MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon vs. Hachette Update

Sydney's Mom · 08-03-2014, 02:05 PM

The biggest difference between ebooks and pbooks is that an ebook will be read once (if you respect the DRM), while a hardcover may be passed around or sold, and even a paperback can be passed around or sold. Everyone is looking at this from Amazon's or Hatchett's point of view, while the original post was from the customer's point of view. If I buy a hardcover for $20.00, and pass it around to my family and eventually sell it at a yard sale at $2, the per read cost is pretty low. Definitely lower than the per read cost of my ebook, which will be at least $9.99. And everyone that reads that book is a real lost sale for Hatchett (yes, I know some would read it and then buy their own copy, but let's assume they read it and pass it on).

Now, I know Hatchett could care less about the used market for pbooks, because they don't get the money, but they certainly know that consumers have that in mind. I share some ebooks with my husband, who is not on my Amazon account, but I don't share them with my mother-in-law, even though I recommend them to her. So, if I bought a pbook at $20, and passed it around to my husband and my mil, 3 sales were subsumed in that first $20 purchase (this was my normal treatment of books pre-kindle). But if I bought the ebook for $9.99 and shared it with my husband and then told my mother-in-law about it, she would have bought it and so Hatchett made the same off the 3 people who read that book (this is my normal treatment of books now). And when I think of the number of pbooks that have been passed around over the years both to me and by me, I find this argument over ebooks ridiculous.

Ridiculous because if Hatchett wants to charge me more than $9.99, I know I am subsidizing the person who bought the pbook, and paid a lot less, in the end, than I. This doesn't make sense, so I can only think that Hatchett must think I am removing the DRM on all of my ebooks, and passing them around like pbooks. But I don't think this is borne out in the market. At least among the people in my group who read ebooks, piracy of this sort is nonexistent. Hatchett really is making a LOT more with ebooks than pbooks, simply because of the number of times that copy is read, and thereby prevents a sale, is exactly one, whereas with pbooks, I NEVER kept it to myself.

08-03-2014, 02:05 PM	#212
Sydney's Mom Wizard Posts: 2,899 Karma: 6995721 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Idaho, on the side of a mountain Device: Kindle Oasis, Fire 3d Gen and 5th Gen and Samsung Tab S	The biggest difference between ebooks and pbooks is that an ebook will be read once (if you respect the DRM), while a hardcover may be passed around or sold, and even a paperback can be passed around or sold. Everyone is looking at this from Amazon's or Hatchett's point of view, while the original post was from the customer's point of view. If I buy a hardcover for $20.00, and pass it around to my family and eventually sell it at a yard sale at $2, the per read cost is pretty low. Definitely lower than the per read cost of my ebook, which will be at least $9.99. And everyone that reads that book is a real lost sale for Hatchett (yes, I know some would read it and then buy their own copy, but let's assume they read it and pass it on). Now, I know Hatchett could care less about the used market for pbooks, because they don't get the money, but they certainly know that consumers have that in mind. I share some ebooks with my husband, who is not on my Amazon account, but I don't share them with my mother-in-law, even though I recommend them to her. So, if I bought a pbook at $20, and passed it around to my husband and my mil, 3 sales were subsumed in that first $20 purchase (this was my normal treatment of books pre-kindle). But if I bought the ebook for $9.99 and shared it with my husband and then told my mother-in-law about it, she would have bought it and so Hatchett made the same off the 3 people who read that book (this is my normal treatment of books now). And when I think of the number of pbooks that have been passed around over the years both to me and by me, I find this argument over ebooks ridiculous. Ridiculous because if Hatchett wants to charge me more than $9.99, I know I am subsidizing the person who bought the pbook, and paid a lot less, in the end, than I. This doesn't make sense, so I can only think that Hatchett must think I am removing the DRM on all of my ebooks, and passing them around like pbooks. But I don't think this is borne out in the market. At least among the people in my group who read ebooks, piracy of this sort is nonexistent. Hatchett really is making a LOT more with ebooks than pbooks, simply because of the number of times that copy is read, and thereby prevents a sale, is exactly one, whereas with pbooks, I NEVER kept it to myself.