Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
This, despite publishers' efforts to "protect" hardback sales with high ebook prices.
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No, they're trying to protect the hardcover
best sellers. Those are the crown jewels of the industry. They generate the most revenue, carry the highest margins, and make the most profit. If people buy ebook editions instead of the hardcover, the publisher
doesn't "make it up on volume".
There's a one year lag between the release of the hardcover and the mass market paperback edition to give the hardcover time to sell the people who want the book
now before the cheaper edition arrives. "Agency pricing" has the same purpose - if the retailer wants to offer an ebook edition at the same time as the hardcover edition, they have to charge a higher price so the publisher doesn't lose the difference on the sale. If they want to charge the lower price, they have to wait for a while after the hardcover is released to do it.
Publishers are trying to
survive. eBooks have simply thrown more turmoil into a market that was already struggling, with unit sales flat or down and revenues up at all only because of price increases. This has been going on for years, and the process began well before ebooks appeared and became popular. Publishers are going through wrenching mergers and consolidations, imprints are folding, and layoffs are daily occurrences. Lines are getting trimmed because there are simply too many books chasing too few readers.
I'm unsurprised at the move to the agency pricing model - why should ebooks be different from paperbacks? And my scarce resource is time to
read the books. Price is not the determining factor.
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Dennis