Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinecone
BUT if a new paperback sells for $9.99 both in ebook and pbook format, WHY would you expect any book that is currently in print as a pbook, to be sold for substantially less as an ebook than the pbook?
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If the same book is available as an audiobook and a print book, why would we expect the prices to be different?
Because:
1) Production costs and requirements are drastically different, and
2) They're being sold to different markets, so a $9.99 paperback sale is not a lost $24.99 audiobook sale.
A $4.99 ebook sale is not a lost $23.99 hardcover sale, nor a lost $9.99 paperback sale. It's a $5 sale to someone who wouldn't have bought either of the others. Or possibly, to someone who *has* bought one of the others and also wants to read it on their Kindle--but isn't going to pay the price of two paper books for that ability.
Some books are available in hardcover and paperback, and yet the paperbacks are priced much cheaper. Why is that? If the hardcover is $25, why not sell the mass-market paperback at $20 (nod to the materials differences) for as long as the hardcover's in print?
Because they're being marketed to different people. Because paperbacks are intended to be sold to people who weren't going to buy a $25 book, no matter how durable or pretty it is.
Publishers have the opportunity to sell ebooks to people who aren't going to buy $10 books, no matter how portable they are. Instead, they're trying to pretend that every sale in one medium is a loss in another.