MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Cheaper e-books will kill us, says publisher

gandor62 · 03-06-2009, 06:20 AM

I sort of feel that there is a lot of smoke and mirrors on the publishers side. They are artificially keeping prices higher on Electronic Versions so as to keep control of distribution. If they dropped prices lower that printed version then other companies may think that they can get a slice of the action, selling even cheaper and diluting profit margins of the major publishing companies. Next you would see authors that can not now get published, due to the major publishers not wanting to flood the market with non bankable tested authors going with the cheaper option with some start up publisher of Ebooks and becoming a top ten seller and not under the control of the majors. Where would it end. So by convincing us all of the justifications for why the electronic format is so expensive when compared to print versions they keep a tight hold on the industry.
I personaly used to spend ten percent of my income on novels, now I read electroniclly and while I still buy books, im a little worried about the electronic format purchases. With a printed book I have it in my library at home and can read it again and again until it falls apart. With electronic versions I never actually own it like I do with the paper version due to DRM problems and restrictions. I see this as another way for the Major publishers keeping control.

03-06-2009, 06:20 AM	#223
gandor62 Connoisseur Posts: 99 Karma: 14 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Brisbane Australia Device: iPod Touch, Ipad, Kindle 2	I sort of feel that there is a lot of smoke and mirrors on the publishers side. They are artificially keeping prices higher on Electronic Versions so as to keep control of distribution. If they dropped prices lower that printed version then other companies may think that they can get a slice of the action, selling even cheaper and diluting profit margins of the major publishing companies. Next you would see authors that can not now get published, due to the major publishers not wanting to flood the market with non bankable tested authors going with the cheaper option with some start up publisher of Ebooks and becoming a top ten seller and not under the control of the majors. Where would it end. So by convincing us all of the justifications for why the electronic format is so expensive when compared to print versions they keep a tight hold on the industry. I personaly used to spend ten percent of my income on novels, now I read electroniclly and while I still buy books, im a little worried about the electronic format purchases. With a printed book I have it in my library at home and can read it again and again until it falls apart. With electronic versions I never actually own it like I do with the paper version due to DRM problems and restrictions. I see this as another way for the Major publishers keeping control.