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Originally Posted by JSWolf
I think you missed the boat and are now standing on the dock watching the boat sail away.
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Oh? So, I'm just imagining how ebook sales are continuing to rise, that Amazon is selling more ebooks than hardcovers and more ebooks than paper books, and that $10 is still a fairly common price point? Yes, clearly I'm left out in the cold.
I might add, my habits haven't changed that much. In fact, most of the ebooks I wound up purchasing that were over $10 were
not agency priced. I don't suppose you have an explanation for that situation?
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Originally Posted by JSWolf
Prices went up big time.
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Yes, some prices did go up. However, the publishers seem to have done what they said they would. New ebooks are $12-$14, with a small price cut for NYT Best Sellers; when the paperback comes out, the prices fall from $6-$10. There are no more delays in ebook availability. Ebook market share is rather unclear, but it does appear that there is robust, if not fierce, competition between at least four major retailers in the US (Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Sony).
Yeah, sounds like a total nightmare to me.
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Originally Posted by JSWolf
Let's use Fictionwise as they used to be pre-agency. We got sales, we got discounts, we got credit towards other eBooks. We had the buywise club. Basically, we had a good thing going....
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Yes, but did you have a
sustainable thing?
Fictionwise was private and did not, as far as I can tell, release financial information, and they sold out to B&N for $15 million. The "heavy discounting" tactic didn't help Borders, and it effects on Fictionwise's bottom line is unknown. Was it ruined by agency pricing, or by B&N's neglect, which may well have been intentional? They supposedly sold around
7.5 million ebooks between 2000 and late 2009 -- whilst Apple brags about 100 million ebook downloads in about a year.
It's rather common when a transition like this is under way for screaming deals to appear -- and then flame out. Those of us who lived through the dot com madness saw it, ranging from huge flameouts (Kozmo's free delivery) to businesses that only survived by toning down their huge deals (e.g. eMusic going from a $10/month unlimited downloads to 40 downloads per month).
Your guess on whether Fictionwise could have survived on its earlier terms are as good as mine, though I suspect your answer is "yes" and mine is "no."
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Originally Posted by JSWolf
Face it, prices have gone up way way more then they've gone down. And when you look at the cost of eBooks as a whole, they've gone up. I don't think many if any are buying your "prices have gone down" routine. It doesn't fly in the face of reality.
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And just so we're clear on this, you are basing this on what exactly? Sales data? Total ebook revenues? A detailed industry analysis of price-per-unit? A full comparison of pricing for all the ebook retailers, pre- and post-agency pricing?
No, you're basically just saying "I paid less at Fictionwise." And while that statement is correct, it is also riddled with problems, and simply is not the whole story.