Do print pubs make exaggerate the cons to protect their print business? I'm sure some of them do. In the wake of Napster and the peer to peer networks that followed it, traditional media companies are paranoid about digital anything. I've argued in the past that not supporting legitimate ebooks only fuels the pirate market, but the fact is that many print publishers seem to go out of their way to make ebooks less appealing than their print counterparts. An easy way to do this is to price ebooks higher than print, making print the better deal for the consumer.

A fair price is the highest price that provides good value to the buyer. This is a win/win in that the publisher (and hopefully, the writer) makes money and the reader is excited about her purchase.The market has yet to decide on what this price is for ebooks.

Read the full article at writingonyourpalm.net (http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column031027.htm) first.

is an e-book like a book you get off the computer

I admit I just had a quick look at the article, but I think it only concerns general litterature.
If you consider technical books (medical/law reference titles, dictionaries or encyclopedias), one can spend more than 50 US$.
Few examples:
Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Harriet Lane Handbook, Canale, Mosby, Griffith's, PDR, ...

In this specific case, eBooks have more functionalities than paperback (instant lookup, calculators, cross references between articles, ...).

Gots to be cheaper than paperback. Much as I like to read on the PalmOS, paperback is more functional (no battery issues, ie).

I have an other issue with eBooks. I am a very visual person and when I read a non-fiction book, I can usually remember passages of it, not only by content, but also by the layout of the book (paragraph in question was left or right, top or bottom, there was a illustration to the right, etc.). On the other hand, an eBook appears more "static" to me (due to the small display of current PDAs), where I cannot remember the "look" of a page where a certain paragraph appeared. So at the end, its easier for me to digest content from a paper book than from an eBook.

I think if I am ever going to buy an e-book, 90%-100% of that money should go to the person who did all of the work, TH WRITER. Publishers do very little work except find new books to add to their money flow. I say you get back as much as you put in!

10$ if there is no DRM.
1$ if there is DRM

10$ if there is no DRM.
1$ if there is DRM

Wow! You just resurrected a thread from 2003. :eek: Awesome! :p

I'm happy to pay UP TO the paperback price if it is a book I really want but obviously would prefer to pay less :)

I would say that 90% of the books I read are free anyway, either from free sources like feedbooks / mobileread or from the library. I enjoy shopping around for ebooks though and finding good prices.

It all depends. For authors like Stepehen Kind, Dan Brown, James Rollins, I would pat hardcover prices to get the ebook the day it was released. After that I will pay paperback price. I understand that ebooks will take away profits from paper books sales so I am willing to pay the price.

For independent authors I hesitate to pay more than $5 on a book.

To me DRM is irrelevant in the decision.

I will pay up to 5$, oh great necromancer.

More than that, and I may as well buy the pbook.

It all depends. For authors like Stepehen Kind, Dan Brown, James Rollins, I would pat hardcover prices to get the ebook the day it was released. After that I will pay paperback price. I understand that ebooks will take away profits from paper books sales so I am willing to pay the price.

For independent authors I hesitate to pay more than $5 on a book.

Since what we are paying for is 99% content (as opposed to 80% physical-ness, 20% content) today, it would make sense for better works to go for more money.

Unproven authors would also have to sell for less to get people to try them out.

To me DRM is irrelevant in the decision.

Then I have a car that I'd like to rent you for $20,000.

$10. More than that and I might as well look for deals on the hardback down the road.

I would prefer to pay no more than $10 but I do pay whatever Sony asks for new releases for some of my favorite authors. This is to convince the publisher to release the older novels by this author in ebook. I hope by buying at HC prices the publishing sees that they is a need to release the other books by this author.

I'd pay up to $30/£15, I'm willing to pay the same as a hardback, really I got into eBooks to reduce my carbon footprint ;)

To date, the most I have paid is $14.29 (The Evolution of God by Robert Wright). I would pay more, depending on the book, although it riles me that--because of the DRM--should my Kindle fail and Amazon go kaput, I've paid that money for nothing.

For the most part I would pay up to comparable paperback prices. In some rare cases I may pay more but not too much more. This is also assuming no DRM or that it can be removed - I dont see myself purchasing something that locks me into something that I may not have down the road.

I picked $10, but I would be willing to wait a few months after release for that price.

HOWEVER--if I am waiting, I want it not only at a good price, but nicely formatted, with a proper cover, and without DRM. But that is a pipe dream, I'm sure. :)

If the publishers wanted to attract buyers of ebooks at hardback prices at release, they should add extras such as author interviews, short stories, etc.

And they should allow retail discounting as they do now for hardbacks. Even when I buy hardbacks at release, they're almost always discounted either by Amazon or Barnes & Noble, sometimes quite heavily. I think I paid around $15 each for the last two Harry Potter books, which were retail priced much more--the last one was $35, I think.

I'm happy to pay UP TO the paperback price if it is a book I really want but obviously would prefer to pay less :)

I would say that 90% of the books I read are free anyway, either from free sources like feedbooks / mobileread or from the library. I enjoy shopping around for ebooks though and finding good prices.
Assuming no DRM, then I'd modify this to pay up to the competing pbook price. If it's not available in paperback, then I'd pay up to the hardcover price (or wait, as I do now with many books that are only available in hardcover).

If the ebook is crippled by DRM then it's not a functional as the pbook, so I'm not willing to pay as much.

If the publishers wanted to attract buyers of ebooks at hardback prices at release, they should add extras such as author interviews, short stories, etc.
I think you've identified the problem-most publishers, it seems, do *not* want to attract buyers of ebooks no matter what the price. IMO they're more or less forced into it because of competition-if they don't do it, somebody else will-but that doesn't mean that they *want* to do it.

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.
Why? Assuming they have the same content, of course. (Some books are dependent on illustrations that don't work well in all formats or on all devices-so I regard that as having different content.) Also assuming DRM-free, which gives them (IMO) the same functionality.

DRMed < DRM Free

Why? Assuming they have the same content, of course. (Some books are dependent on illustrations that don't work well in all formats or on all devices-so I regard that as having different content.) Also assuming DRM-free, which gives them (IMO) the same functionality.

When you pay for a paper book, 80% of what you pay for is the physical-ness of the book (paper, printing, distribution, warehousing, etc.). Those costs simply don't exist for an eBook and, therefore, the eBook should cost less - to the tune of 20% of what the paper book costs.

I'm with rlauzon. I don't mind spending as much as I would for a paperback, assuming that the money that's not going into production and distribution costs is going to the author.

When you pay for a paper book, 80% of what you pay for is the physical-ness of the book (paper, printing, distribution, warehousing, etc.). Those costs simply don't exist for an eBook and, therefore, the eBook should cost less - to the tune of 20% of what the paper book costs.
Now that is simply wrong. When you pay for a book, paper or otherwise, 80% (or more) of what you pay goes to pay for the cost of preparing the book. IIRC someone on this forum said that the actual printing cost (paper, ink, distribution, warehousing, etc) of a hypothetical 10,000 copy print run is about $.65/copy. This actually seems low, to me, but don't think the cost of printing the book, as opposed to preparing it for publication, is more than $1/copy-based, of course on at least 10,000 copies.

The cost of preparing the book (including editing, proofreading, royalties, advertising/promotion, etc.) are the same whether it's published as a pbook or as an ebook.

One item that might affect the printing costs, and might therefore be eliminated when publishing as an ebook, is the cost of printing unsold copies. I don't recall anybody giving statistics on that-and I imagine it's negligible for the 'best sellers' that most people seem to focus on. If a book is expected to be a marginal seller then it would probably be more profitable to publish it as an ebook-but I still wouldn't expect the price to be significantly less than if it were published as a pbook.

I think if I am ever going to buy an e-book, 90%-100% of that money should go to the person who did all of the work, TH WRITER. Publishers do very little work except find new books to add to their money flow. I say you get back as much as you put in!
Depends on the publisher. Most authors (particularly beginning authors) claim that suggestions from editors greatly improve their books. But the quality of the editor varies as much as the quality of the author does so, as I said, it depends on the publisher.

It all depends. For authors like Stepehen Kind, Dan Brown, James Rollins, I would pat hardcover prices to get the ebook the day it was released. After that I will pay paperback price. I understand that ebooks will take away profits from paper books sales so I am willing to pay the price.

For independent authors I hesitate to pay more than $5 on a book.
By independent, do you mean 'unknown' or 'self-published'? It seems to me that an author that self-publishes a book puts more work into the book that an author that 'hires' a publisher, so they deserve more wages, i.e. not only the standard author's royalty but also the publisher's profits, too.

A lot of this discussion appears to be based on the idea that no further work needs to be done, other than printing & distribution, after a book is written-and that is *far* from the truth. At least to make a book successful, it is. Even for a well-known author. (Although they can probably sell a poorly-published book or two based simply on their name. After a while though, if they don't work on their publishing skills, become well-known more for how poorly their books are published rather than for how well they're written.)

My sensibility says I should pay less for the e-book.

The reason I'm willing to accept the same price is because I consider it a convenience to have the eBook and be able to save it, move it, and read it with more flexibility. Again, with the no DRM caveat.

is an e-book like a book you get off the computer

I don't know where other people live, but in my neck of the woods only the really large paperbacks are $10.

Try $5.99 to $6.99 for paper backs here.

Not that I buy new ones often.

Yeah, the problem is that most paperbacks from big name authors tend to come out in those larger books that go for $12-16 cover price. i.e. I've never seen a Chuck Palahniuk book in cheaper, smaller mass market paperback.

So I have little problem paying $10 for an e-book of something like that.

Calvin, my whys are mostly about the nature of a real book. I can loan a paper book indefinitely. Some look swell on my bookshelves. I can even sell it. But I am also in the camp who does not believe it costs publishers as much to 'make' given a paper version already produced. Bottom line, an e-book has less value to ME than a p-book.

Calvin, my whys are mostly about the nature of a real book. I can loan a paper book indefinitely. Some look swell on my bookshelves. I can even sell it. But I am also in the camp who does not believe it costs publishers as much to 'make' given a paper version already produced. Bottom line, an e-book has less value to ME than a p-book.

I agree in terms of monetary value.

But I value the convenience of an e-book that I don't have to hassle with finding room for, packing up every time I move, or selling/giving away since most I'll only read once anyway.

So I'm fine paying up to the cost of the paperback for an e-book for convenience alone. In fact, that is the only reason I bought I Kindle in the first place. I read more now that it's much more convenient.

Now that is simply wrong. When you pay for a book, paper or otherwise, 80% (or more) of what you pay goes to pay for the cost of preparing the book.

That is simply correct, according to Eric Flint at Baen Books. That's where I got my information. Eric did a series of publishing/eBook articles in Baen Universe.

IIRC someone on this forum said that the actual printing cost (paper, ink, distribution, warehousing, etc) of a hypothetical 10,000 copy print run is about $.65/copy. This actually seems low, to me, but don't think the cost of printing the book, as opposed to preparing it for publication, is more than $1/copy-based, of course on at least 10,000 copies.

That someone didn't know what he was talking about. It's more like for every copy sold, the author GETS $0.65.

The cost of preparing the book (including editing, proofreading, royalties, advertising/promotion, etc.) are the same whether it's published as a pbook or as an ebook.

And since you only need to do all that ONCE per book, the costs of doing that are spread over all copies sold, making those costs very small - per book.

And since you only need to do all that ONCE per book, the costs of doing that are spread over all copies sold, making those costs very small - per book.
I'll check out Eric Flint's stats later, but I'll also note that to make those costs small you either need to start with them being small or you need to spread them over a *lot* of books. Taking that hypothetical 10,000 copy run, if the one-time costs are $65,000 then that's $6.50/copy. Books from well-known authors usually sell more than 10,000 copies, of course-but the average book doesn't.

Perhaps the problem is that publishers are spreading their costs over all books. maybe if the costs were allocated according to sales it would be more fair-but it seems to me that pricing a new author's book at, say $1000/copy would result in far fewer new authors being published.

I'll check out Eric Flint's stats later, but I'll also note that to make those costs small you either need to start with them being small or you need to spread them over a *lot* of books. Taking that hypothetical 10,000 copy run, if the one-time costs are $65,000 then that's $6.50/copy. Books from well-known authors usually sell more than 10,000 copies, of course-but the average book doesn't.

Perhaps the problem is that publishers are spreading their costs over all books. maybe if the costs were allocated according to sales it would be more fair-but it seems to me that pricing a new author's book at, say $1000/copy would result in far fewer new authors being published.

Obviously, it will vary per book. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books) gives some numbers as far as what "best sellers" means.

But I believe your idea that well-known authors sell only about 10,000 books is very low. I would put the number more toward 1,000,000 for best-selling authors. 10,000 would seem more for the lesser-known authors. I can't seem to easily find sales numbers on the web (quick search before I head out for tonight).

But, you do make a valid point about the costs resulting in far fewer new authors being published. I've had new authors tell us that they paid for their own print runs. Also, I'm sure that many publishers do an analysis to see if the new author's book would sell enough to make it worthwhile.

Which makes eBooks all the more attractive. Since many of those costs simply aren't there, new authors will have a much easier time of getting ePublished.

$10 max, but ideally cheaper than a paperback until it can offer superior functionality compared to a paperback.

As it stands, ebooks offer LESS functionality because I can't lend them to friends like I would a paperback so they should be cheaper.

Obviously, it will vary per book. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books) gives some numbers as far as what "best sellers" means.

But I believe your idea that well-known authors sell only about 10,000 books is very low. I would put the number more toward 1,000,000 for best-selling authors. 10,000 would seem more for the lesser-known authors. I can't seem to easily find sales numbers on the web (quick search before I head out for tonight).

But, you do make a valid point about the costs resulting in far fewer new authors being published. I've had new authors tell us that they paid for their own print runs. Also, I'm sure that many publishers do an analysis to see if the new author's book would sell enough to make it worthwhile.

Which makes eBooks all the more attractive. Since many of those costs simply aren't there, new authors will have a much easier time of getting ePublished.

Thus, Amazon's DTM. I see nothing wrong with 'self'-publishing through Amazon and the Kindle.

Derek

Obviously, it will vary per book. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books) gives some numbers as far as what "best sellers" means.

But I believe your idea that well-known authors sell only about 10,000 books is very low. I would put the number more toward 1,000,000 for best-selling authors. 10,000 would seem more for the lesser-known authors. I can't seem to easily find sales numbers on the web (quick search before I head out for tonight).

But, you do make a valid point about the costs resulting in far fewer new authors being published. I've had new authors tell us that they paid for their own print runs. Also, I'm sure that many publishers do an analysis to see if the new author's book would sell enough to make it worthwhile.

Which makes eBooks all the more attractive. Since many of those costs simply aren't there, new authors will have a much easier time of getting ePublished.

I must not have been very clear, sorry. My opinion is that *only* well-known authors sell as many as 10,000 copies of a book, and you're absolutely right that most of them sell more.

However, I've skimmed all the EF articles I could find on Baen's website and can't find any where he says that 80% of the cost is in printing & distributing a book. I did find (Prime Palaver #7) where he says the author only gets 20% of the sale (paraphrasing here) but his other comments in that article seem to me to support my contention that a substantial portion of the cost of a book goes to the startup expenses. (No, he didn't say 80% goes to startup, only that 80% goes to publishing, distribution, and selling. Which includes editing & proofing the book, as well as promoting it. And other costs as well.)