Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Basically, you want a centralized system of pricing (publishing world communism economy): The price shall be $9.99 or less unless you fill in triplicate these forms and receive special permission to sell your book for $10. And here I thought you were an advocate for the free market. 
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Heh.
Very interesting smokescreen, bringing in politics and stuff I never mentioned.
Central authority? Paperwork? Permission? Communism? Seriously? Are we headed into Godwin territory already?
In the example I mentioned, it is consumers who decide if a higher price (or even the baseline) is justified. And the publishers know it so they tread carefully. The actual sale price is determined by market forces and consumer demand. And nobody whines that games (which cost tens of millions to develop) are devalued when sold at a discount.
As I said, to *me*, a proper ebook baseline price is $4.99. The publisher wanting more can try to convince me their special snowflake is somehow worth more and I might bite (I have bought the occasional BAEN eARC to read a story six months early) but I see no rational reason why an ebook license, with limited property rights, should cost more than a paperback (not just mmpb but also trade) when it offers less real world value.
It is that simple.
Amazon says they think that, absent special conditions it makes more sense to them to sell ebooks at $9.99 instead of $14.99. It's their business and they want to maximize their revenue. Good for them.
But I'm a reader and what I want to maximize is my reads per buck. So *my* baseline is $4.99 and I actually pay $4.50 for the vast majority of my tradpub buys, 48 books a year. A few I'll go to $6.99 (once a year or so). No higher.
That is me exercising *my* market power.
And, given that the same data that backs up Amazon's statement points out that $4.99 generates even sales and revenue than $9.99 I'm pretty sure I speak with the free market's blessing.
As to centralized authority, how come all BPH mmpbs went to $7.99 at the same time? Was that the free market at work? Or when all BPHs adopted the same 25% of net for ebook author royalties? Or when 5 BPHs all adopted the same $14.99 retail price on all titles on the exact same day? Was that a free market or a centralized "authority"?
Simple test: explain *why* I should pay *more* for a rights-limited ebook than a paperback edition.
The only reason I hear--from Scalzi, from Shatzkin, from the Publishers Guild--is to protect sales of pbooks. Which is something I care not one whit about.
That is my position: Amazon is factually correct that $9.99 generates more revenue (takes in more money from buyers) than $14.99. That does *not* mean I frakking *endorse* either price point.
Is that clear enough?