The New Agency Pricing Scheme is Total B.S.

[Angst]

I've had my ereader for a little over a year. During that time I have bought over 200 books. I have never been tempted to download books from the darknet. Until now. The whole agency pricing debacle is really getting to me. If this isn't resolved by the time I finish my TBR list (4-5 months), I may consider looking elsewhere for content. I am acutely aware of pbook vs ebook prices. I will not pay more for an ebook than a pbook.

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by mgm1979

so...organize a boycott of ALL of the agency model pricing publishers...someone crafty should whip up on email to shoot out; someone techy should create a website; and someone else who's good with research/legalese should track down all of the "details" to include in both forms.

Pick a date and execute.

I will NOT pay $20 for a book I can buy in the store for $15 or less...that's absolutely insane. I WILL rip the publishers off as much as I can, through boycotts or otherwise, and prove the CONSUMER rules the world - NOT the vendor. Its time businesses in ALL industries remember this fact - the CUSTOMER is always right...ALWAYS! Price-gouging is wrong/illegal - so are monopolies, which is exactly what they publishers have just created...

I agree - I will not buy any e-books (I only buy e-books) unless the price is under $10.00. I have a long list of books to read that are available for free at my library, so I will wait them out.

If everyone did this, then the prices would drop.

[schmolch]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

No, what I'm saying is if the books are not available at all in ebook. Not just expensive, not there at all to be purchased.

ADF-Scanner: 150$
Scissors: 5$
Turning any book into a free ebook within 30 minutes: priceless

[Angst]

The worst part about the new agency model is that it destroys retailer's customer loyalty programs.

From Kobo:
"With agency, the price is the price. We lose most of our ability to issue coupons, promotions, special discounts, kickbacks, buy-X-get-one-free."

http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/03/29...like-its-9-99/

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by schmolch

ADF-Scanner: 150$
Scissors: 5$
Turning any book into a free ebook within 30 minutes: priceless

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

No, what I'm saying is if the books are not available at all in ebook. Not just expensive, not there at all to be purchased.

If that is the case I still will never purchase the book. It's off to my local library...

[Tonycole]

As someone who has a blog about eReaders and eBooks, I should know about this "dark net", but I don't. I gather it is a sort of eBook equivalent of illegal music and video download sites. Please tell me more.
I might even be inspired to write a post about it on my blog.....

[Logseman]

The darknet is a common name for the places where you can download copyrighted books for free. Those are certain websites, p2p content servers and lots of content in direct download servers as well.

[langshipley]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

The darknet is going to explode with ebooks, totally removing the publisher from the profit chain.

What is this darknet that everyone is talking about and where does one find it? Do I just google darknet?

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Tonycole

As someone who has a blog about eReaders and eBooks, I should know about this "dark net", but I don't. I gather it is a sort of eBook equivalent of illegal music and video download sites. Please tell me more.
I might even be inspired to write a post about it on my blog.....

The term as-used comes from a Microsoft research paper from 2002, which talks about the futility of trying to choke off unauthorised download sources.

[MV64]

Originally Posted by The-eBook-Reader

As I anxiously await for my iPad to arrive to get started on the review, I've been doing some looking around at the new ebook prices.

The other day I was watching Apple's video demo of the iBooks app when I noticed that they had Stephen King's Under the Dome listed for $14.99 (not sure what it's selling for now).

At the time, all the major ebook stores were selling it for around $9.99.

Today it is up to $16.99 on Amazon and B&N, and $18.69 on Kobo (how does that make any sense?).

Anyway, right next to the ebook price on Amazon you see that they are selling the hardcover for $15.99 new and 10.11 used. Granted you have to pay shipping but still . . .

I also noticed that Amazon now has this to say below the publisher listing: This price was set by the publisher.

Madness, I say. Madness. When you can by a new hardcover for less than the ebook there's something seriously wrong with the system.

Under the Dome is now 6.99 or whatever at Barnes and Noble. Hardcover. I know the Publisher's can't take into account bargain books from a single bookseller, but it certainly doesn't help their cause when they try to sell it for the same price (or close) as the regular book. As we all know by now, e-books should be seriously discounted.


EDIT": And as a BN employee, it's going to be considerably harder to sell the nook when I can't point to cheap ebook prices anymore. Now I have to explain to already skeptical customers that the expensive ebooks aren't our fault, but the publisher's. Yet another thing for customers to give me an eye roll for.

[dmaul1114]

I don't like it, but I'm not up in arms over it.

If I don't like a books price (i.e. it's more than the cheapest paper counterpart) I don't buy it. Hopefully most will do the same, and even with the agency model publishers will realize that at most they can charge the same as the cheapest paper book, and less for some titles.

But I have no problem with publishers setting prices, I don't really like content providers forcing prices on them. They should be able to set MSRP and stores should be able to discount (at their own reductions in profit) how they seem fit just like for most physical products.

There are lots of physical goods, including books, I feel are overpriced. I just do without. Tons of other books to read that cost amounts I'm willing to pay, not to mention the freebies. So I feel no need to cry about it online, justify going to the darknets or something. I just ignore it and go buy something I feel is reasonably priced to read and hope publishers get the message.

$9.99 is probably the most I'd pay for an e-book, and most I've bought on my Kindle are less than that. No shortage of things to read at that price or under, so thus far I'm good and figure agency pricing will eventually just shift to matching (or being a bit under) the cheapest print version. So higher at release when just the hardcover is out, dropping when the paperback comes out. I have no issue with that, been waiting for cheap paperbacks all my life, can wait for the e-book prices to drop on the same schedule.

[fugazied]

It's very disappointing because I really do not want to pay more than $9.99 for books. I am willing to wait for books as well (I already have a massive list of books to read) so I am willing to wait for price reductions.

There is no way I will ever pay $15 for an e-book which gives me less rights (ability to lend to friends, ability to resell) than a paper book.

[Sweetpea]

After a nice email from BoB, I finally figured out what this Agency Pricing Scheme is... And now I know why I've never really understood what the fuss was all about.

We already have this for ages... The main problem is that it has been implemented only now, while the ebook sales are up and more and more people are hit by the chaos you always have when you change a pricing method.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by The-eBook-Reader

Madness, I say. Madness. When you can by a new hardcover for less than the ebook there's something seriously wrong with the system.

Simple... greed. It's a niche market still, so they figure they can get away with cranking up their profit margins and taking advantage of the early adopters. Is it fair... probably not. Is it surprising... probably not.