Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
NO. You are not reading what I said. I am saying I did NOT buy the paper version. In the old days, I would wait for the paperback or get from the library or used book store. I have never bought hardback fiction in my life. I would NOT previously have bought the paper version, will not buy it now, and the only way they will get a sale out of me is to sell me an ebook. It's not a question of not buying the paper 'anymore.' It's a question of now buying something when previously I would have bought NOTHING AT ALL. That is NOT cannibalization.
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No, I understood what you were saying. The "cannibalization" is a simple marketing categorisation though and has nothing to do with your personal decision. Before ebooks you had a choice of hard cover, trade, or paper back. Now there is a new category called ebooks that is going to take sales from all of those categories.
I agree with you that it doesn't matter. It's going to steal sales from all paper editions and if priced correctly generate more sales. I was personally spending my same book budget on ebooks as paper editions so I was buying more then I was reading (and didn't care). The publishers were making a higher profit off of me and would have continued to. Instead they pissed me off and I stopped purchasing completely. Not everyone is going to react that way but the general trend will be to purchase less.
What matters is trying to understand your customer, listen to them and give them what they want so they'll continue to purchase. Trying to play puppet master with your customers doesn't work.