Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
From the examples posted it would seem that an $8 MMP could have an ebook sell for $6 and cost/profit is maintained. Now, if the publisher is losing money then they need to lower the price to encourage new sales in new markets.
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Maybe, maybe not. $8 is pretty much the standard retail price for an MMPB, but what that MMPB costs to produce may be another matter. The PB version of the hardcover bestseller that the publisher prints hundreds of thousands of copies to blanket every airport newsstand and convenience store book rack will have a different cost than the genre title going mainly to brick and mortar bookstores where the hopes to sell perhaps 50,000, but that genre title will carry the same list price.
It's possible an ebook could be priced a couple of dollars lower, but why
should it be? Publishers won't think that way: if they see an opportunity to reduce costs, they'll try to have that cost savings fall through to the bottom line, and leave the MSRP where it is.
One question is whether price is a determining factor. If you want to read the book, and the ebook and the MMBP are the same price, which way will you jump? Obviously, if the ebook is cheaper, I'd expect folks to go for the lower priced option. If the ebook is priced
higher than the pbook, do you buy the pbook? If they're both at the $8 level, and you think that's too high for an ebook, do you refuse to buy
either?
Personally, my scarce resource is time to
read the books I buy. Lower cost isn't likely to
increase my purchases. I already tell people the nice thing about ebooks is that you don't have to call the paramedics is my To Be Read stack of ebooks topples over on me.
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Dennis