Quote:
Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb
I guess I've always known this but hearing a publisher say it makes me mad enough to consider abandoning my morals and going to the dark side.
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Uh.... Why?
(Aside, that is, from the fact that the company did
not actually say what Sydney's Mom claims -- that was, at best, his interpretation.)
It's a for-profit company. Their job is to be profitable, whenever possible to maximize their profits, and they have plenty of competition.
Countless companies figure out how to lower their costs, and in turn do not lower their prices. Do you investigate other companies to detect such allegedly dastardly behavior?
If Harlequin managed to lower their costs by other means, would that be acceptable? What if it's by lowering author royalty rates and advances? Or more efficient inventory management? What if it's by buying cheaper paper? What if that cheaper paper is milled from virgin forests by low-wage, non-unionized Vietnamese laborers? What if it's from automating a particularly labor-intensive process? What if it's from firing 5% of their work force?
Is there a specific profit margin that is ethical, and another that is unethical? If Harlequin has a 15% margin before ebooks, and 16% after, is that wrong?
Prices are also in part determined by "consumer demand." When a video game first comes out, it can easily cost $50; a year later, it may fall to $25; 2 years later, it's $15; 3 years later it's $5 on a good day. The media or download didn't cost $40 when it first came out -- it's just the company setting prices based on demand. Demand curves are Macro Economics 101, and Harlequin is doing absolutely nothing that almost every other company does when they have a popular product
Naturally I cannot read your mind over the Internet.
But I'm willing to guess that like many people, your position on these issues isn't likely to be all that consistent. In particular I doubt that most people have any plans to punish companies that lower their costs but maintain or raise prices anyway.
So, I really don't see why ebooks should be treated any differently, especially ebooks offered by a genre publisher that are low in cost to begin with.