MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

spindlegirl · 01-04-2012, 01:17 PM

I do fill up my Ereader with free and or loaned materials. And yes, I think Starbucks coffee is way too expensive :-) I drink my husband's home roast, actually.

Thinking e-books are too expensive does not automatically mean one is wasting their money on starbucks. I don't even use cosmetics, and I often boggle at someone who can drop $60 at the drugstore to decorate their face.... we all have things that we are willing to spend money on, and if someone else thinks $15 for an e-book is fine, then who am I to argue? Any more than I can tell someone they don't need to plaster all that stuff on their face. It's what they like and what they spend their money on.

Any opinions I state about why I feel some e-books are inflated in price are purely (I hope this is a given) from my own experience. It's not a complaint, just a matter of fact opinion.

My personal reasoning is that an infinitely reproducible file is just ripe for being able to price it lower. Like having more people be able to eat from a pie that never decreases no matter how many slices are consumed. One file = infinite stock. Also, the DRM for me, lowers the value.

Regarding the amazon complaint news story - I also had temporarily forgotten which thread I was in: I thought I was in this thread where it was linked to a news article about a big boom in Kindle sales over the holidays yet the e-*book* purchases didn't also increase ....

Yes, one cannot compare e-books to ipods, I was talking about people who bought e-readers thinking they could be filled up just as easily, with very inexpensive material of their choice. They assumed that e-books would be just as easy to obtain.

For me most e-books are easy to obtain because I like Austen, Dickens, Les Miserables, etc.... I was like a kid in a candy store for project gutenberg. I was able to get people interested in e-readers because I told all about the gold mine that is MR library and Project Gutenberg. So for me, the e-reader has paid for itself with all the stuff I formerly bought (I actually had spent birthday gift money on $8 book copies from the classic section of a book store), and could replace all that and more.

But for others it's..... "Dickens, ewww I didn't look at Oliver Twist voluntarily after I got my diploma!"

01-04-2012, 01:17 PM	#581
spindlegirl Wizard Posts: 1,594 Karma: 21245891 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra h20, Paperwhite 2017, Phone & Tablet w Moonreader	I do fill up my Ereader with free and or loaned materials. And yes, I think Starbucks coffee is way too expensive :-) I drink my husband's home roast, actually. Thinking e-books are too expensive does not automatically mean one is wasting their money on starbucks. I don't even use cosmetics, and I often boggle at someone who can drop $60 at the drugstore to decorate their face.... we all have things that we are willing to spend money on, and if someone else thinks $15 for an e-book is fine, then who am I to argue? Any more than I can tell someone they don't need to plaster all that stuff on their face. It's what they like and what they spend their money on. Any opinions I state about why I feel some e-books are inflated in price are purely (I hope this is a given) from my own experience. It's not a complaint, just a matter of fact opinion. My personal reasoning is that an infinitely reproducible file is just ripe for being able to price it lower. Like having more people be able to eat from a pie that never decreases no matter how many slices are consumed. One file = infinite stock. Also, the DRM for me, lowers the value. Regarding the amazon complaint news story - I also had temporarily forgotten which thread I was in: I thought I was in this thread where it was linked to a news article about a big boom in Kindle sales over the holidays yet the e-book purchases didn't also increase .... Yes, one cannot compare e-books to ipods, I was talking about people who bought e-readers thinking they could be filled up just as easily, with very inexpensive material of their choice. They assumed that e-books would be just as easy to obtain. For me most e-books are easy to obtain because I like Austen, Dickens, Les Miserables, etc.... I was like a kid in a candy store for project gutenberg. I was able to get people interested in e-readers because I told all about the gold mine that is MR library and Project Gutenberg. So for me, the e-reader has paid for itself with all the stuff I formerly bought (I actually had spent birthday gift money on $8 book copies from the classic section of a book store), and could replace all that and more. But for others it's..... "Dickens, ewww I didn't look at Oliver Twist voluntarily after I got my diploma!"