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I am wondering if people would be so upset about the higher initial price if they honestly believed it would go down later. I think part of the ire comes from examples people have posted of books which have been in mass market paperback for a decade or more and the ebook is still listing at $12. Let us say the system was formalized the way the arc of hardback/trade paper/mass market was as follows:
- At hardcover or slightly below on day 1 for the obsessed fans who can't wait
- Reduced to trade paper price or slightly below 3 months later
- At mass market paperback price 3 months after that
- Settles to final price point of $4.99 or so after a year
If you could *reliably* count on every book really being released this way, with publishers reliably and systematically following through with the price reductions at set intervals, would you care? I wouldn't. I'd say fine, let the die-hard fans get it on day 1 and the publishers maximize the profit while the iron is hot, as long as the more patient can get it later at a more realistic price point. There is even one author I read where I would probably even find it worth it to pay the premium to get it on day 1.
But we are angry because we don't trust them to play fair and we are baffled that they can't even provide the simplest, most basic levels of service to loyal customers without silly games like not letting them buy if they live in the UK or locking down the books so they can only read it on this smart phone and not that one.
If they played fair and said look, let us collect from the Crazy Fans first and then we'll get back to you later and you can get it when you're ready, just like you used to wait for the paperback back in the day, I bet we'd all say fine...
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