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Old 11-27-2007, 12:42 PM   #2
jasonkchapman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
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?
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".

Last edited by jasonkchapman; 11-27-2007 at 12:44 PM. Reason: To elide an extraneous comma.
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