Quote:
Originally Posted by Alisa
In my very humble opinion (being nowhere near an expert) I see the current pricing issue as being a problem of transition. The book world is still overwhelmingly print and will be paying for the fixed costs of printing for the near future. This creates a tension between the ebook consumer and the publisher who views the title as the product. That title took a $x to bring to market and they have to bring $x + profit in to make it worthwhile. That $x is across all formats. If ebook sales cannibalize the high-margin early sales then that changes their profit model. That exorbitant price they charge for a hardback isn't about the better cover and paper. That's a small amount of the price. They're exacting the biggest margin they can from people who don't want to wait as well as people who appreciate the higher quality printing. With ebooks gaining popularity, they need to figure out how to support those print runs on lower margin sales until they reach a tipping point where they can scale the entire print operation back or eliminate it. On the other hand, we ebook buyers don't see why we should have to support print run costs.
Eventually the tide will turn towards electronic distribution. I'm guessing print will likely be POD at that point. Until that happens, there's a huge industry that will be in flux. I see the publishing company of the future being focused on the professional services of editing and marketing. I don't think self publishing (at least for new authors) will get much traction without it. I don't want to sort through the slush pile of bad writing the publishers currently do. For every Web 2.0 phenom, there would be so many undiscovered gems and a sea of narcissistic junk. However, I do see authors getting a bigger, and much deserved cut in this new model. There will be less overhead and the publishers will be service providers vying for clients rather than gatekeepers to the expensive and insular print distribution channel. JMHO.
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Good points. You reminded me of the computer busness I use to have. In the 80's & 90's computers cost over $2000 each. Then the parts started to get cheaper. I had to sell more computers to make the same profit. The computers had dropped below $1000. So alot of small and large computer companies died. Business is always changing. The ones who can't change will die. For the publishers to survive they need two business models now. One for hardback books and one for ebooks. The two are completely different. With the young people not reading books like us baby boomers, they are in trouble long term.