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Originally Posted by tibiafry
Problem 1: "reasonable price". Who tells what is a reasonable price? The publishing company? The author? The buyer?
We already (and haven't started comercializing yet!) recieved a lot of negative feedback on the price our ebooks have, and they already don't know what price it has! (LOL? WTF?).
So, I'm assuming, that we can't have that requisite. Customers will allways feel that the ebooks are too expensive.
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hm, i don't know where you got negative feedback on your prices... i certainly wasn't implying they are too high, since (as you say) i don't know what they are. i was just pointing out that if you provide someone with a reasonably priced, easy to buy legally, drm-free ebook, most people are very happy to buy it instead of looking for other options.
as for what is a reasonable price, i think in general people agree that an ebook should be cheaper than a paperback, and certainly should not be sold for the same price as a hardcover book (a lot of publishers do this). have you visited any of the other ebook publishers i mentioned ? baen books for instance sells their books for i believe 6$, and everyone agrees this is reasonable. in fact we recently had another publisher
recently post asking if we thought his prices were fair ; everyone said they did, even a little low.
one poster said that at 5$ or lower, he doesn't even think about it, he just buys ; at 10$ or more, he has to think about it a lot first.
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Problem 2: You all said your point of view on why would you pay instead getting it for free. Let me be simple: this is how people works. Stephen King had an idea some time ago. He offered a Novel by chapters on the net. You could just read the chapter for free or pay for it. Mr King said, if more than 50% of the people pays for a chapter, I'll write the next one. Guess how many chapters he wrote? Yes, you got it!
So let's assume and be realistic that most of the people will get things for free if they can.
The Potter digital thing, just confirms it. What would a "legal" person do if he can't get a legal electronic copy of the book? I guess the answer isn't geting a pirated ilegal version, isn't it?
I'm sorry my point of view differs, but I guess I live from this thing, and I expected to live forever before all this thing of the digital era came threatening my job (and I promise you I'm not "rich", I have bank mortages like all of you, etc).
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i'm sorry you feel that way. sure there will always be people who want something for nothing ; but these are not lost sales, because if they don't want to pay, they wouldn't buy your book anyway. but not everybody is like that, and i think it's sad when publishers put everyone in the same sack like that and make the honest people pay for the others.
music and film industries have already been down this road, they tried drm, and now they are abandoning it because they have realised it doesn't work and only makes their customers angry (sony root-kit debacle for example).
and there was an article in the Wall Street Journal today you might find interesting :
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Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Here's an related quote from today's (well in the inside of the paper) Wall Street Journal from the music world....
"Warner Music Post Unexpected Profit"
"Warner Music recorded a 23 million dollar profit compared to a 16 million dollar loss the year earlier....Revenues decreased 11%....Recorded music revenue fell 12%, while digital revenue - which now makes up 20% of total revenue - rose 18%....In November, Warner's Atlantic Records became the first major label to have US digital sales outstrip audio CD sales."
WSJ Southwest Edition, page B7
Apparently some of the music industry is starting to do what's necessary to survive. If only the book business could learn to think.....
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mp3s are much easier to copy and distribute on p2p networks than books are but clearly a lot of people are still willing to pay them.