[darryl]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I broke this out since this is a very different discussion than the supreme court discussion.

It's not irrelevant in the slightest. The question for the Big 5 is are they losing ebook sales on the books that they publish, i.e. are they selling less books now than they did at a different price point. Of course, an economist would say that the question is are they making less money now than they did at a different price point, since the total sales aren't as important as the total profit.

The market share of big 5 ebooks in the overall ebook universe while an interesting subject isn't really indicative that the Big 5 have a good strategy or bad strategy. You would need to look at it more from a sales per title point of view. Even then, the question of how to compare a title which is for all practical purposes ebook only to a title which is mostly paper sales is a very big question indeed. That's assuming that you actually had access to the real data.

This post does clarify somewhat what you wish to argue. The particular point arose from your statement in an earlier post that:

Once again, value is set by what people will pay. People as a whole seem to place the value based on the work rather than the format of the work. Obvious some do not, but for the most part, the market has spoken. People are willing to pay more or less the same price for an ebook as they pay for the paper book.

Bur when you write "That's assuming that you actually had access to the real data" you imply that there is no access to the real data, which is true. Which makes your definitive statement that the market has spoken puzzling to say the least. Though there is access to data that though not definitive sheds some light on the matter. I responded to you in an earlier post:

As for people's willingness to pay these inflated prices? The fact that sales of Big 5 ebooks are stagnant whilst sales elsewhere continue to grow suggests otherwise. My poll on this site, whilst imperfect, suggests about 30% will either pay the high prices set or buy the paperbook. Of the other 70% an unknown portion would consider buying the book later at a better price if it becomes available. That poll is here

As I said, the Poll was not perfect. But it gives some general idea, and there seems to be nothing similar publicly available.

Unfortunately, the poll on this site appears to be pretty well all that is available. Personally I would have expected far more than 30% to baulk at the high prices. But the real unknown is just how much revenue is lost by the higher prices over a period of time. To what extent are deficiencies in revenue from the initial losses in sales made up by later sales at lower price points? It seems that we do not even have rough poll data on that one. Though an indirect indication is the stagnancy of the Big 5 ebook market whilst the non Big 5 ebook market continues to grow. Why do you think this is? The most likely culprit is the high prices. It is tradpub which is so dependant on blockbusters, and in this new age of publishing such blockbusters may prove to be rare and their effects diminished. Why do you think there has not been a blockbuster for so long? And, of course, there is a very real possibility that future blockbusters will be Indie or Amazon. Wasn't fifty shades originally Indie/Self Published? In the case of Indies there may of course be scope for the Big 5 to acquire print book rights, but other rights are unlikely. Certainly it would be nowhere near as lucrative as some past blockbusters where they held all of the rights.