Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
As I recall from the time, the issue was that the publishers thought that Amazon was setting a price point ($10 for brand new NYT best sellers) in the mind of the consumers that the publishers didn't like. I don't think that publishers really cared all that much what format people bought books at, as long as it was at the "proper" price point.
The basic price model for publishers for a long time has been hardback, followed by paper about a year later. The hard back was roughly 3 times what the paper cost. Amazon was basically breaking that price model by setting the price point of ebooks at initial release as slightly less than double the paper back price point.
Just looking at some of the pricing threads here show a certain level of accuracy to their concerns. Even ignoring the "I just want everything to be free" crowd, few here seem to think that an ebook should have the same price point as a hard back. A majority seem to think that it should be less than a paper back, even if it's released at the same time as the hard back.
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Ok...Let's hear your arguments to the contrary. Why should it cost the same as the hardcover? Especially since hardcovers don't even usually cost as much as the list price of the hardcover? I don't think I've EVER paid list price for a hardcover book, even when I bought it very soon after it was released. I think the MOST I've ever paid was for the last Harry Potter book on the day of release, and even that was 10% off of the list price.
Shari