Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
What is it that causes ebook pricing to be so fouled up when a books goes from hardcover to paperback? Cannot there be a mechanism in place that alerts the ebook sellers to this and tells them it is time to lower the price?
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I think this is yet another problem that is rooted in the way publishing works. It's easy to think of a book as the content, in which case a book is a book is a book, regardless of the "container" (HB, PB, eB). The publishing world has never seen it that way. Each edition is a different, unique item. It used to be that publisher "X" would bring out the HB edition, then sell the PB rights to a house that specialized in selling MMPBs. Each of the editions would have a unique ISBN and would therefor be considered a completely different item. Later editions, even if they're reprints, reissues, or re-releases also have unique ISBNs.
See here:
The
hardcover edition: Scribner, ISBN 978-1416554844
The
paperback edition: Pocket, 978-1416555049
If you look here, as of this morning, Powell's is selling the old
book club edition. That will also have a different publisher and ISBN listed.
So it's not really a price change, it's a
source change. Publishing isn't used to thinking of content as the discrete unit, only in "rights" or "editions".