[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

I don't believe that this is a viable option for most publishers. The ebook genie is out of the bottle and the publishers have no chance to push it back.

Oh, I think that they probably *could* - the ebook market is practically non-existent in most of Europe, for example, and it's a lot more difficult to digitize a book than to to rip a CD.

But I don't think that they want to, since e-books are actually growing the market. I think they just want to make sure that their profits increase as the market grows. As a theory, I don't really have a problem with that.

Price gauging is also risky. People who wouldn't dream of stealing a book from their local book store will act quite differently when faced with the option to download a DRM infested ebook for 24 Euros from a book store or to simply download the same book without DRM for free from some server in Russia. Unlike with HD films you can download books even with a slow internet connection. Up to now publishers were able to ignore this development as people reading ebooks were still quite a minority. With the spread of ebook readers, smartphones, iPads, Android tablets etc. this is going to change massively and publishers will have the same problems as the music industry.

The problem that the music publishers had was that: (1) at first, you couldn't download music legally at all; and (2) second, when you could download it, it was cumbersome and inconvenient. iTunes solved these problems, and how they did it had to do with convenience and access, not with price.

Pricing isn't what drives people to pirate. Pirated books are FREE, and no price can compete with FREE. Certainly dropping a price from $15 to $10 won't.

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

The publishers just love people like you. The question is, are there enough of you around to keep them in business.

The industry looks to be entering a crisis mode right now, and I don't think pissing off your customers is a very good way to prepare for that.

Claims like this don't really make any sense. E-book sales *tripled* in 2010. Amazon sold a huge, albeit undisclosed, number of Kindles. B&N sold a record (for them), albeit undisclosed, number of Nooks. I think the industry would love to have another crisis in 2011.

Originally Posted by rhadin

As some have noted, the real question is simply "what is this particular book worth to you in this particular format?"

Yes.

The other half of the problem is that the more I use my Sony Reader, the less inclined I am to read a pbook; I really enjoy the ebook experience.

And I think that this is true of most people with e-readers. While there are lots of posts at MR talking about how an e-book is worth less than a pbook due to factors like lending, resale, DRM, etc., I've come to disbelieve these claims, since if an e-book were *really* worth less to people, they wouldn't hesitate to buy a cheaper paper book.

I also think that the reality is that most of these ebook buyers simply buy a book that interests them at the then going price without thinking twice about it.

Yes, that's right - most e-book buyers look at the price and if it seems reasonable, they purchase it. What the e-readers provide is convenience, not a discount machine. But - looking at the music industry - convenience, and not price, was what made iTunes successful.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Personally I see absolutely no problem with spending $15 on a good book. That's less than I'd spend for a take-away pizza. A book is worth more to me than a pizza.

Yes. And that appears to be the case with most people. Although it depends on the book and the pizza.

Originally Posted by kcmay

This.

The large publishers are shooting themselves in the foot with this pricing structure. They should be building their ebook audience by enticing readers, not angering them.

They *tripled* sales in one year after introducing agency pricing. Despite complaints on MR, both they and agency pricing have been wildly successful. I'm not thrilled with that either, but facts are facts.

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

From my own experience, the complaining about the pricing extends far beyond the MR members, just about every person I've met who mentioned it complained. That and poor quality ebooks, it seems prices are going up and quality is going down. There are some who can afford the high prices, I'm sure, but the recession has affected a lot of other people, at least here in the US.

Sales have tripled.

Yes, some publishers imposed the agency model on consumers, but I think it will take time to tell whether they have been succsessful. They certainly alienated me, but frankly I don't think they care.

They don't care. Sales have tripled.

(I should probably add that to my signature...)