Quote:
Originally Posted by bfisher
There is nothing that would stop a publisher from witholding an e-book version or raising prices, other than their economic interests.
If readers have the choice of buying Title A at $20.00 or Title B at $10.00, and they are equally appealing, the seller of Title B will likely make more profits. Unlike paper books, the marginal cost of producing and selling an ebook is a pittance. It is in the interest of a vendor to sell as many copies as possible to a) recover the fixed costs of publishing the book (avoiding a loss) and increase profits by the additional revenue from every extra copy sold.
On the other hand, if every book is priced at $20.00 perhaps it becomes more attractive for many people to spend their money on something else, like renting a movie.
Agency pricing looks like a price-fixing cartel. Cartels can work only if you can truly control supply. I don't think that it is possible for the book publishing industry to do that.
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People always say that the per unit costs are a pittance for ebooks, but in the various breakdowns I've seen, they're not that far off from those of printed books. The largest expenses are the fixed ones that have to be amortized.