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Originally Posted by pwalker8
The publishers goal is not to sell as many books as possible and never will be, it's to make as much money as possible, just like any other business.
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Except that it is not only that. Even you will off and on acknowledge they let the ebook side of things languish to prop up the paper side of things. They want to make as money as possible, without shaking up their business model too much.
Considering the dominance Amazon has in the ebook world, maybe that's rational. But of course, Amazon got where they are partly due to agency which was put in place to attempt to insure publisher's controlled pricing.
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Let me give an example, these are real prices rounded to the nearest dollar, actual sales figures are made up. A name author releases a book as a hardback at $21, after a year it is released in paper at $14...
Interestingly, for this author, the hardback kindle price is $15, $6 less than the hard back book price and the paperback kindle price is $9, $5 less than the paperback book price. Looking at the backlist for this author, a book published in 2006 has a paperback price ranging from $12 to $20 on Amazon depending on the seller and a kindle price of $8.
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That's all well and good, but you can find unnamed examples to prop up whatever argument you wish to make.
Stephen King's latest two hardback released are Let It Bleed and The Institute.
Each is priced at $15 for the ebook. The hardcovers are priced at $30. But of course, hardcovers aren't subject to agency and each sells for $15.
When it comes to backlist, Carrie is $8 for ebook. Paperback is $8, but discounted to $6.50.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is $10 ebook, $10 paperbck, discounted to $7.50.