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Originally Posted by Shaggy

I think there is another option. They said that publishers/retailers are taking the same cut on eBooks as paper books.

Hmm Again that is not what I read. My interpretation is the Publishers are saying that Amazon, Sony, B&N are all losing money with their $9.99 price cap and that is not going to last. The publishers concern is that one of two things will happen, retailers demand list prices go down and they get a cut or they will eventually increase the price. My take is they are very concerned about the former.

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

The problem becomes, if e-books are earning even less for publishers than they are currently, publishers have less incentive to release e-book editions. With these price wars, I expect to see only best-sellers released in e-book form, and the publishers will wait until the book has been released in both hardback and paperback before putting an e-book edition out.

Unfortunately that is my read as well. I've always believed the physical cost of a hardback vs a paper back was small, now I'm sure this is the case.

That might be what they are planning but as ereaders continue to grow the pressure will get to high for them to go this route they will be losing money.

Originally Posted by igorsk

Today's Coding Horror had an interesting entry about effect of reduced price on sales.

Thanks igorsk that was an interesting statistic. I wonder how overall sales compare to a wholesaler who keeps their prices low year round vs a retailer that increases sales with sales

Originally Posted by Xenophon

The key to lower prices for consumers and higher profits for publishers and authors is disintermediation.

The primary reason Baen can make money selling their eBooks so cheaply ($6.00 quantity one, cheaper in bundles -- my average cost per Baen e-book is $3.47) is that they've cut out two layers of middlemen. No more distributor taking a big slice. No bricks-and-mortar retailer, ditto.

Given the structure of paper book retailing, any eBook scheme that simply replicates that structure will be hard-pressed to deliver costs that are much cheaper than what we're seeing now. So get out there and push the publishers to set up their own stores. And push the retailers (like Sony, B&N, Amazon, etc. to take a smaller cut of eSales). And... well, you get the picture.

Xenophon

I don't think this is true. What I suspect is really drives the prices of books is that most books are money pits they lose money on most and the few that make money must carry the company. That means paying the CEO his high salary, paying for the staff, marketing, stock holders in addition to the cost you mentioned.

Bean is a more efficiently run company I'd be willing to wager that their CEO does not garnish a salary in the millions like some of the popular publishing firms. They also have great staff of writers that contribute to their success.

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