Quote:
Publishers are oblivious to a *huge* section of the market: the people who never bought new books. The entire used bookstore economy is invisible to them; they've got no idea what those people are willing to pay for ebooks, no idea how many potential customers have never been on their pie charts.
A lot of those people are willing to buy ebooks--at the prices they'd pay for used pbooks. Those aren't losses; they're customers who otherwise don't exist. And whether those people stick to paper, or ebook freebies, or download from the darknet (and potentially become "criminals") isn't relevant to publishers--they are people who aren't buying now, who would be if someone were selling on their terms.
|
Major publishers (and the authors) aren't oblivious to that market: they just don't want it. It isn't worth it to them to sell to that market. That's OK: indie writers and publishers can cater to those consumers, who are willing to pay low prices for dodgier content. Such customers are the same ones who are willing to buy automobiles from Lemon Eddie's Used Cars or who will buy iPads, sight unseen , from the back of someone's car. Similarly they are happy to wade through Smashwords in the hope of buying a good book cheap.
I think, EM , you are right to distinguish between customers for used books and customers for new books. Where you are wrong is insisting that sellers of new books should compete for those customers by selling at new book prices. That makes about as much sense as saying that new car dealers should compete for used car customers by offering new cars at used car prices. Economically, the math just does not add up.
You should understand that publishers are selling, for example, every copy of GRRM's latest that they can print at $18.81 hard cover and every e-book they can download at $14.99. They have been selling every copy of Unbroken in both formats at those "unsustainable " prices all year long. Maybe they aren't as clueless about prices as you think, because there is zero evidence that they are losing customers selling at those prices.