Paper book vs ebook price

[RDaneel54]

How about the authors of the books the doctors and lawyers read to become doctors and lawyers?

Also, the effort they put in to being licensed is irrelevant. It is basically education costs. Many authors also have education costs, attainment of experience costs, etc.

Definitely, apples and nine-irons here.

[ellbre]

I was wondering if this about the price when I first started buying ebooks it was cheaper but a big difference I just notice that on Amazon the other day that the e- version was more than the paper book when did this happen. Was I asleep somewhere, or did I fall down a rabbit hole somewhere and came back years later.lol

[HarryT]

Two words: agency pricing. This happened about two years ago - something like that.

[crich70]

There is one thing to also be considered. Sometimes the ebook version is just plain sloppy. Formatting errors and so forth that wouldn't make it into the marketplace for a paper book sometimes seem to just slip by the publishers. Recently I bought a book that besides not having a working TOC (useful in a non-fiction book) but also had an error in chapter numbering. It went from Chapter 8 to Chapter 9 to Chapter 8 again. For some reason no one else had caught it before I noticed it. Of course the book wasn't expensive (under $5.00 if I recall) but such errors would not be allowed to be published in a paper book. Granted even editors are human, and this is a mild example, but why pay $9.99 on up if the quality of the ebook isn't assured?

[mldavis2]

I would guess that a lot of eBook releases are written or edited in one format and then blindly run through a conversion editor, without additional human intervention, for release in multiple formats. It would be too much to expect editors to re-read each and every conversion for formatting errors, I suspect, especially at the sub-$5 price point.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

I would guess that a lot of eBook releases are written or edited in one format and then blindly run through a conversion editor, without additional human intervention, for release in multiple formats. It would be too much to expect editors to re-read each and every conversion for formatting errors, I suspect, especially at the sub-$5 price point.

Until very recently, no digital version of a book was retained by a publisher. Most backlist ebooks are produced by OCR from a paper version of the book.

[mldavis2]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Until very recently, no digital version of a book was retained by a publisher. Most backlist ebooks are produced by OCR from a paper version of the book.

I was not aware of that. I assumed, having no inside knowledge of the publishing industry, that in the past 10 years or more, all proofs, submissions and editing would have been done in digital editors for ease of correction, and that final proofs would have been retained as backup for future printing runs.

But if you are correct, then I can assure you, as an experienced proofreader for Distributed Proofreaders / Project Gutenberg, that OCR scans are notoriously prone to inaccuracies, especially when confronted by "altered" text forms such as boldface, italics, drop caps, etc., and irregular formatting tricks; hence it is no wonder that digitally captured printed text comes out as a butchered replica of the original. This speaks to the profit incentive of a hands-off rush to convert printed text for digital sales.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

It's got to do with the nature of the product.

While an author might spend hours and months producing a book, his efforts come to an end when its published (discounting the publicity and book signings which are mere marketing).

A doctor or lawyer might spend hours and months learning their trade, but their efforts do not come to an end when they get licensed. They only make money if they show up to work everyday and apply the knowledge gained in a repeated manner for clients. The moment somebody comes up with a paradigm where, similar to the authors, the doctors and lawyers can make money despite not having to keep working every day, their clients and patients will automatically downgrade the 'value' of their services and expect a deep downgrade to the monetary compensation they receive too.

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

That's my point exactly. Doctors and Lawyers don't get paid merely for effort sustained before licensing, they have to keep reproducing their knowledge and expertise and get paid for each such reproduction for each client or patient. The authors don't have to keep reproducing their efforts in order to continue to get paid.

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

That isn't my point at all.

A doctor still has to put in effort for each patient he sees.

The author doesn't.

This isn't meant as a slight on the authors. It's just the nature of their work.

You are confusing *labor* with *property.* Work is labor. Books are intellectual property.

A doctor or lawyer can use some of his earnings to buy real property, hire a management company to run it, and if the property is in a good location, the doctor or lawyer will have a stream of income for himself and his heirs, without having to lift another finger.

A doctor or lawyer can use some of his earnings to buy stocks or bonds, and, if he chose wisely, likewise have a stream of income that is theoretically never ending.

An author invests his time and skill into writing a book, and if the book is sufficiently appreciated, he may have a stream of income that will last until the copyright expires.

Basically, if you do labor, you are paid for what you do. If you own income producing property, you are paid for permitting people to access the property.

There's nothing at all unusual about this state of affairs.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Shipping is bulk and even mail has a reduced price book rate.

+1

Re: Shipping - Amazon is able to ship books via UPS for free if you order over $35 worth of books, and offer free 2 day delivery on almost everything you order for a flat $79/year. And Amazon is still able to generally offer the lowest prices available despite eating these shipping costs. This suggests that the shipping costs are tiny.

And Amazon is shipping via UPS, not a bulk shipper. Amazon's business is shipping 1 book to 1,000 people, and it is still able to have very small shipping costs. A publisher will ship 1,000 books to 1 bookstore; this is inherently even less expensive.

So - even without knowing anything about actual bulk shipping costs - it must be very cheap if you scale it.

[mldavis2]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Amazon's business is shipping 1 book to 1,000 people, and it is still able to have very small shipping costs. A publisher will ship 1,000 books to 1 bookstore; this is inherently even less expensive.

Wow! 1,000 books to one store. Heck, out here in the boonies, our bookstores don't have 1,000 books.

[stonetools]

Mike Shatzkin sums up the approach of the publishers well in this comment:

The prices the big guys charge for ebooks are not just a product of their overheads. You maximize revenues regardless of your overheads. They charge what they charge because they believe they're maximizing revenue, and I think they're right. (If they cut prices from $10 to $3, would they more than triple the sales? I doubt it. If Penguin had cut the price on Follett from $20 to $3, would they have gotten more than SIX times the sales? I REALLY doubt it.)

So while you're absolutely right that the price of "branded" books being kept high clears a path to the consumer for the self-published author, everybody is still pursuing the course that really makes the best sense for them. The market will probably force prices of the branded books down over time, but there is no reason for publishers to accelerate the process.

LINK

Says it all right there. People will charge what the market can bear for the goodsand services they sell in the marketplace, regardless of overhead. Its up to you whether you want to pay that price or not.
You should always remember that over time, ebook prices will go down, and and that if you are a patient shopper, you can do pretty well.
Overthe weekend two of the books on my wishlist went down sharply in price-one going from 12.99 to 7.99 and the other from 9.99 to 4.99. I snapped up both of them and then bought a Kindle Dealy deal that went from 7.99 to 0.99. I finished up by buying Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" , an SF classic, thatwas going for 4.95. I ended up buying four well regarded books for $19.
Rather than complaining that ebooks aren't being sold for the "right price", I would work on smart shopping techniques. It would be more helpful in the long run.

[astra]

Originally Posted by leebase

If you want a used book, then buy the $2 used book. Or pay $18 for the new book.

Could you advise me please on where I can purchase used ebooks for $2
vs. $18 for brand new ones?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

Could you advise me please on where I can purchase used ebooks for $2
vs. $18 for brand new ones?

Amazon has enormous numbers of second-hand paper books for 1p (plus postage).

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Mike Shatzkin sums up the approach of the publishers well in this comment:



LINK

Says it all right there. People will charge what the market can bear for the goodsand services they sell in the marketplace, regardless of overhead. Its up to you whether you want to pay that price or not.
You should always remember that over time, ebook prices will go down, and and that if you are a patient shopper, you can do pretty well.
Overthe weekend two of the books on my wishlist went down sharply in price-one going from 12.99 to 7.99 and the other from 9.99 to 4.99. I snapped up both of them and then bought a Kindle Dealy deal that went from 7.99 to 0.99. I finished up by buying Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" , an SF classic, thatwas going for 4.95. I ended up buying four well regarded books for $19.
Rather than complaining that ebooks aren't being sold for the "right price", I would work on smart shopping techniques. It would be more helpful in the long run.

when i buy hardcopies i always do my best to take advantage of amazon's 4 for 3 deal. combine that with free shipping for orders over $25 and you save a bundle.

i wish there were some way (unless there already is and i dont know) to sign up for price change alerts of stuff you're interested in instead of having to constantly check.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Amazon has enormous numbers of second-hand paper books for 1p (plus postage).

And?