|
Yesterday, I had some small talk with a guy working for Random House (Germany), we talked about eReader and eBooks and the eBook pricing as well.
At least in Germany, retail prices for books are all fixed by the publishers, so no matter were you buy it, you always pay the same price.
I do understand how they calculate: they consider the amount of copies they expect to sell, and calculate retail prices based on translation costs (there are not that many german authors on the bestselling lists) etc.
There is one point the publishers here in Germany still ignore: as they see it, with very few devices sold, they see sold eBooks as not sold pBooks, as just a shift in the medium.
I told him the example of Stieg Larssons Kindle Edition, selling over a million copies, and that I doubt, this million eCopies had to be seen as one million not sold pCopies. I really doubt, that the people who bought the Kindle Edition, would have bought the pBook if the Kindle device was not that popular und widespread available. So as I see it, with enough devices sold, eBooks are to be considered as additional business, and not as substitutional business like they are seeing it now.
In the long term, I think they will notice a growth in the number of overall copies sold with eReader becoming more available, and reconsider the price calculation models, or lower the prices in general.
|