Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
My question to you is why you don't just spend your money on the formats you value more, rather than wishing the formats you value less would sell for a price you're willing to pay for them?
|
I do. But even with that I find I question pricing for other reasons. For example, there was a book I was very interested in (nonfiction but I can no longer remember the title) that was offered in the 3 standard formats -- ebook, paperback, and hardcover. But the pricing was wild. The ebook was $35 (I am rounding the prices for all 3 versions), the paperback was $40, and the hardcover was $110.
I have spent decades in publishing and am familiar with publishing costs. I understand that pricing is subject to many variables, including the number of copies expected to sell in a particular format. But there is no justification for a $70 differential between the paperback and hardcover versions. Even in a limited print run, the cost for a hardcover, versus a paper cover, does not run to more than about $5-$10. If the book is published by one of the self-publishing platforms, the hardcover wholesale cost rarely runs to more than $10 more than the paper cover.
So, I find pricing of the various formats to be highly questionable as the disparities in pricing between the formats of the same book are irrational.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
You do realize that if you prefer ebooks over pbooks, that your preference translates directly to added value, right?
|
Yes, in my case at least, this is true and is why I prefer to spend my money on a hardcover that I can reasonably expect will still be available and readable in my library when my granddaughters are old enough to read the books should they be of interest.
But the issue also raises another question: Considering how books are produced today, there should be no book that is not offered in the 3 primary formats of ebook, paperback, and hardcover, even if the sales expectations are high for the ebook, medium for the paperback, and low for the hardcover. I find it very irritating to buy the first or first and second books in a series in hardcover only to discover that when the third volume of the trilogy is published, the hardcover is not produced.
I bought the beginning volume(s) at a higher price because the format fit my preference, only to have the final book not made available in my preferred format. Thus what was once a valued series no longer is one. This is what happened with Jenna Glass's "Women's War" series.