Is eBook overpricing akin to an eBook tax?

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by starrigger

1. Innocent mistake (someone hit a wrong key)
2. Ineptitude
3. Sabotage

Take your pick.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was simply a mistake. I think I've heard other people say here that occasionally they've hit something like this, emailed Fictionwise and seen it be resolved.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Actually... I don't read e-books because I hope to save money.

Me, either.

I want the ability to adjust font sizes (aging eyes!), easily have access to many books while travelling, and -- as Harry noted -- reduce storage requirements for my library. I also like having my books in a searchable format.

I believe that many ebooks are overpriced -- especially when infested with DRM (making the proposition more of a lease than ownership) -- but that fact was not the driver in my adopting ebooks.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Mobipocket.com has an agreement with bookstores that sell .mobi books that they will not undercut. That's why the prices there are so insanely high. There are other book sellers like Fictionwise.com or BooksOnBoard.com that sell for much less.

That's the thing I can't find the ebook anywhere else but at Fictionwise. It's really quite frustrating.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Baen has figured out that a lot of sales at a low price are better than a few sales at a high price. A senior editor there told me recently that they did quite well with ebook sales on some Sharon Lee/Steve Miller titles. The only regret was that they didn't buy the treebook rights, too, but let them go to another house.

I guess they learned their lesson, that's why all new Lee/Miller books are going to Baen both in P and E
(in case anyone wondering, they got contracts for Fledgling, Saltation, and "Scout's Progress 2". That's in addition to Duianfey and Longeye.)

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I think publishers are overly afraid of DRM, and it hurts authors. First of all, Cory Doctorow has a quote which is oft-repeated, that obscurity is a bigger threat to authors than piracy. I agree with this. Secondly, 'piracy' is an unavoidable part of every business. The vast majority of customers are honest people who will pay a fair price for what they want. But there will always be 'pirates' and there are in every business. I know my university meal plan when I was in first year university budgeted a certain amount into the cost because people would steal forks and spoons and such. And I bet the corner store budgets a certain amount of loss into their budget to teenagers shoplifting candy bars. That's business. The threat in publishers heads is really vastly, vastly inflated to what it is.

my friend owns a little "corner store" the books are not that complicated

you take what your rent is a month.
you pay off taxes on ciggerettes and Lotto
you add 100 dollars a week of Pay for yourself.

you do the books, and whatevers leftover is in your pocket tax free.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by xportz

I believe I've found one of the most egregious pricing discrepancies in the eBook market:

The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition
Paperback: $8.99
Kindle: $2.95
eReader/Fictionwise: $45.00!!!

That's right. Amazon Kindle is selling the electronic version of Stephen King's "The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition" for just $2.95, while the print/paperback version is currently at $8.99.

Meanwhile, eReader/FictionWise just jacked the price of this ebook up to $45.00! That's 5 times the price of the paperback, and over 15 times the price of the Kindle version. How on Earth can they justify charging a 500% eBook tax on this, and other older Stephen King novels? Interestingly enough, I purchased "The Stand" from eReader in September for just $17.95.

I don't know what Doubleday is thinking, and I'm beginning to suspect they must be "in bed" with Amazon as far as eBook pricing goes, putting Kindle competitors' prices through the roof, and dropping Kindle's to bargain levels. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. Any other theories?

They are not "in bed" with Amazon. Amazon seems to have made their own choice to sell eBooks for a low price no matter what they have to pay the publisher. They have the size of business to do that from their existing markets.

I think Amazon is on the good guy's side of this particular issue. You should write a complaint to the publisher.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by CleverClothe

They are not "in bed" with Amazon. Amazon seems to have made their own choice to sell eBooks for a low price no matter what they have to pay the publisher. They have the size of business to do that from their existing markets.

Amazon probably pays the publisher a percentage of the price they get. They may have freedom to set their own price, or they may have an agreement to do a loss-leader promotional sale.

Wild guess here, but the $45 price on Fictionwise might simply be a typo of an intended price of $4.50.

There are any number of reasons why things like this might happen. Most of them do not support conspiracy theories.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by starrigger

There are any number of reasons why things like this might happen. Most of them do not support conspiracy theories.

What is it "they" say? "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by xportz

I believe I've found one of the most egregious pricing discrepancies in the eBook market:

The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition
Paperback: $8.99
Kindle: $2.95
eReader/Fictionwise: $45.00!!!

That's right. Amazon Kindle is selling the electronic version of Stephen King's "The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition" for just $2.95, while the print/paperback version is currently at $8.99.

Meanwhile, eReader/FictionWise just jacked the price of this ebook up to $45.00! That's 5 times the price of the paperback, and over 15 times the price of the Kindle version. How on Earth can they justify charging a 500% eBook tax on this, and other older Stephen King novels? Interestingly enough, I purchased "The Stand" from eReader in September for just $17.95.

I don't know what Doubleday is thinking, and I'm beginning to suspect they must be "in bed" with Amazon as far as eBook pricing goes, putting Kindle competitors' prices through the roof, and dropping Kindle's to bargain levels. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. Any other theories?

Send a message to FW customer service - it's almost certainly a mistake. Human error does occur.

[garygibsonsf]

In terms of the whole argument concerning ebook pricing, one of the more interesting and realistic analyses I've seen so far concerning the question of how much money the publishers make on their side of the fence is in a recent post by Charlie Stross on his blog regarding the ebook market.

http://tinyurl.com/stross-on-ebooks

It's the comments that follow his post that really count, particularly his own comment at number 54 (there were almost a hundred comments last time I looked, so you'll have to scroll down a bit). I know a lot of people here feel like they're being ripped off by ebook prices, and sometimes they are, but not always. The point Charlie makes is that publishers make much less from the books they produce than you might think they do.

Ps - I know some people also think Amazon are the 'good guys' with their across-the-board ten dollar pricing on new titles, but the fact is that Amazon are taking a hit on those lower prices - the publishers are still selling them the books at a regular price. Some of those publishers are worried that if the Amazon kindle market becomes powerful enough, they might in turn be forced to lower the prices at their end or lose out on a substantial chunk of their business which already has a historically desperately thin margin at the best of times. Worth thinking about.

[AshW]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Wild guess here, but the $45 price on Fictionwise might simply be a typo of an intended price of $4.50.

I hope this is the case. Because up until recently it's been pretty expensive and I was hoping the price would drop. At $4.50... hello next purchase!

Just checked BooksonBoard and it's currently around $45 there too. So probably not a typo That's ridiculous, especially given the Kindle price. I'm sure it's not the fault of either of those sites, but if it's because of some deal between the publisher and Amazon that really sucks.

The list price is $50 at Sony Connect as well, $50 at ebooks.com. Direct from Random House? $50 also.

I just don't see how anything that can lead to this sort of pricing that limits a very popular book to a reasonable price to one specific retailer for one specific device only available in a single country can be good for ebooks in any way. As an issue the potential monopoly that the Kindle could have is a much more significant issue for ebooks/epublishing than cost compared to print books. I'm hoping that in this case it's all some kind of bizzare error at Random House's end and the other sites prices are automatically tied into that. But still, it's something that really concerns me.

I didn't agree with some of the posts early in this thread stating that higher prices will lead to piracy, but this kind of stuff makes me rethink that. I've bought and owned various editions of The Stand three or four times in printed formats in the past. To know find out how much I'm expecting to pay for it if I don't own a certain device, live in a certain country and shop at a certain store compared to how cheap those who do meet those criteria can get it doesn't exactly make me feel like a criminal for choosing to look elsewhere.

I'd love to hear a comment on this from a retailer or publisher. If it's not a mistake and the pricing persists I think it's a subject worthy of it's own thread as it's a fair bit off topic from the issue initially being discussed in this one.

I feel happy I picked the Stand up a while back for WAY less than half that and 100% micropay. Since then I noticed it keeps going up little by little. I'm not sure WHAT is going on with pricing. Just do a search for all his books and you can see prices between a few bucks to a full days pay (and all for books out for years and in paperback).

Schizophrenic pricing: not just an impediment to buying, it's an adventure!

(Hmmm, just did a new look and noticed that the super high priced ones are all his original big-name sellers (Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining). Those would be the ones his owners would be least likely to want to turn loose. His newer and lesser-pushed books are more reasonable. Guess the thinking is that since they are his best selling work they can demand any price they want if you want to sell them.)

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

Some of those publishers are worried that if the Amazon kindle market becomes powerful enough, they might in turn be forced to lower the prices at their end or lose out on a substantial chunk of their business which already has a historically desperately thin margin at the best of times. Worth thinking about.

As Jeffrey pointed out, that's the time when publishers need to figure out how to promote e-books, so that they can achieve higher volume at those lower prices to make their profit.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Amazon probably pays the publisher a percentage of the price they get.

Jeff, if that is true, then it would be a revolution is the publishing world. As it currently stands, I can't imagine any major publisher agreeing to such a scheme and letting Amazon set the price.

The standard is that the retailer pays a discounted price for the product, with the discount applied to the suggested retail price. Several publishers have said that Amazon is losing money on every sale of a new bestseller that it sells at $9.99 because Amazon still has to pay the discounted price to the publisher, which is often higher than the retail price Amazon charges.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by stxopher

Guess the thinking is that since they are his best selling work they can demand any price they want if you want to sell them.)

If that's what they're thinking its probably going to backfire big time.

Those are the books that are most easily available on p2p and are often of quiet good quality.

Charging a rip off price and expecting people to pay is not gong to work, when you can find a pirate copy Using Google. The more expensive the book, the more time a person is going to be will to spend to find a cheaper or free copy.

Baen's model works because they make the books available not only cheaply, but with minimum restrictions so it is usually much more convenient to pay the price then spend time looking for a pirate copy.

If the publisher looks like they are trying to rip you off, even people who would not normally download pirated books may be tempted, and once you get them started down that path, its going to hard to convince them to come back and buy the rest of the books, even if they are much more reasonably priced,