Quote:
Originally Posted by GA Russell
Perhaps my initial reaction would have been different if they had referred to their best customers as "avid spenders" rather than "avid readers".
Nevertheless, if I have spent the big bucks on an eBook reader yet I am not spending money on eBooks, it would seem to me that that is a behavior both publishers and booksellers ought to be interested in knowing about.
I think it is Dennis who has often pointed out that reading is not something that can be done in the background, and that the commodity of which there is a finite supply is time.
So if I am spending my limited time reading free eBooks after spending a lot of money on an eBook reader, the industry would probably want to know how much less money I am spending on books this year as opposed to the year before I bought my device (or in the alternative, if I am merely increasing my reading with free books while spending the same or more money on hardcopies).
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Many posters (not you specifically) say they're fine reading free e-books and say they don't see much editorial value in what publishers do. If that's true, then publishers shouldn't bother competing for that type of business. There's no money to be made from people who want something for free and who don't value your product. If those readers are truthful, then they shouldn't bother caring how much big publishers charge; they're already getting what they want for free elsewhere.
There are readers who are willing to spend a few bucks per e-book, and it seems big publishers aren't interested in that proposition either. So they're probably going to keep focusing on people who spend more on books. Maybe that won't work out, so big publishers will either overhaul themselves or go out of business in the next decade or so. For the short term, publishers have fixed legacy costs and are still selling considerably more print books vs. e-books, so they'll probably hold out as long as possible.
On a separate thread, a good number of posters say they used to buy mainly used books before they bought e-readers. I doubt publishers are interested in producing for those readers, either. There's practically no money to be made at used-book prices, except for those who own the used-book businesses. Those books were essentially subsidized by the people who bought them new, then resold them. Those buyers -- of new books -- are the crowd that publishers actually care about.