Quote:
Originally Posted by sony_fox
Other than shear exploitation of ebook readers why is this at all relevant?
I'm quite happy to accept that a hardback costs more to produce than a paperback (I'm not quite sure it's 3x as much but that's another argument). However I am very sure that an ebook is an ebook and doesn't change in costs (if anything it gets more expensive over time (server storage) rather than less). Having new ebook titles at hardback prices is just outrageous.
One of the main advantages is the whole convenience thing, want click have, but encouraging readers to wait until the paperback comes out is just counterproductive.
|
You have to remember, the Publishing industry is basically trying to preserve the basic model of business that has been around since the invention of the mass market paperback book (other aspects started in the Great Depression). To their mind, books generally have two periods of peak sale; the first is when it is released in hardback. They charge higher prices because they know that a large number of people don't want to wait until the book comes out in paperback to read it. Then 6 months or a year later, they release in paperback and expect another sales peak. They figure they will get about the same number of sales anyway, its just they get a premium from the earlier adopters.
Shoot, the publishing industry has one of the worst business models I have ever seen. Roughly half the product they ship to stores is not sold (or at least not sold at anywhere near the cover price for hardback books). Hardbacks get shipped back and forth between the publisher and various book stores, discount stores, etc. Unsold paperbacks are trashed, etc. This might have been tolerable 30 years ago, but now that Print on Demand exists, it really is rather ridiculous. Hehe, every environmentalist who publishes a book the traditional way should be raked over the coals for the environmental damage their book produces.
--
Bill