Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I'm going to take a moment here to again have a look at the results. As at the time of posting, about 33% of people would pay the same or more than for a print book, or actually buy the print book instead. The other roughly 67% would not. An overwhelming 81% of this latter group, comprising almost 56% of those responding, would at least consider buying the ebook later when the price comes down. I suspect, however, that virtually all of this 67% would at least consider a later purchase at a cheaper price. Because of my badly worded questions, some who said they would read something else may well also consider buying the ebook when the price later comes down. I suspect there are actually very few who would rule out later buying the ebook altogether, and probably the only ones who would categorically do so would be ideologically driven.
The unknown here is of course just how many sales a publisher actually loses forever because of initial high pricing. If these figures are broadly accurate then, as a poster pointed out earlier, a publisher has little to lose by initially pricing high. Unless a very large percentage of sales would in fact be permanently lost, which seems unlikely.
In the longer term, of course, there may be other considerations. Traditional publishing, as some commentators have suggested, may be well advised to price their books competitively for new authors and at least some mid-listers even initially. The blockbuster authors may garner significant sales at a higher price against Indies, but I suspect in the longer term there will be only one market. And traditional publishing will have to give authors a far more equitable share, as some of the smaller more innovative ones are already doing.
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Hey Darryl,
Will giving the authors a more equitable share raise the price?
Little anecdote on services.
Back in the 1950's maybe early 60's, there was an unknown singer. A guy heard him. The guy thought he could go places. The guy approached the singer and said for 50% of what you make, I will take care of all the details. The singer thought that was a fair deal. No one was concerned at the time because 50% of $10 is only $5. It was only after the $10 turned into $1,000,000 that others tried to tell the singer his manager was making too much. The singer still stated I think it is a fair deal and he has earned every penny.
Moral of the story: it doesn't matter what the consumer thinks is fair, the creator of the product and the promoter decides that.
I personally think concert tickets are outrageous but the shows sell out. I mean for all the 70's and 80's bands still touring.