Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertDDL
There are countries -- including Austria and Germany -- where fixed prices for both printed books and ebooks are prescribed by law. Publishers do not have the option of not stting a fixed price, and the law is strictly policed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price_agreement |
That is pretty much irrelevant in this context.
America is a different market operating under different laws, different history, and different consumer expectations. (Attempted) price fixing of books has a hundred years-plus history of failure in the US. Every time a publisher tries it alone, they fail. Every time they've colluded (three times, so far) they lose in court. Badly. The first time, circa 1908, their loss gave rise to the First Sale Doctrine. The second time they had to pay millions to Indie bookstores. The third, well, that is recent enough everybody here should remember what collusion cost them.
It is meaningless to take what works in Germany, Austria, or small Scandinavian countries where ebook adoption runs in the low single digits, where the big corporate publishers control most of the market (and politicians) and where consumers are used to fixed book prices and try to project those practices unto a much larger market where ebooks constitute a quarter to a third of the overall market, where the BPHs *combined* only control a third of the market in dollar value (and a lot less in unit sales), and where consumers *expect* launch week discounts. Where the whole "literary culture" argument is laughed at by the reality that the books the BPHs most value are teen vampire romances starring clinically depressed girls or shoot-em ups starring cookie cutter gritty vet tough guys or soft porn for housewives. That is where the money that lines the BPH pockets comes from, tearjerkers and shoot'em ups, not "literate angsty coming of age stories"; mass entertainment.
And mass entertainment is dirt cheap.
$8 buys a month of ad-free movies and TV shows at Netflix, both entertaining and (truly) cultural; tearjerkers, shoot'em ups, plays and documentaries, romance and SF. For those wiling to put up with ads, there are hundreds of hours a week of content for free via OTA TV or thousands for $25 cable or satellite packages, no internet needed. Hundreds of stations pumping out entertainment for all interests.
No shortage of content. No pressing need to buy anything at any price which is why hardcover sales have been steadily declining since before ebooks hit the mainstream, why mass market paperback sales no longer are reported separately, why BPH Market share has dropped from 60% in the last decade to barely a third today (and half that going to the randy penguin). And all that is just in the tradpub sector, without even addressing the shadow industry of indie publishing.
The Manhattan BPHs just aren't all they used to be, all they'd like you to think they are. And they're getting kinda desperate for the next big hit that will save their quarter or for a magic bullet to restore their old time power.
Not going to happen.
The ebook market is too big and too varied; there is too much backlist, too many indies, and too much competition from other forms of mass entertainment, from TV and movies, to video games and sports. And consumers know it; they have the power of the wallet and by and large they use it. The buyers willing to drop $25 on a hardcover are getting harder to find; even true fans know that if they wait a week or two they can get the same book for 30-45% off. $15 ebooks? Yeah, right; common knowledge that you can easily get 2 or 3 ebooks for that, even 5 or 6 for smart shoppers.
And after 50 years of American consumerism, smart shoppers are all over.
Here's a couple of the latest BPH magic bullet moves:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...-scores-787018
http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...tional-imprint
Both ladies are obviously good writers who know their genre and their audience, but do consider what the genre is and how culturally significant it might be. Any german publisher going to match those deals for those books? Think consumers are going to turn out on launch day by the million to pay $25-30 for each?
It is a whole different world out there.