[Derf]

Hey, everyone, I'm the OP who started this thread, and I want to thank you for all participating in this discussion.

I'm actually quite new to eBooks/eReaders, and confess to being 'green' to much of all this. Although I considered getting a Boyue T68+ a couple years ago (and didn't), I've been eReading on my computer and iPhone intermittently, a lackluster experience, and finally bought a Kobo Clara and LOVE it! Reading on it is just better, the glow light rocks, the orange shift is great, superb battery and lightweight and the software is pretty mature and with the patches from here make an AMAZING reading experience, IMO. [/gush]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Although I have seen plenty of threads that were started on other topics devolve into a discussion of ebook prices, I don't recall seeing a thread actually started specifically on this topic (maybe I missed it).

I did do a search on the topic but I didn't find anything specific to my question.
I was afraid that the 'discussion' might devolve into heated arguments, but I'm glad that we're staying on track and I am learning a lot actually.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

IMPO, the ... big issues that ebooks have is that many people have trouble wrapping their head around the idea that something that doesn't physically exist except as a computer file has value and there really isn't a one to one match as far as price points go.

Absolutely not what I have difficulty with. I totally get that authors write stories because they enjoy the process and result AND they want to be paid. The end product for the consumer is the same; entertainment for a few hundred pages, be it a paperback novel, a hardcover first edition, or a eBook file. What I'm saying is that so many of the middle-men players are no longer relevant with eBooks, but the price is still artificially high on them simply because someone said that is what the market will bear.

Originally Posted by rem736

i agree that the price of a book (e-book or paper) may not necessarily be determined by costs alone. however, if the actual costs associated with e-books are lower than the paper version (which is generally the case), then e-book version should never be priced higher than the paper version. it should be priced the same or lower (even a penny lower) than the paper version. pricing the e-book version higher when it costs less simply tells the customer that whoever is selling is trying to take advantage of the consumer for format preference. pricing it the same or lower, and you'll get less confusion and less complaints. and i am emphasizing that you don't have to price it lower. just make both formats the same price. even better yet, sell both versions to the same customer at the price of one version + $1 (or something much lower than the price of one alone). this will make the combo a bargain for the consumer at very minimal additional cost to the seller.

Amen!

Originally Posted by rcentros

The Big Five publishers are not basing their prices on the "market" – they're basing them on what they want to charge....Here are the prices in the "competitive" eBook market.

Amazon – $9.99
Barnes & Noble – $9.99
Google Play Store – $9.99
Kobo – $9.99
Apple iTunes – $9.99

Not that I think this is an unreasonable price, but it would be nice to see SOME separation (if only by 50¢).

So, I think that it does look very ODD that all the major retailers are at the exact same price point, without even a penny difference. Seems like there is some kind of 'agreement' if not 'collusion'. But I'm still hung up on $10 for an eBook.

Let me give my examples... When Hollywood film studios make movies, they largely dictate the price at the cinema - $18 Regal premium, $20 Regal D3D, $22 Regal Imax, $25 Regal Imax 3D. And there are only so many studios making so many movies. Back in the 80's, along comes Cable TV, HBO, and for $30 (or whatever) a month, you could watch all kinds of ORIGINAL content. The a-la-carte price-per-entertainment dropped with a subscription model. Fast forward to Netflix days, and for $12 a month I can now see all kinds of ORIGINAL content. The content is still entertaining, maybe it doesn't cost $120 Million Dollars to produce an hour and twenty minutes of entertainment, but it still entertains me. And I'm happy with that.

When the major record labels produced all the music hits you'd hear on the radio, they dictated what the cost of a record would cost. Sure you could buy used records and old stuff, not fresh off the hit list, for cheaper price points, but that's still a small picture window. In 2001 Apple introduced iTunes, where you could pick and choose your songs for $0.99 each, and the a-la-carte price dropped. Then Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, and so many others popped up, offering $10 a month for unlimited music, and the subscription model meant your entertainment price-per-song fell off the proverbial cliff. But the artists are still making money, and the record studios are still making money. And now there's SoundCloud and Youtube, AudioMack and Vimeo where people can produce their own content without a major studio, get exposure, a following, and sell their music to their followers.

Back in the 90's, software used to be produced by big companies. If you had an idea for a game or a something, it just wasn't possible to get it onto retail shelves, since it was largely considered impossible for independent creators to code an entire product by themselves. You needed a huge team, and a marketing department, etc, etc. In 2007 Apple came along and said you could make an app and sell it for $1 in their store, and net $0.70 on the dollar. Google soon followed suit. No marketing, just word of mouth, and people compete on a fair playing field for your dollars one at a time, (not asking $10 for most apps).

In all of these examples, the price of the digital delivered product, often coupled with a subscription model, but through new distribution channels, and new players cutting out the dinosaur companies that used to produce the entertainment, are changing the game. There's more choice, and its cheaper to try.

So that's why I'm hung up on the fact that eBooks are still largely a-la-carte purchases, not unlike Apps on your phone, but the price remains as high as in brick-and-mortar stores. eBooks are still $10, because ... ? Well, I haven't quite figured that out yet.

It is equally confusing why target sells the same book as Amazon for the same price, when Target has to store the book in physical space, and Amazon is just a warehouse with a virtual storefront.

Originally Posted by GeoffR

If you want to see real anti-competitive practices in action, look at Amazon's Kindle Unlimited scheme, where self-publishers have to agree not to make their books available at competing retailers if they want to participate.

I like hearing that there is a subscription model for eBooks, but I don't really like that business practice - it just sounds terrible.




Lastly, can anyone explain this quirk:
Radio : If I listen to a song on the radio, everyone else can listen to the same song, at the same time, and there's no problem with all of us 'consuming' that song at the same time.

Digital Radio : Similarly, if my whole town subscribes to Pandora, we can all listen to songs by Billy Joel at the same time, and there is no problem, we never get notified that someone else is listening to the song I want to hear, and have to wait.

HBO On Demand : If everyone wants to queue up a new release on HBO on demand at the same time, there isn't any warning that we need to wait.

Hulu : If everyone on Hulu wants to watch the same tv episode at the same time, it starts right away, no wait list.

Libraries : Libraries have a finite number of books, like the way Blockbuster had a finite number of VHS copies. If its checked out, you have to wait for someone to return their copy so you can read it.

Digital Libraries / Overdrive : It makes absolutely ZERO sense to me that a digital copy is 'checked out' and I have to wait to read it. How is that possible. I understand that a library may impose a 'two week period' where I can read the book, before it disappears from my 'collection', thus making me feel like I don't own it, but only borrowing it... But I can't wrap my head around the library or Overdrive saying that all copies are being used at the moment, and I need to wait a couple weeks to read it.
The only thing I can think of is that Libraries are somehow locked into some old pricing/distribution structure, where they are purchasing X number of physical copies of books and Y number of copies of digital books from a publisher. So at any given point they can only loan out X number of physical books, and Y number of digital books. But THAT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. It doesn't jive with any other digital content distribution platform currently being used for other entertainment.

Hence, why eBooks are probably priced the way they are; because unlike in all these other models and mediums, digital ebooks are still being controlled like it is a physical object by publishing houses holding onto their old ways, trying to hold onto their power, and everyone who has been a middle-man to their creation, distribution, and marketing, still has their hand out to get a slice of the pie.