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Originally Posted by GreenMonkey
The price on backlist ebooks should be more in line with the used market.
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No one would have the incentive to create ebooks of backlist works if they could only sell them for $.25 each. By all means, go ahead and buy that used paperback book at the garage sale for $.25. No one need buy the ebook unless they DESIRE to at the price sufficient to encourage it's creation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenMonkey
Only huge ebook fans buy a backlist ebook for $8 that they can't share when they could get a paperback for $2 at the local used book store - or a penny + $2.99 shipping from Amazon marketplace. Or, even cheaper - torrent for free a copy that you can share across devices and accounts.
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Exactly. So why worry? If you want the book in ebook form then pay the $8. If you don't want to pay that much, then buy the used paperback. It's your choice. The market for a long out book is very small. So a publisher has to make it's money from a relatively small group in order for it to be worth it to them to produce the ebook. And, of course, the publisher has to compete with the used books like you said.
There's nothing to worry about. The person who doesn't want to pay $8 doesn't have to, they can buy the used book. The person who cares enough about the convenience of digital can buy a legitimate copy at a price that makes it worth it to the publisher to create. Everyone wins.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenMonkey
You think that a dropping price over time strategy would come into play for ebooks, in an effort to make money on those that would simply buy used. Somehow they seem to expect that some sort of magic inherent in ebooks will make people pay 4x what it costs to buy a used paperback.
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Yep. That's perfectly true and it's why no one need fret. There is only a small window of opportunity for publishers to price ebooks on a relatively even level with the new release hard back. After that time they will then be competing with used copies of the hard back. And then the paper back, and then the used paperback.
If you don't want to pay the ebook price, then buy a used paper copy.
Lee