[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

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?

Yes I do. You didn't wait for a sale.

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.

MOST prices went up. They went up to an unreasonable amount. eBooks that were fairly priced are now more expensive then the pBook edition and do not say this is OK because it's not. The delays were from idiot publishers who felt the delay's would bring in more sales of the hardcover version. All it did was piss off people who prefer eBooks and did not help hardcover sales. People who prefer eBooks are not swayed by these publishers tactics. We either waited and bought or we didn't buy at all.

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."

I don't know how long Fictionwise could have sustained it's model. My feeling is that it would have lasted a good long time. Also, with Readers on the rise, I think Fictionwise would have sold a lot of eBooks. In fact, I think they would have sold more then Apple says they have sold. But under the agency mess, that was something that had to go and given that without the model it once had, Fictionwise became nothing special. Also, I feel that Fictionwise would not be out of business had they not sold out to B&N.

The agency model took away what made Fictionwise different and well respected. The agency 6 has caused CyberRead to go under. What is the agency model doing for customers that is a true benefit over what we had before? I cannot see anything significant or even not significant in any real way.

The agency model is screwing with consumers, it's screwing with libraries, it's basically, trying to destroy eBooks because of failing pBook sales. What these publishers fail to realize is that in this economy, people aren't going to be buying hardcover books like they used to. Why spend $15-$25 on a single book when you can get two or three books for the same price sans the hardcover? The agency 6 doesn't give a damn about satisfied consumers. All they want really is to do away with eBooks since hardcover sales ae plummeting.

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.

I also paid less as Sony, BooksOnBoard, CyberRead, Kobo and others as well. I was just using Fictionwise as an example. I'm basing this on what was vs. what is. Take an agency eBook at $7.99. It will be $7.99 because no discounts or sales. Take a $7.99 pBook and yes, we can get sales/discounts and the price paid will be less then $7.99. The story is prices have risen. Discounts are no longer allowed. And that's the truth.