Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Publishers have always had to deal with the used book market. They aren't going to price ebooks to compete with used ebooks to keep from losing a sale. They'll spend money trying to entice sales of new books.
Lee
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But they CAN compete with the used market, if they price competitively. Book buyers aren't interchangeable -- some of us will pretty much ONLY buy Hardcovers, or Paperbacks, or eBooks. Most of us have a preferred format.
The thing that USUALLY shoves us out of our preferred format is price. If I REALLY want to read X, and Y is what price I feel X is worth, I will probably pay (Y + a) for my preferred format where "a" is a very small differential of X.
If X is priced at (Y + B) where "B" is a very LARGE differential of X, then I cannot or will not buy X at (Y + B).
In this case, I may, if I want X badly enough, leave my preferred format to use a different one, if I have the ability to use that format. If the used market is LESS than (Y + B), then I will opt for that.
Note that if the used market is less than Y, I will STILL buy an eBook at (Y + a) because it's my preferred format. But I will never, ever buy an eBook at (Y + B).
The mistake that you -- and the publishing companies -- are making is by saying "we can't compete with used prices". You're not understanding that you don't NEED to compete with used prices...
...EXCEPT in as much as used prices, increased availability, time distance from publishing date, and so forth drive down "Y" over time. THAT is how used prices (and a host of other concepts) matter in the overall scheme of things.