Classic B&N ebooks still more expensive than Kindle. Will they lower prices?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Do you think that publishers fix a different price in different shops? When you see physical shops with 20% discount the first day they sell a book ?

No, the retailer does that.

A huge retailer ordering many copies may get a better wholesale price from the publisher than a smaller one. This has been a problem for independent booksellers for years: they can't match the pricing the big chains get. Many have gone under as a result.

But while the book will have a regular retail price printed on it, the retailer can choose to charge less than the sticker price. Sometimes much less, in deals known in retailing as "loss leaders". The idea is to get traffic into the store, where they will (hopefully) buy other things besides the highly discounted item.
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Dennis

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

No, the retailer does that.

A huge retailer ordering many copies may get a better wholesale price from the publisher than a smaller one. This has been a problem for independent booksellers for years: they can't match the pricing the big chains get. Many have gone under as a result.

But while the book will have a regular retail price printed on it, the retailer can choose to charge less than the sticker price. Sometimes much less, in deals known in retailing as "loss leaders". The idea is to get traffic into the store, where they will (hopefully) buy other things besides the highly discounted item.
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Dennis

Exactly, and don't forget, Amazon and B&N are retailers too. So, the same way you examine shops looking for better prices in pb, you do in ebook.

This is a point. Another one, and I agree, is the high price of the ebooks and the publishers afraid of ebooks (many of them, at leas).

[rwizard]

One thing to keep in mind is that, until there is a standard that everyone is using The publisher has to create the ebook in multiple formats or risk a crappy conversion. Publishing an ebook in multiple formats could be costly (not sure it is, I can just see where it could be). As long as each format is it's own niche market then more has to be charged in order to recoup this cost. This is not really any different than any other market in this respect. Amazon may be selling enough ebooks in their proprietary format to allow publishers to charge them less. If epub takes off like it appears it will (primarily due to B&N and Sony adopting it) Then there may be enough of a market to reduce or eliminate the extra that has to be charged to publish in this format (We can only hope).

[Terisa de morgan]

Abouth both conversions... are there so many differences in a normal novel? I mean. I format ALL my books in ePub, prc and LIT. The only problem I can find some times is the toc, the other things: calibre convert directly. So sorry, or they make A LOT OF work by hand or I can't understand the different formats issue, sorry.

[stallone]

An update on pricing since this thread has been dead for a couple weeks.

Per Gizmodo's review (link) of the nook, Barnes & Noble appears to be dropping ebook prices to match or at least compete with Amazon now that the nook's release is imminent.

Originally Posted by Gizmodo

Speaking of Kindle downloads, some noise has been made about Kindle books being cheaper than B&N ebooks, but Barnes & Noble says that they are in the process of correcting their prices, basically evening them all out so that they're no higher than Amazon's. In my own experience, I found David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest for $10 and George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones for just $7. I was pretty pleased, though I was a tad annoyed that sales tax wasn't included in the base price. Be warned there.

[kindlekitten]

in all fairness, the displayed purchase price at Amazon doesn't include sales tax either

[jmaloney]

Does Amazon charge sales tax, though? I was under the impression that they generally don't need to, since they don't have a physical presence in most states.

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

in all fairness, the displayed purchase price at Amazon doesn't include sales tax either

I assume the "The Olympic Peninsula" is Washington State. Since Amazon is headquarters is in Washington you would pay taxes but most of us do not.

[phenomshel]

I don't pay sales tax on ebooks purchased from B&N, even though there are several brick and mortar stores located in the state.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by jmaloney

Does Amazon charge sales tax, though? I was under the impression that they generally don't need to, since they don't have a physical presence in most states.

I pay sales tax

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

I assume the "The Olympic Peninsula" is Washington State. Since Amazon is headquarters is in Washington you would pay taxes but most of us do not.

and now I know why

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by jmaloney

Does Amazon charge sales tax, though? I was under the impression that they generally don't need to, since they don't have a physical presence in most states.

Here in CT we are required to pay a Use Tax equal to our Sales Tax on internet purchases if not charged by the seller. We must add it on our annual income tax return.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

I assume the "The Olympic Peninsula" is Washington State. Since Amazon is headquarters is in Washington you would pay taxes but most of us do not.

Well, it gets stickier than that. If you 'operate' in a state with sales tax, your online sales to that residents of that state have to include tax. B&N having a store in every state pretty much guarantees that they collect sales tax for all the states that collect revenue this way. States may also require that online retailers who want to ship to a state to collect sales tax, as if they were operating in the state even if they don't have a physical location in the state.

Amazon has warehouses littered across the country, and so every state they have a warehouse in, that requires collection of sales tax, will require that Amazon collects sales tax for that state.

But yeup, you are right, nonetheless.

EDIT: And sirmaru catches the other side of the coin that I totally forgot about. Many states require residents file use tax on purchases made out of state and brought in (including online purchases). Very few people actually do it, and enforcement would be hair-pulling at best. WA state also does this, but most people don't even know you are supposed to, let alone actually do it.

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

WA state also does this, but most people don't even know you are supposed to, let alone actually do it.

New York does, too. I seem to recall that they've actually sent out tax bills when, for some reason, they became aware of unreported purchases, but I don't have a citation off the top of my head.

[phenomshel]

Ok, so why don't I pay sales tax on ebooks from B & N? From every example given, it would seem that I should....but I just checked all my back orders from them, and I don't. Maybe it's an Illinois thing?

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Here in CT we are required to pay a Use Tax equal to our Sales Tax on internet purchases if not charged by the seller. We must add it on our annual income tax return.

how do you track that?

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Well, it gets stickier than that. If you 'operate' in a state with sales tax, your online sales to that residents of that state have to include tax. B&N having a store in every state pretty much guarantees that they collect sales tax for all the states that collect revenue this way. States may also require that online retailers who want to ship to a state to collect sales tax, as if they were operating in the state even if they don't have a physical location in the state.

Amazon has warehouses littered across the country, and so every state they have a warehouse in, that requires collection of sales tax, will require that Amazon collects sales tax for that state.

But yeup, you are right, nonetheless.

EDIT: And sirmaru catches the other side of the coin that I totally forgot about. Many states require residents file use tax on purchases made out of state and brought in (including online purchases). Very few people actually do it, and enforcement would be hair-pulling at best. WA state also does this, but most people don't even know you are supposed to, let alone actually do it.

we don't pay a yearly state tax here, I have no idea how this works/would work