Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
$15 is just the price for new ebooks; it's pretty clear that publishers will use dynamic pricing, e.g. drop the price of the ebook after the title has been out for 6 months or so. That's how hardcovers work -- I assure you, it doesn't cost 2x or 3x as much to print a hardcover as it does a paperback. They just happen to use a physical form to set up a tiered pricing structure. You charge more for high-demand titles, and when demand falls, you reduce the price in order to encourage more sales. It's just basic economics -- albeit without the artifice currently utilized by the book industry.
Even at $15 for a new ebook, they're cheaper, more convenient, more portable, and "greener" than paper. The market is not going to collapse in a fiery ball because they charge $5 more for a brand-new title for a few months.
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No, that's not clear at all. They have mentioned that they MAY reduce the price, at some unspecified future date. You are assuming it will be after a certain time period, or day-and-date with the TPB or MMPB, or what have you.
Almost everyone who supports this pricing model argues that the price will come down relatively quickly. And absolutely no one espousing that has any concrete evidence supporting those claims. While all existing evidence (i.e., Macmillan's existing ebook list prices for titles that have been out for years) suggests that the price will remain high for a very, very long time.