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Originally Posted by queentess
What I'm afraid will happen is that the publishers won't conclude "Oh, we priced that book too high for the market" and will instead infer "Oh, ebooks aren't desired" or "Oh, people aren't buying, so it must be piracy".
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Piracy is just one of the many competing factors that result in "folks aren't buying our product". It's no different than "they choose to go to the movies instead" or "they choose to borrow the book from a friend".
The publishers HAVE to compete with the myriad of options to entice folks to BUY their product. Their new ability to set the price themselves does not and CAN NOT equate to the ability to get people to BUY their product. Ergo, it is impossible for them to set the price too high.
Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
You go on and on in many threads about how publishers should be able to price how they want, and how we consumers shouldn't ever criticize that because The Market will decide what works.
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No more so than then non-stop beating of the drums (or dead horses) on <insert usual rant here>
Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
But if consumers don't make it clear that they're not buying due to price, rather than format (or drm or geo-restrictions), then the publisher can still make decisions that are bad for both parties.
Applied economics is not as black and white as you think.
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Economics is economics. No one can make you buy a product that you do not like, or is priced higher than you wish to pay. You do not have to buy an ebook at all -- you have VAST choices of what you can use your money for. The consumers have ALL the power. The publishers have to ENTICE you to buy their product and they have vast competition.
Even with the publishers wresting pricing control from Amazon -- and all the other online stores -- they are powerless to get you to buy a product they price too high.
There is no difference between folks thinking $14.99 is to high for an ebook and folks thinking $25 is too high for a hard back book. How were publishers able to get away with such pricing? Because there were enough people who WOULD pay that price.
The same will be true for ebooks. It's demand pricing. When demand wanes, the prices will be lowered. If not, it's either because there is more demand that folks think, or that the price elasticity is such that lowering the price won't result in more revenue.
Lee