|
Economics are complicated...and almost entirely irrelevant from a consumer's pov. Goods can be sold below cost, at cost, with a bit of profit or a huge profit. There are reasons producers would do any of the above.
As a consumer....there is only "what value to I derive from buying a product, and what am I willing to pay for that value". It does not matter to me if the producer (or the complete supply chain) is losing money, breaking even, or making any sort of profit.
Books are not commodities. Not in the milk and eggs sense. I don't read enough to be in a position to have to experiment with lots and lots of new authors. I have my dozen or so "known to me" authors. Not just any "military science fiction" book will do. I want a Weber, a Flint, or a Ringo. They are proven to me such that I buy what they sell pretty much right when they release it. If they were selling at $50 a pop, I probably wouldn't. But at $14.99 -- a new book by my favorite authors in one of my favorite series is a no brainer for me.
Are they making a little or a lot? Is the author getting his fair share? Is the publisher making all the money? Is Amazon making all the money? Are they losing money? Did the Author spend a year or two writing the book? Did the author pound out the book over a couple weeks at the beach? None of this means a hill of beans to me.
Would I pay $14.99 for a "new to me" author? Probably not unless it came with excellent promotion from people I trust. I do buy up a lot of $1 to $3 books from new authors because of Amazon's promotions to me. So far it's been no more "hit or miss" than when I was a kid checking out books from the library or ordering from Weekly Reader.
In general, I do not find the Indie authors, even those I like, to be on par with the Tom Clancy's, James Pattersons, Orson Scott Card's of the world. But then, my sample size is impossibly small compared to what is out there than I haven't read.
I bought every Harry Potter book after the first, the day it came out -- in hard back. I lined up with my kids at midnight for the privilege of reading the book first. You had to consume it the first weekend in order to not have spoilers and to be chatting excitedly about it on Monday.
I can't stand hard back books. Never have liked them. But I wanted the story and I wanted it at the start, and that was the format and the price.
99.999% of the rest of my reading was always paperback. I liked the size, I liked the price. And I was a kid with little money.
eBooks really don't change any of that. No matter what they are priced.
|