Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
By the way, people are pretty much acclimated to waiting if they want the paperback at a lower price; I don't hear too much squealing when the latest hot seller is only available in hardcover for up to 6 months. I'm not really seeing why ebooks should be automatically be treated differently, especially if you want the publishers to lower the price.
It's pretty well understood that the margins on hardcovers are substantially higher; in fact, the "paper" part of the process generally constitutes far less of the costs of publishing a book than most people realize (~12% or so). It probably only costs 50¢ extra per book to make a book in hardcover form.
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The original poster clearly said he was willing to pay the same price the hardback was being currently offered at. The publishers should be totally happy with that -- they make the same amount of money and don't have any productions costs except those they've already paid, i.e. it costs them nothing *extra* to make the ebook.
I'm totally fine with ebooks being the same price as the hardcover for the first 6 months or even a year. But denying availability is silly. By matching the current lowest pricing, i.e. initially the hardcover price and then the paperback price when it comes out, the publishers can only increase sales. People who are willing to pay hardcover prices can buy the ebook right away. Others who always waited for the paperback, can wait for the ebook price to drop. Seems like win-win to me.
-Marcy