Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinecone
But if EVERY ebooks of newer releases are the same price as the pbook, why would the ebook of a currently in print, older pbook be less?
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Ahhh! I'd missed that part.
Older books don't have the new-and-shiny sales pitch going for them. In-print pbooks have substantial production/delivery/etc. costs, so there's not much ability to discount for "not the latest thing" -- although we do see discounts, where new pbooks, even in mmpb, have shiny-pretty covers with raised lettering, and older backlist releases have flat covers, smaller type, and other cost-cutting issues to allow them to be issued at lower prices.
I believe publishers vastly understate the physical production costs, especially since none of their stated price breakdowns include the costs of dealing with returns. They also don't deal with the differences in scale: cost-per-book for a new bestseller, with 50,000 paperbacks produced, are lower than a backlist release of 5,000 copies. This means the "new-and-shiny" fee (which is about $10 of the hardcover cost; less in pback but still exists) is matched by the higher per-book cost of the older copy.
Older ebooks don't have the ability to claim "read it first! Before you've heard the spoilers!" They're not offered with fancier covers for the higher-priced version. They don't have higher per-unit costs to produce if they're only going to sell a few copies a month.
They are also more likely to be competing with an extensive used market, which means that publishing costs become irrelevant: if the ebook is priced higher than consumers are willing to pay, they've got access to the content in another format. This may not be the case with a new release; the price can be higher because the publisher has the only available copies.
(Not counting bootlegs, of course. Whole separate mess there, that publishers think they can legislate out of competing with their sales.)