Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Ah!
How are those prices set?
I.e., Are there government regulations that impact them? Cultural protectionism, B&M protections, lcal publisher power, VAT hijinks like in the UK?
Or is it actual resistance to the idea of ebooks?
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Publishers set the prices (endprice including VAT) and then they are fixed for 18 months. That's the "Buchpreisbindung" mentioned in the article.
Though ebooks prices are fixed, too, the VAT is higher (7% for books, 19% for ebooks), which is stupid and make the ebooks even pricier.
And most of the time prices of ebooks are a little cheaper than prices of the cheapets version of the book. If there's a hardbound version, for example, that costs about 32 USD, the ebook will be about 26 USD.
After a trade paberback version is released, the ebook price will drop as well. So if you can buy the tpb of the book for 15.5 USD, the ebook will be around 13 USD. If the ebook is not different from the version that was released in time with the hardcover, prices can only drop after 18 months. So sometimes tpb are far cheaper than the ebook.
Discounts are not possible.
And than there's the ereaders. Cheapest current models are Kobo Touch and Kindle 4 (? - the latest non-touch Kindle) which are about 130 USD. So if you are not interested in reading free classics or library lending and ebooks are cheaper about 2 USD (in average), you'd have to buy 65 new books until your reader is paid for and until you start to save money on new books (not taking the energy needed to charge your battery into account).
Of course used books are much cheaper. So people will often rather buy a used tpb for about 5 USD than a new one for about 15.5. And you can resell you paberbooks or give them to friends or family afterwards, unlike ebooks.
That's why there is so much "resistance".
People reading a lot in English, like me, will be much more inclined to buy an ereader. Lots of ebooks that are easier to get, cheaper, released earlier than the translated versions... and discounts are often possible, too.
Can't beat "A Song of Ice and Fire" box set, for example. German books are not 1-4, but 1-8 (each is split in half), and each ebook costs 13 USD at least, some up to 17. Even at 13 USD, you'd have to pay 104 USD for them. English ebook box set (cheapest undiscounted version) is 19 USD - saved 85 USD. Half my reader is "paid for" (bought it for about 170 USD).
