08-31-2009, 12:30 AM | #1 |
Montreal wins Grey Cup!
Posts: 7,583
Karma: 31484197
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Raleigh, NC
Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite
|
Hachette complains about eBook prices
Here is a Financial Times article from today in which the French publisher Hachette complains about Amazon's $9.99 price for best sellers. He thinks that if the public becomes accustomed to that price point, all other eBooks would have to be sold for less, and the hardback book may go away.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0df31226-9...44feabdc0.html |
08-31-2009, 12:54 AM | #2 |
Fanatic
Posts: 581
Karma: 5952
Join Date: Aug 2009
Device: PRS-505, PRS-350
|
Publishers should be worried, but not because of Amazon's pricing. They should be worried because of what happened in the music industry. When music distribution became primarily digital, the artists fared much better, but the record companies started dying. When book distribution becomes primarily digital (as I think it will), it's the publishers who will suffer. The last thing they want is for authors to no longer need them, so of course they're complaining. IMO, this digital trend is good for both authors and consumers.
|
Advert | |
|
08-31-2009, 01:01 AM | #3 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,385
Karma: 16056
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Asia
Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Sony PRS-505
|
The publishing industry needs to get on its feet and start promoting paper books if they want to keep that market strong.
Buy some placement in the next post-apocalyptic blockbuster where the main character's ebook reader dies before he can solve the riddle hidden in Chaucer. I'll call Tom Hanks, you call Dan Brown. |
08-31-2009, 01:03 AM | #4 |
Publishers are evil!
Posts: 2,418
Karma: 36205264
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Rhode Island
Device: Various Kindles
|
I'd be interested to see what the financials really are in regards to a typical new hardback book. Is Amazon really losing money on ebooks they sell at $9.99? How much does a hardback actually make after you deduct the cost of printing, distribution, and the discount from unsold books returned to the publisher? What is the author's percentage?
Something about the Hatchette CEO just rubs me the wrong way. He seems to be complaining about Amazon, complaining about free public domain books, and complaining about ebooks in general. I don't know enough about the book business to say he's not justified in complaining, but I still doubt I'd invest in Hatchette. |
08-31-2009, 01:12 AM | #5 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,624
Karma: 1008294
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Iowa, USA
Device: Nook Simple Touch
|
the writing is on the wall.
|
Advert | |
|
08-31-2009, 01:32 AM | #6 |
Montreal wins Grey Cup!
Posts: 7,583
Karma: 31484197
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Raleigh, NC
Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite
|
Here's a second article from today's Financial Times in which the author speculates that publishers may limit the distribution of their books to the eBook "partner" of their choice.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/efcbfef2-9...nclick_check=1 |
08-31-2009, 02:07 AM | #7 |
Snooty Bestselling Author
Posts: 1,485
Karma: 1000000
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Ipswich, QLD, Australia
Device: PRS-650
|
Wouldn't that require some sort of ebook/digital projector combo?
In all seriousness, I generally roll my eyes at complaints from traditional (paper) publishers. People in businesses which have failed to keep up with the times generally DO whine about how they're losing money. On a side note, I'd expect that in the long term, the paperback will probably disappear rather than the hardcover. |
08-31-2009, 02:13 AM | #8 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,790
Karma: 507333
Join Date: May 2009
Device: none
|
Quote:
They shouldn't be worried about the feasibility of their general business model though. The publishing industry is not really analogous to the music industry. Publishers, despite everybody on this board knowing better, do actually do a lot of work that they are better suited to handle than anybody else... the author included. The same is increasingly less true of music labels. - Ahi |
|
08-31-2009, 02:54 AM | #9 |
Still wondering why
Posts: 253
Karma: 800
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Athens, Greece
Device: PRS 505, (BlackBerry Bold ?)
|
I'm not sure that this is what happened with authors (artists) in the music industry. I suspect they lost a lot of money too. That's probably why they are much more on tour during the last years, trying to compensate income losts.
Last edited by Kostas; 08-31-2009 at 02:57 AM. |
08-31-2009, 02:56 AM | #10 |
01000100 01001010
Posts: 1,889
Karma: 2400000
Join Date: Mar 2009
Device: Polyamorous
|
That's exactly right, and it's why concert tickets went up about 1,000 % in the past 10 years.
|
08-31-2009, 03:00 AM | #11 |
Still wondering why
Posts: 253
Karma: 800
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Athens, Greece
Device: PRS 505, (BlackBerry Bold ?)
|
|
08-31-2009, 03:02 AM | #12 |
Liseur de Bonne Aventure
Posts: 374
Karma: 2176666
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Paris, France
Device: PRS T1
|
And of course, the article barely mentions the lower cost of distributing books electronically. I think I'll pass on the crocodile tears for Hachette this time around.
|
08-31-2009, 03:09 AM | #13 | |
Fanatic
Posts: 581
Karma: 5952
Join Date: Aug 2009
Device: PRS-505, PRS-350
|
Quote:
I suspect that one reason that ticket prices have risen so much is because of the Ticketmaster monopoly. |
|
08-31-2009, 04:47 AM | #14 | ||||
Professional Contrarian
Posts: 2,045
Karma: 3289631
Join Date: Mar 2009
Device: Kindle 4 No Touchie
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Digital distribution does cost less -- but nowhere near as much less as most people presume. To publish an e-book you still have to pay: the author's advance and royalties, agents, editors, proofreaders, lawyers, marketers, PR, management, overhead and (last but not least) taxes. The retailers make out much better with e-books, since they don't have to manage, warehouse, or distribute inventory, and can cut out the distributors (e.g. Ingram). Quote:
The problem is that it's quite plausible, although not yet certain, that reducing the wholesale price for a high-margin book could destroy their profit margins. I might add that I have a sneaking suspicion that at least some of the people who deride an industry for failure to adapt to a disruptive technology would not be too thrilled if it was their industry, livelihood and/or profits that were under threat. This is quite evident, for example, when you examine how negatively programmers and IT workers react to their own jobs getting outsourced to India. |
||||
08-31-2009, 04:49 AM | #15 |
Connoisseur
Posts: 79
Karma: 2896
Join Date: Nov 2007
Device: Rocket eBook, Gemstar, and Kindle 3
|
Tell me about it. I purchased five tickets to a tour recently and paid over $80 in "convenience" fees. For whose convenience? I bought the tickets over the Internet! They then tried to charge me extra to print the tickets there and then, but I had them mailed for free (?) instead. So strange. And this wasn't even through Ticketmaster, to my knowledge.
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Book prices, Ebook prices - Value | stustaff | News | 78 | 12-16-2011 07:33 PM |
Unutterably Silly Perhaps ebook prices are not so bad after all? | brecklundin | Lounge | 4 | 08-17-2010 05:33 PM |
UK ebook prices | BooksOnBowser | General Discussions | 10 | 06-21-2010 04:49 AM |
Ebook prices at Waterstones UK | nellow | Sony Reader | 24 | 10-17-2008 05:05 PM |
eBook prices | Cybermynd | News | 10 | 09-05-2007 12:39 AM |