MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - E-books worth 5% of Hachette's business

bgalbrecht · 12-18-2010, 08:29 PM

I like to repeat this, in hopes some people at the Agency 5 get a clue. They need to price their ebooks at least 10% less than mass market paperback prices (assuming one has been release), because B&N discounts all MMPB by 10% at their website (or in-store with the B&N rewards program), but the ebook price set by the publisher is the MMPB MSRP.

Furthermore, when they get to the point where they're considering dropping the print book from the backlist, they ought to be dropping the ebook price to about half the MMPB list price, because they're now competing with used book stores. Of course, they'll never do that because they believe that cheaper older ebooks (I'd guess I can't use the term in-print!) will cannibalize sales of new books, because we'd all rather buy cheap books than new ones (right?). In reality, what they would be doing is producing more competition with used book stores, with whatever money would have gone to the used bookstore going to the ebook retailer, them and the author.

I think that the only Hatchette ebooks I've bought since April one were with my soon-to-be-used-up 40% off Sony gift cards, and indirectly, library books. There just aren't that many new books that are compelling for me to buy at new paperback prices, when I have thousands of to-be-read ebooks that I either bought at used book prices before April, got free, or bought at Fictionwise at 50%-60% off in the last month (like Rex Stout's ebooks for about $2.50 each).

12-18-2010, 08:29 PM	#7
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	I like to repeat this, in hopes some people at the Agency 5 get a clue. They need to price their ebooks at least 10% less than mass market paperback prices (assuming one has been release), because B&N discounts all MMPB by 10% at their website (or in-store with the B&N rewards program), but the ebook price set by the publisher is the MMPB MSRP. Furthermore, when they get to the point where they're considering dropping the print book from the backlist, they ought to be dropping the ebook price to about half the MMPB list price, because they're now competing with used book stores. Of course, they'll never do that because they believe that cheaper older ebooks (I'd guess I can't use the term in-print!) will cannibalize sales of new books, because we'd all rather buy cheap books than new ones (right?). In reality, what they would be doing is producing more competition with used book stores, with whatever money would have gone to the used bookstore going to the ebook retailer, them and the author. I think that the only Hatchette ebooks I've bought since April one were with my soon-to-be-used-up 40% off Sony gift cards, and indirectly, library books. There just aren't that many new books that are compelling for me to buy at new paperback prices, when I have thousands of to-be-read ebooks that I either bought at used book prices before April, got free, or bought at Fictionwise at 50%-60% off in the last month (like Rex Stout's ebooks for about $2.50 each).