FYI, I just fired off an e-mail to Penguin, too:
Quote:
I recently read an article in the Telegraph stating that Penguin would be releasing e-books concurrently to print releases. As a reader (and writer/publisher) of e-books, I applaud this decision, and I hope that Penguin will expand its plan to all of its lines in the near future.
A point I'd like to suggest, though, is that Penguin may want to reconsider the pricing for those e-books. The article suggests that e-book prices will be the same as newly-released books, which will generally be hardbacks. I have discovered through my own research that e-book readers do not believe e-books should cost the same as hardbacks, due to the significantly lower costs in production, storage, transportation, and maintenance that e-books enjoy. Such pricing may serve to alienate Penguin to many of the customers it hopes to attract, e-book readers, and readers in general, and I'm sure that is not Penguin's intent.
Although you will certainly manage to make sales through some early adopters, I think Penguin would be better served with lower prices for their e-books, perhaps at the level of paperbacks, or even lower (for the same economy of pricing points I made above), to earn significant sales from e-books and make it worth the publisher's while. Speaking for myself, I would balk at an e-book priced at a hardback level, and even at a paperback level... but I have bought many e-books priced below paperback prices, a level that I consider much better suited to the medium.
I will also point out that I have managed healthy sales of my own e-books, which are priced below typical paperback sales. I have also seen a fivefold increase in sales from dropping my prices during promotions by as little as 20%.
I would appreciate your passing this message on to those in Penguin and/or Pearson Group who make these decisions. I wish Penguin great success in their endeavor, and hope to be a regular customer in the future.
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Again, I encourage everyone else to write Penguin and make your voice heard.