Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
You just confirmed my previous statement. People are doing other things besides reading.
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People have always been doing other things than reading.
The first point was to try to blame the weather for the BPH ebook sales drop, but the weather is always an issue.
The second point was about people not spending on luxuries, except they still are.
Now you seem to think growth in other forms of entertainment can *only* come at ebook buying expense. If that is your persistent point I'll have to object.
The economy is growing, population is growing, ebook sales are growing.
it is *only* the Agency-priced BPH ebooks that are suffering.
When Shatzkin, who spent the better part of the last year attacking the Author Earnings reports, publicly admits (which takes courage for a consultant) that the reports are right and that Indie titles are in fact eating up big market share swaths *because of pricing* removes all doubt that the non-existent "leveling-off" of the "ebook fad" is strictly an artifact of BPH pricing. Their ebook sales are dropping--everybody else is rolling along.
And the big change behind it all is the higher prices.
Shatzkin himself points out that the only reason their ebook sales didn't drop during the conspiracy is because the price hikes came at a time when the size of the market exploded; there was no shortage of "newbies" who didn't realize the books were overpriced. But as time rolled on, those newbies learned.
They, and others, grew to understand that the lower-priced Indie titles weren't uniformly bad tradpub rejects but rather that many of them were republished ex-tradpub titles, new projects from established authors, or projects from good new authors who simply weren't bothering to submit to tradpub rules and contracts.
The ironic thing here is that during the conspiracy, when Apple laid down the terms to the BPHs, the publishers wanted to go even highe and Apple served as a limiter. This time, without a central coordinator they are free to go higher and they *are* going higher under the assumption that people who want their books will pay any price to get them.
The assumption is being proved false.
Note that, while Amazon is heavily discounting the pbooks, their hardcover sales are *also* down. High ebook prices aren't driving *all* would-be buyers to print. Some (a lot) are just going elsewhere. Libraries, used books, other titles...
The BPHs are going to have to choose between staying the course and shedding even more market share and clout or buying that share back at their own expense (and their authors).
Either way, it's going to cost them.
They "won" their war with Amazon to restore Agency but the price of that victory is looking unsustainable. Very Pyrrhic.