[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

That just may be THE solution. Keep prices low enough so no one will waste time even learning how to pirate anything. With Amazon selling MP3 songs totally unprotected for an average $ 1.00 price, its just not worth my time to find a pirated copy of it anywhere. I don't even have to back them up since Amazon keeps a copy for me to re-download as much as I want.

True, but a second-hand CD is still cheaper at around $5 for 10-15 songs. (Also, I would make backups... just in case.)

With eBooks at $ 10.00 per copy it doesn't pay for ME to look for pirate copies either. Maybe those eBook prices should drop to an average of about $ 4.00 and eliminate all DRM and those looking to accumulate pirate copies will dry up.

You keep stating that price of $10 per book. I never paid that amount. The highest is $7.99. (Granted, I bought that using a 50% coupon, and the print version is HUGE.)

Many members on MobileRead don't pay more than $3 to $4 on average already. I often buy books for less than $3, by shopping around and using discount coupons. OK, getting the book directly through the Kindle would be faster, but if I can save $3 to $7 per book, I'll spend a few minutes on it.

(Also, I often buy series. If a store is the cheapest with book 1, they are often also the cheapest with books 2 through X.)

So far it appears the publishers and Apple were trying to hold eBook prices up per the latest suit which was won against them for price fixing last year. Amazon was trying to crush the prices. Maybe the others should go along with Amazon, cut the prices, increase the features and end all DRM just like with the songs.

That is indeed the best way to go.

The books don't have to be sold for next to nothing. They need to be sold for a price people are willing to pay without thinking too much about it.

Thus:

Price = $4.99 maximum, for a mainstream book, maybe $7.99 for a just released book from a high-profile author.

Now, make sure that the books are of good quality, which means:

- Nice cover
- Complete TOC
- Correctly indented and justified text
- Nice chapter headings
- (on and on: basically make the book as good as a print version would be)

And last: throw in some discounts now and again:

"If you buy all books in these series at once, you'll get 20% off."

So, you'll pay $4.99 for Book 1, $9.99 for Book 1+2, BUT, you'll pay $11.98, for Book 1+2+3, which instantly drops the price per book from $4.99 to $3.99.

I can almost GUARANTEE that a lot of people who intended to buy only Book 1 will end up buying all three, just to have the last book for $2, effectively. (Or, save $1 per book, which is the same, of course.)

Obviously there should be no DRM.

Uh....Wait.... I just remembered something...

This is exactly what GOG.com already does!

GOG.com has a lot of hard-core fans because it operates like this. I know. I'm on their boards. If a new game is coming up, many of them actually go over to the boards of the developers/publishers and bluntly state: "If you don't release the game on GOG.com, I won't buy it."

I'm one of them, actually. BeamDog missed out on $40, because they refused to release their Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 remakes on GOG.com, and insist on having on-install activation DRM in them. Instant no-buy for me, even though I really want them. As soon as they release these games on GOG.com, they'll be on my hard drive before the day is out.

I am quite sure that this same business model of completeness, good prices and convenience will drive e-book piracy into the ground. Yes, I've seen some GOG.com games pirated, but if you're going to pirate stuff that costs $5 for 50 hours of playing time, then you'll likely never pay for anything. I think that sort of people will actually steal from stores if they can get away with it.