Penguin CEO: E-book is the answer to my prayers

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

As long as you're discussing oil, don't forget to discuss the fuel being burned to drive all these paper supplies around, not to mention the cost of providing power to warehouses that store them.

As much as publishers like their paper-based systems, sooner or later the raw cost of a physical production and distribution system, especially related to power, production and distribution, is going to be too much to pass onto the consumer for anything but specialty items.

[brecklundin]

exactly Steve...we sure seem to have reached a "silly season" in terms of energy production and use. Ironically free energy is all around us yet "they" will never turn to it willingly.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Charging a premium for convenience--and, at this point, novelty, which is still an issue with e-books--is, of course, nothing new. However, when more outlets offer e-books, and the convenience becomes old-hat, prices eventually get driven down to more closely match raw profit over expenses. How soon? Don't hold your breath (in fact, bring an oxygen talk), but eventually....

Hey, I'm still waiting for the price of CDs to come down.

[Taylor514ce]

When Valero starts running peppy commercials for gasoline, featuring happy people living the Great American Dream, which apparently involves zipping around the country in Corvettes, all to the tune of "Life is a Highway", right at the beginning of "summer vacation season", you know we're in trouble.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

something I have yet to see anyone mention is the cost of oil in relation to the cost of a printed book. Face it (oil) the price has increased over 3x in the past 8 years. That means the cost of processing the raw materials needed to produce a book you know ink, paper and what not have also increased significantly. Perhaps this will be the motivating factor to push these CEO sorts to ebook format...to reduce production overhead.

I work for a publishing company (not book publisher) and I'm the one who deals with our printing companies. I can tell that SO FAR that we have seen no significant increases to printing costs, as a matter of fact the job I just sent off yesterday dropped slightly from a similar project this time last year. That's not to say it applies in all cases or anything, just some personal experience.

[MaggieScratch]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that publishers discovered there is a price point at which hardback sales really drop off. I think it's $30? $35? Something like that. Might even be less.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RWood

Hey, I'm still waiting for the price of CDs to come down.

CDs cost dramatically less in real terms than they did 20 years ago.

[pieter]

Supply and demand theories don't fit with content like ebooks (or music) too well because publisher basically have a monopoly on their own titles. It's not like somebody could compete by selling cheaper harry potter books. So with supply effectively out of the equation, it seems logical for CEO's to just set price according to demand, like Penguin seems to do. The demand for ebooks is basically the same as for paperbooks. So let's just set the price at the same level and make even more money.

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by HarryT

CDs cost dramatically less in real terms than they did 20 years ago.

Maybe where you live ...

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by tirsales

Maybe where you live ...

I think his point was, while CDs cost roughly the same now as they did 20 years ago (around $15 on average), inflation has driven the cost of everything else up... so that CD is taking a proportionally smaller bite out of your wallet, compared to things like gas, food, rent, etc.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

I seem to recall reading somewhere that publishers discovered there is a price point at which hardback sales really drop off. I think it's $30? $35? Something like that. Might even be less.

Has a lot to do with content as well ... if you are talking about certain types of hardbacks (such as Janson's Art History), then the price point never enters into it because if you want that tome, the only way you will ever get it is (1) in hardback and (2) at the going price.

But that's because without the color plates and the recent edition, you can't really effectively compete in class. Of course, having said that, I doubt I'll ever slap down $200 plus for the latest version, and I might just buy the version that is now almost 40 years out of date for $10. But then, I'm no longer an art history student.

Really thinking about that ....

[WillAdams]

Printers are squeezing really hard to hold the prices down, or to lower them to bring in more volume in the hope that that'll give them leverage w/ vendors to negotiate for lower prices (I work for the largest privately owned printer in the U.S.). One major competitor recently filed for bankruptcy protection, but is staying in business, so the perception is they have something of an edge in their pricing (not paying some bills, interest only payments on others...), so no one (we're talking _large_ commercial printers here printing things in volumes of tens of thousands and up) has been able to pass on any of their cost increases for fear of losing business, and the costs have been increasing --- power, ink, plate-making material, equipment, &c.

William

[Cthulhu]

@ Breck:

When you bring the issue of oil into the equation, are you positing on its (possible--not starting a political debate) scarcity, or its fluctuating market value as it relates to the price of processed fuels? Remember, all our fancy e-book devices are made out of oil and sand, and would argue that very fuel people are re-powering their batteries for said devices on rainbows & sunshine (some, but not many).
As for relative cost savings vis-a-vis Target versus Amazon, at some point all these things are getting shipped across the country. Fuel is still being burned, and a company is still incurring costs for that. At a Target store, as well as any other, part of the cost is overhead, and a convenience issue in the fact that you can go right there & get the darned thing without waiting two days.

Am happy to see an executive in the publishing industry embracing a new technology, even if he does have an unsurprisingly skewed view on pricing. Any press coverage is good press coverage.
As far as the cost of e-texts goes, here is my two cents:
$0.01 Write as many publishing companies are you can to voice your displeasure, and
$0.02 Purchase as many e-texts from independent authors as possible.

The second tactic is the closest thing to a "Napster-like Tipping Point" that I can envision. If the folks at the top realise that they are losing business, then they might make a change.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I think his point was, while CDs cost roughly the same now as they did 20 years ago (around $15 on average), inflation has driven the cost of everything else up... so that CD is taking a proportionally smaller bite out of your wallet, compared to things like gas, food, rent, etc.

Precisely - that's why I said "in real terms". If a CD costs $15 now, and was also $15 20 years ago, it actually now costs about a third of what it did 20 years ago in terms of your "buying power".

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Precisely - that's why I said "in real terms". If a CD costs $15 now, and was also $15 20 years ago, it actually now costs about a third of what it did 20 years ago in terms of your "buying power".

And if I pay 20€ for a CD that cost 19,50 DM (9,97€) ten years ago?