nostalgia, a link to that one as well: http://www.librarything.com/topic/74572#1535558 :-)

hillsboroksJune 7, 2015

Even with the cost increase Eat Your Books is still an amazing bargain! It has saved me hours of searching cookbooks and magazines for lost recipes, special occasion recipes and recipes to use up whatever I have on hand for dinner.

jlg84June 8, 2015

I still think you should contemplate a "lifetime" membership, or even a multi-year subscription, for those of us who cannot contemplate being without the service but who'd like to shield against price increases.

adrienneyoungJune 7, 2015

Ditto. No quibbling here...

AndieG52June 8, 2015

Still worth it.

mattheinzJune 7, 2015

I get so much better use out of my cookbook collection thanks to Eat Your Books. This is still an incredible bargain. Thanks so much!

BethNHJune 8, 2015

Although I don't take full advantage of EYB, I am very grateful for my lifetime membership which I signed up for years ago.

BreadcrumbsJune 7, 2015

Congratulations on your continued success Jane & Fiona. EYB is the best investment I've made online. Your site has changed the way I cook and brought new value to my cookbook collection.

digifish_booksJune 8, 2015

Would love to see you bring back lifetime membership, esp. for members not in the US who are subject to exchange rate fluctuations. Thanks.

NancithJune 19, 2015

I love EYB & certainly think a $5 raise after 6 years is a bargain. Please keep it up! It's a pleasure using the site, and an added bonus for me is being able to index my un-indexed books! I had been moaning about the need for some way to have a master index of my cookbooks (& my collection is not that big compared to some on this site!) for years before finding EYB.

TrishaCPJune 9, 2015

This service is invaluable to me and the price increase seems reasonable. Thank you!

hillsboroksJune 9, 2015

I absolutely agree with KarinaFrancis. My cookbook collection has tripled since I joined EYB and I am having so much fun exploring them all! EYB is the best thing to happen to cookbook publishers in years and I hope they appreciate you as much as we all do.

KLeverettJuly 15, 2015

Still a terrific value. Joining EYB is one of the best things I have done for myself this past 12 months. I am really utilizing my books now like I never did before. No argument out of me.

nomadchowwomanAugust 8, 2015

Love you, love your site! I had tried indexing my recipes and cookbooks myself for a while--and you can imagine how far that went . . . I knew this was a bargain when I signed up for a lifetime membership six years ago, but I had no idea just how much a bargain it was. I have barely scratched the surface of opportunities EYB has to offer and still gotten far more than my money's worth out of it.

apattinJune 9, 2015

Whatever you do, DON'T GO OUT OF BUSINESS. It would be a universal catastrophe. For me, it's the best $30 spent.

Keep it up and please index more books!

cathyuAugust 15, 2015

no problem with the price increase, but how about some referral benefits? I recommend this site to many many people, and if there was a invite I could send them as a follow up I'm sure you could increase membership. Loads of foodie people haven't heard of you and I'm sure they'd love you like I do!

dsternerSeptember 15, 2015

You are worth every penny!!!!

AnalyzeJune 29, 2015

Your website is AMAZING!!!!!!!!

JaneAugust 15, 2015

cathyu - we aren't yet in a financial place to offer discounts for referrals. Every cent the site makes goes back into indexing, development and the running costs. I hope that members will recommend EYB to their friends and family because they want the site to succeed! And also link from EYB every time they buy something on Amazon - we get affiliate revenue from anything you buy on Amazon for the next 24 hours, not just for cookbooks.

KarinaFrancisJune 9, 2015

Totally agree, its still an absolute bargain. I recommend it to anyone who tells me they love cooking. The only downside is that the more efficient you get about indexing books, the more I seem to buy.....

RinshinOctober 15, 2015

I love this site and well worth it.

bellezoraSeptember 1, 2015

I live on a fixed retirement income and consider this to be money well spent. I support whatever is necessary to keep this incredibly useful website in business.

JaneOctober 15, 2015

Zozimus - apologies for not responding earlier to your question (I had missed it). I'm afraid business does not work the way you describe. Yes, EYB is growing but no, costs are not decreasing (most of our costs are not technology but people costs which do not decrease). Also, Fiona and I have invested a huge sum in the website which we would like to repay ourselves one day. At present everything the site makes goes back into its operation. So we do need more income to grow the business. We (and most EYB members) still think our service is a bargain at US$30.

ZozimusSeptember 18, 2015

Surely the number of your customers has grown in those six years and together with the reducing cost of the technology this should result in the unit cost per customer diminishing so you should be charging less rather than more, so why are you increasing your price?