Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I would not say the price of a book has never been about the costs of manufacturing and distributing. Such costs become very relevant in a highly competitive market where margins are low in that they set a floor for the price. Few want to sell at a loss for long. If your competitor is more efficient and is able to sell at a lower price, you face the choice of matching them, distinguishing yourself from them in some way or getting out of the market. Some Amazon authors indeed could not command higher prices. Some could. But just because you can does not mean you should. Stephen King could price his next book at $100 per copy, and would probably sell a few books at that price. But he would make nowhere near as much money. It is about finding the optimum pricing strategy. Amazon's limitation of its top royalty rate to books priced within a range makes it obvious that Amazon considers books priced outside that range unlikely to be priced optimally. Tradpub pricing imperatives differ, particularly as they sell different versions of their books, including hard covers and various types of paperbacks as well as e-books and lately even audiobooks. It would be irrational if they priced without regard to the effect of the pricing of one type of book on the sales of the others. Their task is to maximise sales over all categories, leading to windowing and similar practices.
Totally agree with your second paragraph.
|
Before agency, there were some eBook stores competing very well with Amazon. Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard were two of them. They had business models that competed very well. I know a lot of (then) MR users shopped at Fictionwise and BooksOnBoard. I was one of them.
eBook sales are dropping because of the high prices. Back before agency, eBook sales where doing well and rising. You have to find a sweet spot between price and profit. Agency is not doing that. Agency is going higher then the sweet spot.