02-28-2011, 11:17 PM | #31 | |
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• The overwhelming majority of consumers don't care who is publishing the book. • "Sales figures" aren't the end-all and be-all of business. There are lots of other aspects, like protecting the value of your product and revenues. Looking at the NYT ebook best sellers list, RH is fairly well represented. We'll see if going to agency pricing has an effect. That said, I cannot imagine that they would switch (or will stay with the switch) if they were genuinely tromping the competition and raking in the bucks. |
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02-28-2011, 11:21 PM | #32 | ||
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Rather than let one store run away with the market (e.g. Apple with digital music, Amazon with paper books), the publishers are trying to avoid a situation where one retailer bosses them around. It was expedient for them to play nice with Apple, who in turn gave them exactly what they wanted -- control over pricing. Quote:
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02-28-2011, 11:28 PM | #33 | |
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The number of people who pirate as a form of "protest" are vastly outnumbered by the people who just want free stuff. Don't kid yourself on that score. |
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02-28-2011, 11:31 PM | #34 | ||
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I swear that at least a fifth* of the threads over at the Amazon Discussion boards for Kindle are "Whyyyy are the prices so high? I can get the paperback cheaper!!!!!" and "This book is not worth $X.XX for an edition I can't pass on to my grandkids and I won't pay more than $Y.YY". Sometimes maliciously helpful posters clue them in as to cause. Quote:
Personally, I hope they switch back. If only because I like being able to use $X off Y coupons for my e-book purchases and want other people who are actually affected by Agency pricing to be able to, too. I have no problems with publishers setting their own prices, provided they do it consistently, at a reasonable cost for what the product is worth (taking into consideration its disadvantages relative to paper), and allow further discounts off the set price, even if they're guaranteed whatever minimum base royalty they've set for themselves. Like Smashwords books on Kobo, which aren't given the usual % off in the listings, but which you can still use the promo coupons on during checkout. * The other four-fifths are iPad/Nook-bashing, How Can I Use Library Books (You Can't), Daily Free Book Alert, Complaining About the Daily Free Books Which Happen to Be Christian Fiction or Erotic Romance, and Indie Author Ads. |
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02-28-2011, 11:37 PM | #35 | |
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After all, agency pricing for 5 out of the 6 largest publishers went into effect over a year ago, and it doesn't seem to have appreciably slowed the adoption of ebooks. It's entirely possible that by the end of this year, the people who got into ebooks before agency pricing went into effect will be outnumbered by those who got in after -- and have not seen much retailer-controlled pricing. My suspicion, albeit as yet unproven, is that most people merely do not care who is setting the price. All that matters is whether that price is acceptable. And I, for one, don't have a problem with it. Of particular note is that it is not anti-competitive. Retailers are now all playing on an even playing field, and still have numerous other factors to differentiate their services -- ranging from devices and apps, to customer service, to self-publishing options. Smaller publishers aren't forced to use agency pricing, and can undoubtedly undercut the Big 6 on price if they choose. And, of course, no one complains when Joe Author wrestles back control of electronic rights from his publisher, signs up for Smashwords and Createspace and.... tells the retailer what price to sell the book at. I swear, someone ought to string up those agency pricing independent authors, they are killing the market for ebooks. |
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02-28-2011, 11:43 PM | #36 |
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I think people are pretty oblivious to the agency model, price fixing, etc. They know which books they want and they see the price and decide if they want it that badly and if it's a fair multiple of the cost of a Starbuck's coffee, they buy it.
Most everybody else, meaning the indies, aren't really in the game. The public wants to be told what those few books (or authors) are who are worth paying attention to, and those are the ones they'll buy. Everyone else feeds off the table scraps. To make it as an author, you have to make a splash and enter the mass consciousness. Once you do, the price doesn't so much matter. |
02-28-2011, 11:49 PM | #37 |
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Agency pricing is confusing to me and many others I assume.
Simpler to say, creator sets price, uploads to server/marketplace, makes a sale, server/marketplace takes 30% of sale, creator takes 70%. As far as I can tell this 70/30 split is the standard, did Apple start this method or some other company? |
03-01-2011, 12:46 AM | #38 | |
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I think people don't know much about why prices are what they are, and why ebooks are priced at full MSRP all of the time, but I think they know when they are too high. Artificially inflating prices and price-fixing (I'm sorry, I believe that is basically what this is, a price-fixing agreement between companies) leads to trouble. Inflicting aggravating DRM schemes on people and using cross-company price fixing will lead to increased piracy rates. Same thing that happened to the music companies in the late 90s and early part of this decade. Ebooks are even smaller and easier to pirate. They're just begging for trouble. You can't depend on older folks who don't know how to copy/paste files to a USB device forever. Last edited by GreenMonkey; 03-01-2011 at 12:50 AM. |
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03-01-2011, 12:55 AM | #39 | |
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03-01-2011, 01:48 AM | #40 |
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03-01-2011, 02:57 AM | #41 | |
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03-01-2011, 04:11 AM | #42 |
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03-01-2011, 04:16 AM | #43 |
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http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Fate...8970749&sr=1-3
I checked another Random House book. This one was $6.29 yesterday and now it's $13.99. |
03-01-2011, 04:37 AM | #44 | |
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Baen and direct from authors are the final standard bearers of sanity of the ebook world. So to all those guys & hottie gal SF authors get those back catalog editions out NOW. Last edited by snipenekkid; 03-01-2011 at 04:45 AM. |
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03-01-2011, 04:49 AM | #45 | ||
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